A crime has rocked the Cadieux Cafe, east-side capital of Belgian culture.
A portrait of Farmhouse Steve has gone missing, Mike Elrick reports on Fox 2. And the feather bowlers want it back.
Farmhouse Steve is hardly a household name, but in the tight circle of Detroit feather bowlers, he's a big deal.
As Elrick puts it:
Steve is a feather bowling grand champion. You've probably never heard of feather bowling but on the east side, it is a pretty big deal.
To get your portrait up on the wall near the feather bowling lane at the Cadieux Cafe on Detroit's east side, you've got to be really, really good.
The Cadieux Cafe for decades has been a center of Belgian life in Detroit. Belgians were once the predominant ethnic group in the cafe's far east-side neighborhood, on Cadieux Road between Mack and Warren. One of the cafe's attractions are the dirt lanes of feather bowling, which seems ridiculous to the casual observer, but they are taken very seriously by the feather-bowling cult.
Farmhouse Steve a relative newcomer to the feather bowling league. He has a playing style unlike any other, according to Elrick.
The portrait was painted by Jerry Lemenu, a local artist and educator, who is himself a champion feather-bowler. Lemenu is known for his courtroom sketches that regularly appear in the Detroit media.
