 If your to-do list for Saturday, October 13 includes "Meet up. Drink Bier," then add these two items: "Eat a donut, buy a t-shirt." Starting on that day, two new pop-up businesses will join the pop-up Tashmoo Biergarten near Agnes and Van Dyke in the West Village neighborhood of Detroit. An eponymously named café -- "Coffee and Donuts" and an enigmatically named apparel, antique and oddity shop -- PRAMU (Pataphysical Research and Metachanic Union Local 313) will both pop-up on the 13th to give the shoppers who can find them a unique, if temporal experience. Tashmoo Biergarten is returning to the Villages October 13 and 14 for its second year as a must-visit place to join friends, quaff a brew and enjoy some low-impact games under the autumn leaves. The Villages Community Development Corporation and Detroit Economic Growth Corporation are supporting the two new pop-ups as part of a broader retail development effort. Coffee and Donuts will open in the old Hillis Apothecary space once occupied by the Harlequin Café in the Parkstone Apartments building. It will feature coffee roasted in Detroit, handmade pastries and artisan donuts filled with locally foraged fruit preserves by Christina Gibbs and jelly from Slow Jams. They will also offer yogurt parfaits featuring Simply Suzanne Granola and other Detroit-sourced surprises. Classically trained pastry chef and West Village resident, Angela Foster, is brewing and baking it all. Foster recently returned to Michigan after honing her culinary skills along the east coast of the U.S. and the Caribbean. She has applied her craft at The Ritz-Carlton in Washington DC, operated her own bakery for The Buttery Restaurant in Delaware, and managed and acted as chef of The Blue Water House, a nine-room bed and breakfast on the Delaware Bay beach. "It's really exciting that the neighborhood I live in has all of the elements right here to let me do exactly what I want to do with a new business - create a place for neighbors to gather over coffee and a chance for me to bake all of the specialty pastries I miss making," said Angela Foster, owner and chef. "It's amazing how all my friends, neighbors and local food sources have pitched in to help me get started." The pop-up will be open at 7:00 AM daily throughout October. PRAMU, The Pataphysical Research and Metachanic Union Local 313 is the brainchild of local designer Dylan Box and tech entrepreneur Edmund Zagorin. PRAMU will sell a sampling of Detroit apparel alongside antique furniture and other oddities in one of the now-vacant storefronts along Agnes Street. "What we wanted to do with this retail pop-up is to create an opportunity to showcase some local designers who are doing great work, who are sort of continuing the aesthetic traditions of the city - be they industrial, be they retro-futurist - there's such a rich design history here," said Edmund Zagorin, Director of Metachanics at PRAMU. The shop will open on the Tashmoo Biergarten weekends of Oct 13/14, 20/21 and 27/28, with extended hours for the holiday season. DEGC, The Villages CDC, Parkstone Apartments and West Village Manor are collaborating to recruit new permanent retail to the historic district. "All the right ingredients are here in West Village. We've been blown away by the demand and quality of businesses that want to be a part of this special place in Detroit," said Michael Forsyth, DEGC project manager for retail development. Brian Hurttienne, executive director of The Villages CDC added, "By spring and summer of 2013, this entire block of Agnes Street will be activated with full-time, independent retail. Pop-ups will give residents a small taste of what?s to come while giving Detroit?s entrepreneurs a taste of what it's like to run a small business full-time." Background Detroit Economic Growth Corporation (DEGC) is a non-profit organization that serves as the lead implementing agency for business retention, attraction and economic development initiatives in the city of Detroit. DEGC is led by a 60-member board comprised of business, civic, labor and community leaders. Its 40 professionals provide staff services for key public authorities that offer tax credits and other forms of financing for projects that bring new jobs or economic activity to the city. Among them: the Downtown Development Authority (DDA), Detroit Brownfield Redevelopment Authority (DBRA), Economic Development Corporation (EDC), Neighborhood Development Corporation (NDC), Local Development Finance Authority (LDFA), and Tax Increment Finance Authority (TIFA). DEGC also provides planning, project management and other services under contract to the City of Detroit. The Villages Community Development Corporation (CDC) is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to accelerating economic development in the Villages of Detroit, a collection of neighborhoods located on Detroit?s near eastside, the boundaries of which are Mt. Elliott to Cadillac, and the Detroit River to Mack. The neighborhoods that make up the Villages are West Village, Indian Village, the Berry Subdivision, East Village, Islandview Village, and the Gold Coast. Through business attraction, community advocacy and organizing, and urban design and planning, the Villages CDC seeks to strengthen and preserve the social and economic fabric of one of the most diverse and longstanding communities in Detroit. ### Media contacts DEGC Bob Rossbach? 313-402-9831? bob@rossbach.tv The Villages CDC Brian V. Hurttienne 313-486-2900 brianh@thevillagesofdetroit.com |