Take 5 | Casey Rocheteau

Story by Wensdy Von Buskirk | Photos by EE Berger

When you spend a day in Metro Detroit with out-of-towners, where do you take them and why?

Casey Rocheteau, Winner of the Detroit Write a House Project

“Moving from New York, I was worried that I had moved into a pizza desert. I was skeptical at first because Detroit loves square pizza. At first it seemed wrong, a betrayal of every pizza I’ve ever loved, but then I ate at Buddy’s and fell in love.

Unsurprisingly, I love books, and I love a number of bookstores in Detroit, actually, but John K. King Used & Rare Books happens to be the biggest, and I always manage to find some mind-blowing gem that I’ve never been able to find anywhere else.

I’m also charmed by the shop Savvy Gents/Savvy Chic for a number of reasons, not the least of which is Savvy Gents owner Randal Jacobs. He is one of the loveliest people I’ve met in Detroit and has a great sartorial eye.

Trinosophes/1464 Gratiot. Art gallery/museum/venue/record store/coffee shop — I’m not really sure what more I could want out of one building.

Detroit also has so many incredible outdoor art spots, but I especially like the Dequindre Cut because you can ride your bike along it, and I do love a good bike ride.”

Brooklyn poet Casey Rocheteau is the first winner of the Detroit Write A House Project, which is leveraging Detroit’s available housing in a creative way, along with introducing new faces to the city’s emerging literary community. The nonprofit renovates Detroit homes and gives them to authors, journalists, poets (aka writers). It’s similar to a writer-in-residence program, only in this case, the writer is given the residence, forever.

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