What's for Lunch or Dinner? Take Your Pick in America's New No. 3 Up-and-Coming Food City: Watch

On the mend financially and culturally, Detroit just got a major shot in the arm for a “ballsy DIY attitude” cited by the dining guide Zagat, which named the Motor City the third-hottest up-and-coming food city in America.

“Detroit’s burgeoning culinary scene, fueled by a ballsy, DIY attitude, is ready to hold its own in the national arena,” Zagat said in announcing the rankings in which Detroit finished behind Birmingham, AL, and Oakland/Berkeley, CA.

“Detroit’s dining scene, much like the city itself, is undergoing a period of rapid transformation,” Zagat said. “The food-obsessed from the suburbs and beyond are returning to the long-beleaguered downtown areas, with a new-found curiosity for exotic cuisines, flavors and ideas. Innovative pop-ups, homegrown distilleries, urban farms and a growing number of celebrity chefs (Michael Symon, Wolfgang Puck and soon, Roy Choi) have all helped to land the city at No. 3 on our ranking.”

Zagat said that while New Yorkers and Angelenos might roll their eyes at the phrase, “pop-up” restaurants have served as an incubator for some of the hottest chef talents, including Kate Williams and Andy Hallyday, who test new menus at a permanent pop-up space in the Hamtramck neighborhood.

TELL US:

• What’s your favorite place to eat in the Detroit metro and what makes it special? Go!

And Guns and Butter, one of the most famous of the pop-ups, plans a future permanent location that will bring high-end, forward-thinking cuisine to the city. Also using the pop-up concept is Motor City Wine, a newish wine bar located in Corktown.

Zagat directs its viewers to Corktown, the city’s oldest neighborhood, and to venues like

Slow’s Bar BQ, Mercury Burger Bar, the craft cocktail hub Sugar House, Motor City Wine, Two James Spirits and Gold Cash Gold.

Some others include the farm-to-table hot spot Selden Standard, located on the Cass Corridor; Green Dot Stables, one of Detroit’s hottest gastropubs on the riverfront; and Johnny Noodle King, which brought authentic ramen to Detroit for the first time.

Rounding out the Top 10 are, in order of ranking: Asheville, NC; Minneapolis, MN; Nashville, TN; Louisville, KY; Durham, NC; Phoenix/Scottsdale, AZ; and San Antonio, TX.