The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
the b-side
Thursday, February 16, 2017 — 3B
Detroit’s historic Corktown,
home to some of the city’s
hottest restaurants and bars,
can expect a new addition this
spring: Chef Kate Williams’
Lady of the House.
Corktown,
the
oldest
surviving
neighborhood
in Detroit, and an area of
Irish
immigrant
settlement
in the early 1800s, is also
Williams’s
current
home.
She is a Northville native
and granddaughter to Irish
immigrants who met at the
Detroit
Gaelic
League
on
Michigan Avenue.
“I
wanted
to
have
a
restaurant in Corktown and
in Detroit, and it’s because I
have so many roots here,” said
Williams.
Lady of the House will
occupy the space that formerly
constituted the neighborhood
spot
St.
CeCe’s,
often
frequented by Williams. The
space was perfect for what
Williams envisioned as being
an
intimate,
neighborhood
watering hole. In addition to
the warm and comfortable look
and feel of the space, buying the
location struck a sentimental
chord with Williams.
“It felt important that we
kept that location in the Detroit
neighborhood, in the ‘family’,”
Williams said on choosing
the former Irish pub as the
location for her new spot.
Though a rising stronghold
for
up-and-coming
spots,
drawing and influx of visitors
from outside the city, Corktown
remains home to generations of
residents.
“It’s
still
a
livable
neighborhood and we wanted a
neighborhood spot,” Williams
said.
However,
Corktown
appealed to Chef Williams for
more than her personal history
there. In 2010, around the time
she left Detroit to work on her
dining series in New York, the
city’s low rent began attracting
artists and innovators.
“At the time Detroit wasn’t
really on the map and there
were artists and makers that
were doing really cool things,”
she added. “The people that
were flocking to Detroit at the
time were also kind of creative
and interested in something
different.”
This
surge
prompted
Williams’
return
to
the
city. To her, it was less of a
business decision and more of a
romantic notion of showcasing
Detroit’s potential. Williams
noted she was inspired by the
success of businesses like Dave
Kwiatkoski’s Sugar House and
James Cadariu’s Great Lakes
Coffee Roasting Company.
Though initially struck by
the creative forces leading
the surge in businesses in the
city, Williams also heeded the
low rent as an opportunity for
artistic freedom and financial
flexibility.
“We could do something
cool and approachable and ...
drive the food scene as opposed
to diners driving the food
scene,” she said. In higher-end
markets, Williams contends
that overhead drives the price
point.
At Lady of the House, she
aims to introduce patrons to
great food and drinks that are
affordable and accessible.
“We wanted to show what
we think in our experience is
the best of everything but that
doesn’t have a price point,”
Williams said.
To Williams, affordability
equates
to
creativity.
Her calling card — whole
animal
preservation
and
highlighting
local
produce
from Detroit’s urban farms —
will unequivocally shape the
menu at Lady of the House.
She calls her aim to minimize
food waste on farms hastag
#uglyfood, a concerted effort
to take produce that local
farmers would otherwise have
to throw out due to appearance
and transform them.
“As a chef it forces you to
be more creative with the
scraps,” Williams said, “Are
you dehydrating them and
making them into a dust?
Are you breaking them down
and making an oil? Are you
flavoring your vodkas and gins
and spirits with them?”
She
approaches
animals
and produce from a wholistic
perspective, not just a means
of cutting costs. “I feel like
my style is very Old World
cooking,”
Williams
said,
recalling the need of her
ancestors to use the entire
animal body to survive with
limited means.
With restaurants and chefs
increasingly
driving
food
trends,
Williams
wants
to
contribute
this
method
of
utilizing the entire animal
and limiting food waste to
the broader landscape of food
consumption.
Williams also found the
proportion of urban farms
relative to Detroit’s population
and the symbiotic relationship
among community farmers to
be unique to the city. The city
benefits from urban farming
businesses which train and
employ local Detroiters and
work closely with local chefs to
cater to their needs.
“Sarah Papitz from Fresh
Cut and Ryan Anderson and
Hannah Clark from Acre Farm
have organized this biannual
meeting where the farmers are
like, ‘What do you want us to
grow?’” Williams said when
discussing the community of
farmers she works with.
This
exceptional
agricultural
and
local
community is part of what
drew Chef Williams back to
Detroit after highlighting the
city’s offerings in her monthly
dining series in New York.
“It was like celebrating all
these cool things people were
doing in Detroit in New York,”
she said. “And then I was like,
‘We’ve got to do it here, because
there’s a place for this in
Detroit too.’” Not only does she
consider the city lucky to have
great local farmers, but also
recognizes
the
significance
of sourcing food that helps
revitalize neighborhoods by
supporting local business.
