A Local’s Guide to Detroit’s East Side

Detroit’s East Side Is Having a Moment—Here’s Where to Go, According to a Local

Photographer Elonte Davis shares the restaurants, green spaces, and cultural touchpoints that make Detroit’s East Side worth the trip.

An overhead view of a canoe and kayak in the tree-lined river waters surrounding Belle Isle with a road and parking on the right and an observatory on the left — A canoe and kayak in the waters surrounding Belle Isle

Award-winning photographer Elonte Davis made his name chronicling the many lives of Black Detroit. A proud product of the East Side’s Osborn neighborhood, he describes a “block-by-block” approach to documenting the city. If you’re looking for a deeper way to visit—even if you’re familiar with the celebrated art, architecture, and music—Davis says you haven’t experienced Detroit until you “leave time to wander.”

He’s kept his camera at hand for the past decade, since catching the winning play of a neighborhood football game. The results are slices of life, frozen moments in time that have made him a “memory engineer” who captures “everyday life, the overlooked person, and the overlooked places.”

Photographer Elonte Davis sitting next to a railing in front of the Detroit skyline wearing a blue and white striped rugby shirt, blue jeans, and light brown sunglasses — Photographer Elonte Davis in Detroit

Osborn is one of the best places to meet “the real people of Detroit,” the photographer and 2025 Kresge Visual Arts Fellow says. Blending cultural insight with local flavor, Davis shares the Motor City’s best places to grab a bite, enjoy art and nature, and discover unexpected gems across the East Side and beyond.

Eat soul food, try a diner, and sip cocktails on the East Side

A chef in a white apron with glasses and a gray mustache pours chili from a large metal pot over two hot dogs at a Coney Island, or diner, in Detroit — A Coney Island, or diner, in Detroit

What most people call a diner, Detroiters call a Coney Island. Davis says Zorba’s Coney Island is a classic, and it’s open for breakfast.

At lunchtime, head to Lape Soulfood and try Davis’ go-to meal of turkey chops, macaroni, and greens. Or seek out Food Exchange to order the Big Baby—the kind of corned beef sandwich Detroit locals (including Davis) swear by. They Say, which has a second location in nearby Harper Woods, is another East Side favorite.

When you’re ready for happy hour and dinner, try Me & You Kitchen + Cocktails, which frames itself as “East Side energy”—a place where you “feel the city around you.” End your evening with a nightcap at the Blue Martini Sports Lounge or with live music at the Detroit Blues Cafe before you go downtown to turn in for the night at the quintessentially Detroit Shinola Hotel.

Take a walk and see the views in Belle Isle Park

A person lounging in a green and white lawn chair with their feet up on a railing takes in the view of the Detroit River and skyline from Belle Isle Park — A view of Detroit from Belle Isle Park

Venture down Pleasure Drive to visit Belle Isle Park. The nearly 1,000-acre park is an island in the Detroit River, with views of the city’s skyline on one side and Windsor in Ontario, Canada, on the other.

It has a special meditative effect at sunset, Davis says. He recommends his perch along the river behind the newly renovated 1908 Belle Isle Casino. “That water, those trees … nature is how you get back to sense of self. Sit on a rock. Gather your thoughts.” For a special event, the Renaissance Revival landmark reopened in March 2026 after a $7.3 million restoration and is now available for private rental.

Attend Detroit’s summer events

View from behind a DJ with long dark hair playing for a crowded dark room with two white spotlights and red accent lights at one of the Movement Music Festival’s after parties — One of the Movement Music Festival’s after parties

Perhaps the best way to fully experience the people of Detroit is to go to one of its signature summer events. The birthplace of techno, the city draws the electronic music world in force for the annual Movement Music Festival at Hart Plaza downtown (next taking place May 29–31, 2027). The Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix, which Davis was excited to photograph this year, revs through the downtown streets in early June.

The Concert of Colors heats up each July in venues around Midtown, including the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA). This year, the event featured Sheila E. as the headliner and hometown icon Don Was. At the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, where Davis has shown his work, the Black Bottom | Black Legacy Festival takes place every year in mid-August.

Two photographs by Elonte Davis. The one on the right is a group of four men smiling and laughing in a parking lot at night. The one on the left is a black and white image taken from behind a child on a swing, wearing a sweatshirt and backwards baseball hat. — Installation views of photographs by Elonte Davis

With work currently at the Wright, a workshop stint at the DIA, and local and international exhibitions under his belt, the self-styled Slumdog Visionaire recently earned the Spirit of Detroit Award for the way his work immortalizes Detroiters. “I scream out 48205,” he says, referring to the zip code of his Osborn neighborhood. “I scream out Detroit, I scream out East Side. Because when I was coming up you didn’t see people in this industry thriving that looked like me … I want to give the kids that power, [to] see someone that looks like them, that’s from where they’re from.”

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