Dental Implants Near Ferndale, MI

One sandwich has been living rent-free in Eater Detroit’s imagination since contributor Courtney Burk waxed poetic about it this past spring: the spicy mortadella sandwich created by longtime hospitality worker, Mike Finsilver. Previously, the veteran bartender ran the seasonal Hell Yeah Dog food cart in the Belt Alley downtown, but over the past year or so, Finsilver has been quietly popping up with his sandwich creations at the Secret Bakery in Ferndale and elsewhere and making believers out of customers using thinly-sliced mortadella, his fiery house-made bomba calabrese spread, a generous helping of chopped iceberg lettuce salad doused in a creamy preserved lemon buttermilk dressing, and crunchy semolina batards topped with sesame seeds provided by Secret Bakery proprietor Maxwell Leonard.

Basically, the sandwich of our dreams.

At his most recent pop-up earlier this month, Finsilver sold his sandwiches at the High Dive bar in Hamtramck. Now, he’s moving on from popping up around metro Detroit to focus on opening a space of his own, Tall Trees Cafe at 817 Livernois, conveniently located next door to Leonard’s shop. A precise opening date hasn’t been established, but Finsilver tells Eater that he hopes to open the doors this fall.

The sandwiches Finsilver has been crafting thus far are beautiful, piled high with picturesque slices of deli meats and layers that prominently showcase each fresh ingredient, giving them an ethereal vision of what a sandwich can be. According to Finsilver, that mix of culinary ambition and fantasy is kind of the point behind the name Tall Trees Cafe; as captured by the cafe’s Instagram account, the vibe feels like wandering into a hidden forest where instead of whimsical fairies appearing in the foliage there are sandwiches.

A version of that spicy mortadella sandwich will be on the menu, in addition to a few other handhelds, seasonal soups, and salads using produce grown on local farms. While Finsilver plans to collaborate with his Secret Bakery neighbors occasionally, he says he’s getting his bread from Proof Bakery, which he describes as a freelance operation out of Birmingham that is able to fulfill wholesale orders. Deli meat is being supplied by locally-based cheese and specialty food distributor R. Hirt Jr., Co. To drink, Finsilver says Tall Trees will carry drip coffee and other non-alcoholic beverages, hopefully incorporating his bartending background into the mix.

Helming the kitchen alongside him will be Malgorzata Bitel, who previously worked with Finsilver as the manager of Hell Yeah Dog, and also did stints at Selden Standard, San Morello, Tallulah Wine Bar & Bistro, among other metro Detroit establishments. Before his pop-up, Finsilver worked in Detroit’s food and drinks scene for nearly 15 years at establishments like the now closed the Keep speakeasy, Mudgie’s Deli & Wine Shop, and the formerly-named PJ’s Lager House. Additionally, he previously co-owned Satellite Food Truck, which is also in the process of opening its own space in Clawson.

Tall Trees Cafe is located at 817 Livernois in Ferndale and will be open 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., Wednesday through Saturday.

The northern lights dazzled over Michigan skies Thursday night, and they may return Friday night. Here's the latest:

Patch Staff

MICHIGAN — If you missed the northern lights seen across the country and around the world Thursday night, there’s another chance Friday in Michigan.

That’s only if the weather cooperates. The National Weather Service forecast for Michigan calls for mostly clear skies Friday night.

The geomagnetic storm that sent the aurora borealis far south Thursday has subsided from a “severe” G4- to a “strong” G3-level storm. The current aurora map from the Space Weather Prediction Center, a division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, shows the oval aurora may be seen as far south as northern Iowa.

The aurora could again be visible Saturday in the northern half of Minnesota and other northern-tier states.

On Friday, the SWPC said a K-Index of 7 or greater is expected to persist through Friday. Generally, the K number, a measure of the aurora’s strength, needs to be at least 5 for the aurora to be visible.

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The amazing display of northern lights Thursday was witnessed by millions of people around the world, including in places such as Capetown, South Africa. Aurora chasers flooded social media with photos of the pink, red, purple, green and yellow lights.

For only the second time in two decades, NOAA issued a severe geomagnetic storm watch Wednesday after the sun fired off a strong X-class solar flare and coronal mass ejection carried to Earth by exceptionally fast solar winds. CMEs are large explosions of plasma and magnetized particles from the sun’s corona that can expand in size as they approach Earth’s atmosphere.

The X1-flare that set off this week’s display isn’t nearly as strong as the X8.7 flare in May that made the aurora visible in areas along the southern U.S. border, or the more recent even stronger X9 flare that produced northern displays in about a third of the country this week.

The difference, space weather forecaster Shawn Dahl explained in a briefing with reporters Wednesday, is that it was a long-duration solar flare that erupted from the center of the sun and is being carried to Earth by extremely fast at 2.5 million miles per hour.

Mike Bettwy, the head of the SWPC’s forecast office, said aurora chasers are usually rewarded within a couple of hours after nightfall. Patience is a key, he said.

“The key is the magnetic orientation,” he said. “It’s remarkable how quickly the aurora can shut down and diminish, and just as quickly return.”

If the aurora doesn’t materialize this time around, there are plenty more chances for people to see them. Solar Cycle’s 25 solar maximum may not occur until early 2025, and even 2026 could be a busy year for solar activity.

Activity this solar cycle has surprised space weather scientists and forecasters. Solar Cycle 25 is the most active on record, and they’re not quite sure why.

“It’s one of the many mysteries to unravel,” Dahl said.

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