For Williams, Lady of the
House represents what her
career has been building up
to. After her past experiences
opening restaurants, including
Republic and Parks and Rec
where she headed the menu,
she found herself ready to take
the leap to pursuing her own
venture.
“I figured out I wanted to be
cooking everyday. I wanted to
create something I was proud
of. I wanted to cook food that
I loved cooking and was happy
to serve to people,” Williams
said.
Though she has yet to plan
the menu in detail — a task
she’s eager to set her mind to
once construction on Lady of
the House begins — she intends
to feature local purveyors like
Joseph Wesley Tea Importers
(named one of the top 25 tea
companies in the world).
One
of
Eater
Detroit’s
most anticipated restaurant
openings this year, Lady of
the House will reflect the
culmination of not only Chef
Williams’ work but also the
storied legacy of Corktown.
As with her dining series,
she’s sure to bring the spirit
of Detroit and creative flare to
the highly awaited Lady of the
House.
ARTIST
PROFILE
IN
Chef Kate William talks
Lady of the House roots
Chef’s Corktown restaurant is among nation’s up and coming
COURTESY OF KATE WILLIAMS
SHIR AVINADAV
Daily Arts Writer
Corktown
remains home
to generations of
residents
She approaches
animals and
produce from
a wholistic
perspective
Lady of the House
represents what
her career has
been building up
to
Translucence & Video7’s
developing Detroit sound
VIDEO7
Detroit music collective captures essence of city’s art scene
Last year in March I found
myself stumbling out of a car
on the corner of a street in
Detroit. It was about 11 p.m. and
I was standing in front of The
Baltimore Gallery, a building
hidden away from the tall
buildings that decorate the city,
but just as barren — that is, until
I went inside. Having been led
there by my sister and her friends,
I paid my $5 upon entrance and
continued toward where the
music was. In an open room
with walls decorated in strange,
eccentric art, individuals were
scattered across the room, some
dancing and some standing, but
all listening to the music.
It was a send-off party for the
multi-art collective Video7. They
had earned a spot in the Austin-
based music festival South by
Southwest and needed to pay for
expenses, whether that be for
gas or whatever else. It would
end up being the first official gig
they played as the Detroit-based
Video7. But the name and the
people had been collaborating
and creating long before this
send-off party. The 18-member
group that made its way to SXSW
was four college students at the
University of Michigan only two
years before.
“It was the furthest channel
from the main cable station on
my old TV in Michigan,” said
Brendan Asante, a founding
member of the collective, in
a phone interview with The
Michigan Daily. “I had a big-ass
60-inch flat screen, but it was an
old one so it had the big booty
in the back. I would connect
an aux cord to the back … and
whenever we were working on
music I would be able to plug
that aux cord into my phone or
my laptop. But in order to do that
the channel would have to be
Video7.”
A graduate of the School
of Music, Theatre & Dance
having majored in jazz vocal
performance,
Asante,
along
with Ian Finkelstein, Spencer
Cristobal and Atu began making
music while at the University.
But it wasn’t until January of
2014 when the four were asked to
play the EnspiRED fashion show
that they needed a name for what
they were doing. And so, Video7
was born, and they quickly went
from fashion shows to doing sets
at Study Lounge to opening for
2 Chainz and Vic Mensa at Hill
Auditorium a couple months
later. It was Music Matters’s first
ever Springfest, and they showed
up with the 60-inch TV in hand.
“When we got the gig to open
for 2 Chainz, I brought the TV
to the Hill Auditorium because
I wanted to bring it on stage
with us and put images on it,”
Asante said. “But because we
were openers, the sound dudes
wouldn’t bother. It just sat in the
back and then we had to bring it
home.”
Despite having sold off the
TV months ago, the mentality
— what that TV and its channel
came to represent — remains
in
Video7’s
essence.
Asante
graduated in 2014 and his move
to Detroit meant Video7’s move
as well. The four-piece group
slowly grew to be a collective
as they met more artists willing
to collaborate, and as more
artists stuck around to do more.
For a year and a half, Asante
and Finkelstein lived together
in Ferndale, and each Sunday
would play with artists across
Detroit. From there, from those
Sunday sessions, a collective was
born.
“We had Sunday Sessions
when we were living at the
Ferndale place,” Assante said.
“Every Sunday people would
come back and jive. Over time it
was the same people who would
come back looking forward to it
and eventually, those were the
people that ended up staying in
the group.”
Much of the finding and
locating artists to collaborate
with
was
done
secondhand
through referrals. There were
no auditions or try-outs; simply
linking
with
other
Detroit
artists, hearing their music and
what they could do. As they met
a couple more artists through
the Detroit producer Sterling
Toles, Video7 transformed.
