Detroit's greatest Sunday Brunches.

So lately I have been really digging on Sunday brunch. The best part is dragging our sorry, dirty, smelling like whisky and gingerale, post-sass selves into these fine establishments and scaring the people who are actually dressed nice because they just got out of church. Following please find my favorite Detroit (and surrounding area) Brunch locales. In no particular order, mind you.

La Dolce Vita - 17546 Woodward Ave., Detroit
LDV was my first brunch experience with the motly crew I now enjoy the company of most Sundays. It was summer, last year. We sat at a large table inside, enjoyed the neverending Mimosa's and listening to bands and djs play on the patio, where we frequently escaped to smoke cigarettes. I remember having something non-brunch like, because they were out of the vegetarian eggs benedict or something that I wanted. It was noodles of some kind, and it was delicious. The atmosphere was pretty good, we had an "in" with a bartender and got many mimosas, and there were these really cute kids outside dancing to the music.

Atlas Global Bistro - 3111 Woodward Ave. Detroit
Very nice place, great food, lots of mimosas. I remember the only bummer was that we were largely ignored as the only people there not in their Sunday best and noses in the air. A lot of times at brunch there will be at least a couple tables of hipsters, at least some people you feel "get" the concept of going out all night dancing or drinking and coming to brunch to let the sweet sweet champagne and orange juice gently pull them out of their hangover. At Atlas we were outsiders. Scorned for our dirty alcoholism. Maybe not the best place for us, but the food and location are great.

the Majestic Cafe - 4120 Woodward Ave. Detroit
The Majestic Complex in general will always hold a special place in my heart, as I've been frequenting it since I was 18 and going to "punk rock bowling mondays" sneaking drinks in the bathroom. Brunch at the Cafe is nice because the food is great (mmm dirty eggs) and the smattering of post-church people is outweighed by the still-drunk young folk. I have had experiences there with my waitress forgetting our coffee, bringing cold food and ignoring us, which almost made me want to never go back, but its just too good and there is a waiter there who is very nice, and cute, which is a bonus.

Frittata - 236 S Main St, Clawson
This place, although a little far from detroit (15-20 minutes North on 75.. 14 mile) does make an amazing Frittata. Very small, cozy, with horrible art on the walls, I used to always be happy to go here. Unfortunately I may never go back because our last experience was so horrible. We get there, and sit down, and the waitress immediately does not seem very friendly. She asks about drinks and one of my friends goes "Can I have a coffee please" and she says "maybe" and looks back at the kitchen. We are like welllll is it yes or no because coffee is completely necessary. and she mumbles that the kitchen is closing down and she has to make more. ok bitch, either you are serving us or not we dont give a shit if the kitchen is closing. Then someone says "i'll have a hot tea" and she says "what kind we have black, green.." and continues listing and he says "just regular" Which obviously if someone wants regular they want a black or orange pekoe tea, someone who isn't a tea fanatic. So the waitress says "Well we have black, green" and lists them all again! he gets fed up and says "give me a COFFEE" and she says "decaf?" she is being such a bitch to us that we all just got up and left, with her throwing up her arms and talking shit like "what??"

Sweet Lorraine's - [has a Detroit location/ but we went to the one on Southfield (Greenfield rd, N of 12 mile)] is where we went after we left Frittata.
It was a breath of fresh air. The waiter was nice, we got lots of coffee, and I had a delicious crepe filled with berries and cheese. MMMMM it was so so so good. Same as Frittata as far as the decor. Horrible! It's like a bunch of women artists from the early 90's exploded in there. But yes, the food is amazing, we were treated well, and it was a good experience other than the fact that they were out of a bunch of stuff (Turkey sausage.. and they almost were out of the crepes and ended up having just enough left to give us our two orders. I guess it's pre-made? who knows)
the food came out very fast too, which is odd for brunch. again, maybe it's pre-made or prepared. SW is also good because they use farmraised organic eggs, etc. No growth hormones at this place, everything is organic and natural and sometimes locally grown.

The Double EE -9 mile, Ferndale
The Double EE is not your typical brunch place. It is essentially a family diner, that serves breakfast all the time. But it is probably Ferndales best kept secret, and my favorite on this list. No eggs benedict or berry crepes here, but you can get an omelet the size of your head with a giant plate of hashbrowns and 2 pieces of toast for a mere 4 dollars. If you have not experienced the deliciousness of this neighborhood diner, you really need to.

