Detroit, MI
Detroit diner Rose’s Fine Food is back, and it feels like a homecoming
Detroit basks in the glory of resiliency, welcoming praise for its triumph over a series of tribulations — bankruptcy, political corruption, deindustrialization. This resilience has earned Detroit the moniker of “America’s Comeback City,” reemerging not to her former glory perhaps, but, after weathering a few storms, into an even more beautiful patinaed version of herself.
Rose’s Fine Food on Detroit’s east side is a reflection of the city in which it resides.
When it returned after a two-year shutter, Rose’s, the Comeback Kid, didn’t come back with flash or the pizzazz that some restaurateurs see as a prerequisite for dining in the age of social media. I’d argue it did the opposite.
Sure, a fresh start seemed a ripe opportunity for owner Molly Mitchell to give the tiny East Jefferson building a fresh coat of paint in a custom green that nods to the shade of the Detroit River. A pair of charging stations for electric vehicles were also added to the parking lot, but inside, things feel much the same — delightfully lived-in.
Aptly so. For nine years, guests filed into the quintessential diner, ordering the egg sandwich specials scrawled on a chalkboard and griddled pancakes browned by the flat top, which followed a recipe from Mitchell’s grandfather. When the space transformed into a bottle shop during the COVID-19 pandemic, guests would collar sparkling wine or pét-nats well before the average diner became fluent in natural wines, understanding that skin contact means more than brushing up against your neighbor at the bar. Today, scuff marks from nearly a decade of foot traffic add to the restaurant’s wear, and therefore its charm.
Visiting the new Rose’s is as if you hit pause on a classic film in VHS and pressed play in 4K UHD. The place is slightly spruced up — photos on the walls have been rearranged, ornamental mirrors added and that pink-cushioned soda fountain barstool, once anchored off kilter at the end of the 12-seat bar, now splits the counter seating evenly at the center — but the premise is the same. Diners gather around wooden tables topped with dishes that wink at Mitchell’s Polish heritage and smile at in-season ingredients.
Whereas Rose’s was once a brunch destination, new evening-only hours mean you’ll slice into fork-tender kopytka, chubby potato dumplings seared and dressed in dill and garlicky butter. Paired with zucchini spears and pine nuts, your tongue tussles with pillowy soft textures and crunch. Creamy navy beans, once served with an egg at the former Rose’s Fine Food, are now a dinner snack, glossed in a pungent broth spiked with herbs, most notably dill, which you’ll see a dozen times over — in the tomatoes and the sourdough, on the Polish nachos, the plate of pickles and the cabbage slaw.
As the sun sets, the room bounces in the light of flickering tapers, dripping wax in shades of merlot and blush down to their vintage saucers. Servers drop citrusy, umami pickle martinis with dots of dill oil floating at the surface, as if you dropped a beaded bracelet into your glass.
Rose’s exists as a reset for a restaurant scene awash with bells and whistles. Here, cooks honor the thankless work of local farmers, not rendering Michigan produce unrecognizable, but enhancing its beauty by kissing baby radishes with just enough heat to make the dish juicy, and tossing sugared peaches in a simple syrup with vanilla bean and jalapenos until they’re slippery and just spicy enough to sting your lips. The peaches, plump and succulent, are the sort of ambrosial starter that fills you with so much joy you could cry.
Red and golden beets massaged with whey caramel and sprinkled with poppyseeds are so soft they melt. My heart eyes for the beets and the overall experience at Rose’s almost blinded me from noticing the dressing was hardly a caramel, but rather a congealed marinade with a grainy mouthfeel.
On one visit, a friend and I headed to the backyard garden where Mitchell grows many of the herbs incorporated throughout the menu, lanterns lighting up the space just enough for us to see the sunflowers, dahlias and cut flowers that decorate many of the dinner tables.
Come to think of it, your welcome to Rose’s is a preamble to the experience. A wooden console, something like an ofrenda, is topped with a whimsical floral arrangement, a few menus, a shiny silver water pitcher and produce as art. A crookneck squash wraps around two twinkling tea lights, and a massive bowl is filled with a rotation of seasonal ingredients — fresh garlic bulbs filled the summer bowl, while beautiful crimson apples were piled up for fall.
In the dimness of the room, you may miss the specials scribbled onto a mirror that hangs on a wall leading to the kitchen, but a server will bring it into focus. Food and drink specials are listed, like kompot, the refreshing Eastern European fruit juice — this one, tart and mildly flavored of cherry and plum.
There’s a delicate balance of fine food, as the diner’s name suggests, and homey meals. Duck confit veers toward the finer side, a delicate duck leg served on a silver platter with a sweet-savory creamy cherry glaze spilled beneath it. The meat is seductive in the way it’s tender and flavorful, and, tantalizingly, gone far too soon.
