Latest news with #MitchAlbom
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
EAT Detroit event draws raises money for Detroiters in need
A dining frenzy tantalized the palates and taste buds of more than 1,000 patrons on Monday, June 10, with signature dishes from restaurants around downtown Detroit and Corktown. Diners roamed the streets of Corktown and downtown at the annual EAT Detroit event, dashing into restaurants and feasting on samplings of signature dishes and drinks for the restaurant crawl-style event. A highlight of this year's event is it began and ended with a VIP reception at the historic and renovated Michigan Central Station in Corktown. Mitch Albom, Detroit Free Press columnist, founded and hosts EAT Detroit. The event is a fundraiser for SAY Detroit, the nonprofit Albom founded 20 years ago that helps Detroiters in need. Albom mirrored, with permission, a José Andrés Dine-N-Dash event that he attended in Washington, D.C. The Andrés event follows a similar concept of visiting an array of restaurants and also has a charitable arm that benefits the renowned chef's World Central Kitchen. In its five years, Albom said the event has raised nearly $1 million. 'I think in our fifth year, this sort of cements the event as a permanent red letter, you know, charity day on the calendar,' Albom said. Various diners said the excitement and highlight of this year's event was its beginning and ending receptions at Detroit's stunning Michigan Central Station. It was the first time the opening and closing of the event happened at the same place. Albom said they are going to try and make the train station a permanent part of the event. 'You can kind of feel being in here (Michigan Central Station) that it's (EAT Detroit) grown, and this would have been inappropriate in its first year. We weren't big enough to do it here, and we weren't organized enough to do it here.' More than 1,200 people purchased tickets to the event, which sold out within a week, Albom said, plus an additional 300 to 400 bought VIP tickets. Before heading out to restaurants, a VIP reception took place at the beautifully restored and renovated train station. VIP guests dined on appetizers from Detroit's West Village award-winning Marrow restaurant and Leña, Brush Park's Spanish-influenced eatery. Both restaurants have been named Detroit Free Press/Metro Detroit Chevy Dealers Top 10 Best New Restaurants in the past. Albom, Mayor Mike Duggan and Detroit Free Press restaurant critic Lyndsay C. Green spoke to the crowd, highlighting the event, Albom's charity, cheering on Detroit and its restaurant scene. Around Corktown and downtown Detroit, diners feasted on everything from fried catfish bites to roasted lamb shoulder, filet mignon au Poivre, fried lobster, chopped cheeseburger and Maurice salad and meatballs the size of golf balls served with marinara and whipped ricotta and pecorino cheese. Diners could also sip on various summery cocktails and mocktails. It was the first time for friends Anna Sinagoga of Berkley and Diana Gomez of Rochester. 'It's a great way to get people to come downtown and showcase the restaurants in an accessible way,' Sinagoga said. Gomez added that they check out the menus in advance and would 'try to get to as many as we can.' For the roaming feast, diners boarded shuttle buses or walked to participating restaurants, sampling offerings from preset menus of food and drink. More than two dozen restaurants participated in this year's event. This year, Julie Wallace of Eastpointe bought VIP tickets to get inside the renovated train station, which she called 'impressive.' 'Last year we did seven restaurants and are hoping to get to a few more this year,' Wallace said. The evening ended back at Michigan Central Station with a VIP reception featuring a beautiful and delightful array of desserts, including lemon tarts, cannoli, mango passionfruit tart and hand fruit pies. Providing desserts were MK Cannelle, Mad Nice, Prime + Proper, Sister Pie and Townhouse Detroit. Scott and Melissa Ringlein of Ann Arbor have attended every EAT Detroit event and make sure they view the menus in advance 'We like just being able to go to a lot of these restaurants,' Scott Ringlein said. On of the favorite restaurant stops, Ringlein said was Le Suprême, which featured filet mignon au poivre. The Ringleins said they always do VIP and make a weekend out of the event. This year, Scott Ringlein said, they took in a Detroit Tigers game, visited Pewabic Pottery and Detroit's RiverWalk. Michigan Central Station was also a highlight of the event. 'It was the first time I got to come here,' Ringlein said. 'It's beyond miraculous what they did.' EAT Detroit 2026 is already on the website, taking emails to join a waitlist for advance ticket sales. 'You never know how big something is going to get, but I knew when you mixed food and walking and nice weather. You're going to get some kind of crowd.' Contact Detroit Free Press food and restaurant writer Susan Selasky and send food and restaurant news and tips to: sselasky@ Follow @SusanMariecooks on Twitter. This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Mitch Albom's EAT Detroit event draws more than a thousand diners
USA Today
09-02-2025
- Politics
- USA Today
