(engine humming) - [Will Glover] Coming up on "One Detroit", we'll visit the historic Avenue of Fashion to see the revival of this truly Detroit business district.

Plus, a local Asian American chef shares his recipe for a childhood favorite dish.

Also ahead, we'll give you some suggestions on how to spend these last days of summer.

And, we'll end with a performance by Marion Hayden, Mahindi Masai and Michelle May.

- [Narrator] From Delta faucets, to Behr paint, Masco Corporation is proud to deliver products that enhance the way consumers all over the world experience and enjoy their living spaces.

Masco, serving Michigan communities since 1929.

- [Narrator 2] Support also provided by, the Cynthia and Edsel Ford Fund for Journalism at Detroit PBS.

- [Narrator 3] DTE Foundation is a proud sponsor of Detroit PBS.

Among the state's largest foundation's committed to Michigan-focused giving, we support organizations that are doing exceptional work in our state.

Learn more at DTEFoundation.com.

- [Narrator 2] Nissan Foundation, and viewers like you.

(bright upbeat music) - [Will Glover] Just ahead on "One Detroit", a local chef from our Asian American and Pacific Islander Story series shows us how he makes his signature dish, three cup chicken.

Plus, Dave Wagner of 90.9 WRCJ has a list of events to enjoy as we welcome fall's arrival this weekend.

And, we'll close with a special performance in honor of the Kresge Foundation's centennial.

(lively jazzy music) But first up, a truly Detroit story about the resurgence of a historic business district known as the Avenue of Fashion.

During the 1950s and '60s, the stretch of Livernois Avenue between Seven and Eight Mile roads in Detroit was a bustling thoroughfare, filled with exclusive clothing stores.

The area declined after the arrival of shopping malls.

"One Detroit"'s Bill Kubota reports on how the Avenue of Fashion has rebounded with high-end retailers, many of whom are African American.

(bright upbeat music) (cars whooshing) - "Livernoise", everybody that I know always called "Livernoise".

- [Bill] "Livernoise" might be called Livernois the further north you go, but here around Seven Mile Road on Detroit's West Side, it's the Avenue of Fashion, a shopping destination once again.

Not just retail, there's fine dining too.

- The restaurants really create the foot traffic.

For each restaurant, you might have two, 300 people come through a day, and they just walk up and down the street.

- [Bill] Six, seven decades ago, the Avenue of Fashion then, B. Siegel, a major Detroit retailer known for its women's wear with an outlet here, and more dress shops at a strip of stores called Williamsburg Row.

The 1967 Rebellion led to the Avenue's long slide, but in recent decades, clothiers have come back, like the Times Square Men's store, helping hold down Williamsburg Row on Livernois since 2010.

What was it like down here back then?

- It was a struggle.

A lot of, you know, buildings had not yet been occupied yet.

- [Bill] Far more recent challenges, a major street scape project in 2019 that reduced customer traffic and sales.

Then came COVID, then the bounce back.

The street scape appears to be paying off for proprietors like Algernon Bartell, a staunch Detroiter through and through.

Bartell tells us how his Times Square store came to be.

- I used to hate New York, until I went to New York.

(horns honking) I don't know if you remember, Stevie Wonder had that song, "Living for the City", when he was blind and he hear the sounds of New York, and that's just how it was.

Living just enough for the city.

Mm, and then I was like, "Wow."

This city just blew me back.

- [Bill] Some of the merchandise sold off the rack, but Bartell specializes in custom tailoring.

- Custom name, Algernon Bartell, then the shirt, Algernon Bartell.

Just some of the things I like, you know, a little plaid, it's a older suit, but it still looks good on me.

My story is so unique 'cause I started from a raggedy van.

The clothing business, someone was going outta business, and asked me could I sell a suit.

I'm like, "I don't sell not suit."

So I tried it.

I would go to barber shops, go to churches, go to people that I knew, and sold clothes outta my van.

- [Bill] To get outfitted by Bartell, it starts in black.

- Black suit, then you need this blue suit.

We call this the Obama Blue Suit, my number one selling suit.

A tan, everyone need a tan.

You need a tan suit, summer, this is a nine month year suit, can't wear it in December to April, but you need a tan suit, it's a nice suit.

Gray.

Always need a gray, you can never go wrong with a nice, clean gray suit.

- [Bill] Bartell's friends and customers, a who's who of lawyers, politicians, celebrities on the Times Square Wall of Fame, along with the suits, the ties, the shoes, he's dressing young men for the prom.

Well, this is Detroit, the Avenue of Fashion, which offers what you might call Detroit swag.

- You can go anywhere in the country, it'll come up, "Where are you from?"

"I'm from Detroit."

