well February is Black History Month so
we thought we'd shine a light on a
restaurant in Detroit with a special
connection to a historic neighborhood it
was called Black Bottom and it was a
vibrant african-american community the
restaurant pays tribute to that
neighborhood with its cooking and it's
atmosphere
Michelle Oliver takes us to dine in the
Dean at lecoultre in Detroit whether its
sizzling steaks smothered in a seafood
sauce or spicy wings piled high and set
on fire
drew Matthews loves to cook I was
cooking it as a kid so I grew up in the
kitchen as you can tell with my
grandmother and my mother and it just
always was a passion for me and that
passion turned into his career but not
in the usual way I started off doing
dinners out the house I posted on social
media and I had 500 orders and I said
you know what I'm gonna start going
brunches the brunches we got roughly
five to six hundred people every Sunday
and said you know what I'm opening up a
restaurant so I started looking for
spaces and I found this space here in
Black Bottom and I said what better
place to you know put a black-owned
restaurant in black powder black bottom
is that historic black neighborhood in
Detroit that really grew when the auto
industry was booming attracting people
from the south they were really just
discriminated against and this was kind
of the spot that they can come to for
residential housing
57 acres neighborhood in this city floor
each side between
Gratiot lafayette defenders and hasty
Street which is now I 75 black bottom up
you'll have in my opinion hair like this
just spirit of entrepreneurship because
black bottom really is kind of has some
of the first institutions for
african-american businesses a lot of the
original elements of this Art Deco style
building were kept to reflect that
history try to keep the integrity of the
building as much as I could with adding
a more casual contemporary style with
the original some of the food also has a
black bottom twist to it we have our
kasha wings with our hasting sauce
this is our Black Bottom cheesecake I
describe it as a more upscale comfort
let's see how they make one of their
most popular dishes
the seafood overloaded mac and cheese so
what do we do first so we start by
bringing up our cheese sauce what we
have here nice and what's in this cheese
sauce seven different layers of cheese
and it's a big big cheese sauce very
thick after that warms up we add in the
noodles so these are like cavatappi
that's exactly what it is
so there are little crazier that hold on
to the soft a little bit better
next comes the crab and we have a crab
and lobster mix that we mix I put it in
together and jump on love and it's
season two I see you I like that you can
see the whole like that's a whole flower
right there we pour it into a cast-iron
skillet
cover it with cheese and put it in the
oven to finish cooking now for the
lobster tail
hadar lobster tail nice gonna wet it up
right come over here with our cajun
spices and why are you doing it up high
coming up top so I can evenly spread on
the lobster tail I'm gonna take our
lifestyle come over here dredge it
there's obviously season dredging but
I'm guessing you can't tell anyone yeah
then it goes into the fryer to cook you
wanna see just put the flakiness in a
dough and brown something like that once
the lobster is nice and crispy and the
mac and cheese is bubbling hot it's time
to put them together then we smash it
oh so it starts dripping like that
overloaded to the max
it's ready to be devoured
joining us today in studio chef Joseph
Cotten from the culture cafe tell us
about this wonderful spread of food you
brought me for my truck when I'd go home
right here we have our famous cheesecake
okay at Lakota ARLA culture cheesecake
we also have our Hamlet's
cheesecake everybody's mouth-watering
and in front of that you were gonna say
our organic carrots okay there they are
right there
beautiful organic roasted you cook
that's look amazing okay okay what about
these rolls right
those are our I'm sorry honey glazed
croissants LeCoultre croissants honey
glazed got my heart beating faster my
heart's about to explode
that's our famous 20 ounce ribeye ready
grass-fed hmm that is beautiful camera
that's getting beautiful shot of that
way to go Mike everything brought in
here fresh daily that's right so chef
Justin tell me about those wings right
there those are you think that's right
these are our famous LeCoultre wings
everybody comes in and they get them by
the pound they get them so fast we sell
out so quick we got him that's great
everything looks so fresh and beautiful
I have to just throw that in there now
everyone was staring at the salmon tower
which is up next to see I already know
the names of the stuff on your menu
tell us about that what is this is our
family's elements our everything is
famous oh yeah the culture yeah this is
our famous sound the tower is a it
started with a mashed potatoes spinach
topped with Salman mm-hmm and then we
top it off with a our famous sauce
that's a crab and lobster makes hmm
oh my gosh okay I thought I said sure
these are crab cakes oh it's definitely
shrimp on top okay yeah you definitely
saw this room I almost went into a
trance
I know storing live TV crab cakes yes
these are definitely our famous crab
cakes beautiful
yes and now I'm going to try to gently
tilt this over because I saw you making
this and this looks amazing what is this
this is our mama pasta oh hey all right
and then here is the mac and cheese that
you made with Michelle yes that's our
seafood
overload seafood overload look at that
that looks beautiful though alright and
then we also have a Caesar salad topped
with a piece of salmon mm-hmm yes and
then last but not least our New Zealand
lamb chop
brandy sneezed on these Jason listen I
don't care I'll just put some Lysol and
we'll just go with it oh my goodness
everything looks so good the broccoli
little broccoli this is how you this is
no we have restaurants on all the time
we always tell them this is your your
shot this is your moment you're gonna be
on TV
millions potential you're gonna be
watching you better bring the a game
with your presentation this is this is
next-level a plus presentation a game so
you know if they show up with the crew
and they're over here just assume you
know it's the real deal
so with food this good you guys are have
a great buzz going on in the city right
now can people just walk in or do you
need a reservation no it's not walking
in right now right now you can go make a
reservation at open table calm you can
download the app on your smartphone get
it together
um starting March 1st we will have lunch
from 11:00 to 2:30 and that will be
walking in on okay all right the culture
everyone if you want to try it out we
are giving away five $50 gift cards for
your chance to win go to our live in the
de Facebook page or the contest page at
clickondetroit.com but you just put your
finger in that no I was joking I'm
wondering where my fork is