Let me preface this post by pointing out a somewhat obvious fact. My love of food had to come from somewhere. I think it's genetic.
After cajoling B and B to come down and labor away, wage-free, on our kitchen, I knew I had to have a compensation plan. Didn't take long. What better way to pay a foodie than to feed a foodie? The plan - they cook Wednesday (don't judge - they hadn't done any work yet), Cadieux mussels on Thursday, Red Dog wings on Friday, and Roast (a Detroit Restaurant Week participant) on Saturday. If they stayed until Sunday, well, we'd figure it out.
So Thursday, we scooped Will up at work and headed downtown, to the infamous Cadieux Cafe. Home to belgian beer, mussels by the mixing-bowl-full and feather bowling.
When one thinks of a Belgian restaurant that serves copious amounts of mussels, "U.P. bar" probably doesn't first come to mind. But, really, that's kind of what you get at Cadieux. B and B Contracting was very comfortable.
As were we.
When the food arrived, smiles enlarged even more. Each bowl holds about 50 mussels. So yes, you are looking at 200 slippery little delicious little edible bivalves of the marine family Mytilidae. Will and Betty's were seasoned with garlic and white wine. Mine with dill and white wine. Bob's with white wine and veggies.
You know it's serious business when this is the spoon you get with your food. And they have Pirate beer. And when the take-home container is a 2 gallon plastic bucket.
After dinner we went to watch the feather-bowling pros. (Leagues take over the courts on Tuesday and Thursday evenings.) What is feather bowling? Well, as Cadieux explains, it's a blend of bocce and horseshoes. Again, I turn to Wikipedia - in which the most notable phrase is: The only place to play the game in the United States is the Cadieux Cafe in Detroit, Michigan.
Next visit, we're going on a Monday (all-you-can-eat mussels for $14.95) and I'm taking on The Contractors. Hopefully, Uncle Pete can join us. (Or one-time Cadieux visitor and personal hero, Tony Bourdain.)
