Detroit's Delectable Past: Two Centuries of Frog Legs, Pigeon Pie and Drugstore Whiskey (American Palate) - Softcover

Join local food aficionado Bill Loomis on a look back at the appetites, tastes, kitchens, parties, holidays and everyday meals that defined eating in Detroit, from the earliest days as a French village to the start of the twentieth century. Whether it’s at a frontier farmers’ market, a Victorian twelve-course children’s birthday party replete with tongue sandwiches or a five-cent-lunch diner, food is a main ingredient in a community’s identity and history. While showcasing favorite fare of the day, this book also explores historic foodways—how locals fished the Detroit River, banished flies from kitchens without screens and harvested frog legs with miniscule shotguns. Wedding feasts, pioneer grub, cooking classes and the thriftless ’20s are all on the menu, too.

Bill Loomis was born in Detroit and graduated from the University of Michigan. He has worked in television as a talk show producer for WTVS PBS in Detroit, and his writing has been published in a wide range of newspapers and magazines, including the New York Times, Detroit News, and Michigan History Magazine.