24 Hours in Detroit: A Startup & Food Tour

I get a lot of inquiries from terrific startup folks around the country. Many mention they will be in Detroit for the day and want to get a good sense of the startup ecosystem. They want to see what Detroit’s entrepreneurial gold rush is all about. To help them, I started sharing a quick guide to Detroit by email and it’s grown over time.

Now, I’m expanding this email into a dedicated blog post for all to enjoy and contribute to. If there are any hot startup locations or must-eat restaurants missing from this list, please leave a comment so I can add them.

So where should a visitor to Detroit go in 24 hours to see our quickly growing startup ecosystem? And what should they eat while they are here?

Here’s what I recommend.

Morning

All Around Detroit

• 0700am — Morning run
• Run along the Detroit / Canada border This is the only place in America where you head south into Canada.
• Eastern Market
  The largest open-air farmers market in the country. It’s packed on Saturdays during the spring and summer.

Corktown

• 0830am — Coffee & breakfast
• Astro Coffee
• Detroit Institute of Bagels
• 0915am — Ponyride
  Meet the makers. Visit Veronica Scott at the Empowerment Plan and pick up a pair of Detroit-made jeans.
• 1030am — Practice Space
  An incubator focused on injecting new life into buildings and businesses in Detroit. Awesome stuff.
• 1145am — Lunch
• BBQ: Slows BBQ
• Sliders: Green Dot Stables
• Sandwiches: Mudgies
• More sandwiches Dime Store
• Coneys: Lafayette or American (my fav is Lafayette)
• Tapas: La Feria
• Mexican: Zenith
• Comfort food: Roses Fine Food
• Cuban: Vicente’s
• Midday coffee: Urban Bean Co.

Afternoon

Midtown

• 0100pm — Green Garage
  Triple bottom line co-working. Incredible space. Formerly a showroom for Model T automobiles in the 1920s.
• 0130pm — Techtown
  Non-profit business incubator and accelerator. Great co-working space too.
• 0200pm — Next Energy One of the first research pavilions in the nation to offer access to a smart microgrid and a smart home.
• 0230pm — Shinola American-made watches and bicycles. And now home to the most advanced leather manufacturing plant in the world.
• 0245pm — Willys Curated, American-made goods. Awesome finds from the folks behind Shinola.

Downtown

• 0300pm — Madison Building Home to Detroit Venture Partners, Draper Triangle, Microsoft Ventures, Ludlow Ventures, Twitterand over a dozen startups.
• 0345pm — Madison Block
  One of 7 tech hubs sponsored by Google for Entrepreneurs.
• Grand Circus — Co-working, events, and high-tech educational classes.
• Bizdom — Startup accelerator.
• Detroit Labs — They helped build the iPhone app to order a Domino’s pizza. ‘Nuff said.
• 0430pm — Bamboo Detroit Great co-working space in Detroit. Home to over 50 entrepreneurs and creatives.
• 0500pm — Library Street Collective
  Say “hi” to @BenBator, super entrepreneur and Detroit booster.
• 0530pm — D:Hive — All the resources to live, work, and play in Detroit.

Evening

• 0600pm — Happy Hour
• Two James Spirits
  First distillery in Detroit since Prohibition.
• Motor City Wine Part wine bar, part bargain wine shop. All awesome.
• 0700pm — Dinner
• Farm-to-table: Guns and Butter
• Meat: Roast
• Historic ambiance: Craft Work
• Mexican: El Barzon
• Gastropub: Wright & Company
• 0900pm — Night Cap
• Sugar House Home to the best cocktail in America.
• 1000pm — Sleep
• Westin Book Cadillac
• Firehouse
  Coming soon. Detroit Fire Department’s historic headquarters to become a hotel fall 2014.

Bonus

• Use Uber or Lyft to get around (and in 2016 the M1 rail)
• Detroit Institute of Arts Museum
• Tour with Detroit Experience Factory
• Signal Return
• Workshop Detroit
• Red Bull House of Art
• Instagram yourself fist bumping Joe Louis Monument
• Send me a tweet letting me know about your awesome 24-hours in Detroit