IN DETROIT'S LONG and storied history of all-night labor and assemblage, there's never been a third shift quite like the one happening in Craig Lieckfelt's kitchen. Winter gusts rattle the windows of his apartment and prep space—3,000 square feet for $1,000 a month, with an island of secondhand stainless-steel appliances floating in its center—as the hip-hop artist 2 Chainz pumps through the speakers. A few hours before dawn, the 29-year-old chef adds confit pistachios to a beet salad. He reconfigures soup garnishes using a pastry technique to craft fingertip-size, sesame-bonito demispheres that will melt on contact,...