Union Street -4145 Woodward Ave, Detroit
We headed over to Union Street once after we were going to go to the Majestic for the second Sunday in a row. We looked across the street, saw the giant "brunch" sign, and decided we needed a change. The food is great, the coffee is divine, and Dan is a friend and great waiter who works in the smoking section.


I understand I haven't given any info as far as the menu options, pricing, favorite dishes, etc etc,.. but this is just my recommendation to go and try some things. These are the places I like to go. This list is ever expanding, so if you know of any that I should not have left out, let me know and I'll check it out next time I go to brunch.

i used to live alone before i knew ya

yesterday i sat in my backyard on the picnic table, watched my dog chew up sticks in the grass, smoked grass and cigarettes, and drew in my moleskine. Today I've been nervously putting on my bcbg blazer, finding the right pin, the right way to do my hair, putting on makeup, gathering my portfolio, and pacing around my house waiting until its time to leave for my interview.

If i'm going to live a long stress free life I need to get out of my current job and into a new one.

this could be the one, right? I'm going to ask for 45-50,000 dollars. Lets see if they give it to me haha
its not that far of a stretch. I mean, I'm a valuable asset!

Today is my one year anniversary of working at ******. So i took the day off so i could go to this interview. This Saturday I have a tattoo appt. with my nemesis.

we had to stop watching king kong last night because we knew what happens and knew we would get too sad and depressed for the guy.

marissa

Ok so I am embarrassed to admit I love "the OC". The season finale was last night and I'm so bummed out. For some reason one of my main loves in this show is Mischa Barton's character, Marissa Cooper. I dont know why, I just love her. Well, they killed her off last night. :( She died in a car accident. Because Mischa wants to star in movies. Good move on her part, I'm sure, but I will probably not watch the OC again. She was the best part! bye marissa.

hand over that rabbit fur coat...

How long can I go on hating my job?
After being asked to design the new look and feel for our company, based on a package design I did for them that won an award, they suddenly didnt trust me after I did all the work and everyone loved it (lowly in house designer that i am) so they hired CoreBrand to look over it. All they did was take my work, add a horrible horizontal white bar, and fuck up my typography just enough to make it look horrible.

and thats the one my company is going with.

So now i have to redesign everything according to CoreBrand's standards..
all the work, none of the rewards considering I am disgusted by their version and would never show it in my portfolio.
They say that adding the horizontal bar between the logo and everything else on each piece makes the logo stand out. actually, it overbears the logo. makes the logo NOT stand out the way it did in my designs. The rule is this: divide the piece into 20 top to bottom. one of the units of 20 is the width of the bar. the logo and bar are on the top 1/3 of the piece. That makes the bar HUGE and it takes up way too much valuable space. The logo even has to be smaller than it normally would to fit everything in.

what morons.
trust me you assholes I went to a highly acclaimed art school and got a 4 year degree in design.
I know what I'm talking about.

need a new job.
this isn't worth it for 19 bucks an hour.

Oh sketchbook. You haunt me with your emptiness. I want to be an artist again. The only thing that inspires me is highlighters and office supplies. I want to hurl myself into the grass of my muddy, rainsoaked backyard. slowly sink into the cold mud, until my impression is made on the earth. I won't care about being cold ever again. I will run into the rain and never come back. Lets throw our computers out the window. Plant a flowebed inside. I want to go back to carefree mischief. Hiding on traintracks with joints in cigarette packs. Friday brings rain rain and more rain. Lets call it our seattle bbq. hiding in the garage drinking beers in the rain. can't wait can't wait for saturday.

birthday.

One more year, on this date, I will be a quarter of a century old.



yesterday driving home i was smiling and text messaging friends in the sun. scared that i only have birthday parties to reassure myself that i have friends and that people like me. so it's this saturday and until then i will be furiously text messaging people "see you on saturday... right?" It's kind of sad that I cant just be content that I have friends but I always have to test it. Well this party should be off the hoook.

Been listening to the Margot & the Nuclear So and So's CD. It's really good. As far as nice, sad, acoustic influenced indie rock goes, it is perfect for warm weather, unlike most of my cds of this genre which are more suited for winter and depression. This cd actually makes me really happy and smiley and from now on it will remind me of sun and summer.

