Motor City Wine

MotorCity Wine is one of those spots Detroit does better than anybody. It's a Corktown wine bar that's been pouring since 2010, with bottles priced at retail plus a small corkage fee, a list that wanders from the Languedoc all the way to Georgia, free jazz on Wednesdays, and DJs that turn the whole room into a dance party on the weekends. The back patio is huge and basically doubles the place in the summer. No pretension, fair prices, a crowd that actually mixes, great music — as a wine bar, it's the real deal, and just about every review you can find online backs that up.

Now, the restrooms. This is where the night falls apart. For a bar that packs in this many people — dance floor going, patio full, lines at the bar on a good night — the restroom situation just can't keep up. It's bare-bones and beat-up, the kind of restroom that feels like an afterthought while all the love went into the wine list and the sound system. Don't expect the extras that earn points on Shooki, and nothing about it makes you want to spend one second longer in there than you have to. When a spot regularly runs this crowded, the restroom has to carry its share of the load, and this one doesn't come close.

Come for the wine, the jazz, and the patio — plan your bathroom stops elsewhere. MotorCity Wine lands at a 2/10 on Shooki.