Dishes like smoked kielbasa and Rose’s burger are more comforting — the sausage link, split down the middle, has a thick, crisp skin and comes with sweet cabbage and corn doused in a rich, heavy cream sauce that delivers decadence without guilt. The burger feels as if it could very well have come out of your own kitchen, replacing fluffy buns with buttered slices of toasted sourdough. You’ll realize it’s a bacon burger in the playful way the cured meat is ground into a smoky-sweet jam and spread onto the bread.
In the same way that Mitchell celebrates Michigan farmers with the produce served at Rose’s, she links arms with other local purveyors. The kielbasa and beef for the burger are sourced from the women-owned butcher shop Marrow in Detroit’s West Village and sourdough from Black-owned home bakery Lillian’s Loaves.
Retro cakes by Venla’s Cakes are referential to the nostalgic time Rose’s aims to conjure. A time when diners had an identity and served affordable, handmade food, like fresh baked breads and signature sauces, to regulars who’d stop in several days a week. A time well before the ’90s, when Mitchell started working in diners. Buttercream frosting with intricate, drape-y piping covers tar, lemon poppyseed and floral raspberry rose slices. A chewy piece of candied carrot pierces the frosting on a spectacularly moist carrot cake. The potency of the carrot flavor on the candy is surprising and new, and the only drawback is that it sticks to my teeth so well, I’m concerned my tooth might go with it on the release.
The return of Rose’s feels like the homecoming of a lost love, like the return of the one that got away. Sometimes, you just want that old thing back
Rose’s Fine Food, 10551 E. Jefferson Ave., Detroit. 313-822-2729; rosesdetroit.com
While Detroit Free Press restaurant critics are no longer anonymous at area restaurants, they do their best to avoid being pandered to by restaurant staff. They show up to most restaurants unannounced at least three times, and do not accept complimentary meals. The Free Press covers all meals reviewed by critics. Our journalists adhere to the USA TODAY NETWORK Principles of Ethical Conduct For Newsrooms.
Contact Detroit Free Press Dining and Restaurant Critic Lyndsay C. Green at: LCGreen@freepress.com. Follow @LadyLuff on Instagram and Twitter. Subscribe to the Eat Drink Freep newsletter for extras and insider scoops on Detroit-area dining.
DETROIT (FOX 2) – Some Detroit officials are shining a light on ICE chases calling for change, saying they are too fast, too risky, and a danger to the community and everyone involved.
The backstory:
On Wednesday council members Denzel Anton McCampbell, Gabriela Santiago-Romero and Detroit Police Commissioner Victoria Camille, sent a letter addressing it to the head of the Department of Homeland Security – Markwayne Mullin.
In the letter they are demanding that ICE ends “dangerous pursuits through residential neighborhoods.”
They cited two pursuits — in May and June — where ICE sped through areas where children played, and both ended in injury.
Both individuals who were being pursued, they say, had no criminal activity – so they’re calling for an end to these chases.
McCampbell spoke about the letter and what they hope to accomplish.
“Talk about immigration law, this is not criminal law. So these chases are happening based on civil issues and endangering our community,” he said. “So we wanted to ensure that we sent a letter for accountability to Homeland Security to demand that they stop this and follow their own rules to keep our neighborhoods safe.”
In the letter, McCampbell, Santiago-Romero, and Camille call on DHS to:
- Cease vehicular pursuits
- Publicly release its most current vehicular pursuit policy
- Confirm key details regarding the May and June incidents
- Share findings from the resulting investigations
- Hold accountable any agents who break the rules.
They say that the majority of individuals targeted in the Detroit operations do not have criminal records, and that no civil immigration objective justifies high-speed chases that endanger the people being pursued, the agents involved, and innocent bystanders, homeowners, and children.
The other side:
FOX 2 reached out to the Detroit Department of Homeland Security Office requesting an interview and we are waiting to hear back.
Read the full letter below:
Dear Secretary Mullin:
We write on behalf of the residents of Detroit’s Districts 6 and 7 to demand that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) immediately stop conducting high-speed vehicular pursuits through our neighborhoods, and that the Department of Homeland Security enforce its own pursuit standards with the seriousness that human life demands. In the span of three weeks, two such pursuits in Detroit have left two people critically injured, damaged residents’ homes and property, and placed children and bystanders in mortal danger. These are not unfounded notions; they happened on our streets in front of families.
