Hiring Up at Mo' Better Blues, Local Food Wins Out

DOWNTOWN — While the inside space of Grand Circus Park's Mo' Better Blues Cafe might still look far from finished, recent developments in and around the space suggest positive developments in the eternally-empty Kales Building storefronts. An Eater Detroit tipster reports in from Friday's Tigers game, during which the front doors of the W. Adams space were open, revealing a trio of well-dressed people with clipboards and piles of paper. That, and recent improvements to the space's facade, give hope to the restaurant's development. Construction meeting? Hiring session? Something else? The possibilities, while far from endless, still lean toward good news and forward motion. [-ED-]

MIDTOWN — One the most common things that new customers at the midtown Detroit Whole Foods will note in their breathless appraisals of the organic grocery giant is how local and current the store appears to be. It turns out those eager grocery beavers aren't wrong — there's more than a handful of local food producers filling the well-stocked aisles. Germack Pistachios, Avalon International Breads and Beau Bien Foods, plus others, are among those local food concerns that populate Midtown's popular new market. There's also a lot of other good food inside, but it's that local touch that matters. [ModelD]

EAST LANSING — It might not always feel like it, but Michigan's agricultural industry is important. So important, in fact, that Gov. Rick Snyder told a crowd of farmers at the annual Michigan State University Agricultural Expo that they "carried us through the darker days of the last decade." Farmers and food, it appears (restaurants and grocery stores, included) add up to $90 billion a year in economic activity in the state. All of which means, in a sense, that ordering that extra burger and beer at the local dive bar doesn't only help you feel better about your choices, it helps the state feel better about its economy. Think of the state, friends. Eat for the state. [MLive]