Voyager: Detroit

Recently, the lovely Fanwife proposed an impromptu weekend trip to Detroit. For many, that may not seem like an altogether joyous proposition. I’ve made my fondness for the city well known. Much of that fondness is centered on the city’s bustling food scene and a few restaurants in particular. One such restaurant is Voyager, a small, unassuming seafood bistro in the suburb of Ferndale, about 20 minutes north of downtown Detroit.

When we lived in the area, we would typically go to Voyager on weekdays. Seats are hard to come by on the weekend in the crowded, garage-looking oyster bar. The menu is thin, but it features seafood favorites with slight adventures in their flavor profiles. Restaurants with encyclopedic menus annoy me to no end. I don’t have time to read all that. Plus, I’m sure you want to turn the table over. If your menu is a few pages shy of a Herman Melville novel, your customers and chefs are going to have some problems. I’m looking at you Cheesecake Factory. Anyway, the semi-open kitchen occasionally stirs with a modest flame, adding to the bustle of the restaurant. It also allows us to admire the hardworking crew putting together our succulent spread.

Happily, Voyager doesn’t skimp on its bar. The in-house cocktail menu is limited, but the bartenders are adept and make a mean old fashioned. Plus, they wear some rad tropical shirts. Those are coming back, by the way.

If Detroit plans are in your future, you have a litany of options in a city with a food scene on the rise. Put Voyager at the top of your itinerary if you want something from the sea. Their Tuesday happy hour is where it’s at.