On May 19, 2026, a vehicular pursuit and crash involving ICE left Yerlys Moreno López, a Detroit asylum seeker, with a broken knee and other injuries requiring emergency surgery. On June 5, 2026, ICE confirmed its officers pursued a driver on Detroit’s west side near Whitlock Avenue and Warwick Street. The driver, Mohamd Salim Abdessamed, lost control, crashed through a residential fence and garage, was impaled by a fence post, and landed atop two parked vehicles. He was hospitalized in critical condition. The homeowner reported that her garage was knocked off its foundation, and a vehicle on her property was destroyed. According to neighbors who witnessed the event, agents operated unmarked vehicles, with only one having its emergency lights activated. At this time, it is unclear if sirens were activated.
That last detail is not a minor one. Federal regulation at 8 C.F.R. § 287.8(e) defines a lawful immigration pursuit as one carried out in a “designated pursuit vehicle.” A pursuit conducted in an unmarked vehicle without activated lights and sirens does not appear to satisfy the Department’s own regulatory definition. ICE’s own 2012 Emergency Driving Handbook further directs agents to “consider and evaluate critical safety issues posed by emergency driving, including the potential risk of death or serious physical injury to themselves, the general public, and the suspect, and should engage in emergency driving only when they determine that the seriousness of the emergency or the severity of the suspected criminal offense outweighs the risk of death or serious physical injury associated with such driving.” We have seen little evidence that such a weighing occurred in either of the Detroit incidents.
The U.S. Department of Justice discourages the use of unmarked vehicles in pursuits, precisely because of the catastrophic risk to uninvolved bystanders. Most American police departments, including Detroit, prohibit chases for non-violent offenses and permit them only to prevent an imminent threat of death or serious bodily harm. It is indefensible that federal agents operating on the same residential streets should hold themselves to a lower standard of public safety than the local police who patrol those blocks every day. The overwhelming majority of individuals targeted in these Detroit operations have no criminal record. No civil immigration objective justifies driving a vehicle at high speed past a park where children are playing.
Accordingly, we demand that the Department take the following actions:
1. Immediately direct ICE and HSI personnel operating in Detroit and across the nation to cease vehicular pursuits in residential and populated areas except where there is an imminent threat of death or serious bodily injury to a person, consistent with best practices.
2. Confirm in writing whether the agents involved in the May 19 and June 5, 2026, Detroit pursuits complied with 8 C.F.R. § 287.8(e), including the requirement that pursuits be conducted in designated vehicles with activated emergency lights and sirens, and whether unmarked vehicles were used in either pursuit.
3. Publicly release the current ICE and HSI vehicular pursuit policy, as the most recent publicly available guidance dates to 2012.
4. Provide the complete findings of the Department’s investigations into both Detroit incidents, including any after-action review, supervisory authorization records, and any disciplinary or corrective measures taken.
5. Commit to a binding pursuit and use-of-force standard that requires supervisory authorization, prohibits pursuits for non-violent civil immigration matters, and holds agents accountable when they violate it.
Detroit is a community that looks out for its neighbors, and we will not accept a regime in which federal agents treat our streets as a place where bystanders, homeowners, and children are acceptable collateral. The next pursuit may not end with injuries but with a funeral. I urge you to act before it does, and I request a written response within fourteen (14) days of receipt of this letter.
Respectfully,
Denzel Anton McCampbell
Council Member, District 7
Detroit City Council Gabriela Santiago-Romero
Council Member, District 6
Detroit City Council
Victoria Camille
Police Commissioner, District 7
Detroit Board of Police Commissioners
Cc:
The Honorable Rashida Tlaib, U.S. House of Representatives (MI-12)
The Honorable Shri Thanedar, U.S. House of Representatives (MI-13)
The Honorable Gary Peters, United States Senate (MI)
The Honorable Elissa Slotkin, United States Senate (MI)
Watch FOX 2 Detroit Live:
The Source: Information for this report is from an interview with Denzel Anton McCampbell and the letter sent to DHS.
Every seat in the Michigan Senate is up for election this year, and eight of those districts are in Wayne County.
In the 4th, 5th and 8th Districts, only one Republican and one Democrat filed for election, meaning those candidates will automatically be nominated and move on to the November ballot. Here are The Detroit News endorsements in the five contested Senate primaries in Wayne County:
1st District (Southwest Detroit and parts of Downriver, including Taylor, Melvindale and Lincoln Park): Two Detroit Democrats are competing for this seat: Abraham Aiyash and Justin Onwenu.
Aiyash is a former state representative who is hoping to return to the Legislature after a two-year absence. He is a progressive whose policy positions align with Democratic socialists.
Onwenu is an attorney who served the Mike Duggan administration as Detroit’s first Director of Entrepreneurship and Economic Opportunity, helping small businesses get a start in the city. Before attending Columbia Law School, where he was president of the student body from 2023 to 2024, Onwenu worked to combat air and water pollution in Detroit, Ecorse and River Rouge.
