Michael Mina

Bourbon Steak at MGM Grand Detroit, Detroit

Photograph by Nick Martines

Cooking an unforgettable steak requires poached butter, garlic, just the right seasonings, and an artful twirl of the wrist. “I feel very fortunate that Detroit has given me such a warm reception,” says celebrity chef Michael Mina, left. “It feels great to help be a catalyst for positive growth and development.” For his Bourbon Steak at MGM Grand Detroit, which opened last fall, Mina’s preference was to work with a local distributor of Piedmontese, Kobe, and other cuts of beef. “When I first met Michael last October, we hit it off right away and have become good friends,” says Emmet Baratta, right, vice president of marketing and national sales for Fairway Packing Co. in Detroit’s Eastern Market. From sharing quick retreats to Las Vegas or researching different beefs — like the Grade A5 Kobe, below — the two are proving that business and friendship can mix. “We’ve started supplying Michael’s restaurants around the country, so it’s been a good growth market for us,” Baratta says. “Plus I feel more confident working with other chefs.”

This article appears in the September 2008 of DBusiness.
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