Asian Village in Downtown Detroit

[Matt]

http://www.myasianvillage.com/

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/a...=2007708080303

The new Asian Village dining and entertainment complex on the Detroit riverfront opened just 2 1/2 weeks ago, and it's already drawing a sizable lunchtime crowd.

Standing beside the Renaissance Center at Atwater and Beaubien, it features three side-by-side restaurants:

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• The small Kawaiian Café, just inside the Beaubien Street door, serves gourmet coffees, teas and house-baked muffins and sweets. Its location by the entrance makes it easy for customers to dash in for beverages and baked goods in the morning.

• The large Marketplace, the centerpiece of Asian Village, is down a short flight of stairs from the café. It offers made-to-order sushi and a variety of casual Asian dishes, cooked when you order in an action-filled open kitchen. For now, the room is arranged like a food court, with the kitchen, sushi bar and dessert case grouped along one end, and tables and chairs filling the rest of the room.

• The fine-dining Fusia, adjacent to the Marketplace, has its own, more formal entrance off Atwater. It hasn't opened yet, but you can see the dramatic room from the Marketplace and entrance. The restaurant is tentatively scheduled to open quietly next week; a grand opening is planned in September.

We dropped in late last week to scope out Asian Village, meet the people in charge and -- mainly -- get a taste of executive chef David Koshizawa's interpretations of Asian street foods.

From earlier reports, you might imagine the complex selling produce, meats and spices like Eastern Market, or to be separately owned businesses like Mexicantown. You might expect to see a collection of stalls selling different food items.

It doesn't follow those models -- at least, not now. But it's changing almost daily; new items, features and foods are showing up as customer traffic builds.

Asian Village is still taking shape, but there's plenty to discover right now.

Here are 10 cool things to see, do and taste when you check out Detroit's newest attraction:

Has anyone been there yet? I'll probably be checking it out this weekend. Seems like a cool way to get more multi-cultural stuff downtown.

[Cross]

It looks pretty cool, I'd check it out