I had to travel to Michigan this week. So flying into Detroit and heading westward, my research led me to Shiro in nearby Novi, MI.

This restaurant is in a mansion. Seriously folks, “historic Rogers Mansion”. I’ve never been to a japanese/sushi place this fanciful before. There’s a giant grand staircase in the middle, and tons of original details. The bathroom was nuts. It had crazy original colorful tiles and a weird sink fauce with hot, cold, and ice knobs.

I was seriously feeling the need for some greens, so I got the shiro salad, which is the typical japanese salad with the ginger dressing. It was nothing exciting, but the dressing was decent. The place is pretty big, and there’s a big sushi bar and a separate booze bar as well.

I also got the sunomono salad. Why did I get two salads? No idea. Actually, I like sunomono because there’s usually tons of cucumbers, and I was really wanting some cucumbers. But this was much more heavy on the seaweed salad side, and of course the octopus. It was a beautiful salad, but nothing exciting here either. There were only a bit of cucumber sticks, and it just didn’t do it for me. I should have skipped it.

This was some of the most attractive sushi that I have eaten in a long time. They put tons of effort in presentation here, and it shows. It’s beautiful, and tasty too!

They have a large selection of rolls, some of them typical, and some of them crazy. They take things to the extreme here. I ordered a couple of the spicy rolls. Instead of the fish being made spicy, their definition of spicy is to squirt a spicy mayo on top of any roll. Everything tasted fine, but it was a bit on the heavy side. They go a little overboard with the squirting.

For whatever reason, maybe this is something they typically do, they gave me a couple pieces of one of their special rolls for free. It was a roll with all kinds of stuff in the middle, and then topped with salmon, and then blowtorched! Sometimes, watching your food being made can be partly entertainment. These little suckers were good, and are probably good for people who may be afraid of raw fish. It was also a bit on the sweet side, so probably also a safer dish. All in all, a nice dinner in the middle of nowhere, in a random mansion. If ever around Novi, MI, stop by!

Welcome back to another installment of boozings, where we try all of Philly’s Top 15 Drinks! Next up we go to Noble American Cookery, for the Vesper. It is a drink invented and named by James Bond. Here at Noble, it’s made with Penn 1681 vodka (philly’s own!), Bluecoat gin, Lillet blonde (a french bitter aperitif), orange bitters, and essential oils of a lemon peel, served in a martini glass. The original vesper was made with Kina Lillet, which no longer exists. So you can’t get a real vesper anywhere.

Original or not, I’m a big fan of this drink. As you can see, there’s really nothing in this drink except for booze. I watched the bartender make it, and whoa, did he put a lot of booze in this. But somehow, it’s still very delicious and very drinkable. It tastes good. I don’t know how, but it just does. And I typically prefer my drinks to have some kind of juice or soda in them. This one doesn’t have any such thing. Because it’s nothing but booze, it’s quite strong. I’m sure two of these, and I’d be out for the count.

We also tried the moscow mule, which is not on the menu, or else I didn’t see it. We ordered it because we saw the bartender making one, and it looked intriguing. It’s boozy, mostly vodka, with some ginger beer, served over ice with a wedge of lime in a beer glass. It was incredibly refreshing, and quite light. I highly recommend it! And I highly recommend Noble for drinks. Sitting at the bar was great. The bartenders were friendly, and they mix a mean drink. Plus, the bar itself, is incredibly beautiful. It’s just one giant piece of wood and I love its organic beauty.

Ok, 12 down, only 3 more to go! Feels like the home stretch!

Even though there were feets and feets of the cold white stuff still outside (see, it’s in the back of the photo!), this wasn’t going to stop me from sticking some cold white stuff inside. I’ve walked past Sweet Ending way too many times and never gone in. With giant piles of snow outside, for whatever reason, I was compelled. The name is bad. And you know why. It’s a completely self serve frozen yogurt joint. There are multiple flavors of the stuff, and you serve it yourself. And you put on whatever toppings you want. And you pay by the ounce. Simple enough. I tried a bit of pomegranate flavor, cream cheese flavor, and original. The pomegranate wasn’t all that. The cream cheese was strange but good. But I enjoyed original the most. What can I say, I’m a purist this way. I’m not a cereal or candy topping person, I stick purely with fruit. I went with a bit of kiwi, but it wasn’t the most ripe kiwi in the world, so it ended up being too much on the sour side.

They also sells smoothies and waffles. I also love smoothies and waffles so I’m a fan of these ideas. It’s got an excellent center city location. Stop by! Even when it’s cold out, it’s still delicious and refreshing!