Parc

A proper restaurant planted in the middle of a public square is a rare thing, and Parc has held that ground since fall 2016 — a glass-wrapped dining room at the center of Campus Martius with the park pressing in on every side. The kitchen does contemporary Detroit and Midwest flavors with French and Mediterranean leanings, a wood-fired grill doing the heavy lifting, and a wine list with real range; when the weather cooperates, the floor-to-ceiling windows open up and the whole room goes al fresco, the line between dining room and park dissolving entirely. Weekday lunch, weekend brunch, dinner nightly, and a daily social hour in between — it’s the dressed-up anchor of the park, run by the same group behind BrisaBar, its barefoot sibling a few steps away.

Full disclosure: we’ve circled that patio with a camera on a park day, but we haven’t taken a table yet. It’s high on our list for exactly the occasion it seems built for — the dinner where you want the ice rink or the fountain glittering just past the glass, downtown rising all around you, without ever leaving your seat.