"Yeah, we can tell."

So, yeah, we do have a swag about us.

- [Bill] The kind of swag acclaimed collage artist, Judy Bowman, captures in her work.

A swag she recalls growing up on the East Side many years back.

- I show what I see and I got this thing for the swag, and a sway, and a style, and a presence, and a attitude that Detroit has.

If you wanna make something outta yourself, you can do it in Detroit.

- [Bill] Here on the Avenue of Fashion, you might get that something from the Bartell family.

- Out of our family, we have about 15 businesses open.

- [Bill] While Times Square has shoes, the Bartell-owned Shoe Box, a few doors down in Williamsburg Row, has more.

- This is the shoe that you need in your wardrobe, you need, absolutely, without a doubt.

- [Bill] Algernon Bartell's nephew, Aaron, runs The Shoe Box.

- This is our most famous popular shoe that we sell.

- [Bill] Highly recommended, the LeBron, because, like, it's the best, comes in many colors.

- So this shoe is basically like made for that guy who has everything, but just wants to add a little more.

- I love hats, I'm never gonna stop wearing 'em.

- [Bill] Another Bartell outlet, The Mad Hatter on Williamsburg Row too.

- They used to say, "Oh, those hats were for old men."

But I think the young ladies now starting to look at the older men dress, so, and want their boyfriends to start dressing like a mature man.

What's real popular is the hats with the red bottoms.

Those took off.

Young guys love those.

Some women like 'em, also.

- [Bill] Outside the Bartell orbit, there's African Fabric & Fashion.

Moustapha Gaye does the tailoring, importing his fabrics from Western Africa.

- I bring them from everywhere, from Nigeria, Senegal, Gambia, Ghana.

- [Bill] Gaye said his customers come from across the state for his garments for both men and women.

The store's been here since 2008.

- See?

- Yeah, but I need this color.

- You need that color, yeah- - Mhm.

- That's the best color.

Got African colors, it's, you know, culture of Africa, we like colors.

(Moustapha laughing) Yeah, especially our women, they like colors, they like nice fabrics, nice pieces.

- [Bill] On the other side of Livernois, a new addition to the Avenue of Fashion, a bridal shop.

- My great aunt used to own a lounge in Milwaukee that was called Pink Poodle Lounge.

- [Bill] Raeshawn Bumphers opened her first Pink Poodle Bridal store in Jefferson Chalmers on the East Side in 2017, thanks to a grant from Motor City Match, a city program boosting homegrown businesses.

- Ping Poodle, to me, it more of vintage, you know, it gives that vintage vibe and elegance.

- [Bill] Bumphers got another Motor City Match to start her second store, which opened here this spring.

She worked in the automotive and education industries for two decades before she started Pink Poodle.

- So, I knew that it was a strong possibility that I was gonna get laid off of work, so I started planning a business, but I started planning this business around what I was passionate in.

My story is connecting with young girls and women at the most happiest time in their lives.

Are we saying yes to the dress?

- Yes.

- Yeah!

We are just grabbing that baton and pushing the Avenue of Fashion forward, with the helps of the businesses that's been here, that's been here a long time, and we're very appreciated of it.

- If you want a beautiful Lions Honolulu blue mink, there's no place but the Avenue of Fashion on Livernois to come and get it.

Go Lions, Super Bowl, baby.

- [Bill] C. Granston Bullard, clothing designer and entrepreneur, another highlight on the Avenue.

- There's ready-to-wear garments that we have in this location, but I would say about at least 60 percent of the garments here are samples that you order from, so.

- [Bill] This is, Bullard says, haute couture, custom made clothing, the kind more easily seen in magazines.

You can come by his shop, but by appointment only.

- This is a one of a kind sheared beaver and rainbow fox and tarsier.

Of course, you know this fur has been dyed.

If you see an animal this color, run for your life.

- [Bill] Bullard trained as a furrier in Chicago many years ago.

- That each one of these has been sewn in.

- [Bill] He learned this trade in which few are versed in these days.

- All these are hands sewn in, and this garment retails for about 14, about $14,000.

My mother was a dressmaker on Livernois, and fashion was always in my household, my mom made all our clothes, so I basically was dressed like a prince when I was a kid.

- [Bill] Bullard started out making leather neck ties right out of high school, some from napa lamb and python, sold by the likes of Hughes & Hatcher, a downtown Detroit clothing store gone long ago.

With his furs and other high end fashion accessories, he's built connections with apparel distributors around the world.

- These garments are engineered, and they have the latest in technology, the latest in technology in tanning, which has changed dramatically over the last 30 or 40 years.

