Want a Drink? Sure. That'll be $80. Bad Luck Cocktail Bar Opens Thursday

[Towne Cluber]

Every city has an identity. We have one now that has made us "cool." Do you think that's an advantage or a disadvantage? Hell Shinola has built a company around it. But instead we're getting a lot more people wanting to mimic anywhere USA. You know I've been down on the effectiveness of the Q line but seeing the electrical propulsion makes me think its a got a little character.

Jobs are cool. Police, Fire, and EMS responding in a reasonable amount of time are cool. Tax base is cool. Retail, restaurants, and entertainment options are cool. Not having astronomical levels of crime is cool. Stable population is cool. Functioning local government and services are cool.

You can't acknowledge that every city has an identity while also claiming that everywhere else is "Anywhere USA". It's either one or the other...

[MSUguy]

Every city has an identity. We have one now that has made us "cool." Do you think that's an advantage or a disadvantage? Hell Shinola has built a company around it. But instead we're getting a lot more people wanting to mimic anywhere USA. You know I've been down on the effectiveness of the Q line but seeing the electrical propulsion makes me think its a got a little character.

What's made us "cool" is all the new restaurants, bars retail and development that's come online in a city that hasn't completely cleaned up. Detroit wasn't getting this kind attention 10-15 years ago, no was writing articles in the NY Times about how hip we are when downtown was a ghost town full of rotting buildings.

[DeLemur]

What's made us "cool" is all the new restaurants, bars retail and development that's come online in a city that hasn't completely cleaned up. Detroit wasn't getting this kind attention 10-15 years ago, no was writing articles in the NY Times about how hip we are when downtown was a ghost town full of rotting buildings.

Bring the strip malls! You guys would make this city into one big Cheesecake Factory if you had your way. Totally a waste. You want Novi? We already have Novi. You want more segregation, we already have segregation. Hey but we can't provide transit to Detroiters working in the suburbs, despite us having the largest distance between people and jobs in the nation. No issue there. We have $30 dollar drinks downtown made with Ostrich feathers to keep us happy. Hey Detroit is cool! ​Totally short sighted.

[archfan]

I don't. I think its tone deaf and silly. I guess you can call it "innovative" but its more ridiculous than anything.

The idea that we should be like every other city is becoming dangerously mainstream. Detroit has been adored because its authentic, soulful and gritty. It also has a wealth of education to offer. Bad Luck is just a fancy pants bar but its part of a trend to make us look like everything else out there. Be a "globally competitive city." We're just emulating other cities at this point: Brooklyn, Portland, ect...Bet thing we can do to be a "globally competitive city" is to remake the city with the Detroit brand and keep it unique. We have an abundance of water we don't tout around here. We have open spaces we don't use wisely. We have neighborhoods in extreme poverty we need to do a better job of linking downtown to. This bar seems to be blind to the city its in IMO.

That's an awful lot to put on a goofy little bar off an alley that charges too much. It may be tone deaf and silly, and it may go belly up quickly. Or, there might be enough people in the city with some disposable income that they become a success. Either way, there are still another 142 square miles in Detroit that can be soulful and gritty.

[EastsideAl]

Bring back the 411 bar.

Ahhh... where the pros went to drink. Wiedemann's and short cuesticks baby.

[JBMcB]

Bring the strip malls! You guys would make this city into one big Cheesecake Factory if you had your way.

You can have both dive bars and Cheesecake Factories. It's a big city, with plenty of [[still empty) buildings. Whinging about a fancy cocktail bar opening up is pointless.

[Bobl]

Asinine, but belly up to the bar if you wish.

[Zacha341]

I guess [[well actually I know) there will always be ultra high posh bars and patrons therein for the ambiance and nuance of the given drink [[were it exists). That's grand--all power to them. Then there's a very nice glass of wine at home too......

I've always wanted to go to that fancy bar in Corktown called Sugar.... something......

[softailrider]

You can have both dive bars and Cheesecake Factories. It's a big city, with plenty of [[still empty) buildings. Whinging about a fancy cocktail bar opening up is pointless.

Can't argue with that. Absolutely agree.

[Downriviera]

I really miss the Kress Lounge on Michigan where I could buy a round of drinks for a table of four, hand the bartender a ten and get change back. That being said, I also enjoy a fine cocktail at the Sugar House. But as for the Royal Navy Rum from 1970, just because its old and rare doesn't make it good. Rum experts will tell you that stuff is garbage. I'd much rather sip on a Eldorado 15 yr rum from Guyana.

[ABetterDetroit]

Is it not foolish to think that every business that opens in Detroit has to have some sort of mass appeal? That seems like a luxury that has been gone for a very long time in Detroit. If people can earn a living, pay taxes, not break the law and not harm the environment.. God speed to them.

It's about jobs. The more businesses that start, the more that will grow and prosper.

[erikd]

Bring the strip malls! You guys would make this city into one big Cheesecake Factory if you had your way. Totally a waste. You want Novi? We already have Novi. You want more segregation, we already have segregation. Hey but we can't provide transit to Detroiters working in the suburbs, despite us having the largest distance between people and jobs in the nation. No issue there. We have $30 dollar drinks downtown made with Ostrich feathers to keep us happy. Hey Detroit is cool! ​Totally short sighted.

How is a high-end craft cocktail bar located in a downtown alley in any way like a suburban strip mall/Cheesecake Factory/Novi type of thing?

And how do new high-end businesses opening in the city create more segregation? Detroit has been the most racially and economically segregated large city in the country for decades, with a dearth of middle- and upper- income residents and amenities. Locating all of the high-end housing and businesses in the suburbs is segregation. Having a mix of housing and retail in the city and the suburbs is a shift away from segregation.

And for the mass transit argument, I suspect that you would find the owners and patrons of this establishment to be supporters of expanding and improving mass transit in metro Detroit, not opponents. The anti-mass transit people are not opening and frequenting new businesses in the city.

[MSUguy]

Sounds like they're doing very well.

Q: Your latest project, the Bad Luck, got a bit of flack for the $80 cocktail when it first opened. How’s business?

A:It’s funny because there was obviously a lot of contention about the $80 cocktail, which really is an $80 pour of rum. You can have it as a cocktail, if you wish. So there was a lot of skepticism about that. We buy it in a flagon, which is 4 ½ liters. We sold out the first flagon in 20 days of being open. We got a second flagon. We sold that out in about another month-and-a-half. We just got a third flagon in, but this is going up to $120 because this is from the 1950s with even older rum.


http://www.freep.com/story/entertain...oit/100459086/

[Honky Tonk]

"We just got a third flagon in, but this is going up to $120 because..."

well... there's one born every minute.