Algo Especial is the best store in southwest Detroit for hard-to-find ingredients | Eater Detroit

"A Mexican-owned grocery in Hubbard-Richard that I view as a home cook’s oasis, Algo Especial has served the community for 42 years. Owner Martha Hernandez (speaking in Spanish through an interpreter) says she "takes very good care about the needs of the community," and you can see that in every crate overflowing with culturally relevant produce, dried chiles and beans sold by the bag-full, masa and lard by the pound, discs of Mexican hot chocolate, bottled hot sauces, imported clothing and beauty products, and dozens of rare loose-leaf teas and herbs. Customers from across metro Detroit, elsewhere in Michigan and even Canada know Hernandez and her relatives by first name and often greet staff with hugs; during the holidays people buy the shop’s fluffy, bountiful tamales by the dozen. Longtime clients also rely on its robust collection of teas and herbs for treating common ailments or spiritual cleansing, and local restaurants turn to Algo Especial for wholesale staples like cases of candy and commercial-sized cookware. Huriel Gonzalez-Hernandez told me the storefront was a Spanish-language record store in 1980 before his aunt and uncle took over when Raul was laid off from General Motors, and over time the family added VHS tapes of Spanish-language movies, cosmetics from Latin America, a full-service butcher counter, and prepared foods—choices driven by customer requests that keep people coming back first for the specific traditional ingredients that remind them of home." - Serena Maria Daniels