Natural fibers are making a big comeback, and leather, lambskin, wool, they are making a comeback with people that wanna buy things that last, they start kinda getting tired of buying disposable clothing.

- [Bill] Bullard's expanding, with the bigger showroom next door to be open to walk-ins, and he's looking to build more Granston stores around the Midwest.

In this online world, where so many bricks and mortar stores have been lost, the survival of these stores on the Avenue relies on that old fashioned approach.

- You're a Pink Poodle bride!

- [Bill] Personal service.

- We got an online presence, and, but that's not my customer, my customer is see, touch, feel.

- [Bill] Still room for redevelopment and growth on the Avenue, the specialty shops, boutiques, restaurants keep coming, and maybe a multi-use project, including residential, amping it up here on Livernois.

- We're looking for big things, it's getting bigger and better.

- The Avenue of Fashion is it now, this is it.

We are the ones.

- [Will Glover] Let's turn now to a story from "One Detroit"'s Asian American and Pacific Islander Series.

Ypsilanti couple, Kyunghee Kim and Leo Chen shared with us what it's like to be Asian Americans living in Michigan.

During that conversation, Chen, who is a chef, talked about his signature dish, called three cup chicken, and showed us how he prepares it.

- This is the base of three cup chicken, soy sauce, sesame oil, and either beer or saki.

I like using saki.

You can also use soju, but I really do enjoy the saki finish.

I remember my father making this thing called three cup chicken, in Chinese it's called sanbeiji, and it would just be so comforting.

So this is boneless, skinless chicken thighs, so you wanna get both sides, salt and pepper.

Okay, then you make sure you wash your hands.

So you wanna let it come up to room temperature, let it sit for 30 minutes.

So the next thing you wanna do is cut your ginger, what you'll wanna do is use, (ginger snapping) use about two inches worth.

(knife thudding) And then you wanna slice it (knife thudding) pretty thin, but you don't really have to measure it.

(knife thudding) (knife thudding) Just like this.

Now you just wanna put it aside.

You know, part of the Taiwanese three cup chicken, basil is the key.

I really enjoy using Thai basil, Thai basil gives it a more anise flavor, it's more licorice-y.

If you can't find it, you can use sweet basil instead.

After these have been washed and dried, you can pluck the the leaves, and then you would wanna set it aside.

Now, you'll generally want a cup of these leaves, and they don't have to be cut, you could keep it whole.

All right, so now that the chicken has been setting for about 30 minutes, it comes up to room temperature.

That way, when gets into the pot, you're able to then brown it on both sides and it doesn't bring down the temperature of the sesame oil.

Step one, you wanna turn on your stove to high, and you wanna heat this up.

If you have a cast iron pot, that would be great, if not, just a regular pot is fine.

Okay, so you wanna pour in your toasted sesame oil.

And you would do all of it.

(oil sizzling) So when you see it shimmer, what you wanna do is then turn it down to medium, and then you wanna add your ginger to it, and add it slowly, because you don't want the oil to splash.

And now that you've added it, you could put it back up to high.

So what you wanna do is you want the ginger to saute a little bit, it does take, I wanna wanna say 30 seconds, you wanna make sure that it becomes aromatic.

So what we wanna do is, now that the ginger has cooked down a little bit, we wanna put the chicken in, and what you wanna do is brown the sides.

So you're not cooking it all the way through, but you're just making sure that it's browned.

Well, you know what, it smells amazing, you smell that sesame oil, some of that ginger.

It's just comforting.

Now that the chicken's been browned on both sides, you wanna remove it from the pan.

(oil sizzling) What you wanna do is add the soy sauce, careful.

And then you also wanna add the saki.

And then once you've added those things, add your sugar.

So this is two tablespoons of light muscovado sugar, that's the kinda sugar that I like to use, you can use any brown sugar or any white sugar that you like.

What that does is it adds a little more flavor to the overall dish.

And then once you've added the sugar and you stirred it around a little bit, you'll wanna add the chicken back in.

Bring the chicken up to boil, and once it's at boil, then you'll wanna turn the heat down to simmer, and then you'll wanna cover your pot for 20 minutes.

(lid thudding) In the original recipe that I learned from my father, he uses Budweiser, and that was one of his favorite beers.

But for me, I like to use saki, and the reason why is because it provides a cleaner and sweeter finish to the chicken after you've braised it with soy sauce and sesame oil.

Now that it's been 20 minutes, you wanna add in your basil.

So, I'll add about a cup in here, and whole leaves are fine.

You don't need to stir, you just put the lid back on, and let it simmer for another 10 minutes.

So it looks like it's ready, it's boiling.

(lid thudding) It smells amazing.

That's perfect.

