Profile

This easy-going bar is headquarters for downtown gearheads and musicians from all over. The owners are hot-rod-crazy Detroit natives, so Motor City's cavernous, two-car-garage-sized interior is appointed with tuck 'n' roll upholstered barstools, a car seat couch and hubcaps on the wall. If you're a GM partisan who's offended by the huge Ford Mustang mural, there are two exits right up front. If not, then grab a beer and tap your motorcycle boot to the surge of punk, metal and rockabilly comin' at ya courtesy of visiting dignitary D.J.'s. Bartenders—like effervescent rock-babe Jody—pop the tops off bottled beers with a church-key that dangles from the ceiling like a grease-gun. — Bruce Bennett

Buy a drink for an absent friend and the bartender will write your name, your friend's name and what the drink is on a white-board behind the bar. Your friend, in turn, can redeem the fruits of your gesture on his or her next visit.