Detroit's Avenue of Fashion, Three Cup Chicken recipe, 'One Detroit Weekend'

This Week on One Detroit:

New businesses bring resurgence of foot traffic to Detroit’s Avenue of Fashion

The Avenue of Fashion in northwest Detroit has a storied past. High-end clothiers set up shop near Seven Mile Road and Livernois Avenue, becoming a destination for shoppers after World War II. The district’s decline started a couple of decades later.

Now, a surge of new restaurants and specialty shops have filled vacant storefronts in the area, and many are Black-owned businesses. Algernon Bartell, owner of the Times Square Men’s Custom Clothing Store, set up shop on the Avenue in 2010. Now his family owns many businesses here. Other specialty shops and restaurants are coming. 

“The restaurants really create the foot traffic,” said Dolphin Michael, who leads the Avenue of Fashion Business Association. “For each restaurant, you might have two, three hundred people come through a day, and they just walk up and down the street.”

The Pink Poodle Bridal shop opened earlier this year on the Avenue. Owner Raeshawn Bumphers opened her first bridal store on Detroit’s east side in 2017 and expanded here with funding from the Motor City Match program. Bumphers had twenty years of experience working with automotive companies and area schools before making a career change.

“I was planning this business around what I was passionate in,” Bumphers said. “My story is connecting with young girls and women at the … happiest time in their lives.”

One Detroit’s Bill Kubota visits the Avenue of Fashion and talks with business owners — new and old — about the resurgence of the area known for its shopping and dining.

Chef Leo Chen shares recipe for his signature dish Three Cup Chicken

Food helps us define our identities, something that Taiwanese American chef Leo Chen knows well. Chen was born in Taiwan and lived in other states before coming to Michigan.

As a chef, Chen has become known for his Meogjia pop-up events in the Ann Arbor area, but his go-to dish Three Cup Chicken — also known as San Bei Ji — has a personal history. He learned the recipe from his father and has since adapted it to his taste.

Earlier this year, Chen and his wife, writer Kyunghee Kim, joined One Detroit for its AAPI Stories series, which gives deeper insight into the lives of Asian American and Pacific Islanders here in Southeastern Michigan.

During that conversation, One Detroit’s Zosette Guir and Bill Kubota, alongside filmmakers Eden and Thaad Sabolboro, learned how to make Leo’s signature dish. See the full list of ingredients here.

Things to do around Detroit this weekend: September 20, 2024

Comedy takes center stage this weekend with the Motor City Comedy Festival and Curb Your Enthusiasm comedian JB Smoove performing at the Motor City Casino. This weekend also includes the Made in Michigan Festival, the Funky Ferndale Art Fair and the Finders Keepers Vintage Market.

Plus, fans of the TV show “Gilmore Girls” can enjoy Destination Stars Hollow: A Gilmore Fan Celebration in downtown Brighton. Contributor Dave Wagner of 90.9 WRCJ shares some other events happening around town on “One Detroit Weekend.”

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