Ferndale – Cute, colorful, and full of crave-worthy food. Detroit Fleat has it all and then some as a restaurant, food truck rally hybrid.
“We wanted to have this set place that we could have great food trucks, great house food, and amazing drinks, and that’s what we’ve created,” explains Katie Picard, Co-Owner of Detroit Fleat.
It all started with one food truck, Delectable, owned by Picard and her business partner. They were setting up their truck all around Metro Detroit and were starting to think of their next step. They had studied food truck rallies and parks out west and wanted to bring the concept home to Michigan.
So in 2017 they bought an old Chinese restaurant a little outside of downtown Ferndale and transformed it into a cool, modern eatery.
The patio is large and was designed so that food trucks could line up around the outside. Bright colors and tons of greenery are all over the walls, giving it a very cheery vibe, and lots of cool places to take a selfie.
They completely renovated the building, giving it a similarly colorful, eclectic feel, with giant murals of local brands, like Faygo and Better Made, on the walls. They also installed garage doors that completely open up to bring the outdoors in when the weather is nice.
In terms of food, here’s how it works: They have a house menu that serves food and drinks you can always get, plus they have rotating food trucks to mix it up. You can order online by using the QR code on all of the tables, or you can walk up to one of the food trucks to place your order there.
Their house menu is full of bar and street food like tacos, sliders, and sandwiches. The buttermilk fried chicken sandwich is a fan favorite. They also have a custom fry menu with lots of fun options. Drinks here are another thing people rave about. One of their most popular is called the “slooshie,” which is a boozy blended ice drink they make in a variety of flavors. On Saturdays, they have slooshie flights so you can try them all.
For food trucks, they have Pita Post every Wednesday and Thursday, with Impasto on the weekends. There is a list of food trucks that rotate on their website.
For more information watch the full video above. They are located at 1820 E. 9 Mile Road in Ferndale.