Our roundup of the latest news from metro Detroit and Michigan businesses as well as announcements from government agencies. To share a business or nonprofit story, please send us a message.
Alps-inspired Alpino Restaurant Slated to Open May 1 in Corktown
Alpino, the new Corktown restaurant inspired by the European Alps, will open its doors to diners May 1.
The 3,200-square-foot restaurant, at 1426 Bagley on the corner of Bagley and Trumbull, will seat 80 in the dining room, 10 at the bar, and 50 on the private 1,500-square-foot patio.
Guests can expect dinner service seven nights a week along with Fondue Sunday from noon-8 p.m. In true mountain form, Alpino will occasionally host live music rooted in blues, bluegrass, and Americana. Additionally, a private dining space will be opening this summer for large groups and corporate events, seating up to 75 guests.
Alpino is founded and operated by Detroit native and New York hospitality veteran David Richter. The kitchen is helmed by Chef Colin Campbell, with Andre Sykes overseeing the beverage program highlighted by a regional-specific cocktail and wine list.
“The premise of Alpino is rooted in heritage and tradition surrounded by a community,” Richter says. “The team at Alpino aims to cultivate a communal atmosphere centered around high-quality food, made simply, paired with excellent wine, music, and hospitable service.
“The restaurant’s menu is inspired by ingredients sourced from hills, fields, rivers, and streams be it fresh, farmed, or preserved.”
The lineup weaves together traditional dishes from countries along the Alpine Mountains in Europe, including Austria, France, Germany, Italy, and Switzerland. The menu is offered up as cheese + cured meat, vegetables, pasta/rice/grains, meat/fish, sides, and sweets. Stand-out dishes include:
- Tarte Flambée — rye dough, crème fraiche, fontina dop, lardon.
- Croziflette “Alpino Mac and Cheese” — house-made buckwheat pasta, taleggio, lardons.
- Alpine Char — Thuringer sausage, roasted onion broth, root vegetables, sauerkraut, wilted greens.
- Rosette — vanilla fritter, apple butter, apple relish, ice cream.
Alpino’s beverage program features a list of lesser-known, affordable wines by the glass, on tap, and by the bottle, from that part of the world. The curated cocktail list reflects the seasons and compliments the European style beer list on tap and bottle. Signature cocktails include:
- Dolomites — grappa Italian Caffo, lime, Genepy, pine syrup.
- La Vie En Rose — Pink Norden Aquavit, Mulberry-infused dry vermouth, orange bitters.
- Videz Vara — gin, lime, grapefruit, apricot liqueur, Genepy, Heering Cherry, Giffard Menthe-Pastille.
The restaurant’s design is inspired by European countryside farmhouses incorporating natural materials in a simplistic, communal manner. A stone fireplace is the focal point of the main dining room complemented by warm wood tones, 100-year-old cypress beams, rustic light fixtures, and warm soft seating touches.
Alpino partnered with several local and not-so-local design and building partners including Virtuoso, Goodwood Nashville, Genesee Cut Stones, Paul’s Prime Paint, NVR, and Eldorado Tile to bring this concept to life.
The patio space includes teak tables, soft loveseat benches, and a bandshell for live music. The host area doubles as a grab-n-go store with dry pantry products and related retail.
Starting May 1, Alpino will be open 5-10 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 5-11 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and noon-8 p.m. on Sundays.
Reservations are now available at alpinodetroit.com.
Shinola Becomes Official Timekeeper of Detroit Grand Prix
The Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix presented by Lear announced Wednesday that Shinola Detroit will become the Official Timekeeper of the Grand Prix.
To celebrate the new partnership, Shinola will debut the limited-edition Canfield Speedway Lap 05 watch during the June 2-4 race weekend. In addition to helping count down the days and hours until the return of the Grand Prix to its original home on the streets of Detroit, Shinola will present timepieces to the top three NTT IndyCar Series finishers during victory ceremonies on event weekend.
Shinola also has plans to host pre-race events leading into Grand Prix weekend at the Shinola Hotel located in the city’s historic Woodward shopping district, as well as its flagship Shinola Detroit Canfield store in midtown Detroit.
“In just 50 days, the Grand Prix will return to the streets of downtown Detroit for the first time since 1991 so this represents a great opportunity to welcome Shinola Detroit as our Official Timekeeper and help us continue the countdown to race weekend,” says Michael Montri, president of the Detroit Grand Prix. “Born right here in Detroit, Shinola has become one of the most popular watch brands in the world and the company’s commitment to performance while producing high-quality American products here in the Motor City aligns perfectly with our focus at the Detroit Grand Prix.”
Built at the Shinola Factory in Detroit’s historic Argonaut Building, the fifth edition of the popular Canfield Speedway timepiece will be unveiled by Shinola Detroit at the Detroit Grand Prix winner’s circle.