(broth bubbling) All right, so what we're gonna do is we're gonna serve this up, turn off the heat.

Wanna serve this over rice, put some of that juice in there, and some of that chicken.

(bowls thudding) Here you go.

- Looks good.

- Enjoy it.

- I'm trying to think like how many times I've had this dish.

(Leo laughing) Many times, but each time, it's pretty different.

- It is, yeah.

I mean, I've cooked it probably, I don't know, 20, 30 times over the last few years.

- It's really neat that you have a family recipe that's been passed down, because does your grandma have this recipe too then, your dad's mom?

- You know, I don't recall her making this.

- Okay, interesting, so it may have started- - Yeah.

- With your dad.

- It could've.

I just remember when they were grad students, chicken was, you know, meat in general was just so expensive.

And so, every once in a while, this would be a special dish that he would make.

It's a good memory.

- Yeah.

- Whenever I make it, I think about my dad.

- Mm.

- And I think about just the, I have a flashback to that tiny little apartment that they had as students.

- And when I had this, it kind of broke some stereotypes of what Chinese food is, because I'm Korean, and the flavors, it's interesting because I do see a commonality between this and the Korean dish, what is it?

(Kyunghee speaking in Korean) - Mhm.

- Marinated chicken, because of the ginger.

- Yes.

- Right, ginger is such a common ingredient, I think, in Asian cultures.

- You know, I mean, Koreans, they use it in kimchi- - Mhm.

- They use it in a lot of different dishes, and it's the base, of a lot of different sauces.

- This is delicious.

- Thank you.

- And it really is so fascinating that it tastes different every single time you cook it.

- Yeah.

- Hm, I wonder why.

- [Leo] I dunno, maybe it's just dependent on my mood.

(Leo laughing) - You're in a very good mood today, this is very good.

- Thank you.

- Mhm.

(bright upbeat music) A book for kids.

- [Will Glover] And you can see Leo Chen and Kyunghee Kim's conversation about their experiences as Asian Americans living in Michigan, along with other AAPI stories, at onedetroitpbs.org.

We're officially saying goodbye to summer and hello to fall this weekend.

There's a lot going on in metro Detroit, including arts festivals and comedy shows.

Here's Dave Wagner of 90.9 WRCJ with today's "One Detroit Weekend".

(bright upbeat music) - Hi, I'm Dave Wagner with 90.9 WRCJ, here to tell you about some events to go and check out this weekend and beyond in metro Detroit.

First up, is the Motor City Comedy Festival through September 22nd.

Be prepared to laugh hysterically as standup comedians take the stage one after the other.

On September 20th through Sunday is the Funky Ferndale Art Fair, featuring 140 juried artists and authors.

There will also be live performances, and you can always find delicious eats in downtown Ferndale.

Also, September 20th and the 21st is the Made in Michigan Festival in Allen Park.

The event has food trucks, a marketplace including a Michigan market, live music, local brews and wine, and so much more.

And if you're a fan of all things "Gilmore Girls", don't miss out on downtown Brighton turning into the town of Stars Hollow on September 21st during Destination Stars Hollow.

The event transforms each business in the downtown area into a business from the show, so get some coffee from Luke's and enjoy all the fun.

And on Sunday September 22nd, you can go see JB Smoove at Sound Board at the MotorCity Casino.

The "Curb Your Enthusiasm" comedian is sure to get the laughter rolling.

Of course, we have so much going on in metro Detroit, so stay tuned for more events, and have a great weekend.

(bright upbeat music) - [Will Glover] That'll do it for this week's "One Detroit", thanks for watching.

We will leave you now with a pop-up performance from the Kresge Foundation's 100th anniversary celebration at the Detroit Institute of Arts.

Here's a jazz trio of Marion Hayden, Mahindi Masai, and Michelle May.

(dramatic music) (lively jazzy music) (lively jazzy music continues) (lively jazzy music continues) (lively jazzy music continues) (lively jazzy music continues) - [Narrator 2] This program is made possible in part by Timothy Bogert, comprehensive planning strategies.

- [Narrator] From Delta faucets, to Behr paint, Masco Corporation is proud to deliver products that enhance the way consumers all over the world experience and enjoy their living spaces.

Masco, serving Michigan communities since 1929.

- [Narrator 2] Support also provided by, the Cynthia and Edsel Ford Fund for Journalism at Detroit PBS.

- [Narrator 3] DTE Foundation is a proud sponsor of Detroit PBS.

Among the state's largest foundation's committed to Michigan-focused giving, we support organizations that are doing exceptional work in our state.

Learn more at DTEFoundation.com.

- [Narrator 2] Nissan Foundation, and viewers like you.

(bright upbeat music) (bright music)