Birthday Weekend in Detroit

For my birthday, my husband surprised me with an overnight trip to Detroit.  On Friday he picked me up from work and we headed to downtown Detroit.  We pulled into the Detroit Marriott at the Renaissance Center where he had already booked the room.  Once we got to the hotel we freshened up for dinner.  I kept trying to get him to hurry up because we were going to be late for our 6:00pm reservations, and he kept saying, "Oh, we'll be fine.."  Finally we headed out of the elevator and he said, "Oh look, a restaurant!"  He had booked us for dinner at the Coach Insignia, which was located in the top of the building. 

 Birthday flowers from Kevin

 Our view from the hotel.  Detroit on the left and Canada on the right.

It was also Detroit Restaurant Week, so we decided to order off of the Restaurant Menu.  We shared a cheese board and Cesar salad, then I had the scallops with corn succotash and potatoes and Kevin had the sweet pea risotto.  For dessert I had the bread pudding and Kevin had the chocolate and raspberry tart.  We also had the wine pairings with dinner, which were all wines from Michigan.  One was from a vineyard Up North that we had been to before.

View from our hotel, we had a similar view at dinner

After dinner we went to the Greektown Casino for some gambling, drinks and music.  There was an R&B band in the lounge that was really good.  A lot of people were dancing and having a great time.  After a few drinks we tried our hand at the craps table and slot machines.  From there we had some more drinks in the lounge and decided to walk across the street to Fishbones for a late night snack and some live Motown music. 

 My date enjoying the Motown band at Fishbones

Irish coffees at Fishbones to keep the party going!

Fishbones served two of my all time favorite foods under one roof: Cajun food and sushi.  Such a perfect combination!  We both had Irish coffees while he had a bowl of gumbo ya-ya and I had some catfish bites with cajun dipping sauce.  The band was also wonderful and we really enjoyed the vibe there.  This will most certainly be one of our new go-to spots in Detroit.

The next morning we went to our other new go-to spot, Eastern Market.  Eastern Market was my favorite place in DC, and now I've found something pretty close to it in Detroit.  DC's Eastern Market is more of an art market, while Detroit's is more of a food market, but I was still excited about it.  We started off the morning with a little breakfast at Farmers Restaurant where Kevin had a reuben and I had a lamb and feta omelet.  After breakfast we went next door to an antique store and then over to the market.  It was freezing outside so we didn't really stay that long, but ended up getting some hydrangeas for Kevin's mom.  More Detroit adventures to come!