Mitch Albom: Tired of ‘words matter'? The answer isn't more bad words
Mitch Albom: Tired of 'words matter'? The answer isn't more bad words Show Caption Hide Caption AG Pam Bondi's first day ends in flurry of new policies Pam Bondi wasted no time after she was confirmed as US Attorney General Tuesday, issuing multiple directives in line with President Donald Trump. Recent actions have raised concerns that the rollback of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives under the Trump administration is emboldening the use of offensive language. While some celebrate the perceived loosening of "woke" constraints, the author argues that using slurs is not progress and advocates for finding a balance between respecting diverse identities and avoiding excessive political correctness. In a congressional hearing last week, U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace, of Virginia, a Republican, was criticizing the use of federal money for programs involving transgender individuals. She referred to them with a slur that we'll call 'the T word.' She was then rebuked by another congressman, U.S. Rep. Gerry Connolly, of Virginia, a Democrat, who said, 'The gentlelady has used a phrase that is considered a slur in the LGBTQ community and the trans community.' Mace interrupted him and deliberately said the T word again. Three straight times. She also added, 'I don't really care. You want penises in women's bathrooms, and I'm not gonna have it.' It was a brazen disregard for language that, not too long ago, might have gotten you canceled. But these are different times. I was watching the 'Gutfield' program on Fox last week and heard the host, Greg Gutfield, exulting over insults he was making now that Donald Trump is the president, and how great it is that we can — paraphrasing here — 'say these things again!' Life may be changing. But we should still be united on what we should and shouldn't say. License to slur? President Trump's recent erasure of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion from federal guidelines doesn't mean we can now spit out whatever slurs we want, whenever we want, without consequence. According to the White House's own words, the DEI executive order was about 'Protecting civil rights and expanding opportunity," by "terminating radical DEI preferencing in federal contracting and directing federal agencies to relentlessly combat private sector discrimination,' in order to 'faithfully advance the Constitution's promise of colorblind equality before the law." More Albom: Mitch Albom: Blame is quick in disasters when patience is what's needed Colorblind equality. That is not a license to use the N word for Black people, the K word for Jewish people, the S word for Latinos, the C word for Asians, the F word for homosexuals, the T word for transgendered individuals, or any other slurs that it has taken decades to push out of our daily dialogue. Yet somehow, there's a sense that Trump has ridden into town, sprung open the political correctness jails, and let everyone's mouth run free. He has not. He cannot. What we say and how we say it is up to us as a society. We need to ask ourselves, do we really want to return to a day when yelling a slur three times in a congressional hearing is not only OK, but the new way of doing things? Moving forward DEI brought a lot of attention to words. Perhaps too much. A series of pronouns ranging from understandable to head-scratching were introduced. A world that used to be viewed as consisting of two genders suddenly was being told there were many, many more. Worst of all, people who found this whiplash change too much to remember, or forgot a 'they/them' at the wrong moment, often found themselves ridiculed, ostracized, or fired. That was wrong. But so is the idea that it's open season on racial or sexual preference insults now. We have to find a way to move forward without moving backward. More: Trump memo on civil rights, DEI executive order undermine 60 years of progress | Opinion There was a time when the N word was dinner table conversation. When the F word was used in board meetings. When the S and C words were uttered by police officers. Does anybody think it's a good idea to return to those days? Then why would it be OK for Nancy Mace to do a triple play on a trans slur in a congressional hearing? Or, more telling, follow those slurs with the comment 'I don't care.' As if everyone is being too damn sensitive. After all, two months ago, Mace had an Illinois man arrested for assault, after he shook her hand at an event and told her that trans youth in foster care needed advocacy. She claimed he aggressively shook her hand for 'three to five seconds' and she later experienced pain in her wrists and armpit. Assault? A handshake? Who's being overly sensitive? It's understandable that with Trump's victory some people are rejoicing at the loosening of 'woke' bonds prevalent under President Joe Biden. But there's a difference between filling quotas or instructional seminars and freely calling others by the most insulting word for them. That's not progress under any administration. The only word for that is sad. Contact Mitch Albom: malbom@ Check out the latest updates with his charities, books and events at Follow him @mitchalbom.
