Flashback: Anthony Bourdain visits Detroit for 'Parts Unknown'

Sylvia Rector | Detroit Free Press

EDITOR'S NOTE: With the death of Anthony Bourdain on Friday, we look back on former Free Press restaurant critic Sylvia Rector's story about his visit to Detroit for his hit TV show "Parts Unknown." She previewed the episode before it aired. This story was originally published on Nov. 8, 2013.

Anthony Bourdain proves himself to be a romantic, unabashed admirer of Detroit’s history, spirit and resiliency — even as he declares it “utterly screwed” and compares it to Chernobyl — in the season-ending episode Sunday of his Emmy-winning series, “Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown.”

Detroit is “where nearly everything American and great came from,” the celebrity chef and culinary traveler declares as he begins an hour-long journey through gutted factories, weedy fields, half-abandoned neighborhoods — and meals and meetings with the determined people who still make their homes in the city.

More: Anthony Bourdain, noted chef and host of 'Parts Unknown,' dead at 61

Viewers will admire many of the residents he features, from firefighters and volunteer park-mowers to café owners and a high-end chef. But the show’s mostly ruinous scenery and bleak conditions aren’t likely to draw many vacationers, even after he tells viewers, “You should come here.”

Most of the episode’s first 10 minutes set a scene of utter urban devastation, using the abandoned Packard Plant as its focus. Thin, white-haired Allan Hill, who lives in a section of the complex, takes Bourdain on a tour while talking about the plant’s history, the cars once made there, the scrappers who stripped it and the urban explorers who come there now.

The show is a look at what has become of and may still emerge from a once-great American city — not an exploration of exotic foods or a tour of dining spots.

But he visits the 90-plus-year-old Duly’s Place Coney Island in southwest Detroit (5458 W. Vernor), where he enjoys his hot dog so much he orders a second.

And he has a drink and talks city politics with the blunt-spoken owner of Café D’Mongo’s Speakeasy, Larry Mongo. Detroit isn’t the only city with corrupt politicians, Bourdainsays, but the scandals of Detroit stand out as “comically lurid.”

He also visits a decade-old unlicensed Salvadoran pupusa house — one that Yelp and hipster foodies don’t know about, he says — for tamales and pupusas (thick pork-filled tortillas) with two young Salvadoran men. And he has crab cakes, salad and lamb chops at a Detroit firehouse, where viewers see tattered equipment and hear about the underfunded, understaffed Detroit Fire Department.

Parts of Bourdain’s tour was led by controversial writer and reporter Charlie LeDuff, who takes him to Greedy Greg’s, a Detroit home where a couple introduced as Rochelle and Greg cook and serve barbecued ribs in their front yard. The two also dine at the Guns + Butter pop-up restaurant of former New York City chef Craig Lieckfelt.

Lieckfelt, a Clinton Township native who previously worked at the Michelin-starred Jean-Georges in New York, has returned to Detroit and plans to open a bricks-and-mortar restaurant.

“This guy could be running a 300-seat restaurant in Vegas, but here he is, in Detroit. That’s a heroic thing,” Bourdain tells LeDuff — who pours booze into Lieckfelt’s soup and starts to drink it like a cocktail.

Appalled at LeDuff’s lack of respect for the food, Bourdain says in a voice-over for the scene, “Simply put, he’s a Philistine.”

The show also features the Mower Gang — a group of men who mow abandoned city parks without pay to create safer places for children to play — and Malik Yakini, founder of D-Town Farms, an organic urban garden helping provide city residents with fresh, healthful food.

Both represent the resiliency and DIY attitude that Bourdain repeatedly praises.

When Detroit was announced as a “Parts Unknown” locale, in the company of world-class destinations such as Tokyo, South Africa, Sicily, Jerusalem and Copenhagen, the Motor City sounded like a misfit.

But Bourdain’s decision to include it — even making it his season finale — becomes clearer at the end of the show, when he looks into the camera and says, “You should come here. You should see this. Of all the American cities, this is easily one of the most awesome.”

“Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown” airs at 9 p.m. Sunday on CNN and will be followed by a one-hour live “Last Bite” retrospective from Las Vegas, with guests including chefs Marcus Samuelsson and Roy Choi and CNN anchor Don Lemon.

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