Magpi

Detroit’s Fort Street Galley Bar Transforms Into Magpie Cocktail Lounge | Eater Detroit

"Inside the hall, the in-house bar will be transformed into Magpie, a cocktail lounge led by bar manager Marlowe Johnson (formerly of Standby and Candy Bar) that will complement the food hall by day and become a more intimate bar at night; Johnson chose the name because of his lifelong fascination with birds and the idea of the magpie as a “thief bird” — a metaphor he applies to bartenders as thieves of experience, time, stories, and history. Magpie will open daily during food-hall hours and remain open until midnight on weeknights and 2 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, with curtains installed to create intimacy and DJs scheduled regularly. The menu emphasizes draft cocktails including low-ABV mixer drinks and Galley Group’s charity cocktails, plus two higher-ABV additions: the Ultralight Beam (sake, aloe, absinthe, lime acid, simple syrup) and a Toasted Rice Highball with a honey foam that sinks into the drink to create a Japanese-style sweet tea. I can expect cocktails made to order alongside beer and wine, with examples such as the Text My Ex (Redemption High Rye bourbon, Hamilton 151 rum, vanilla-date syrup, cocchi rosa), the Monotype (African rooibos tea, milk-washed reposado tequila, Moroccan preserved limes, tamarind, grapefruit, lime), and a negroni riff called White Butterfly (Watershed Four Peel gin, Chinese bitter melon syrup, Salers aperitif, Cocci Americano, orange blossom water, cucumber). The bar will keep its popular happy-hour Chinese dice game and extend that offer all day under the new format, expand happy hour into an early-evening and late-night reverse happy hour with discounts on draft cocktails and $5 glasses of wine, and for now the happy hour will run 5–7 p.m. Monday through Friday. Magpie is expected to debut on Friday, March 15." - Brenna Houck