Somewhere around a thousand feet below the intersection you drove through this morning, a salt mine the size of a small city has been quietly at work since 1910. You can’t tour it. That’s kind of the point. Detroit’s best stuff has always operated a half-story out of view — under floors, inside old churches, behind unmarked doors, at the back of alleys — and the city rewards people who go looking. This is the Detroit that regulars send their out-of-town friends to, once the Motown Museum and RenCen selfies are out of the way.
Twelve places, all real, all still open (or reopening), all a little strange. Each one has an address, a way in, and a link to book, reserve, or just show up. Wear better shoes than you think you need. Bring cash for the tip jars.
1. Detroit Salt Company — The City Beneath the City
Southwest Detroit · No public access · But still worth knowing about
Under the neighborhoods around Allen Park and Melvindale, the Detroit Salt Company runs about 100 miles of subterranean roads across more than 1,500 acres of active rock salt mine, roughly 1,200 feet down. The salt that keeps I-94 drivable in February comes out of here. Public tours ran in the ’70s and ’80s, then quietly stopped — too much production, too much liability. If you show up at the gate at 12841 Sanders St., what you’ll see is an industrial parking lot and a hoist tower. That’s the whole visible mine.
We’re leading with it because everyone asks. If you want the underground Detroit story without the “sorry, closed” — skip to #12, where a local historian actually gets you into the Prohibition-era spots that connect to the same geology.
Info: detroitsalt.com · No visitor access. Photos and history only.
2. The Congregation — Cocktails in a 1920s Church
Boston-Edison · 9321 Rosa Parks Blvd. · Open daily
St. James A.M.E. sat dark on Rosa Parks Boulevard for years before a team of architects and neighbors spent four years turning it into a café by morning and a cocktail bar by night. The original organ still sits in the back. The bar is built from the pews. The stained glass is exactly where the congregation left it. Order coffee under the rose window in the morning; come back at 8 p.m. for a mezcal drink under the same window and try to remember these are the same room. It’s the most literal example of Detroit’s whole thing — sacred bones, new use, nothing wasted.
Info: congregationdetroit.com · (313) 307-5518 · Coffee 8 a.m. onward, bar service in the evenings. Walk-in.
3. Marvin’s Marvelous Mechanical Museum — A Coin-Op Fever Dream
Farmington Hills · 31005 Orchard Lake Rd. · Admission always free
Marvin’s is on the World Almanac’s list of the 100 most unusual museums in the country and it deserves the slot. Five thousand square feet of vintage arcade cabinets, animatronic fortune tellers, mechanical bands, oddities, and one-of-a-kind coin-op curiosities packed shoulder-to-shoulder in a strip mall off Orchard Lake. The animatronic drunk in the top hat is still there. So is the mummified cat. So is a working Mutoscope from 1899. Admission is free — you bring quarters and feed the machines. Kids treat it as an arcade. Adults treat it as a museum. Both are correct.
Info: marvin3m.com · (248) 626-5020 · Mon–Thu 10 a.m.–9 p.m., Fri–Sat 10 a.m.–11 p.m., Sun 11 a.m.–9 p.m. · Free admission, cash for machines.
4. The Heidelberg Project — A Two-Block Outdoor Art Environment
McDougall-Hunt · 3600 Heidelberg St. · Open dawn to dusk
In 1986, Tyree Guyton came back to the block he grew up on and started painting polka dots on abandoned houses. Forty years later, Heidelberg is a two-block outdoor art environment that international art students fly in to walk through — and it’s still free, still evolving, still on the same East Side street. The famous “House of Soul” (walls of vinyl records), the “Numbers House,” the giant clocks with no hands. Some of the original houses have burned down; the neighbors keep rebuilding the installations around what’s left. Go before sunset, walk the whole two blocks slowly, and drop something in the donation box.
Info: heidelberg.org · Open daily 8 a.m.–7 p.m. · Free; donations directly fund maintenance.
5. Cafe D’Mongo’s Speakeasy — The Weekend-Only Institution
Downtown · 1439 Griswold St. · Fri–Sat only
Larry Mongo opened a bar in 1985 because a downtown club wouldn’t let him in. He named it after a friend, closed it for twelve years during the crime wave, and reopened in 2007 — and downtown Detroit has been quietly orbiting the place ever since. Two nights a week only. Live jazz, live blues, live everything. The White Boy Rick grilled cheese is on the menu. Larry is usually on the door. It’s small, it’s tight, it gets loud, and if you get in on a Friday around 9 you’ll understand why anyone who’s ever spent a year in Detroit has a story that involves this bar.
Info: facebook.com/cafedmongo · (313) 961-0000 · Fri 5 p.m.–1 a.m., Sat 7 p.m.–1 a.m. · Walk-in; get there early.
6. Cadieux Cafe — Belgian Feather Bowling on the East Side
East Side · 4300 Cadieux Rd. · Reserve a lane
Feather bowling exists in exactly one place in the United States and this is it. You roll a rounded wooden ball down a shallow, curved dirt lane, trying to stop it closest to a pigeon feather at the far end. The lanes are original. The rules are Belgian. The bar has been serving mussels and Belgian ales to Detroit’s Flemish community since Prohibition, when this was a speakeasy. Book a lane a couple of days out on weekends; call for weekday availability. Order the frites. Do not skip the frites.
Info: cadieuxcafe.com/featherbowling · (313) 882-8560 · Mon–Thu 4 p.m.–12 a.m., Fri–Sat 4 p.m.–12:30 a.m., Sun 2 p.m.–9 p.m. · Lane rentals $35–$55/hr.
