Hazel Park, MI — Albeit a foodie adventure long overdue, I couldn’t be more thrilled and ecstatic by how it turned out! My dining experience at the popular Mabel Gray in Hazel Park was one of the most top-tier I’ve had since I dined at Freya in Detroit’s Midtown district. From the ingeniousness of the Italian-themed menu crafted by Chef James Rigato, to the execution and flawlessness of the kitchen staff and attentive servers — I’m very much of the opinion that Mabel Gray should be strongly considered for a Michelin star!
This adventure was also my Christmas present from my roommate, Rob, and his girlfriend, Jess, so the adventure had special occasion vibes. Which, of course, meant since this occasion also coincided with being my first official foodie adventure to Mabel Gray, I would have to go all out and order the Chef’s Tasting Menu. A huge shout-out to Rob and Jess as well for this heartfelt gift; I’m typically hard to gift for, but anything involving food is usually a safe bet!
FULL SECTION: MI Foodie Adventures Italian Series
By the time we got around to planning, most of January was already booked out, so Rob coordinated between our busy schedules and secured a night for us all to dine at Mabel Gray at the end of the month. Rob reserved a table for Friday night on the 30th. It was a late reservation in the night as well, so my foodie patience and resolve would certainly be put to the test. Throughout January, I observed all of the marvelous and eye-catching posts of Mabel Gray’s Burger Weeks. This was a special menu series that was offered for several weeks and had just wrapped up about a week before we dined at the Hazel Park establishment.
We were in luck, the newest menu, debuted by Chef James Rigato, was inspired by his recent trip to Italy. One thing that makes Mabel Gray unique and so special is that it has no set menu. All food and beverage selections rotate with the seasons and are based on product availability from Rigato’s network of farms, butchers, and foragers. Rigato designs every new menu (literally, even writes it by hand), with every dish being handmade from scratch and focusing on complex flavor contrasts and craftsmanship.
On Friday night, my adventure posse and I arrived at Mabel Gray promptly at 9 p.m. Rob and Jess dropped me off at the door so that I could check in for our table while they found a spot to park along one of the side streets. I was warmly greeted and seated at perhaps the most prime table in the restaurant: directly across from the open-concept kitchen! For any foodie, this is a good omen that a great meal is about to be enjoyed!
Our server, Miranda, was extremely professional and explained the rotating menu concept, as well as the inspiration behind some of the current dishes. Some of the menu items were inspired by Chef Rigato’s recent trip to Italy, featuring classic recipes with some personal flair added to them.
Now, it’s important to note that even as I’m recapping this recent adventure, there’s a chance that some menu items have already departed or been altered. It’s one of the fleeting yet treasured beauties of Mabel Gray; the menu may change at any given time, with dishes coming and going in an ever-evolving circle of culinary life. That’s what makes every visit to Mabel Gray so special; every visit is a new culinary journey in its own right, while in a familiar and comforting setting. So, as a Mabel Gray first-timer, I was beyond thrilled that this dining experience crossed paths with this particular menu at this foodie juncture.
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Since it was my first visit, I figured I’d go with the tasting menu in order to try more of the tantalizing dishes. Miranda explained how the Chef’s Tasting Menu was arranged; an eight-course series with specific menu items selected to curate unique dining experiences for the table based on the choices and decisions of the kitchen. Items that appear on the menu may even be slightly altered, and you have to put your faith in the kitchen to determine the course of your meal without knowing or being told in advance what may be selected. As a purveyor of brave, new foodie experiences, I was all for this! As was Rob, but Jess went a different route since she is Vegan. I thought Miranda did a fantastic job of immediately acknowledging Jess’s dietary preferences, making recommendations, and helping Jess navigate her options.
Our craft cocktails arrived not long after we placed our dinner orders. I also asked Miranda if Chef Rigato could swing by our table if he was in and free at any point during the night. Rigato was out at the moment, but Miranda said she’d pass along my request if he popped back in. I always enjoy meeting or interviewing the culinary minds behind the concept and driving force of the kitchen. I’m often inspired by their stories, their ambition, and their hard work. I was even more motivated to meet Chef Rigato following his recent act of paying it forward by helping Royal Oak pizza enthusiast Matt Arb upgrade from operating out of his home kitchen to a soon-to-be-open brick-and-mortar neighborhood pizzeria in Hazel Park.
Sure enough, Chef Rigato did return to Mabel Gray and stopped by our table about 15 minutes later. It was great to meet Rigato, who was very personable and welcoming to my friends. Rob was very excited to inform Chef Rigato that he and Jess had dined at Mabel Gray several times before, with his last Vegan month menu being one of the best meals of his life! We chatted for several minutes, including the excitement behind Arb’s upcoming Amelia Street Pizza Co. initiative, and I gotta say, Chef Rigato seems like a great all-around dude and is very passionate about all things culinary! As our conversation was about wrapping up, a staff member approached with two plates, the first-course appetizer for my and Rob’s Tasting Menu experience. Let the foodie adventure commence!
Chef’s Tasting Menu
The first course ended up being the Island Creek Oysters; one served raw with a red onion agrodolce and sesame, while the second was baked with arrabbiata butter and breadcrumbs. Talk about visual enticement! I’m typically not crazy about oysters, but upon seeing this delectable oyster duo placed before me, my foodie overdrive and hunger took over, and I snatched up the raw oyster first.
I was shocked at how easy that oyster went down, with an immediate and positive reaction. It had a remarkably sweet, tangy onion finish. The sesame was a unique textural and solid contrast to the gooey raw oyster itself, but it absolutely worked for the overall profile and quite well at that. The baked version with arrabbiata butter was unlike any oyster I’ve encountered before, and it’s probably the best oyster I’ve ever had (sorry, coasters). This oyster was a bit zesty and featured an outstanding, lightly toasted crunch from the breadcrumbs. It’s an impressive feat to have me gush this much over an oyster, but when it’s great, it’s great — and I got to let everybody know!
