Friday, March 29, 2024

Hidden Gems

By M+E Staff

This week I visited the Ford Rouge Factory for the first time. I was dimly aware that there was a factory tour, but I knew little about it.

If you’ve been, you know the site is a museum of sorts unto itself. Gleaming classic cars and the latest Ford F-150 model are on display (the plant build the F-150 exclusively). Films about the company’s history and the plant’s operations can be viewed, the latter in a seven-screen circular theater. The distinctive site hosts meetings and events, especially for the corporate world.

Journalists commonly make the error of assuming that if something is new to them, then it’s news. Likewise, I’ve edited this magazine for two years, not nearly long enough to get to know every excellent venue in metro Detroit, let alone the state. That the Rouge struck me as a hidden gem could well reflect nothing more than my own ignorance.

Nonetheless. Later that day, a member of my community posted on NextDoor, an internal site for city residents, asking for venue suggestions for a small, low-frills wedding. She got nearly 40 responses, many of them raving about venues I’d never heard of or tend to overlook. The Roostertail was no surprise, but I forgot that the Rust Belt Market in Ferndale hosts events. I didn’t know the Royal Oak Women’s Club, the MSU Management Education Center (Troy) or Longacre House (Farmington Hills) hosted events at all. Responses were full of other suggestions, too.

We’re planning a feature in 2015 on intimate venues around the state (as a companion to the piece we did in Spring 2014 highlighting such venues in Detroit.) Hidden-gem venues and intimate venues aren’t the same thing, of course, but there’s plenty of overlap. So since I’m clearly still learning, let’s get readers’ input on places to highlight. Which venues around the state do you think are well-kept secrets?

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