Journal / Detroit Stays Hungry
Southwest Detroit, past the three blocks everyone knows
We have been on Fort Street since 2014. Most people who come to eat here see about three blocks of it.
If you have eaten in Southwest Detroit as a visitor, there is a good chance it was on Bagley, in the stretch between Grand Boulevard and the freeway. That is the part with the signage and the parking, and there is nothing wrong with it.
But the neighborhood runs from Vernor down to the river and west to Livernois, and the good stuff is spread across all of it. Here is where we actually go, from a kitchen that has been in this neighborhood for over a decade.
Nobody who works here eats in the same three blocks every day. That is a visitor pattern. Detroit Stays Hungry
Duly's Place
5458 W Vernor Hwy · Cash only
A coney counter that opened in 1921 and still looks it. Chili, mustard, raw onion, steamed bun. Bourdain came through in 2014 and it did not change a thing about the place.
One correction, because half the internet still gets it wrong: Duly's is not open 24 hours anymore. It was for decades, and a lot of listings never updated. Check before you drive over at midnight expecting a coney.
Motz's Burgers
Fort Street
Sliders on the same recipe since 1929, four years before Prohibition ended. Griddled onions, small buns, no ceremony. It is a few minutes from Fort Street and it is the thing we send people to when they want something that is not a sandwich.
Tacos Wuey
Southwest Detroit
The newest name on this list and the one to go to first. Eddie Vargas opened it in 2025 drawing on Puebla, Jalisco and Baja, and the Free Press put it in the 2026 Top 10 Best New Restaurants inside a year.
Worth going before the wait gets worse than it already is.
El Asador Steakhouse
Mexicantown
Regional rather than general. The menu leans on Puebla, Nuevo León, Veracruz, Tamaulipas and Hidalgo, and it does steak and seafood properly rather than doing everything adequately. This is the one for a table of six who want to sit down for two hours.
The taquerias, plural
Spread across the neighborhood
Taqueria El Rey, Taqueria Mi Pueblo, La Jalisciense, Taqueria Lupita's. Arguing about which is best is a local sport and we are not going to settle it here.
What we will say is that the further you get from the Bagley strip, the more the kitchens cook for the neighborhood rather than for visitors. That is not a knock on Bagley. It is just a different room.
La Gloria Bakery
Mexicantown
Go for the churros, stay for the wooden pastry cases, which are the actual reason to walk in. Pan dulce in the morning is the correct order.
What we would do with a free afternoon
- Coney and coffee at Duly's, early, because the hours changed
- Walk through Clark Park
- Tacos somewhere off Bagley, wherever the line looks right
- Churro from La Gloria on the way out
And if you are already on Fort Street, we are at 4800, in the truck stop lot under the bridge. We are open Monday to Friday.
The short version
- Southwest Detroit runs from Vernor to the river and west to Livernois. The Bagley strip is a small part of it.
- Duly's Place has been serving coneys since 1921 and is no longer open 24 hours, whatever the listings say.
- Motz's has made the same slider since 1929.
- Tacos Wuey opened in 2025 and made the Free Press Top 10 inside a year.
- The further from Bagley you get, the more the kitchens are cooking for the neighborhood.