7. Two Way Inn — Detroit’s Oldest (and Most Spirited) Bar
Krainz Woods · 17897 Mt Elliott St. · Wed–Sat
Established in 1876 by Colonel Philetus Norris — Civil War veteran, second superintendent of Yellowstone, occasional poet — the Two Way has been a general store, a stagecoach stop, a hotel, a village jail, a dance hall, and a dentist’s office during Prohibition. Every room has two ways in and out, which is where the name comes from. It’s now widely considered Detroit’s oldest continuously operating bar, and per the current owners it’s not haunted, it’s “spirited” — regulars trade sightings of the Colonel (in a wide-brimmed hat) and a Lady in White thought to be his daughter. Order something brown, sit near the front window, and ask about the ghost tours.
Info: 2wayinn.com · Tue 11 a.m.–5 p.m., Wed–Thu 11 a.m.–10 p.m., Fri–Sat 12 p.m.–12 a.m. · Closed Sun/Mon.
8. The Ghost Bar at The Whitney — The Third Floor of a Victorian Mansion
Midtown · 4421 Woodward Ave. · Walk-in for the bar
The Whitney is a 52-room, 22,000-square-foot Romanesque mansion built for lumber baron David Whitney Jr. in 1894 — and the third floor has been a bar for decades. The Ghostbar takes up what used to be the family’s private quarters, with the original stained-glass windows and a fireplace big enough to stand in. Order the Witching Hour Martini, which is the house drink for a reason. If you’re in the mood, the mansion hosts real, serious paranormal investigations (mediums, EMF meters, the whole thing) throughout the year — those you book ahead.
Info: thewhitney.com/news/ghostbar-at-the-whitney · (313) 832-5700 · Ghostbar Mon–Thu 4–9 p.m., Fri–Sat 4–11 p.m., Sun 4–8 p.m.
9. Baker’s Keyboard Lounge — The Oldest Jazz Club on Earth
Northwest Detroit · 20510 Livernois Ave. · Reserve for shows
Continuously operating since 1934, Baker’s is the oldest jazz club in the world — not a claim, a widely-corroborated fact. Miles Davis played here. So did John Coltrane, Billie Holiday, Dizzy Gillespie, Nat King Cole, and Louis Armstrong. The room is small enough that the piano is literally three feet from your table. If you have any interest in the room where the American songbook actually got played, this is the room. Reserve for weekend sets; the walk-in scene is warm but the tables fill.
Info: bakerskeyboardloungedet.com · Mon–Fri 4 p.m.–10 p.m., Sat–Sun 4 p.m.–12 a.m.
10. The Old Miami — The Dive Bar That Stands for MIA
Cass Corridor / Midtown · 3930 Cass Ave. · Open late
Miami stands for “Missing In Action, Michigan.” The Old Miami was opened in 1980 by a Vietnam veteran, still runs veteran-first policies (free admission to shows for vets), and the walls are stapled floor-to-ceiling with military patches, folded flags, uniforms, and memorabilia from every branch. It’s also, quietly, one of the great American dive-bar music rooms — the White Stripes played the back room; the Allman Brothers came through; Metro Times keeps naming it best dive bar in the city. Zero pretense, giant back patio with a fire pit, cheap drinks. Go for the room, stay for the band you’ve never heard of.
Info: Old Miami on Facebook · (313) 831-3830 · Hours vary by show — check IG/FB.
11. Streets of Old Detroit — Walk Through the 1840s Underground
Cultural Center · 5401 Woodward Ave. · Free for tri-county residents
On the lower level of the Detroit Historical Museum, the Streets of Old Detroit exhibit drops you into three full recreated blocks of the city as it existed in the 1840s, 1870s, and 1900s. Wooden storefronts. Cobblestones. Gas lamps. You can walk into a fur trader’s shop, a printer, a tavern. It sounds like a diorama; it plays like a stage set. Admission to the whole museum is always free for Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb County residents, and modest for everyone else. Give it 90 minutes minimum — the “Streets” is the loud draw, but the Doorway to Freedom Underground Railroad exhibit upstairs is what makes people quiet down.
Info: detroithistorical.org · Wed–Fri 9:30 a.m.–3 p.m., Sat 10 a.m.–5 p.m., Sun 12–5 p.m. · Free for tri-county residents.
12. Detroit History Tours — Toughs, Triggermen, and the Purple Gang
Downtown walking tour · Book ahead · Roughly 3 hours
If you want the closest thing to an actual underground Detroit tour, this is the one. Detroit History Tours’ “Toughs and Triggermen: The Darkside of Detroit’s Prohibition” is a walking tour of the exact blocks where the Purple Gang made their last stand, where rum runners hid Canadian whiskey inside cargo trains, where the blind pigs poured, and where the rogue cops got what was coming to them. The guides are researchers, not actors. Runs on select Saturdays and Sundays — check the calendar and book a couple of weeks out. Pair it with a nightcap at Cafe D’Mongo’s (#5) or the Two Way Inn (#7) and you have a full themed evening.
Info: detroithistorytours.com/shop · Public tours ~$45; private charters available.
A Few Ground Rules for Weird Detroit
Bring cash. Several of these places are tip-jar-only, cash-preferred, or ATM-out-of-order on any given night. Assume it and you’re fine.
Rideshare after dark for #5, #7, and #10 unless you know the neighborhood. Parking around Cass and the East Side is usually easy, but the walk back to your car at 1 a.m. is not the vibe.
Ask questions. The bartender at Two Way Inn will tell you which stool the Colonel prefers. The staff at Marvin’s will show you which fortune teller machine to feed for the good card. The docents at the Heidelberg Project will point out installations that were replaced this month. These places aren’t guarded — they’re just quiet about how much they know.
And if you make it to any of them, tag @importdetroit — we’re always looking for the shot we didn’t get.