Wahlburgers Detroit (Facebook photo)
Downtown Detroit is way too crowded with burger offerings, Detroit Free Press food writer Mark Kurlyandchik feels.
So in an open letter, he begs Eli Boyer, owner of Ferndale's Voyager restaurant, to reconsider plans for a burger-focused concept in the main-floor retail space of 28 Grand, a new microloft development in Detroit’s Capitol Park.
New hamburger joints have popped up in the past year, including Wahlburgers in Greektown and Shake Shack in the First National Building on Woodward. Then there's the offerings at your no-frills joints like Checker Bar, the Anchor Bar and Five Guys and the upscale places like the London Chop House.
The letter to Eli Boyer begins:
Dear Eli,
Don’t do this.
Please. I’m begging you.
The last thing downtown needs is another burger joint.
Look: Downtown — not to mention Midtown, Corktown and Eastern Market — is already awash in all kinds of patties and buns and toppings ranging from low-cost sliders and vegan black bean burgers to high-end house-made whoppers that command big bucks.
At the London Chop House, the $18 burger at lunch is made of A4 Wagyu beef and topped with homemade bacon. How are you going to top homemade bacon and Wagyu beef?
24 Grille seems to think it has the Chop House beat with a $21 burger, but I can’t seem to figure out why it costs so much or why they didn’t just stay on brand with a $24 burger.
