‘Dangerously Delicious’ finds home in Wyandotte

While covering the local music and bar scene for The Detroit News for many years, I first met Don Duprie of Dangerously Delicious Pies via his band, Doop and the Inside Outlaws.

Now on the restaurant beat, I cross paths with him again.

The alt-country singer and songwriter from River Rouge teamed up with Baltimore pie guy Rodney Henry, who Duprie says he met at the South By Southwest music festival in Austin. Henry is also a musician, and fronts the Baltimore-based band Glenmont Popes. With Henry’s help, Duprie and his friend, Sam Wood, launched a Detroit outpost of Dangerously Delicious Pies several years ago, crafting made-from-scratch savory and sweet pies. They had the business going, but no storefront to call their own.

At first, Duprie was baking out of the punk rock dive the Comet Bar, which was shuttered in 2014 to make way for the new Little Caesars Arena. After the Comet closed, he moved the operation farther down the Cass Corridor to the Third Street Bar at Third and Forest.

But at the start of the summer, Dangerously Delicious Pies got a brick-and-mortar home of their own at 2909 Biddle in downtown Wyandotte, just a few steps away from the shimmering Detroit river.

Duprie said having grown up in River Rouge, he’s always kept an eye on what was happening in Wyandotte and thought it was a good time to set up shop. Open daily for lunch and dinner, the Biddle Street cafe serves sweet and savory pies by the slice ($6 and $7, respectively) or you can call ahead and order a whole pie: $30 for sweet, and $35 for savory. With six hearty slices and weighing in around three pounds, a savory pie can easily be a meal to share among a handful of people.

Some of the savory pies in the current rotation are a crab and cheddar, chicken, pulled pork or the S.M.O.G. pie with steak, mushroom, onion and Gruyere cheese. This fall, more seasonally-appropriate items like gumbo and pizza pie will appear on the menu.

Pecan, key lime, mixed berry, apple and salted caramel are all options for those with a sweet tooth. The Wyandotte shop also sells soft drinks, coffee and chips. Savory pies are served with a side salad.

Naturally, Duprie has worked in a way to showcase live music at his new cafe, which is housed in a former hair salon. Each Monday Dangerously Delicious Pies hosts a singer songwriter. This Monday catch Don Duprie himself, followed by Alison Lewis and Christian Martin on Aug. 22 and Mike Galbraith on Aug. 29.

Duprie is releasing an new album soon, too. Titled “The Corridor,” he wrote it while working at the Comet Bar, and he says it was one of the last recording sessions at Jim Diamond’s Ghetto Records. Well-known Detroit producer Diamond left his longtime space on Elizabeth near the Fillmore Detroit after getting priced out in 2014.

When he’s not in Wyandotte or performing, Duprie has also been readying a second location in the Midtown area not far from where they started this adventure at the Comet Bar. He’s working with Midtown Inc. to open in the next month or so in the Strathmore apartment building on W. Alexandrine between Woodward and Cass.

After that, the next step is to ready a food truck so Dangerously Delicious Pies can be delivered and served just about anywhere. Not quite as exciting as being on tour, but at least the scenery will keep changing.

mbaetens@detroitnews.com

(313) 222-2402

Twitter: @melodybaetens