Sports Host Says Wyandotte Is 'The Ticket' to Fun

Wyandotte's own was successful at getting sports commentator Terry Foster of WXYT-FM The Ticket to come to Wyandotte on Friday night.

Both Foster and Ptak said the night was long, but the party was hearty. Foster brought an entourage of guys from Oakland County with him. They had never been to Wyandotte and spent the night touring the local bars, checking out the the local hotspots and taking in the fun of the city's first

Foster shares with Wyandotte Patch his thoughts before coming down, as well as after the night in the 'Dotte. Ptak also shares his thoughts on how everything went down.

Downriver Party Bus to Wyandotte

I can tell that Jason Ptak is proud of Wyandotte. He is helping bring one of my twitter wars to life by sending a party bus to Oakland County to pick up some of my friends for a Downriver party bus tour.

He said Wyandotte is one of Detroit’s hidden gems and he is going to show it off to us this Friday as we tour at least four of the city’s finest places. The first stop is (7:30 p.m.), which will be followed by , and a surprise stop. I don’t know where the surprise stop is be but I am hoping it represents Downriver with fun people and a good atmosphere.

It is and hopefully there will be a lot of people out and about on Biddle Street.

How did this all happen?    

It began with a twitter war staged during the Tigers 2-1 loss Wednesday to the Chicago White Sox. I tweeted that I was so upset with the Tigers lethargic performance that I needed a Downriver bar tour to cheer me up. I asked people where I should or should not go and they gave me places to hit and places to avoid.  

I do hang Downriver now and then. I’ve been to Malarkey’s, Mallies, Nick’s Taproom, Screwie Louie’s, The Bronx and Do Hickeys. There are other spots but I cannot remember them right now. But Jason wants to show off Wyandotte and I eagerly accepted his invitation. I’ve gathered about 10 of my friends from Detroit and Oakland County and none of them go Downriver. One of my friends Cori is excited. She wants to experience something new and if she likes it she is sure to return.

We tend to stay in our own areas. It is rare that you find somebody from Oakland County hanging Downriver. And when was the last time you ran into somebody from Downriver in Macomb County? It just does not happen.

My friends rarely cross borders and are looking for a new adventure and can’t wait for the evening to begin.

Why Not Wyandotte?

WYANDOTTE — Do you want to know how cool the mayor of this river side community is?

I’d vote for him even if he were running against Janet Jackson in her prime. He’s got this city on lock down and it was fun meeting him during my bar tour here. I met the Mayor in Lions & Tigers & Beers as the city rolled out the red carpet for me and my friends during a lovely evening. I posted photos on twitter and Facebook to let you see what a swell time we had.

We also hit Do Hickeys, The Oak Cafe and I enjoyed a cigar at Sticks where I met a dude who picked out my cigar and a smooth tasting scotch to enjoy along with it.

And the Downriver honeys were out in force. The Mayor and I have something in common. We both love tall girl. I don’t know who she is but I had to take a photo of her and chat before our evening came to an end. If she said take me to Paris I would have been on delta.com in a heart beat. I like those tall girls. It is my weakness.

And the short ones were not bad either.

This was all set up by Jason Ptak who is from the area and knows everything there is about Wyandotte. He sent a party bus to Oakland County where we piled in for our tour. The party included Pistons beat writer Vinnie Goodwill and Johnny Walker Black whose daughter plays soccer with Celine. My pal Cori brought a friend but the bummer is my Sports Illustrated swim suit model pal Ellen Coleman contacted me too late and missed out.

She wants her own Downriver tour.

We enjoyed our mini version of the movie Hangover. We made it to a cigar bar, the , talked to the and just had a hell of a time.

This was the first visit to Wyandotte for my friends. The Mayor and everybody else are proud of their city and wanted to show it off. It is a long way for many of you who read this blog but it is worth the trip. I am lucky because I get to sample much of Metro Detroit because of my jobs. However, most people do not venture out of their comfort zone.

If you live in Royal Oak you rarely venture outside of your area. Macomb County people hang on the east side. Our common bond is downtown Detroit. However, I do encourage people to venture outside their comfort zone. You never know what you will find.

If you come to Wyandotte you might even run into the Mayor. He’ll be the guy strolling Biddle Ave making sure everybody is having a great time.