I am at work and there is no card, no balloons, no cookies. Why do some people get big birthday recognitions and others don't? I really dont give a shit considering i dont care about anyone here enough to even invite any of them to my birthday party. but still, jesus people i suffer through this horrible horrible place every day and you can't even say happy birthday?

hallelujah.

"i heard there was a secret chord that David played and it pleased the lord, but you don't really care for music, do ya?"

In 2 days I will officially be 24 years old. 24 I heard it's a good year. I really don't feel like a grownup. I still feel like I'm at home when I'm at my parents house eating dinner, more so than when I'm at my own house. All I ever want to do is smoke pot and ride my bike. Listen to records. Draw pictures. I can't imagine myself changing because I'm older, or turning into a "grown up".

My job is depressing me. It makes me sick that I used to talk about how I'd never work at a job like this and now here I am, a slave to the money I make and no longer able to survive on any less.
still in debt, no way out.
The fact that sometimes I have to design advertisements makes me throw up in my mouth. Even the fun stuff is corporate bullshit. It's sad when your ideals are compromised by just.. needing the money. I never thought 19.00 an hour would ever seem like not enough, but it's not.
to be young and free again.

"And it's not a cry that you hear at night It's not somebody who's seen the light It's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah"

Find your own pose!

save the internet.

Hi,
Do you buy books online, use Google, or download to an iPod? Everything we do online will be hurt if Congress passes a radical law in upcoming days that gives giant corporations more control over what we do and see on the Internet.
Internet providers like AT&T are lobbying Congress hard to gut Internet freedom. They would allow AT&T to choose which websites open most easily for you based on which site pays AT&T more. If this law passes, almost every popular site—from Google to eBay to iTunes—must either pay protection money to companies like AT&T or risk having their websites process slowly. That why over 400,000 people have signed a petition opposing Congress' effort to gut Internet freedom.
We can all do our part to save the Internet—can you sign this petition to Congress? Click here:

http://www.civic.moveon.org/save_the_internet/?id=7481-6238478-2HtMDQyx0U1geZ.k.0ExLg&t=1

This petiton will be delivered to Congress before the House of Representatives votes in several days. When you sign, you'll be kept informed of the next steps we can take to keep the heat on Congress.
If you want more information, here are two really good places to look.
\n\nSavetheInternet.com\nCoalition Web Site\nhttp://www.savetheinternet.com/\n\nNew York Times Editorial—"Keeping A Democratic Web"\nhttp://www.freepress.net/news/15263\n\nThanks.\n \n\nSubscription Management:\nThis is a message from MoveOn.org Civic Action. To change your email address, update your contact info, or remove yourself (Allison Tinsley) from this list, please visit our subscription management page at:\nhttp://moveon.org/s?i\u003d7481-6238478-2HtMDQyx0U1geZ.k.0ExLg\n\n\n\n\n\n",0]
);
//-->

SavetheInternet.com Coalition Web Sitehttp://www.savetheinternet.com/
New York Times Editorial—"Keeping A Democratic Web"http://www.freepress.net/news/15263
Thanks.

moments of panic

In a horrible golf course restaurant/bar, surrounded by coworkers at a going away party for my boss. How someone who goes to punk shows smokes herb and drinks whiskey can be sitting here with these people, acting normal, blows my mind. How did I end up here? In a long sleeved shirt that covers my tattoos, pretending to be interested. I end up frantically text messaging friends, drinking more whiskey, my mind is starting to race but i don't know why. Am I having an anxiety attack? I don't want to be here. I don't want to be here. The person I hate at the office, the other designer, who sits in my office and i never talk to because I obviously hate him, pulls his classic move at these functions.
sits by me, pretends we're friends suddenly and won't shut up.
inevitably he will bring up the fact that he is the reason i got the job, that he said they should hire me because of my portfolio. awesome, I don't care. Why he suddenly gets the urge to talk to me and talk to me at these functions is beyond me.

Smoke 3 cigarettes even though I have a cold.

find an excuse to get out, get home, hug my dog, smoke a bowl. I need to get out of this fucked up corporate world.

ipod party mix

Bored at work. decided to hit "shuffle" on my ipod and talk about the songs that come up and why i love them or hate them and what they mean to me.