The driver who wins the NTT IndyCar Series race on Sunday, June 4 will be presented with a limited-edition Canfield Speedway Lap 05 watch to commemorate the victory. The second- and third-place finishers each will receive Shinola’s classic Runwell watches to honor their performances on the streets of the Motor City.
The driver who wins the pole position for the race will also be presented with a Shinola Runwell watch following series qualifying on Saturday, June 3.
In addition, Shinola Detroit will be featured on the official countdown clock to this summer’s Grand Prix.
“Shinola is excited to again partner with the iconic and storied Detroit Grand Prix,” says Awenate Cobbina, CEO of Shinola CEO. “When we started assembling and selling Shinola products in Detroit a decade ago, we recognized the importance of community involvement and supporting the moments that matter to those who call this great American city their home. We’re honored to be part of this lasting and meaningful legacy.”
Harkening back to racing’s “golden era” in the ‘50s and ‘60s, the new Shinola Canfield Speedway Lap 05 chronograph features a vintage racing-inspired tachymeter that measures the speed of a vehicle over the distance traveled. The Canfield Speedway Lap 05 timepiece comes with a 44mm brushed stainless steel case and a perforated leather strap.
“The Lap 05 is the next chapter of the inspiring Canfield Speedway story that Shinola began telling when we launched Lap 01 nearly two years ago,” says Greg Verras, design director of watches at Shinola. “The Canfield Speedway has been a much beloved collection. This is more than just a beautiful watch — it is an automatic chronograph that required dedicated design creativity, meticulous attention to detail, and unwavering commitment to craftsmanship.”
MDT Partners with Blumira to Help Credit Unions Strengthen Cybersecurity
Member Driven Technologies (MDT) in Farmington Hills, a credit union service organization, announced that it has expanded its cybersecurity offerings, introducing a new security solution from Blumira, a cybersecurity provider that helps organizations detect and respond to security threats.
This partnership enables MDT’s credit union clients to monitor and identify real threats, block known threats with automated responses, and gain access to top security expertise. Credit unions now can obtain logs from MDT-managed data sources, like their firewalls, to ingest into Blumira or other third-party solutions to improve threat visibility.
MDT has teamed up with Global Telecom Solutions (GTS), a professional consulting firm that specializes in cost optimization and extraordinary customer service for business technology needs, to make the Blumira offering cost effective for its credit union clients.
“Cyberthreats continue to become increasingly sophisticated, with hackers finding new ways to attempt to steal sensitive information,” says Larry Nichols, president and CEO of MDT. “Leveraging our partnership with Blumira through GTS, our credit union clients can streamline threat protection, providing an additional layer of security to their organizations and members. MDT is committed to delivering the tools and solutions necessary for credit unions to efficiently run their institution and provide positive member experiences, and this offering is another example of those efforts.”
Camping World to Acquire Travel Land RV Center in Houghton Lake
Camping World Holdings Inc. in Illinois has announced an agreement to acquire Travel Land RV Center in Houghton Lake. This acquisition is anticipated to close in the second quarter of 2023 and will increase the company’s Michigan location count to seven. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
The new location primarily will offer a wide range of new and used Keystone RVs along with service, collision, parts and accessories, and the entire portfolio of Good Sam products and services.
“Travel Land has been proudly serving northern Michigan for over 40 years, primarily through the sale of used RVs and collision repair,” says Marcus Lemonis, chairman and CEO of Camping World. “This acquisition continues our growth strategy by providing additional service and product excellence to our customer base in the region.”
Troy’s Mahalo Banking Partners with Massachusetts-based Credit Union
Springfield, Mass.-based Pioneer Valley Credit Union has signed a partnership agreement with Mahalo Banking, a credit union service organization in Troy that provides online and mobile banking solutions for credit unions.
By launching the Mahalo Banking platform, Pioneer Valley plans to advance its digital banking experience and improve its competitive advantage within the industry.
“More credit unions are faced with the need to embrace digital transformation to better serve their members and effectively compete against challenger banks,” says Jim Stickley, CEO of Mahalo. “However, making these digital banking platform shifts can be difficult without the help of a provider that intuitively understands the needs, challenges and goals that are unique to the credit union space.
“We just released a significantly enhanced version of our Mahalo Banking platform that delivers digital banking humanized, which will enable Pioneer Valley to truly elevate its overall member experience. We are excited to offer its members the innovative tools they need to achieve greater financial autonomy.”
Pioneer Valley is the oldest postal credit union in the nation and serves members of select employer groups and associations within western Massachusetts.
LTU College of Business and IT Gets Largest Gift for Scholarships in its History
The College of Business and Information Technology (CoBIT) at Lawrence Technological University in Southfield recently received a $500,000 gift from the Car Dealers National Foundation, the largest in the college’s history, to establish an LTU scholarship.
