Nancy Whiskey

Nancy Whiskey has poured drinks in Corktown since 1902, in a building that started life as Digby’s General Store — look for the tiled “Digby” mosaic still set into the front stoop. It claims the oldest uninterrupted liquor license in Detroit, survived a 2009 fire, and is widely considered one of the city’s most reliably haunted bars: staff and regulars report disembodied voices after closing, glasses shattering with no one near them, and a general sense that the Digby family may never have fully checked out.

The bar’s most famous relic is the phone booth just inside the door, long rumored to have been Jimmy Hoffa’s preferred spot for business calls he didn’t want on his own tapped line — he reportedly stationed security outside to keep the booth clear. The kitchen turns out a genuinely well-regarded fish fry (a Lenten tradition here) alongside burgers, and the back patio has a fire pit and cornhole for slower nights.

On our radar as Detroit’s oldest continuously licensed bar with a story in every corner, or for the kind of neighborhood-institution energy that’s getting harder to find in Corktown.