Macomb Cool

Macomb County becomes a magnet for hipsters, families and outdoor types

by Kim Silarski

Not so long ago, “cool” was not a word one could accurately apply to Macomb County. Trust me, I was there. I grew up in East Detroit (now known as Eastpoint), a friendly inner-ring suburb in southern Macomb, as well as northern Macomb’s Shelby Township, a beautiful, somewhat undeveloped area with excellent schools, great parks and farms where you could get fresh sweet corn and pumpkins. But cool? One drove many miles in other directions to find that.

 

Then, in 1978, came Lakeside Mall. The multilevel super-regional mall in Sterling Heights, complete with a cinemaplex and indoor ice-skating rink, sat alongside the farm fields of the M-59 (aka Hall Road) corridor. Over time, the population of the county expanded and development continued northward. Cool in the 586 area code has been quietly building ever since, with great acceleration in the past 10 years.

 

“Macomb County has become a cool place to just relax and kick back without having to head out to Detroit or Oakland County for a good time,” says Mitch Hotts of Roseville, who has covered the county for more than two decades for the Macomb Daily newspaper.

 

Over the last decade, Hotts says Macomb’s hipness factor was largely tied to the international celebrity status of native rap and rock star sons Eminem and Kid Rock. “On any given night, it wasn’t unusual to see either one enjoying a beer at one of the rock clubs in and around Mount Clemens,” Hotts recalls.

 

Eminem went on to make 8 Mile Road (Macomb’s southern border) a household name via his autobiographical, locally filmed hit movie 8 Mile, while Kid Rock introduced the world to Mount Clemens when he filmed a VH1 holiday special at the Emerald Theatre and romanced Hollywood starlet Pamela Anderson on the city’s streets.

 

Today, Macomb Cool has achieved critical mass, with an amazingly diverse array of options, many of them concentrated in three zones: Mount Clemens, the Jefferson Avenue waterfront and the Hall Road retail region.

Bars run the gamut from venerable shot-and-a-beer joints with great burgers like Clinton Township’s Alibi Inn, to slick new discotheques such as former Detroit Red Wing Dino Ciccarelli’s Club 22 in Shelby Township.

In Mount Clemens, the county’s nightlife epicenter, check out the aforementioned Emerald, the amazing retro architecture of The Bank Nightlife, and the longtime local rock bar The Hayloft, all projects of Macomb entertainment impresario Ron Masters. The hottest warm-weather patio in the county is found at Ernie’s Club in Clinton Township.

In southern Macomb, navigate to the busy restaurant bars of the Nautical Mile such as Jack’s Waterfront Restaurant (recently featured — and updated — on the Fox TV reality show Kitchen Nightmares with Chef Gordon Ramsay) and the quieter, jazzier Blue Goose Inn, both in St. Clair Shores.

“In recent years, destinations like these have kept more residents closer to home,” notes Hotts.

Waterfronts
Lake St. Clair, the heart-shaped lake between Great Lakes Erie and Huron that forms Macomb County’s eastern border, is a major regional asset. “With 31 miles of shoreline and more than 100 marinas, Macombers enjoy world-class fishing in Lake St. Clair, along with seasonal boating trips that make it one of the top boating destinations in the country,” Hotts states.

But you don’t have to own a boat to enjoy the water during any of Michigan’s four distinct seasons. Instead, take a leisurely drive north along Jefferson Avenue, watching the atmosphere morph from waterside suburb to Up North resort town. Then stop for seafood at Terry’s Terrace in Harrison Township, a classic boater bar.

Every June, New Baltimore’s Bay-Rama Fishfly Festival uses the emergence of slimy lake-born bugs as an excuse for a great community throw down, while the Stars and Stripes Festival in downtown Mount Clemens lights up the night with big-name musical performers and even bigger fireworks on the banks of the Clinton  River running through town.

Retail Therapy
“Partridge Creek, an upscale open-air shopping center in Clinton Township, has validated our self-image of coolness,” says Hotts. “It has become a de facto town square.” This is true even during the colder months, when the mall stokes its outdoor fireplace, giving shoppers a way to stay warm while they look for must-have purchases.

In fact, the Hall Road district — anchored by the Mall at Partridge Creek and Lakeside Mall and home to a head-spinning, ever-expanding list of retail and dining destinations — is one long Main Street for Macomb County.

Local trendsters also know that singer Jessica Simpson’s good friend and stylist Ken Paves owns a salon/spa in Clinton Township, not far from where he grew up. (Make sure to call well in advance to have the owner do your ’do.) And don’t forget the many small, independent and frequently funky retailers along another main drag, Gratiot Avenue, including Chester Boot Shop and Record Time, both in Roseville.

Always worth a trip is Achatz Handmade Pie Co., with stores in Armada, Sterling Heights and Chesterfield and Shelby Townships. Their four-berry creation was a finalist in the nationwide Good Morning America Weekend’s 2008 Best Slice Challenge pie contest.

As a county native, I’m defining “scenery” broadly. For architecture fans like me, the sprawling Eero Saarinen-designed General Motors Technical Center in Warren and Mount Clemens’ incredibly distinctive The Bank Nightlife, by noted Detroit architect William Kessler, are achievements of mid-20th century modern design.

For you, it might be the rows of apple trees and blueberry bushes in family-owned northern Macomb U-pick orchards, that crazy dogleg at The Orchards Golf Club in Washington, or the Macomb Orchard Trail, a cross-county hiking and biking route on a former rail line. Also, there’s no shortage of parks — Metro Beach and Stony Creek Metroparks are my favorites — or charming old-fashioned downtown districts like Mount Clemens and Romeo to explore.

Or perhaps you’re a gearhead, attuned to the sound of custom exhausts, the sight of gritty auto plants and especially plugged into cruising on balmy summer evenings and classic car fests like those on Gratiot Avenue.

I could say much more about what makes Macomb County cool. But, I’ll let you consider these suggestions, discover the diverse options and define Macomb Cool in your own inimitably hip fashion.

Kim Silarski is a writer and copy editor for Visit Detroit. She launched her journalism career in print at a community newspaper chain and on the air at “The Voice of Macomb County,” WBRB 1430-AM, the former Motown version of TV’s WKRP in Cincinnati.