The foundation, created by the late entrepreneur and philanthropist Don Foss, is dedicated to enriching the lives of young people with a focus on health and education.
Jill Foss Watson, Foss’s daughter, and John Neary, CoBIT Advisory Board member, both serve as foundation trustees. They worked together to award the scholarship. LTU’s motto “Theory and Practice” resonated with them as it aligns with the national foundation’s mission.
The scholarship will be used to attract full-time incoming freshmen for the fall 2023 semester who demonstrate academic merit and financial need. Recipients must pursue a major in one of CoBIT’s degree offerings in business administration; accounting; finance; marketing; business data analytics; or information technology.
Students interested in applying for one of these scholarships are encouraged to complete an online application for admission and contact a CoBIT academic advisor at busit-srm@ltu.edu.
“We are deeply indebted to the Car Dealers Care National Foundation for this gift, which will transform the lives of future LTU CoBIT students,” says LTU President Tarek M. Sobh.
“We are proud to support Don’s philanthropic vision through this donation, which we hope will contribute to the success of a new generation of entrepreneurs,” Neary says.
To learn more about the foundation, visit cardealerscare.com.
Kroger Co. and P&G Open Applications for 2023 Game Changers Scholarship
The Kroger Co. and The Procter & Gamble Co. have opened the application period for its 2023 Game Changers Scholarship.
The Kroger Co. of Michigan will award one scholarship of $2,000 to a local diverse woman pursuing a business-related, sciences, technical and/or liberal arts undergraduate degree or certificate. Together, the Game Changers Scholarship, presented by The Kroger Foundation and The Always Brand will award more than $45,000 in scholarships to 23 women across the country.
“The Kroger Co. of Michigan is proud to team up with P&G for the Game Changers Scholarship, championing local women in their educational pursuits,” says Cam Barrett, corporate affairs manager for the Kroger Co. of Michigan.
Selection will be based on an overall assessment of academic performance, leadership skills, character, community service, and school involvement of exceptional women of multicultural backgrounds with financial need.
To be eligible for selection, applicants must be enrolled in or accepted to part-time or full-time programs during the 2023-2024 academic year at an accredited, nonprofit college, university, technical or vocational institution. Applicants must be female and from a multicultural background, pursuing a business-related, sciences, technical and/or liberal arts undergraduate degree or certificate.
Applicants must have a high school or college cumulative GPA of 3.0/4.0 as determined by the transcript and have an unmet financial need as determined by the Student Aid Report (SAR). All Kroger and P&G employees and their dependents are ineligible to receive this award.
To begin the application process, visit here. The deadline to apply is May 12.
Ault Alliance Issues March Bitcoin Production and Mining Operation Report
Ault Alliance Inc., which has its BitNile Bitcoin mining operation in Michigan, reports receiving 102 Bitcoin for the month of March 2023 as a result of its miners providing computing power to a mining pool operator.
BitNile’s mining operations currently are operating at an estimated annualized gross revenue run rate of more than $42 million, based on current market conditions, including a current trading price of Bitcoin at $30,000 as of April 10, and a mining difficulty of 47.89 trillion.
BitNile recently completed the installation at a Core Scientific Inc. site of approximately 3,000 S19j Pro Antminers that feature a processing power of 100 terahashes per second (“TH/s”). BitNile’s operation in Michigan encompasses more than 4,600 environmentally friendly S19 XP Antminers that feature a processing power of 140 terahashes per second (“TH/s”) and more than 4,500 S19j Pro Antminers.
“I am very pleased that the Bitcoin mining team has deployed additional miners with Core Scientific,” says Joseph Spaziano, the company’s chief information officer and BitNile’s head of mining operations. “Our mining operations are expected to further expand in the coming months with additional miners at a hosted facility in Texas and our recently purchased facility in Montana, and we have made commitments to deploy additional capacity under our control to over 20,000 miners. I look forward to the progress the BitNile team will achieve over 2023.”
Holocaust Center to Host Annual Yom HaShoah Commemorative Events
The Zekelman Holocaust Center in Farmington Hills will host its annual community-wide Yom HaShoah commemoration at 2:30 p.m. on April 23. The event will take place in-person at the center and will also be livestreamed at here.
This year’s program will be led by local clergy Rabbi Aaron Bergman and Hazzan Daniel Gross of Adat Shalom Synagogue. Survivors and children of survivors from the Detroit area community will light memorial candles and community members will read selected poems that express communal grief for the 6 million Jewish victims of the Holocaust.
Pianist Marty Liebman will provide musical accompaniment. Following the event, all who wish to light a memorial candle are invited to do so at the center’s eternal flame. Admission is free and valet parking will be provided.
