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Grey Ghost chefs Joe Giacomino (left) and John Vermiglio (right) go over the menu at their second pop-up event last month. The chefs have a Feb. 8 dinner planned for Gold Cash Gold in Detroit. (Ian Thibodeau)

FERNDALE, MI - "Pork rinds on the table?" Chef Joe Giacomino asks his Grey Ghost partners, pen hovering over a yellow legal pad.

"Gotta happen," responds Chef John Vermiglio, the other half of the culinary brain at Grey Ghost, nodding. "We're going to need a lot of them."

The two chefs and Will Lee, the beverage director and third partner of the future Grey Ghost restaurant, met on a cold Thursday morning in January at a Ferndale coffee shop to build the menu for their third pop-up dinner in February.

Their restaurant won't open until the spring in Detroit's Brush Park neighborhood.

For now, they're hosting monthly pop-ups prior to opening in what they've dubbed the "Ghost Tour."

And after two events, they're changing how everything is done.

The Feb. 8 dinner will be at Gold Cash Gold in Corktown, where Giacomino currently works.

The chefs have two 300-pound pigs with which to make dinner that night, and they've come to the coffee shop to figure out how they can surprise and please people with a different preparation of the massive pigs.

An outline

Vermiglio sits with his legs crossed, sipping a latte while Giacomino hunches over his notepad. The chefs are fresh off a 10-day gastronomic gauntlet in Orlando, where they helped an old boss serve hundreds of people at a celebrity golf charity event.

Where Giacomino is calm and collected, Vermiglio is jocular. He's excited about the pig pop-up.

"I'd like to use the tail, if you have any thoughts on that," he says to Giacomino.

"How?"

"I'd like to serve it whole, but I don't want to freak people out."

Over the course of two pop-ups, the chefs have snuck uncommon ingredients into the menus. At their December dinner it was beef tendon, veal tongue and sweetbreads. The second in January had chicken skins, feet and livers on the menu. Most of the dining room sent back clean plates after every course.

Related: Grey Ghost chefs Vermiglio, Giacomino show creativity, finesse at second pop-up

A large portion of the coffee shop meeting revolves around figuring out an appetizing way to use pieces of the pig some might find gross. The other part of the meetings focuses on doing something familiar, but different.

And it all happens quickly, as though it's not too hard for them.

The tail idea is shelved, for now, when they chefs can't find an interesting way to prepare the twirl.

They agree without hesitation that some sort of charcuterie needs to be done, but it has to be something quick, like coppa, because they don't have much time to prepare it.

In about an hour it's decided that pork rinds, charcuterie, a Spanish pozole using the pigs' heads and hominy, an encased meat and, finally, a porchetta for the main course will be on the menu.

"That fills up our savory options," Giacomino says.

"I also wouldn't mind having a pork liver pate," Vermiglio tells Lee and Giacomino. "We gotta get some organs in there."

Lee suggests a bacon and chocolate dish for dessert, prompting a bit of teasing from the chefs.

"Get out of your box, man!" Giacomino jokes. And then the chefs decide, without question, there will not be any bacon in the dessert dish. In fact, there won't be bacon on the menu at all.

Lee will run the bar during the third event. He's planning to have an abbreviated drink menu that will still show off his range and creative capabilities. The chefs expect a lot of Lee, who will be charged with crafting an interesting menu that can stand up to all of the captivating food the duo has planned for Grey Ghost.

At the pork pop-up, those who weren't able to get a dinner reservation can still come by and sit at the bar. There might be pork rinds and bar snacks coming out of the kitchen for anyone who happens to wander in, the chefs said.

Filling in the blanks

The trio circles back after deciding bacon will not be served for dessert.

For the third course, after the charcuterie and pozole, they'll serve a blood sausage corn dog.

"On a stick or not on a stick?" Giacomino asks.

"Gotta be on a stick," Vermiglio smiles.

While the chefs will again flex their muscles and introduce a dish that's currently hard-to-find in the Detroit restaurant scene with the blood sausage, on the menu, the third course will simply read "boudin noir." This might keep anyone from scoffing at the words "blood" and "sausage."

Will Lee, Grey Ghost beverage director, helps plate the third course during the team's second pop-up event in January. On Feb. 8, Lee will have a short menu of custom drinks available for the first time at one of their pop-ups at Detroit's Gold Cash Gold. (Ian Thibodeau)

Here again, the chefs provide a peek at what their restaurant's menu might be: vague.

At the first two pop-ups, they called ramen "chicken noodle soup" and hid beef tendon in a dish called "rock shrimp."

The General Tso's chicken wing from their second pop-up was actually a bit of bird that had been braised for over 12 hours, had the bone removed and the remaining cavity stuffed with chicken sausage.

For the pork menu, the dishes might be listed as single words or phrases with very little description.

Related: Grey Ghost chefs John Vermiglio, Josef Giacomino to twist midwest staples in Detroit

Giacomino says he doesn't like when a menu tells a diner everything they never wanted to know about a dish. What the pig ate, where it came from, who slaughtered it and everything it might be served with overloads a hungry customer with ultimately unnecessary information about a dish.

"It adds to the dining experience, that element of surprise," Vermiglio says. It allows the chefs to hide some things, too.

After reading a paragraph about a dish, customers will forget what they're ordering, Giacomino says.

So, his menu will be something like "these are the flavors I want you to experience together. How I present them, you'll see."

For the main course, the porchetta will be different, too. Instead of wrapping the pork loin in the pork belly, they're going to roll the whole pig up and cook it.

Since Giacomino made donuts at his old gig in Chicago for a long time, there will be a banana creme-filled donut fried in pork fat served for dessert.

They go through the menu one more time to piece together different plates with vegetables and other sides.

After about two hours, the meeting wraps up. The chefs share bits of information about their future restaurant, but they're guarded about it.

The third pop-up will be a challenge. They need a little extra help, as it's bigger than the two previous dinners, and it won't be run in the banquet-style of the others.

Giacomino and Vermiglio plan to give their growing kitchen staff a workout. Guests will be sat at various times Monday night, and though everyone will eat the same five courses, the dishes will go out at different times.

The crew will work stations like in a real kitchen, like what they'll eventually do at Grey Ghost.

After the pork dinner, the chefs have three pop-ups planned (lamb, fish and vegetable menus) before they open.

The dinners, then, might begin to see menus crafted more to what the chefs have in mind of their restaurant; the pork menu is already the most focused yet.

And foodies can expect the remaining three dinners to begin to function more and more like a normal restaurant.

On Feb. 8, Gold Cash Gold will host Grey Ghost from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. Reservations for dinner are full, but Lee's bar will be open to walk-ins, the chefs said.

This is the third in a series of stories chronicling Chefs John Vermiglio and Josef Giacomino leading up to the opening of their restaurant, Grey Ghost, in Detroit.

Ian Thibodeau is the business and development reporter for MLive Media Group in Detroit. He can be reached at ithibode@mlive.com, or follow him on Twitter.