Tommy’s Detroit Bar & Grill

Tommy’s Detroit Bar & Grill occupies a building dating to 1840, and it’s spent nearly two centuries collecting one of the more remarkable back-stories in the city: a documented stop on the Underground Railroad, and later, during Prohibition, a speakeasy called Little Harry’s with ties to the Purple Gang. A 2013 Wayne State archaeological dig confirmed the speakeasy history, uncovering a false room in the basement with no doors or windows — built, historians believe, to conceal a tunnel used to smuggle liquor in from the Detroit River.

Owner Tommy Burelle has run the bar since 2011 and says the paranormal activity started almost immediately — items falling from shelves, unexplained sounds, and what he describes as at least one distinctly unsettling presence in the basement near the old speakeasy room. Basement tours are available on request if you ask about the building’s history, and the bar sits directly across from the former Joe Louis Arena site, with a free shuttle to Ford Field, Comerica Park, and other downtown venues on game days.

On our radar for genuinely documented history layered under the ghost stories, or for a solid burger before a Red Wings game with a basement worth asking about.