1.trouble loves me- morrissey- maladjusted
Morrissey has this ability to suck me in, where I will listen to one song and ultimately find myself poring over every album from the car to the house to work, and i listen and listen and think and talk about how amazing he is, not noticing that my outlook on life is slowly becoming more and more dark and depressed and I'm romanticizing unhappiness and smoking more cigarettes.
This song in particular reminds me of a boy I had a crush on once. He felt a particular affinity for it, and I agreed. Trouble did love him.

2.alison - elvis costello - my aim is true
Everyone will hate me for saying this, but I can't stand this song. The reason, is that my name happens to be Allison. I used to work at this restaurant where every single day when I came in to work this cook would sing it to me. And then, at almost every other job I've ever had, at least one person would sing that song to me. I can't stand it hear it ever again!!! Why can't they sing "allison's starting to happen" by the lemonheads? or the Pixie's "allison"? anything but this!!! I have to change it.

3. on a plain - nirvana - nevermind
On a recent roadtrip we put in nirvana and even though it had been years since i've listened to it I can sing every single word at the top of my lungs. nirvana changed my life. I was in the fourth grade, I saw smells like teen spirit on mtv, and i was forever different. my middle school years were full of anger and pain and learning what its like to be young and disallusioned. the words that kurt spoke then struck a chord in me that has forever echoed in the back of my mind, playing like the soundtrack to all of my opinions and feelings and loves and hates. this is not one of those bands that you get embarrassed to listen to 12 years later.

4. english girls approximately - ryan adams - love is hell
I only discovered Ryan Adams 2 years ago, and ever since I have loved him like an older brother that I never had, this untouchable idol, someone to look up to and constantly be amazed by. There isn't one album he's made that i can't identify with in some way. Love Is Hell had a hard time coming out, I think his record company dropped the cd or stopped it from coming out at first (correct me if i'm wrong) but its full of classic adams.. sad country love songs. Something about him resonates with me, and ultimately make me want to drink whiskey and smoke cigarettes. English girls.. isnt my favorite song on the album, I think that title would be reserved for "this house is not for sale" purely because it tells the exact story of beetlejuice (the movie) in a really sad way. I love beetlejuice.

5. dogs - haiku D' etat - coup de theatre
Haiku D'Etat is amazing. A group composed of hip hop greats Abstract Rude, Aceyalone and Micah 9. I was turned onto them recently by a friend and i really like the vocal melody of their rhymes. i like that the chorus goes "my dogs.. my dogs... my dogs.." A lot of their songs are really funny/silly but they still get down to business. The best track is "mike aaron & eddy" which is a whole song mostly full of them saying their first name and talking about themselves.

6. human interest - drive like jehu - yank crime
Drive Like Jehu makes me feel alive. I want to go fucking crazy, jump up and down, drink beer, smoke cigarettes watch bands go on road trips be young be happy vandalize start a revolution say fuck the man, etc. etc. I want to throw my computer across the room and get on a bicycle and get together with my friends and start fires. Summertime, being human, being young, being alive.

7. 18 wheels - murder city devils - r.i.p.
A live version of a great murder city devils song. This song talks about how being in a constantly touring band is like being a trucker, you leave your loved ones behind and ruin your life while you're trying to make it better by doing it. "i never wanted you to be a sailors girl, to be a truckers wife, to be left, to be left behind."
while dating a boy in a band I always thought of this song as being about me. The murder city devils is straight up drinking music. Their shows were always full of whiskey and punks dancing their (our) asses off and going crazy. beer was thrown, songs were sung outloud, had the time of my life.

that was fun. i'll do it again sometime :)

Remember Alfred Roller.

My imagined perfect escape almost always includes standing in some common area in the center of a place (most notably my stereotypical office building, in the middle of the cubicles where everyone sits comfortably isolated) and opening my mouth, and letting out a scream. not so much an "OH NO!" scream or an "im scared" scream but more like a yell. A standing at the edge of the earth looking out into a gaping abyss kind of scream.

Sometimes it gets more involved.
Like letting go of 5 or 6 leashes at the end of which rage snarling lions and tigers. Cats who would not care one way or the other about me, but hungrily prowl through my unsuspecting coworkers, sometimes flipping them in the air and leaving them after biting them in the face.

its not hard to surmise that I am not one who is meant for the corporate environment.
In the fridge packed with disgusting microwave meals my organic vegetarian lunch says "NOT YOURS" in black sharpie. It's been stolen before.