Hip, Hot And
Happening

Royal Oak represents the evolution
of a blue-collar town to one of
metro Detroit's coolest cities.

LIZ STEVENS SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

PHOTOS BY BILL HANSEN

en Stein has found attractive place to live. It's affordable, it's con-
his Melrose Place — venient, it's interesting and — no offense,
a three-story apart- they insist — it's not West Bloomfield.
ment building just
When Michelle Kole moved out of her par-
blocks from down- ents' Farmington Hills home in 1990, she
town Royal Oak was on a mission for change. Royal Oak
where, as he tells it, wasn't just closer to her graduate-school
impromptu par- classes at Wayne State University; it pre-
ties and nightly bar excursions sented a welcome variation on the suburban
might as well be written into the lifestyle she was used to.
lease.
"It's not like Royal Oak is so far off the
But Mr. Stein, who moved to beaten path," she says. "But there was a time,
Royal Oak from Northville a five years ago, when there weren't a lot of
month ago, has yet to suffer so- people living here from the area I grew up in
cial exhaustion. He loves this and I was ready for an adventure so to speak.
place.
There's a different feeling here, and I just
"Northville closes at like 10 preferred it.
p.m. You can't even order piz-
"It had those city vibes, where you could
za after 11," says the 27-year- walk to a restaurant or bar or cafe. I wasn't
old patent attorney. "You move used to growing up that way — everywhere
out there when you want to I went was in a car — so that was intrigu-
raise kids. I need more action. ing."
And there's definitely more
For the generations of suburbanites raised
action in Royal Oak."
in subdivisions without sidewalks, Royal Oak
Yes, Royal-Oak is a hap- offers an exciting, albeit low-grit urban ex-
penin' place, and if you didn't perience. The streets are crowded and safe;
know that, you're probably the hangouts are plentiful and hip; the stores
still wearing pastel chinos are off-beat and relatively affordable.
and listening to The Best of
"I think Birmingham (has turned into) a
Bread.
large shopping mall," says Jessica Woll. "I
During the past decade, like that there's not a Gap (in Royal Oak),
this sleepy working-class that there's not a Victoria's Secret. There are
town has traded in its Kres- merchant-owned, individual stores that are
ge's for cappuccino bars and thriving, and I like that."
become less famous for its
Ms. Woll, a 28-year-old attorney who
bloody post-office rampage bought a house here several years ago, says
than for its vast selection that she and her husband will probably make
of vinyl miniskirts.
their next move into Detroit, but for now Roy-
Surfing the wave of this al Oak provides the kind of Mohawks-meet-
burgeoning hipness is an dreadlocks atmosphere she finds stimulating.
onslaught of upwardly "It's not as culturally diverse as you would
mobile youth that has like," she adds. "But, it's starting to have
naturally included young more of that element."
Jewish professionals.
The fact is, Royal Oak comes closest to
Like everyone else, what many young suburbanites wish Detroit
they're renovating could be: a thriving retail, arts and enter-
homes, opening shops tainment hub where individuals of different
and generally affirming backgrounds congregate to exchange ideas,
Royal Oak's reputation have lunch or just people-watch.
as the Soho of southeast
"Even if I didn't have a job here, I would
Michigan.
definitely live here," says Andy Pearlman,
And though Jews who manages the club 3-D and has lived in
aren't moving to Royal Royal Oak since 1989. The town, he explains,
Oak in disproportion- reminds him of his days at the University of
ate numbers, more and Michigan: the bars, the young people, "the
more seem to find it an j unkie-looking house."
One of many coffee bars in Royal Oak.