Sade: Love Deluxe Dinner
Vinyl Tasting at BasBlue
110 E Ferry St, Detroit, MI 48202
February 15, 2025
A dinner for lovers, where music is turned into a menu.
That’s the goal for Vinyl Tasting. The bi-monthly, rotating pop-up is one of the most innovative culinary experiences Detroit has to offer.
It’s the work of chefs Jermond Booze and Amber Beckem. They pick an artist and an album. They build a menu named after songs and imbue each dish with the sound, feel, and the personal histories each chef might have with a track. Those dishes are served atop vinyl records-turned-placemats.
Sade’s fourth album “Love Deluxe” from 1992 was on the table this time.
We’re talking major hits from a four-time platinum album. “No Ordinary Love.” “Kiss of Life.” “Cherish the Day.”
In the kitchen of Booze and Beckem, those songs and others were interpreted as West African-tinged dishes, a nod to Sade’s Nigerian-British background.
Each dish was paired with a 2 ounce pour of wine. The venue was BasBlue, a multifaceted, women’s-focused nonprofit that operates a cafe and event space out of an old Victorian manor just north of Detroit’s cultural district.
The duo split up the dishes but have been working long enough together that each dish was still woven into the larger context of the nearly three-hour dinner. I was a leisurely experience that could honestly have been longer (as long as you had good company, which I did).
“Cherish The Day” was the work of Beckem, using shredded carrots to create a vegetarian tartare with hot honey mustard and citrus tamarind spice vinaigrette. The texture of the carrots masterfully captured the tartare texture – one of my favorite dishes of the night.
“I Couldn’t Love You More” became a celery root (having a moment on local menus!) and parsnip veloute soup with an herb emulsion, chili oil and shaved perigord mushrooms.
The dish of the night for me was “Kiss Of Life,” which also happens to be a favorite Sade song of mine. Suya-spiced (common in northern Nigeria) duck and egusi potstickers (another West African ingredient) accompanied by a rich garlic sauce and pickled cucumber and carrot that should honestly be served with every meal I have here on out.
One of the best desserts I’ve ever eaten came from superstar pastry chef Amanda Sikna, making a cameo appearance at this Vinyl Tasting.
Her take on “No Ordinary Love” was a perfectly balanced, not-too-sweet dark chocolate cake with citrus chin chin, a burst of rich juiciness from tarragon-infused cherries and a Lebanese olive oil “snow” that offered one of the most perplexing textures my tongue has ever felt, like cotton candy disintegrating in your mouth but also not quite. It was totally its own thing and completely new to me.
What a wonderful way to wrap dinner.
Vinyl Tasting draws a diverse crowd but focuses on music that is often excluded from a traditional fine dining setting. Past musicians have included Beyonce, Kendrick Lamar, OutKast. These artists don’t scream “soundtrack to a six-course dinner,” but there’s no reason for them not to be on the playlist.
That’s part of a larger service industry issue that Booze and Beckem are looking to course correct, recently telling a local magazine: “A lot of people don’t consider hip-hop or R&B or techno acceptable in fine-dining spaces. We love bridging that gap.”
The music that a restaurant plays signals a lot to the patron. It goes hand-in-hand with the type of beer and liquor available, too. It’s not pandering -- it’s understanding that different people from different backgrounds want different things. To not offer a diversity of options signals, from the owner directly, that they don’t want a diverse clientele.
This is at least my third time checking out Vinyl Tasting. Each time, the food gets better, the service gets sharper and the vision becomes clearer. To rotate a skeleton staff and rotate locations every other month while still executing at this level is a wonder.
It’s completely transformed my respect and understanding for what it takes to deliver a six-course meal as pop-up chefs making it happen in a DIY fashion or a full army of chefs in a brick-and-mortar restaurant.
There’s no doubt that Vinyl Tasting is a must-try for anyone in metro Detroit.