“When Video7 started doing
the Detroit aspect we did it as
a band, but then as it evolved
the people in the group started
creating their own songs,” he
continued. “Now everyone’s in
this solo/EP work still working
with
the
same
people
but
developing their own products
to get out. And it’s all on the
strength of it being created with
people in Video7.”
But
“multi-art
collective”
is still a little too vague and
bureaucratic
to
accurately
describe what Video7 is. “Oh,
you should listen to this new
multi-art
collective”
doesn’t
roll off the tongue as nicely as
“singer” or “band.” But when
confronted with their music
and their set-up, it seems to be
one of the few words capable of
describing it. Who cares if it’s
vague? For Asante, that’s a part
of the brand.
“It’s a band; it’s a collective; it’s
a unit; it’s an enigma at the end of
the day because the components
that make it what it is are things
that me and my homies didn’t
foresee at all,” Asante said.
“We didn’t realize that once we
started planting our feet in the
Detroit area that there were
going to be these people that we
would naturally gravitate to and
share ideals or ideas with and
this outlook towards music and
creation.”
Over the past two years, Video7
has developed and changed. The
Webslinger, Spencer Cristobal,
currently resides in L.A. and
Stefon Dorsey, another founding
member and graphic designer,
set up in Seattle. They’ve played
SXSW and opened for Common
and Antwaun Stanley, while
simultaneously playing across
Detroit.
“It’s a force, and kind of a
hidden force,” he continued.
And the hidden aspect of the
collective is what enables them,
in Asante’s opinion, to remain
freeform and do the unexpected.
“As a personal artist and solo
artist that’s what I’m in favor
of instead of giving them what
they’re expecting. That way
when they come back for more
they’ll be blown away each time
by something that they haven’t
experienced.”
It is the malleability and
amorphous nature of the group
that enables creation. Listening
to their Soundcloud, there are
three playlists: LOOPLANDS
VOL. 1, LOOPLANDS VOL 2
and their most recent channel 7:
seasons. And the variety between
these collections demonstrates
the multifarious talent they have
as a collective in terms of singers
and rappers and especially in
production.
“Looplands are our way of
putting EPs together of little
snippets, and the mixes, like
channel 7, are to showcase the
producers. Looplands showcase
vocalists, singers and a couple
rappers. Mixes show off the
different production we do,” he
said.
A playlist of four songs, each
25 minutes, channel 7 is oriented
toward showcasing production
techniques. It is innovative in
concept, and in its entirety, the
perfect display of the collective’s
enduring mind-set: “forward.”
“The whole thing of the
channel Video7 being the farthest
away from cable, the mainstream
or what you expect — that kind
of ideology really stayed put in
everything that we did,” Asante
continued. “You hear the mixes
we have online like the channel
7 seasonal mixes. All these kind
of conceptual things are birthed
from the mindset of trying to
pave your own path and pave
your own sonic path.”
Their sound and their music
— it’s not derivative in any
way. Take Yes’s “Tales from
Topographic Oceans” and put
it on Soundcloud. Keep the
psychedelic but remove the
rock and the Squire. Add funk,
R&B, house and trap. Throw in
some radio static and beautifully
constructed, soulful choruses
and you almost, almost have
what Video7 has managed to
create.
Because when I asked Asante
what music has inspired their
sound, he didn’t look to artists
of olden days but rather to the
people with whom he currently
creates. And that, if anything,
says more about their collective
and their sound than anything
else.
“I think the more tangible
inspiration is seeing the people
just like you and in the same
places as you out here really
grinding to make something
happen,” he said. “I would say
that’s the biggest inspiration. To
see how all of us are balancing
all these things and still coming
back to the music because we
love it so much.”
“It’s like if you’re travelling as
a unit and someone’s straggling
there’s always someone to pick
them up and drag them along so
everyone keeps going at the same
pace — that’s a really inspiring
thing for me,” he continued.
In its essence, Video7 is
innovative and sonically new
because they don’t look to the
past but the present. Genre-wise,
yes, there are always artists to
look back on and admire and
attribute to some degree. But to
look to those you create with on
a daily basis and think, “They’re
the reason I keep creating and
testing and experimenting” —
that’s some heavy stuff.
Thursday night, Video7 is
launching the first of their
Cable
Nites
at
the
Marble
Bar in Detroit. If you’re still
confused about what “multi-
arts collective” means, now’s the
time to find out. It will feature
good times, good music, Asante
himself, members Rella, CJay
Hill, Asya Izme and many, many
more.
NATALIE ZAK
Managing Arts Editor
SECONDARY