Terry Foster's Wyandotte Bar Tour

A great time was had by many on Friday night. I thought a trip report was in order to recap the festivities. Before I get to that, I’d like to thank everyone who made this night possible. Lions, Tigers & Beers, their owners Ed & Everett Sollars, and GM Josh Cade who played a big role in putting this together, were beyond generous. They, along with their sister properties, B-Fly Entertainment who donated the party bus for the night, and Stix Martini & Cigar Bar provided everything we could have asked for and more. The Oak Café and owner Mike Maciag were great as always and very accommodating. Do Hickey’s and owner Paul Hickey were very hospitable and provided some incredible food and also went out of their way to take great care of our group and provided anything we wanted. Everybody was great and I hope your efforts and contributions are rewarded with additional business.

The welcoming committee consisted of our driver extraordinaire Tim Calhoun, Josh Cade, Erik Gray, myself and cases of Bud Light and Summer Shandy. We listened to the Valenti & Foster show on our way to the 97.1 offices in Farmington Hills. Terry signed off the show by saying, “Here I come, Wyandotte”. He and his crew were ready and waiting when we arrived. We all cracked open a beer and then got to the introductions (in that order). Terry’s group consisted of Vinny, who is the Pistons beat writer for the Detroit News, Cori and her friend Brian, and John who served as Terry’s muscle for the night. We hit the road and were off to Wyandotte for a night of fun.

The first stop was Lions, Tigers & Beers. As we walked in, we were greeted by Wyandotte Mayor Joe Peterson and DDA Director Natalie Rankine. Terry and the Mayor hit it off immediately and light bulbs were a flashing. Our server Dominique, took good care of our group as we indulged in LTB’s signature steak bites, wings (nobody knew it happened to be national chicken wing day, thanks to BJ Reynolds for the info) and beer. All of the staff was great, we were just missing our favorite bartender Jacki. Lots of people came by to say hi to Terry and he was very generous to accommodate everyone’s requests.

We loaded back up on the party bus and were off to The Oak Café for our next stop. We knew seating would be tough with 10 people in our group, but in typical Oak Café fashion, we merged in with a few people that had open seats at their table and fit right in. A big round of 22oz beers were sent our way and we got to work on them. Terry stepped away to meet some twitter followers and Vinny took that as an opportunity to hack into Terry’s twitter account and posted some hilarious fake tweets. Once we dragged Terry away from his fans, we were off to Do Hickey’s.

When we arrived at Do Hickey’s, I asked Terry if he would say hi to a few firemen next door. He was happy to do so and we went inside the Fire Station. We had to nix the idea of Terry sliding down the old fire pole despite his giddiness to attempt it, but we did get a quick demonstration by one of the firemen. We headed over to Do Hickey’s and walked into a nice reserved spot and Paul started sending out the food he had prepared. Ahi tuna, chicken & artichoke pita pizza and his legendary ribs were on the menu for us. It was all tremendous and was devoured very quickly. There were a lot of people there to meet Terry and once again, he made time for everyone. Kelly was our server and we had her running all around for our food and drinks and she was awesome. We introduced Terry and Vinny to Stoli bombs and they are now hooked. The guys said they wanted a cigar so we hopped on the bus and made a quick detour to Stix Martini & Cigar bar.

On our ride there, Terry called into 97.1 to talk to Dennis Fithian on the air. It was a great call and had everyone on the bus cracking up. He promised to bring Dennis on our next trip. We walked into Stix and headed directly for the humidor. Most of our group consisted of first time cigar smokers so they needed some guidance. After settling on our choices, a patron was not happy with Terry’s selection and escorted him back for a different choice. We also introduced the group to Hookah (which we had to smoke outside due to the smoking ban.) It was a tasty wildberry mint flavor that everyone enjoyed. We lounged in comfy leather chairs in the VIP room and lived like kings for 45 minutes. Terry and the group wanted to head back to LTB to see the transition it makes to the club scene after 10:00pm so we fired up the bus for our final stop.

We arrived at LTB and jumped right into the mix for round 2. It was a good crowd and everyone did a lot of people watching. After nearly 7 hours of hard charging partying, the lights came on and our night had come to an end. We said our goodbyes until next time and the party bus headed back to Farmington Hills.

In addition to all of the people and businesses that helped make this impromptu event possible, I’d just like to say that Terry Foster was outstanding. He was down to earth, funny, smart and humble. As I mentioned throughout the recap, he made time for every single person that wanted to say hi, get a picture, or talk sports with him during the night. I think Wyandotte and Downriver made a solid impression on him and his friends and he told me that they will be back. He emailed me today and said that he missed a text from his friend Ellen Coleman who is a Sports Illustrated swimsuit model saying that she wanted to come on the trip. Needless to say, plans are already in the works for round 2.