My new favorite store...

This is definitely my new favorite store and I would've been tempted to stock up on tees, pop, purses and fudge, but I instead bought something for my pal Gina. Shhhhh. Don't tell her.

Some of the wonderful novelties included Detroit Gospel T-shirts, jars of Sanders hot fudge, original Motown records, purses made out of car seat belts, and glass bottles of Faygo pop. (I had the most intense craving for Faygo red pop the other day. How weird.)

For those of you who don't know, Faygo is a Detroit original. It's also 100 years old. Faygo Beverages was started by a coupla brothers in 1907 and became one of the nation's top independent bottlers, according to the Detroit Almanac. It was a leader in the tasty red pop category. Naturally!

Sanders is a legendary Detroit ice cream shop.

When I was a kid, I didn't know there was any fudge other than Sanders hot fudge. My mom and I spent many a Saturday or Sunday afternoon in between shopping trips at Sanders, spooning heaps of chocolate chip ice cream covered in gooey hot fudge from shiny silver bowls.

Sanders is even older than Faygo, having been founded in 1875 with its first store on storied Woodward Ave. (The Detroit News is doing a terrific series on the historic avenue.) Sanders is known for its cream puffs and ice cream sodas.

From the Web site:
It was in 1876 that Fred Sanders served his first Ice Cream Soda. The popular drink at that time was the Sweet Cream Soda, but one summer evening, with his store packed with thirsty customers, he discovered that all his sweet cream had soured. He then quickly decided to substitute ice cream for the sweet cream and his customers were delighted with the new drink.


Walking into this store was like walking down memory lane -- only the lane is now considered retro and lit by a snazzy chandelier.