In recent times, “slider has just come to mean a mini hamburger,” says Kelly Cobb, third-generation owner of Hunter House. Sliders, a recent fad on the fancy restaurant trail, aren’t a new invention, nor is White Castle the only long-established slider maker. Hunter House has been making them since 1952 in Birmingham (and “better and different than White Castle,” Cobb scoffs). Metro Detroit is actually home to several famous slider restaurants, like Bates, Greene’s, and Telway.
This is not a chain. Cobb’s grandfather bought Hunter House in 1982 (the Woodward bypass around downtown Birmingham used to be called Hunter Ave.). Kelly Cobb, now thirty, went to U-M, majored in philosophy and poli sci, and was well acquainted with White Market, which occupied the address when he was in school. He’s brought something new to the menu that won’t be found in Birmingham: milkshakes. ” I thought we’d maybe sell ten a day, and my wife thought it would be 100 a day, and she was closer. It’s about fifty.”
His wife, Kaitlyn Buss, is an editorial writer for the Detroit News (she knows Charlie LeDuff, who made the Detroit News newly famous in Detroit: An American Autopsy), and his mom, Susan, is sometimes behind the counter in Ann Arbor, though she’s usually running the Woodward store, and “Dad was in here earlier washing dishes.” Manager Jesse Phelps has been with Hunter House for five years and has moved to Ann Arbor.
HH doesn’t deliver, but Cobb says it does a lot of catering. “In Detroit it’s kind of a thing to have your wedding catered by Hunter House.”
Hunter House, 609 E. William, 368-9592. Mon.-Wed. 11 a.m.-11 p.m., Thurs.-Sat. 11 a.m.-3 a.m., Sun. 11 a.m.-9 p.m. hunterhousehamburgers.com
