I’ll start with the positives: Creative pizza, delicious blends of flavors and damn good gluten free crust. One wouldn't think this would be a place located in Frankfort, MI, but it is.  It's really quite a hip setup with a laid back feel.  That laid back, beach clothes attire does pair with up north Michigan, but I think this place would rock it out in the metro-Detroit area.  Stormcloud is a great place to pop by right off the beach with your family, or on a Friday evening for a drink with friends. Michigan beers, cocktails and wines pair with the simple but flavorful menu. Though I didn’t get their bacon n’ chive popcorn, I love that it’s on the menu. 

All of the hype I heard about this place before coming was correct. It’s basically the next best thing to being in Italy. They really have their spice, flavor and texture combos down perfectly, and it’s even possible to enjoy this place on a budget. In a world where ‘Sicilian style thin crust pizza’ is everywhere and it usually falls short in my opinion, Mani Osteria made me a convert just when I was about to swear it off. Chewy, crusty and smoky crust… oozing and browned artisanal cheeses and varied ingredients make the mark (try the burrata pizza!)

It's Pinball Pete's meets Dominicks. Minus the sangria, but it's be cool if they started making it! :) With so many new places popping up it was about time new business entrepreneurs started to take note and do something a little different. In steps M Brew a new local beer, snacks, and arcade place. With microbrews on the menu and shuffleboard and old school arcade games downstairs how can this be a bad combination? Answer. It can't. There are snacks for the drunk and hungry ranging from wraps and salads to pizzas and pizza by the slice. There's indoor seats as well as outdoors.

If you're by Valentine Vodka and you see the house next door hoppin' with locals, don't be sad you weren't invited to the house party because... You were! Everyone is! That old house is M Brew transformed. So now if VV is too busy you have another place to rest your feet. Good job Ferndale. Once again, you are proving to add new awesome places to your city. Maybe Royal Oak should start taking note.

Go try it out! Hot and new. ;)

The Earle Downtown is a great date spot.  It's in the basement, dimly lit, and if you are on a good night you can hear the tantalizing acoustics of some fine musicians.  Really a great atmosphere for talking, meeting with friends, or having a nice glass of wine at the end of the week.  

The Earle is known for being quite pricey, but having delicious food. So, when one is a teacher and makes no money, what do they do? They get a groupon!  Woot!  So off I went to enjoy the Groupon and some yummy food.  First up, the crab cakes.  The crab cakes were fine, but I'm one of those people that has a peev about consistency.  I don't like crab cakes to be all soft and mushy.  I like to have a break up of that with fresh vegetables and good flavors.  They have the flavor, but it's just one big crab cake.  My favorite crab cakes come from Cafe Zola.  They just do them exactly how I like them and top it off with a smoked paprika aioli.  MMMMmmm!  Two mushroom goat cheese bruschettas were tasted which were fine.  The really excellent dish was the peppercorn steak (
Rolled in coarsely ground black pepper, and served with a brandy sauce, garnished with mushrooms. Served with potatoes).  It just had that je nais se pas... I thought the boneless duck breast was going to be what I dreamed about later, but nope.  It was the steak.  Pretty much every time I go I will dish up the 30 bucks and get the steak.  If you don't like pepper you won't like this steak.  IF you do like pepper and steak this is the obvious choice. You can thank me later.
 
Find yourself a Groupon and head on over!

The Earle's Website

The Emory was my first love in Ferndale.  They consistently served fresh, hot food and were quick and efficient.  I feel like once One Eyed Bettys came into the picture their quality of service has gone down.  They still have good food don't get me wrong, but your drinks don't get filled fast enough and you hardly ever see your server.  

Now, I can't say that for all the servers.  The girl with the hip short blonde hair and tats is always on point.  She's good.  There used to be a really skinny girl with long black hair (I think she was in a band, but I haven't asked her) that worked the bar.  She was good too.  I haven't seen her in awhile so she may have quit.  Emory needs to man up because there are a lot of new developments happening in Ferndale and their hip decor is not going to save them forever.

Ok, the food.  I used to love their tomato basil pizza.  They don't have it on the menu anymore, but I recommend them getting it back.  The 'new' hip developments don't have delicious pizza like that and they dumped the pizzas for hot dogs, which aren't really that good.  My mindset is, have a smaller menu that you can do really well than have a larger menu in which you half-heartedly do things.  I don't own a restaurant so I may have no clue what I'm talking about.  The sliders may be one of my favorites to get (add cheese and extra pickles).  

Another great thing about Emory is  BURGER TUESDAY!  You can get a burger and fries for 6 dollars.  It used to be five but now they added a salmon burger so it upped to six.  It's still good and nice to go on Tuesday.  When I go it's nice and quiet, but I have seen it crowd up as the evening goes on.  This is definitely something to stop in for.  

The Emory's Website