This year, Yom HaShoah, also known as Holocaust Remembrance Day, is April 18. The day is dedicated to remembering the millions of lives lost to Nazi persecution as well as reflecting on the courageous acts of those who resisted the brutal regime.
As part of Yom HaShoah, The Zekelman Holocaust Center is inviting the community to participate in Unto Every Person There is a Name, an international Holocaust memorial project that gives participants the opportunity read the names of the 6 million Jews who died, among them 1.5 million children.
From now through April 30, all are invited to record a video of themselves reading the names of Holocaust victims and uploading their video to social media. Tag @HolocaustCenter on Facebook and Instagram, and @HolocaustMI on Twitter, using the hashtag #TheHCRemembers.
In addition, participants are encouraged to tag friends and nominate them to take part in the project as well. To receive a list of names and instructions on how to participate in this meaningful initiative, visit holocaustcenter.org.
Michigan Science Center, Axalta Commemorate Earth Day with Community Free Day
The Michigan Science Center (Mi-Sci) in Detroit and Axalta Coating Systems are joining forces to commemorate Earth Day with “Our Planet, Our Future,” a community free day from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. April 22.
Special programming will include a focus on conservation and our planet, and Axalta will feature its 2023 Global Automotive Color of the Year, Techno Blue. The vibrant, hue-shifting shade inspired the day’s theme and programming. The event also is presented in partnership with Six Rivers Land Conservancy.
“It’s amazing to think that over 50 years ago, an astronaut in lunar orbit snapped a photo of the entire Earth from space that would not only change the way we view our planet, but also inspire a movement to save it,” says Christian Greer, president and CEO. “Today we know that movement as Earth Day, and I’m incredibly excited to help celebrate and protect our planet Earth as we promote conservation with our friends from Axalta and Six Rivers Land Conservancy.”
Some of the activities and exhibits include:
Amazing Astronomy — a stage show on how the laws of physics change between Earth and outer space, exploring Newton’s third Law of Motion, the effects of existing in a vacuum and the usefulness of a gyroscope in space.
Waves of Light — a hands-on activity using diffraction grating to observe how different types of light and colors are created using different wavelengths.
Build the Change — participants will use LEGOs to create an object or building capable of growing or integrating plants in a public space.
The Power of Blue: Ocean Acidification — a demonstration on how pollution and carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere harm the oceans and their ecosystems.
Nature Inspired Technology — activities throughout the museum will demonstrate technology that has been inspired by nature, including wind turbines, Velcro, and paint.
Solar Scopes — solar telescopes outside the museum will allow visitors to safely observe the surface of the sun.
In addition to the Earth Day activities, guests will have access to the center’s hands-on exhibits, live demonstrations, a Smithsonian Spark!Lab, STEM Playground, and more, plus the Level Up exhibit exploring the relationship between science and games. Tickets to the Toyota 4D Engineering Theater will be available for purchase at the box office.
Tickets for Community Free Day may be reserved starting on April 12 here and will be released in waves. While they are free, visitors are encouraged to make reservations in advance.
Annual Taste of Leadership Oakland Celebrates Local Leaders
Leadership Oakland’s annual gala, Taste of Leadership Oakland 2023, will take place from 5:30-8:30 p.m. May 18 at 2GatherMore (3391 Cross Creek Parkway) in Auburn Hills.
“We are proud to be able to celebrate with this amazing event again this year,” says Susan Hollady, executive director of Leadership Oakland. “This end-of-the-year celebration is a true honor, noting all the hard work and fellowship that our Cornerstone graduates put in over the year.”
Taste of Leadership Oakland celebrates Cornerstone alumni, business partners, and the winners of its Leader of Leaders awards.
Sponsorship opportunities are available offering local businesses to connect with hundreds of community leaders, executives, business owners, and decision makers.
For more information, to purchase tickets and sponsorships, or nominate a leader, visit here.
TreeRunner West Bloomfield Begins 2023 Season with New Zipling Trail
TreeRunner West Bloomfield is open with spring hours and has a new attraction — the Zipling Trail.
Following the model of the Golden Grizzly trail at TreeRunner Rochester, this new addition features a 120-foot-long zipline that provides an “exciting experience” for the entire family.
To celebrate the launch of the Zipling Trail, TreeRunner West Bloomfield and Rochester are offering a limited-time promotion. Parents who book a family adventure by April 30 will receive a 15 percent discount on their total booking. Use the promo code SPRINGZIP when making an online reservation for West Bloomfield or Rochester. This applies to general admission tickets only.
“TreeRunner is committed to providing a safe and enjoyable environment for families, and in addition to the new zipline course, the park features multiple climbing courses and obstacle challenges, providing endless entertainment and opportunities for physical activity,” says Amanda Nouhan, director of marketing, at TreeRunner. “Parents can take comfort in knowing their children are engaging in a safe and healthy activity while enjoying quality family time.”
