Cool Warrendale Thing of the Week: The Warrendale Slate

There are only 5 more days left of voting in the Metro Times "Best of Detroit" reader poll. Unfortunately, I've been a bad blogger. I haven't been pushing a Warrendale slate this year. Luckily, there's still time for me to make up for that.

We are lucky as a neighborhood to have some great businesses. In some cases, such as car washes, restaurants under $15 and others, there is more than one deserving business. Since we can only have one entry, I made a judgment call about what I thought was the most deserving business and where such a win would have the most impact.

Without further ado, I give you the Warrendale Slate for the 2009 "Best of Detroit" poll. The entire slate, of course, is also my Cool Warrendale Thing of the Week. (Yeah, I'm a day late with this, too. I suck. I know it.)

The Public Square
I know this doesn't happen in the Warrendale neighborhood, but it is one of my projects and it doesn't have a Warrendale equivalent (for now). Therefore, I'm including the Detroit Windsor International Film Festival as "Best Local Film Festival".

I recommend the Rouge Park Golf Course (11701 Burt Rd.) as "Best Golf Course". I also recommend Rouge Park itself as "Best Place to Picnic".

As for the "Best Local Web Site", it shouldn't come as any surprise that I'm campaigning for the Warrendale (Detroit) Blog.

The Real Deals
I recommend Warrendale Tobacco Shop (20030 W. Warren Ave.) as "Best Smoke Shop" and Movie Mania Metro (18251 W. Warren Ave.) as "Best Video Selection". I also recommend one of the neighborhood's oldest businesses, Metro Music on the Southfield Freeway service drive, as "Best Music Instrument Store".

Finally, I recommend Star Auto Wash (18401 W. Warren Ave.) as "Best Car Wash".

Nutritional Value
There are lots of very good bars and restaurants in the Warrendale neighborhood, as my waist line will attest. We don't have something for every category in the Metro Times' list, but here are my nominees for the ones that we do have.

• Px Bar & Grille (18490 Ford Rd.) - "Best Restaurant Under $15 per Diner";
• El Monterrey Restaurant & Catina (18950 Ford Rd.) - "Best Mexican Restaurant";
• Dog House Coney Island (19344 W. Warren) - "Best Coney Island";
• Gracie See Pizzeria (6889 Greenfield) - "Best Neighborhood Pizza";
• Pizza Place (18706 Ford Rd.) - "Best Cheap Pizza";

Up All Night
I wasn't sure what category to put Chick's Bar (18550 W. Warren). Unfortunately, there isn't a category for "Place Most Like Cheers". However, after talking with the owner, I am nominating Chick's Bar for "Best Dive Bar".

My final suggestion is one that is bound to be somewhat controversial because there are some folks in the neighborhood who don't want to be reminded that Warrendale even has a strip club in our midst. However, the fact of the matter is that the staff at the Toy Chest (18728 Ford Rd.) make their place what such a place should be from an urban planning stand point.

• They provide their customers with a quality - and legal - service;
• They pay taxes to support many of the things we need as a community;
• They provide jobs to area residents - including ones where you get to keep your clothes on;
  
• They keep the exterior of their place extremely clean; and
  
• The police never have to be called as a result of anything that happens inside or outside of their club.

Toy Chest is also one of the few such clubs that are owned by a woman. Before anyone starts using the fact that I know as a further proof that I'm a pervert, I learned this by watching a story about the place on channel 4 news awhile back.

The only complaint I've ever heard from anyone in the neighborhood is that, with the current economy making things tight for a lot of people, a certain number of their customers have taken to parking on neighboring side streets instead of paying a few dollars for valet parking in their lot. This is a legitimate complaint. However, after listening to the complaints that most other neighborhoods have about their strip clubs, I have to conclude that it's a fairly minor issue.

As a result, for the second year in a row, I nominate Toy Chest as "Best Strip Club". They won "Best Upscale Strip Club" last year, but the Metro Times has consolidated the categories this year.

I encourage everyone to visit the Metro Times web site and vote on-line.