The next town up Woodward Avenue, Royal Oak is a bastion of hip
restaurants and liberal counterculture. Offbeat boutiques, antiques
shops, and tattoo parlors are clustered together downtown. Here you'll
find the gay-popular eatery Pronto, which is attached to the lesbian/gay
video bar of the same name. It's a 15-minute drive west of here to reach
one of the most revered restaurants in the Midwest, Tribute, which is de
rigueur among foodies or just about anyone celebrating a special
occasion.
Woodward Avenue continues northwest through Birmingham, a tony and
aesthetically more conservative community with a pleasant downtown
filled with upscale shops and restaurants. Next comes ritzy Bloomfield
Hills, site of the Cranbrook Educational Community, a 315-acre campus
with two prep schools, an acclaimed art and design museum, and the
prestigious Cranbrook Academy of Art (a graduate university). Cranbrook
earned international acclaim when Finnish architect Eliel Saarinen moved
here in the 1920s to design the compound.
To Your East...
East of downtown is 1,000-acre Belle Isle, an urban retreat in the
middle of the Detroit River, little more than a stone's throw from
Windsor, Ontario. The park has a fine beach, the nation's oldest
freshwater aquarium, and good jogging, biking, and blading paths. Back
on Jefferson, continue east through Indian Village, where many of
Detroit's first industrial magnates built their homes. Along here, too,
is historic Pewabic Pottery, one of only two potteries still in
existence that were established as part of the Arts and Crafts movement
in the early 20th century. You can take a tour or just browse the wares
in the extensive gift shop.
Jefferson turns into Lake Shore Drive outside Detroit, and winds
alongside Lake St. Clair through the five ultrawealthy Grosse Pointe
communities. Along this drive are the homes of numerous Dodges,
Chryslers, Fords, and Fishers. Serene grounds surround the most
remarkable of the auto barons homes, the Edsel and Eleanor Ford House,
which is a favorite for touring. The charming Tea Room restaurant serves
excellent lunch fare.
And Going West...
Head west from Detroit via I-75 to reach Dearborn, the heart of the
city's auto-manufacturing heritage. Here you can tour the Henry Ford
Museum and Greenfield Village, a truly fascinating 81-acre complex of
historic homes and structures moved here from across the country, as
well as an incomparable museum that traces the development of American
technological innovation over the generations.
And just on the chance that you need a little gay incentive to make it
out this way, consider that Dearborn has one of the top gay dance clubs
in the region, Backstreet, an industrial-style warehouse disco that
pulses into the wee hours twice a week, Thursdays and Saturdays.
Andrew Collins is the
author of Fodor's Gay Guide to the USA and as well as numerous other
guidebooks
The Hunk
