Roasting in Detroit's Eastern Market since 1924, Germack was the first company in America to import and roast pistachios and is now run by its fourth generation of family owners. The Russell Street store sells house-roasted nuts, seeds and coffee alongside a small cafe.
Best for House-roasted nuts, seeds and coffee alongside a small cafe
Germack Pistachio Company has roasted in Detroit's Eastern Market since 1924, when it became the first company in America to import and roast pistachio nuts — at a time when the nut was still largely unknown to American shoppers. The company also takes credit for inventing the red-colored pistachio, the dyed shell that later became a supermarket standard before naturally-colored nuts came back into fashion. Four generations of the same family have run the business since, roasting nuts and seeds in small batches with premium canola oil at a factory on Wilkins Street, a few blocks from the Russell Street retail shop and cafe where customers can buy directly off the roaster. Coffee joined the lineup in 2010, applying the same small-batch approach to beans as the company already used for pistachios, cashews, and sunflower seeds. The company has picked up QVC's vendor award eight times in nine years, a recognition earned through a home-shopping channel rather than a food-press write-up, which fits a business that has always sold more through direct relationships than through branding. A century after its first pistachio shipment, Germack still frames itself as a small, family-run roaster working out of the same historic market district where it started.
Founded in 1903 and still throwing pots and pressing architectural tile inside its National Historic Landmark studio at 10125 E Jefferson Ave, Pewabic is known for the iridescent glazes that clad landmarks across the city. The working studio also runs a ceramic-arts education center and a shop selling handmade vessels, ornaments and custom tile.
Best for Iridescent-glaze tiles and handmade ceramics
A Detroit coffee roaster operating since 2011 on Division Street, Anthology roasts small lots and runs both a retail shop and a wholesale program supplying local cafes. Beans and brewed coffee are sold through its cafe and online store.
Best for Detroit coffee roaster operating since 2011 on Division Street
Anthology Coffee has roasted in Detroit since 2011, when founder Josh Longsdorf opened the city's first specialty coffee roaster inside PonyRide, a Detroit entrepreneurial incubator. The operation later moved to its own 2,900-square-foot space in the Eastern Market district, a buildout partly funded by a Kickstarter campaign that raised more than $21,000 from the community. Anthology roasts single-origin coffees exclusively -- no blends -- on a 6-kilo Mill City machine, sourcing small-farm lots that include washed coffee from Nyeri, Kenya, pulped natural Catuai from Alfenas, Brazil, and wet-processed, sun-dried Caturra from Huehuetenango, Guatemala. The philosophy favors letting each lot's variety, processing method, and terroir speak for itself rather than blending origins together. The Eastern Market space functions as both roastery and tasting room, built around two 18-foot custom coffee bars where the same beans sold in bags are poured by the cup. Beyond retail, Anthology runs a wholesale program supplying cafes across Detroit and ships coffee online nationally, continuing the role it staked out over a decade ago as the city's specialty-coffee pioneer, now with a permanent home instead of a rented incubator bay.
B May makes soft, lightly structured leather bags in Detroit, including totes, crossbody shapes and small goods. The appeal lies in simple patterns and supple hides rather than conspicuous hardware or branding.
Founded in 1930 by Cross Moceri and Peter Cipriano and making chips on Gratiot Avenue since the 1940s, Better Made is a Detroit heritage snack maker still cooking potato chips in the city. The line also includes potato sticks, pretzels, pork rinds and popcorn.
Opened in 2009 by siblings Andy and Emily Linn at 460 W Canfield St, City Bird stocks Detroit- and Michigan-themed gifts, cards and apothecary goods alongside its own line of printed products. It sits next to sister store Nest in the Cass and Canfield shopping district.
Set in a former slaughterhouse at 2462 Riopelle in Eastern Market, the distillery produces small-batch bourbon, rye, gin, vodka and rum including its Butcher's Cut and Homegrown Rye. A tasting room pours cocktails Tuesday through Sunday, with tours offered at its separate whiskey factory.
Operating since 1965 and housed in a former glove factory at 901 W. Lafayette Blvd since 1983, the main store shelves more than a million used and rare books across four floors with no in-store computers. Aisles are organized by hand, and a rare-book room upstairs holds first editions and antiquarian finds.
Opened in 2011 by City Bird owners Andy and Emily Linn as their sister store next door, Nest fills a historic Cass Corridor space with home goods, glassware, plants, candles and local foods. Vintage 1920s library shelves and restored general-store fixtures frame the merchandise.
Across from Eastern Market at 1464 Gratiot Ave, Peoples Records deals in new and used vinyl weighted toward Soul, Jazz, Motown and 45s, including many local artists. The shop also houses the MAHS Museum devoted to Michigan music history.
Started in 2011 to bring watchmaking back to the United States, Shinola assembles timepieces and stitches leather goods by hand in the historic Argonaut Building and opened its first store at 441 West Canfield Street in 2013. The brand also runs the Shinola Hotel on Woodward Avenue and sells watches, bicycles, journals and bags.
Best for Detroit watches, Runwell; Canfield dress watch; Runwell, assembled in Detroit
Founded in 2011 at 9301 Kercheval, Signal Return is a nonprofit letterpress print shop that teaches traditional printing and rents open studio time on vintage presses. It runs workshops, artist collaborations and a shop of hand-printed cards, posters and broadsides.
Best for Hand-printed letterpress cards and workshops
Lisa Ludwinski built Sister Pie from 40 pies baked in her parents' kitchen in 2012 into a corner bakery at 8066 Kercheval that opened in 2015. The shop makes hand-rolled seasonal pies, cookies and pastries built around Michigan produce and runs on a fair-wage, compost-forward model.
Retired Detroit Public Schools teacher Janet Webster Jones has sold books since 1989, opening a storefront in 2002 and moving to the Auburn Building at 4240 Cass Ave in 2013. The shop specializes in nonfiction spanning history and culture, health and wellness, spirituality and books by and about women.
Opened at 2445 Michigan Avenue in Corktown, Two James was the first licensed distillery in Detroit since Prohibition and distills small-batch spirits from Michigan grain grown at Wing Farms near Ann Arbor. Named for founder David Landrum's father and grandfather, it runs a tasting room and offers distillery tours.
Best for Prohibition-first craft spirits and cocktails
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