In the Senate, he promises to be a supporter of legislation to strengthen neighborhoods by lowering property taxes and investing in infrastructure.
He also supports stronger transparency and ethics rules for lawmakers. Justin Onwenu gets our endorsement in the 1st District Democratic primary.
Patrick O’Connell of Ecorse is unopposed in the Republican primary.
2nd District (Northwest Detroit, Dearborn Heights and part of Dearborn): The district is currently represented by Sylvia Santana, who made an unsuccessful bid to be nominated for the Michigan State University board.
The Democratic primary features two Dearborn residents who are hoping to replace Santana: Erin Byrnes and Abbas Alawieh.
Alawieh describes himself as a political strategist, community organizer and pro-peace advocate. He is supported by the Michigan Democratic Party’s Progressive Caucus and aligns with many of its anti-growth positions.
Byrnes is currently a state representative in her second term. Like her opponent, she is well to the left of center on the political spectrum. In the Legislature, she has pushed for utility rate controls.
The two Democrats are similarly positioned. Our choice in the 2nd District is Erin Byrnes, based on her legislative experience.
Harry Sawicki of Dearborn Heights is unopposed in the Republican primary.
3rd District (Detroit, Warren and Madison Heights): The contest to replace incumbent Stephanie Chang has drawn a long list of candidates. The 3rd District starts near Downtown Detroit and stretches north through the center of the city into southern Oakland and Macomb counties.
Eleven Democrats, all from Detroit, are competing in the primary. They are: Mohammad Alam, a Bangladeshi immigrant and Army veteran; LeJuan Council, a property manager and small business owner; John Conyers III, son of the late congressman; LaTanya Garrett, a former state representative; Korey Hall, a former director of community affairs in the Whitmer administration; Adam Hollier, a former state senator; Gary Hunter, a former candidate for Detroit City Council; Kimberly Hill-Knott, former head of the Detroit Climate Action Collaborative; Toinu Reeves, an economist, Abraham Shaw, who owns an auto repair shop, and Eboni Taylor, a community advocate.
There are several interesting and impressive candidates in this race, including Conyers, who just wrote about his father. Garrett has legislative experience, as does Hollier, whom we’ve endorsed in his previous runs for public office.
But we are most impressed with Reeves, a newcomer to politics who brings top-notch credentials to the race. Reeves grew up on Detroit’s east side and is an economist who attended Wayne State University and Dartmouth College.
He serves as chair of the Economic Development Workgroup for Detroit’s District 4 Community Advisory Committee and on the Jefferson-Chalmers Community District Council. He is a former school teacher and autoworker.
Toinu Reeves offers fresh ideas and much-needed skills, and gets our endorsement in the 3rd District Democratic Primary.
Mark Ashley Price is unopposed in the Republican primary.
6th District (Redford Township, Farmington and Farmington Hills): Incumbent Mary Cavanaugh is defending her seat from a challenge from fellow Democrat Stephen Jensen, who shows no signs of a campaign. Both are from Redford.
Mary Cavanaugh, granddaughter of the late Detroit Mayor Jerome Cavanaugh, has served her district well and should be renominated for a second term.
Joi Pokerwinski of Redford Township is unopposed in the Republican Party.
12th District (Parts of Wayne, Macomb and St. Clair counties, including Algonac, the Grosse Pointes, St. Clair Shores, Harper Woods, Mount Clemens and New Baltimore): Incumbent Sen. Kevin Hertel of St. Clair Shores is unopposed in the Democratic primary. Five Republicans are competing in their primary to face him in November.
They are: Joseph Backus of St. Clair Shores, a prolific community volunteer who has run unsuccessfully for other offices; Patrick Biange of St. Clair Shores; John Goldwater of New Baltimore, an oil and gas entrepreneur; Eileen Tesch, the former mayor of Algonac who faced recall efforts, and Shelley Wright, a former general contractor and owner of a process serving company who says Donald Trump inspired her to politics.
John Goldwater has experience growing a business and creating jobs. He would also prioritize improving skilled trades training. The father of six is a conservative who describes himself as pro-life and a defender of the Second Amendment.
Our endorsement in the 12th District Republican primary goes to John Goldwater.
Photos by FOX 2 Photog Scott Federspiel
DETROIT (FOX 2) – A 16-year-old moped driver was hospitalized after a crash on Detroit’s west side on Wednesday night.
The backstory:
Detroit police say the teen disregarded a stop sign while going east on Vassar when he collided with a vehicle turning south on Outer Drive at about 9:30 p.m.
Photos by FOX 2 Photog Scott Federspiel
The boy was taken to a nearby hospital where he is listed in critical condition. The driver of the car, a woman in her 30s, was not injured.
The Source: Information for this report is from Detroit police.
Watch FOX 2 Detroit Live:
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