The next starter course is the best Italian soup pasta that I’ve ever enjoyed. I probably had the whole bowl of Pasta e Fagioli licked clean in under four minutes! This hearty Italian soup consisted of local Sheridan Acres heirloom beans, tomato, Italian soffritto, Tubettini pasta, radicchio, and parmesan cheese. As an avid soup connoisseur, I enjoy soup at all times of the day, at any time of the year. But, obviously, being the brutal winter that it’s been in Michigan, soup season just seems to warm the soul a bit more than usual — and this soup was the perfect candidate for such a cause.
Seeing thinly shredded parmesan cheese take up a third of the bowl was uplifting (I’m a well-documented cheese enthusiast), as I’ve been known to heap mounds of various cheeses onto most of the soups I consume. The Italian soffritto is a classic diced blend of onion, carrots, and celery. The perfect, earthy vegetable trio for this hearty, nearly stew-like mixture. Not only were the soup’s vegetables notably fresh, but the heirloom beans from nearby Sheridan Acres actually really shone on their own, weaving and blending in perfectly with the Tubettini pasta. The beans and noodles were similar in size and shape, another great visual consistency lurking beneath the now-melted cheese cover. Rob and I both slurped this soup up so fast, not a word was said at the table until both our bowls were empty.
The following dish was the Griddled Endive, with a pistachio garnish. The rest of this bright dish included a thick cut of endive seared on the grill, pistachio crema, aged Balsamic, slices of mortadella, and Calabrian chiles. Jess also got an order of this, but without the mortadella, which is a large Italian sausage of finely ground and cured pork. The flavors were simpler for this dish, but had a powerful range from the salty cured pork to the tissue-paper soft-seared vegetable. The pungent pistachio was abundant, adding its renowned and unique nuttiness to the profile. I really enjoyed the two different texturized ways it was presented, as well as the care and craft taken into constructing this artisan dish.
The Tuna Crudo was another ocular marvel of perfectly sliced and layered fresh tuna and blood orange. The two were doused with oil, then topped with a Castelvetrano tapenade, fried shallots, and basil. The tuna was exceptional and very flavorful, accentuated by the citrusy blood oranges, which shared a very similar consistency to the thin tuna slices.
Adding the fun, crunchy contrast, the fried shallots were a great duality to the thin and soft slices beneath. The tapenade was also surprisingly catchy; if you’re a fan of olives, you would love their incorporation into this dish. It’s a good thing I attended this dinner with an appetite, because I wasn’t leaving any leftovers at this rate of culinary perfection!
The entrée round kicked off with the Rabbit Abruzzese, a traditional central Italian dish featuring braised rabbit. Chef Rigato’s interpretation of this herby comfort food came served with an organic MI polenta, Italian salsa Verde, shaved sweet corn, jus, and onion. It was when this dish was placed before me that I concluded that Mabel Gray should have a Michelin star. This was the ‘a-ha!’ moment, as they say!
This was one of the creamiest and smoothest polentas I’ve ever sampled. The way the ingredients are combined in this dish is almost hard to put into words — it was THAT good. The rabbit was incredibly tender; probably the softest, yet juiciest rabbit I’ve encountered in my foodie adventures (I’ve only had rabbit a couple of times prior in full transparency). But this rabbit was notably next-tier delicious, and when a dish can make me forget that corn is my least favorite vegetable and suddenly one of my favorites, that’s seriously business. I actually consumed this dish intentionally slowly in order to savor every bite, and really let this one sink in for the grandiose experience that it was.
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The second entrée was the Japanese A5 Beef Dumpling. The hand-crafted dumpling came served in a red curry broth with jalapeño slices, charred scallion oil, cabbage, basil, red watercress, and lime. Within the dumpling were flavor-packed diced bits of the Japanese A5 steak, which also came served alongside in the bowl as beautifully portioned and grilled slices.
This steak was top-tier, grilled a perfect medium rare to rare, what some call rare-plus. The steak had absorbed a fair bit of the spicy red curry from the broth, which was another great flavor feature of this dish. I inhaled two slices of steak with small pools of the zesty broth before moving on to the dumpling itself. I bit in and tore away about half of the dumpling, which was just exploding in savory goodness. This dumpling was one of the best that I’ve ever had, which by this point in the meal, was becoming quite the reoccurrence. This dish is quite the spicy star!
We rounded out our evening with a phenomenal dessert, but not before munching through a bowl of Mabel Gray‘s House-cut French Fries. These fries deserve an honorable mention because they are a must-order for every visit. It’s (again) hard to put into words how sensational these fries were; in terms of taste, crisp yet softness, and seasoning, every aspect of these fries was perfect across the board. The art can often be found within the craft; the dedication by the prep team and meticulous follow-through, all the way to golden brown by the kitchen staff, showcases that craft through something so exemplary yet simple. Give these fries a try asap!
Rob, Jess, and I eventually took our leave for the night, and on the brief ride back home, we reflected on and recalled our favorite dishes of the night. With meals and memories still fresh in our minds and bellies, I was proud to state that my first Mabel Gray adventure was a remarkable and unforgettable experience.
A shout-out to Chef Rigato and his amazing staff at Mabel Gray, who provide a wonderful dining experience that knocks boldly upon the doors of the Michelin Guide. There are several restaurants around Metro Detroit and Michigan worthy of a star, and it’s about time the Michelin Guide dedicates a foodie adventure to our state to get these establishments the international recognition they deserve. If the Michelin Guide ever visits Michigan, Mabel Gray should be at the top of the list!
For more information about Mabel Gray, or to book a reservation, click here.
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