Choixes Detroit: A Black-owned fast-food takeover of an abandoned Burger King

A couple years back, nearly every Burger King in Detroit closed; it's a long story, but I believe it was something about a single franchisee owned every BK in the city. Whatever, not important.

What's important is that every former Burger King in the city was vacant for a few years.

Recently, the one closest to my house re-opened as "Choixes" (choices with an X. I dunno). At first glance, it seemed like typical "McNaldo's" kinda hilarity. Like, clearly still a Burger King but rebadged. I am always down to clown with some goofy Detroit shit, so I finally went to check it out today.

It still has a drive-through, so I tried it out. The menu was pretty impressive for a fast-food clone, but definitely there was some "Detroitness" to it: first thing I noticed was that the fries offered three varieties: lemon pepper, cajun, and "straight out the grease" as the man told me over the speaker.

They have a pretty wide variety of fast food options: sliders, burgers, tenders, chicken sandwiches, wraps, shakes: typical fast food fare.

Hoever, then I noticed an entire vegan section of the menu... I've never seen a vegan menu in a drive through before. It had options like a cauliflower wrap or a falafel sandwich.

I'm not vegan but it's great to see more options.

I opted for the "Whaddupdoe Slider Combo" (for those unaware, whaddupdoe is a greeting that is unique to Detroit vernacular)

The combo is two sliders, fries, and a drink. I got the "Choixes Palmer" as my drink (lemonade and iced tea), and lemon pepper fries. I also ordered a cauliflower wrap for my vegetarian wife.

The guy who took the order was absolutely sunshiney and happy to be doing his job. He said things like "I hope you are having a fantastic day on this beautiful late summer afternoon!" and stuff like that. Definitely not "bored teenager" running the drive-through.

I pulled up and peeked in. The place was absolutely spotless. Now, I've been through here before when it was a Burger King, and it was never exactly 'clean', but the renovation must have included the deepest of deep-cleans because it was just pristine in there, and much less cluttered than it used to be.

I believe the joyful man who took my payment and gave me my order might have been the owner; he thanked me three times for "my business" and "my support" and said "I really hope you enjoy your food!" which is just a wild departure from ordering from a corporate restaurant.

The food was great. The sliders were perfect, cheap, and the buns were spectacular. They were not typical steamed slider buns; they were more like pillowy soft rolls or biscuits even. The fries were tremendous: lemon pepper was the correct play.

I've seen zero press on this, and they don't have a website (maybe they have a Facebook page or something I dunno) but damn... I am super impressed.

Choixes is at 8201 Woodward Avenue in the New Center area of Detroit.