From Henry Ford to Berry Gordy, the founder of Motown, Detroit has long been a city of innovative visionaries. The city has seen more than its share of troubles for decades, but the spirit of ingenuity has returned with an influx of entrepreneurs, artists, and inventive chefs. Vacant lots and abandoned buildings are finding new life as urban farms, cafes and museums.
Nowhere is the city’s street art scene more prevalent than at Detroit’s historic Eastern Market. Here the Murals at the Market provide a creative platform that inspires and encourages community engagement using public art as a vessel.
Historic Eastern Market
Various markets are open through the week, but the Saturday market is an experience that is undeniably Detroit. A cornerstone of the city for 125 years, over 225 market vendors share their products and stories with as many as 45,000 visitors in one day. Detroit’s on a mission to nourish a healthier, wealthier, and happier city. Shopping at Eastern Market will help the city’s mission and provide you with a souvenir that embodies the idea of an authentic takeaway. Here are a few examples of the many vendors you’ll meet.
Henry the Hatter
Rising rents downtown forced Henry the Hatter to move on down the road. Now, the oldest hat shop in the city has found a new home down an alleyway in Easter Market. Bringing a cool hat home might beat that snow globe, don’t you think?
3 Dogs 1 Cat
Bring your furry family members a souvenir and they’ll love you forever. OK, they already love you forever, but still. Stop into 3 Dogs 1 Cat, an urban pet shop offering offers trendy quality merchandise such as Detroit Manufacturing collars and leashes. You’ll have the coolest pets on the block.
City Girls Soap
Who can resist a vendor with the tag line “Milked in Michigan – Made in Michigan”? I know I can’t. Started in 2011 by John and Amy McIntire as an alternative resource for ice cream for their daughter, the plan quickly expanded. They moved from ice cream to cheese making and continued until a line of goats’ milk bath and body products were developed. Milk the goat, make the products. It doesn’t get any fresher than that.
Detroit City Distillery
If you’re going to bring something home, make it the good stuff. During Prohibition, Detroit continued to flex its entrepreneurial spirit, rules be dammed! Today—nearly a century later, eight childhood friends started Detroit City Distillery making alcohol the old-fashioned way. Using only locally sourced ingredients from nearby farms, the team creates small batch artisanal whiskey, gin and vodka. Sample the spirits at their Easter Market tasting room. I’m betting you’ll be taking some home.
For more information on Detroit’s Eastern Market visit www.easternmarket.org.
Note: This article was updated by the TravelSquire Editorial Team September 2019.
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