Metro Times A foodie’s shortlist

Fairway Packing By Ric Bohy 5/11/2005 Owner Gene Baratta, family and crew have a big name in the local restaurant business for providing top quality meats at fair prices. (Baratta was the first in metro Detroit to offer low-fat, high-flavor Piedmontese beef, now a standard menu item around town.) Though a wholesaler, Fairway will sell small retail orders at wholesale prices, but be sure to call ahead and ask if what you need is on hand. Pride in a well-deserved reputation shows throughout this Eastern Market operation, and I haven’t been disappointed yet in even the most unusual orders (including a cache of beef brains for a special-request gourmet dinner I prepared for my parents). 1313 Erskine, Detroit; 313-832-2710.