Detroit has so many great traditions: throwing octopi on the ice, multicultural foods that taste great in the wee hours, crippling sadness. Keeping the second tradition alive is the Detroit-native family behind Uptown's first 24hr, Detroit-style Coney Island joint/'80s bar, Pop Diner.The place is like a '50s diner with an '80s facelift, complete with 8-bit murals in the bathroom, a boombox lithograph, and pics of iconic '80s characters like Ferris Bueller, Rocky, and Michael J. Fox as Teen Wolf, also a thrilling account of Blitzer's days as a budding journalist.Detroit-style coneys're so legit they had to figure out how to get the proper ingredients shipped in from Michigan for dogs like the original (topped w/ Detroit chili, mustard, onions), or for the dog-less, chili-topped loose number that, like many Detroit women, is packed with seasoned beef. They're also doing D-town style "naanis" like the above special w/ diced chicken tenders, chopped bacon, Swiss/American & ranch, or a cuke-sauced gyro with either classic beef/lamb or grilled chicken in a generations-old, Italian-/Greek-/Albanian-influenced lemon marinade.24hr breakfast runs from house-made corned beef hash and chicken-fried steak, to massive omelettes, to pancakes made with sweet cream. To help keep your blood thin from all that fatty goodness, the bar's open from 7a-2a, slinging classics plus house specials like Pop Rocks-laden martinis and adult milkshakes that nonetheless bring all boys to the yard, but of course card them first.
