For the last 10 years major national media outlets have been buzzing about Detroit's
"surprising," "unexpected," "burgeoning" food scene. It started with the New York Time's annual filing of the SLOWS Bar BQ story. There were a handful of other dining media darlings that garnered a lot of national buzz, particularly as the personal stories of scrappy DIY business owners opening passion projects in the midst of a sinking city dovetailed nicely with the developing "Detroit on the rise" narrative. A lot of it sounded like an echo chamber of rebranding hype. And, to a certain extent, it still sometimes does, except that the hype has willed itself into reality and Detroit's food scene -- and art scene, and startup scene, and real estate scene, and so on -- is booming by just about anyone's standards.
National Geographic named it one of "6 Unexpected Cities for the Food Lover" in the world in early 2017. The New York Times has continued to regularly check in, and named Detroit one of "52 Places to Go in 2017." Zagat named it one of the "26 Hottest Food Cities of 2016." In 2016, The Washington Post ran an article stating, "One of the country's poorest cities is suddenly becoming a food mecca," calling out the glaring juxtaposition of a notoriously poor city full of trendy dining and drinking hotspots right in the title.
Which is funny, really, because prior to this the dominant narrative was "Detroit as one of the worst food deserts in America." Then it pulled a 180 and became "Detroit as a worldwide leader in the local foods and urban agriculture movement" and "Detroit as one of the hottest emerging food cities in America."
A lot happened between 2007 and 2012 that contributed to this drastic narrative shift, and much of that had to do with a furious flurry of real world development that was, ironically, the direct result of the catastrophic recession. The "food desert" label was dubiously applied anyway, but as newly self-reliant entrepreneurs (who turned mass unemployment into a widespread opportunity for new careers and a new local economy) began growing produce and starting urban farms, launching cottage industry food businesses (a boon to the local food economy when the law was changed in 2010), and opening the restaurants and bars of their dreams (because why not), the "food desert" narrative -- much beloved by the click-dependent, car-wreck-gawking major media that had been feverishly writing Detroit's obituary -- was no longer sustainable. https://www.thrillist.com/eat/nation/erasing-detroits-food-desert-narrative/food-and-drink
