First night out in Detroit

Where: Detroit, Michigan

When: February 27, 2014
With: Dave

For my first night out in the Dirty-D, as Detroit is lovingly called, Dave planned us great night.

First, we headed to one of the tallest buildings in the Detroit skyline: the GM building. While this may not sound like a romantic start to the evening, it actually has a beautiful restaurant at the top, Coach Insignia. From 87 floors up via glass elevator (a la Willy Wonka), we had a gorgeous view of the fading sunset over the river and western Detroit.

The restaurant was lovely and delicious, surrounded with windows providing panoramic views of the Detroit skyline on one side and Canada on the other side.

After our dinner, we hopped a cab and headed to this really great bar, Cliff Bell's. Built in the 1930s, owner Cliff Bell opened it on the expectation that Prohibition wouldn't be around for much longer. It was a highly successful little jazz bar up until the 1980s when it fell on hard times and shut down. Thanks to a refurbishing in 2005, the club is back up and running, with the same look and feel as the original club.

Sitting at the signature barside high top tables, Dave and I got a little too much into the feel of the place by ordering several classic cocktails. It was just hard not to when you felt like you were in an authentic speakeasy.

On top of the many lovely drinks, they had a fabulous New Orleans jazz band cranking away on stage, the Dirty Bourbon River Show. Covering a really wide range of music, they had so much energy that we were in love with the whole scene immediately.

Honestly, could not have had a more exciting first night in Detroit. Really excited for more to come.