Prime + Proper, Detroit

Prime + Proper has a dramatic aroma saturating the air in the dining room: wood, smoke, ash. It’s compelling, perhaps even intimidating; the beautiful fragrance speaks of sophistication and newness, and an experience that may possibly live up to its repute. 

Prime + Proper, Detroit 

The details at Prime are clean and impeccable with refined interior spaces wrapped in ivory and argentine marble and tile, patterned upholstery, tufted leather, mid-century pendant fixtures. Staff members wear black or white linen chef jackets. Dining tables are laid out in gold-trimmed dishes and utensils, knives with banded handles etched with the Prime logo, cotton napkins from France, Mauviel 1830 pots and pans. 

Prime + Proper, Detroit 

The Chef’s Table is a black, studded leather booth tucked in an alcove, flanked by refrigerated coolers stocked with bottled wine, set against a chocolate woodblock wall. That’s where our party of seven was seated, watching the staff going about their craft—grilling, chopping, plating. 

If you’ve ever been to the restroom in Prime + Proper’s basement, you’ve noticed the drying room—thousands of pounds of beef on racks, aging to the perfect intensity, and perhaps a whole tuna hanging in a bag. 

The oysters with champaign mignonette are fresh and good. The octopus with brined onion and olive oil is extraordinary: flesh is taut and smooth, the suckers, with their wonderful texture, chewy against slick oil and hummus.  

Prime + Proper, Detroit

The food began to arrive: heavy platters of stiff torchio pasta, flooded in gruyer and cheddar, baked to a blistery top; bowls of sizzling wood-fired broccolini, overlaid with sautéed sumac onions and buttery crumbles of Dutch Beemster; small copper pots heaping with supple, chopped crab; pomme frites—crinkle cut potatoes fried crispy and bronze—which may be worth your time simply for the accompanying ash aioli, creamy, tart, and teeming with roasted garlic. 

A platter floats-in carrying a spindled, woven disc of golden potatoes, two small slabs of bacon, a mound of fire roasted relish, and a clean, fried egg mottled with black salt. After a short view for the patrons, the server mixes the components into a mash and spoons it onto plates already overflowing. 

Then came tart asparagus with vinaigrette and Spanish sausage, covered with a garlic crumble; split lobsters, rutilant and glistening, shuttled-in on mini paellas, wafting of the ocean, garnished with grilled lemons. The loaded beef fat potatoes may be the best you’ve ever had: small, tender spuds sprinkled with thick bacon shards, chives, and a mornay béchamel so viscous, it struggles to free itself from the sauce pan. 

Prime + Proper, Detroit 

A chef rolls a cart to the table and begins to skillfully debone a luscious filet of Dover sole. He plates the fish, heaps it with a pile of satiny crab, sprinkles-over chopped parsley and tangy capers, and finishes with about a quarter cup of warm brown butter. 

(Check out my Instagram page 

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CPeRmW_BqDy/?utm_medium=copy_link 

for a short video of the Dover Sole A La Meunière!)  

The flaky white meat is delicate and fresh-tasting, but lavished with the gentle butter, creamy and sweet, the soft sole and lumps of crab become a decadent lot, wholly irresistible. 

Two porterhouses were laid on the table, a filet, and a Kansas City strip, followed by the legendary tomahawk ribeye. 

There’s a unique squareness to the steaks, an appealing geometric aspect, each savory piece a near perfect rectangle, cut and arranged, draping over each other like a fanned deck of vermillion dominoes. This is apparent: Prime + Proper possesses a respect for the beef, practices its craft as more than simply cooking, but something elevated and artistic. 

The deep redness of the beef radiates from the center in layers—a vivid cabernet, then softer at the edges—the essence of life, still evident in the concentrated color of the flesh, despite its many days of aging.

The crust on Prime’s steak is in its own league. You’ve seen crust on meat before: the layer caused by the sear of an iron skillet; the caramelization of sugars by the scorch of high heat; coffee and peppercorn coatings; but this crust is exemplary. The exterior of each steak, here, is seared to a veneer so thin and crisp, one expects it to “crack”  between the teeth. 

There are times when a lean, thick filet is memorable for its tenderness; when unctuous ribeyes, rich and decadent, separate themselves from the pack; or fat cowboy T-bones, juicy and charred, leave an enduring impression; but this steak...

The substance of its uniqueness is its earthiness, steeped into the beef, powerfully concentrated, sharply pronounced. Of flavor like this, I’ve tasted no equal. Every bite begins smoky, followed by the exquisite earthiness, then tender, lush chewiness, melting away into a buttery finish. You can’t wait to ride the ride again.

Check out the food at Prime + Proper: 

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CPeuKkzBxpl/?utm_medium=copy_link

And if this meat is not earthy enough for you, Prime offers a strip steak that’s been aged 200 days—over six months of hang time.

Prime + Proper, Detroit 

But the flavor doesn’t end with the meat. Cuts are paired with various sauces: Proper’s own light, glacé steak sauce, garlicky ash butter, béarnaise, honeycomb truffle, whipped butter, or au poivre. 

There was no room for dessert...but I usually do it anyway. The Peanut Pavé features strata of gianduja, delicate cream, and caramel, surrounding a crunchy, tacky layer of house-made brittle, sated with the comforting, familiar richness of peanuts, and the whole thing glazed with supple chocolate. 

A vanilla cheesecake is airy, silky, and topped with fresh berries. 

The Gooey Butter Cake is a take on a pineapple upside down, but richer, loaded with a pink peppercorn caramel, and drizzled with a vanilla anglaise. 

There may be no aspect of Prime that is not artisan, perfected, and detailed; the wine list, for example, is 18 pages long. The cocktails are both classical, like a Manhattan, and trendy, like the gingery Windermere and the citrusy tart Peter Smith + Sons. 

Each item meets your expectation, and more often, surpasses it, prompting one to try it all, spare no expense. 

Food writer Jonathan Gold once did a piece on LA restaurant Kagaya, and the practice of eating steak in the Japanese fashion of shabu shabu—dipping thin pieces of beef into boiling pots of fragrant broth. Remarking on the elaborate tradition, Gold said, “Shabu shabu can sometimes seem more like a haiku about meat than like meat itself—especially if your idea of beef is twenty-six ounces of bleeding steer—but there are times when all of us crave heightened essence rather than gross animal abundance.”

At Prime + Proper, you receive both.