Famous Detroit Foods: The Complete List, From Coneys to Vernors

Ask someone who left Detroit what they miss, and the answer is rarely a restaurant. It's a can of Vernors that burns the back of your nose. A bag of Better Made with the dark chips at the bottom. A coney with everything on West Lafayette.

Here is the full list of foods Detroit is known for, with where each one came from, why it matters to the people who grew up on it, and a straight answer on whether it can be shipped. Some travel well in a box. Some only exist in the city, and you have to come home for them.

The ones that ship

1. Vernors ginger ale

James Vernor began serving his ginger ale from a pharmacy on Woodward Avenue in 1866, according to the Detroit Historical Society, which calls it one of the nation's oldest soft drinks. The company's favorite story says Vernor left a ginger-and-vanilla blend in an oak barrel when he went off to the Civil War and came home to find it changed. His own son, James Vernor Jr., later disputed that story, Michigan's Gander Newsroom reported.

Vernors left the city a long time ago. The last bottle came off the line at the Woodward plant on Jan. 18, 1985, according to Historic Detroit. Keurig Dr Pepper owns the brand now, and Gander reported in 2024 that it is bottled in Holland, Michigan, with roughly 80 percent of sales still in-state.

Why it matters: It's the drink Detroit parents hand a kid with an upset stomach, and the fizz is stronger than anything else on the shelf. Ships: Yes, in cans.

2. The Boston Cooler

Vernors and vanilla ice cream. The name is older than the drink. WDET traced "Boston Cooler" to an 1889 newspaper item about a New York cocktail, and found soda fountains used it for all sorts of ice cream concoctions before Vernors took it over. The Vernors company copyrighted the term in 1967 for an ice cream bar, according to WDET. It has nothing to do with Boston Boulevard.

Why it matters: It's the first dessert a lot of Detroiters learned to make themselves. Ships: The Vernors does. Add your own ice cream; our method is in how to make a Boston Cooler.

3. Faygo

Ben and Perry Feigenson, Russian immigrant bakers, started bottling soda in Detroit in 1907, and shortened Feigenson Brothers Bottling Works to Faygo in 1921, according to Faygo's own history page. The company still lists itself as made in Detroit. Rock & Rye, the flavor people ask for by name, dates to the 1920s and took its name from a jazz-age drink of rye whiskey poured over rock sugar, the International Directory of Company Histories records.

Why it matters: Every family has a Faygo flavor, and most fights about it are about Rock & Rye. Ships: Yes. More on the flavor in our Rock & Rye story.

4. Better Made potato chips

Better Made started in 1930 as the Cross and Peters Company. It is still family-owned and still fries chips at 10148 Gratiot Ave. on the east side, according to the company. The cult item is the Rainbow chip, sometimes called the burnt chip. Better Made says it worked with potato breeders for years to grow a higher-sugar potato, so the chips caramelize dark and taste bittersweet on purpose.

Why it matters: It's the chip at every Detroit graduation party, and the bag people carry back in a suitcase. Ships: Yes. Better Made sells online, and the history is in our Better Made story.

5. Sanders hot fudge

Fred Sanders opened his candy store at Woodward and Gratiot on June 17, 1875, according to the Detroit Historical Society. The hot fudge, poured over a cream puff at the old Sanders counters, is what most people mean when they say the name. The company has changed hands several times and now belongs to Second Nature Brands of Madison Heights. After the 2022 sale to the private equity firm CapVest, the company found its fudge equipment antiquated and moved production to an outside facility, Deadline Detroit reported. The recipe was simplified at the same time, and some longtime fans noticed.

Why it matters: A hot fudge cream puff was the reward for surviving a day downtown at Hudson's. Ships: Yes, jars travel well. Our Sanders hot fudge story has the cream puff method.

6. Sanders Bumpy Cake

Chocolate devil's food cake, ridges of buttercream on top, all covered in chocolate ganache. The Detroit Historical Society lists it among Sanders' best-known products. For years it was baked at Awrey's in Livonia. That bakery closed in 2023, WXYZ reported, and stock ran down until Sanders announced in May 2024 that it had found new bakers. It has not named them, FOX 2 reported.

Why it matters: It was the default birthday cake in a lot of metro Detroit houses. Ships: It's a fresh buttercream cake, so it's a poor traveler. Send the hot fudge instead.

7. Germack pistachios and nuts

Germack says it began roasting nuts in Eastern Market in 1924 and calls itself the first company in America to import and roast pistachios. The family story starts with John and Frank Germack Sr. coming through Ellis Island in 1912. Frank Sr. dyed his pistachios red, the company says, partly to hide stains from the harvest. The store is at 2509 Russell St.; the roasting plant is at 2140 Wilkins St.

Why it matters: A paper bag of warm nuts from Germack is part of a Saturday at Eastern Market. Ships: Yes. See our Germack story.

8. Kar's Nuts

Kar's began in 1933, when Sue Kar roasted peanuts at home and sold them outside Navin Field, the ballpark that became Tiger Stadium, according to the company's 2018 merger announcement. It is best known for Sweet 'N Salty Mix, roasted nuts with raisins, cocoa gems and sunflower kernels, sold in convenience stores and vending machines. Kar's is now part of Second Nature Brands, the same company that owns Sanders.

Why it matters: Ballpark peanuts that turned into a statewide habit. Ships: Yes.

9. Zip sauce

A butter-based steak sauce that came out of the kitchen at Lelli's Inn, an Italian restaurant in Detroit, in the 1940s, according to America's Test Kitchen. Other restaurants copied it, and bottled versions are now sold around Detroit and online.

Why it matters: It's the thing an expat orders first at a Detroit steakhouse and can't find anywhere else. Ships: The bottled versions do.

10. Koegel's Viennas (Flint, technically)

Koegel's is a Flint company, not a Detroit one, and Flint would like that noted. Albert Koegel, trained as a sausage maker in Germany, opened in Flint in 1916, and the company has been on West Bristol Road since 1972, according to Koegel's own history. Flint's coney shops use the Koegel coney frank, a slight variation on the Vienna made to hold on a grill.

Why it matters: This is the hot dog Michiganders who moved south have relatives drive down to them. Ships: Not directly. Koegel's says it does not sell meat online, though it lists retailers that do.

The ones that mostly don't

11. The Detroit coney dog

A beef hot dog in natural casing on a steamed bun, with beanless chili, chopped white onions and yellow mustard, as the Detroit Historical Society describes it. Gust Keros, a Greek immigrant, opened American Coney Island on West Lafayette in 1917. His brother William opened Lafayette Coney Island next door in 1924. American is still run by the Keros family; Lafayette is no longer family-owned. The rivalry has outlived both founders. (For the record, the historical society notes that Todoroff's in Jackson opened in 1914, before either one.)

Why it matters: Picking American or Lafayette is a Detroit loyalty test. Ships: Partly. American Coney Island sells a kit through Goldbelly. Or build one at home with canned coney sauce; here's how.

12. Detroit-style pizza

Square, thick, with a crust that fries crisp against the pan and cheese melted into a dark edge. Gus Guerra made the first one at Buddy's Rendezvous at Six Mile and Conant in 1946, according to Buddy's, which says the original steel pans were borrowed from auto plants. WDET reported the recipe drew on Anna Guerra's Sicilian family's sfincione, uses Wisconsin brick cheese, and puts the sauce on top. It stayed a local thing until 2012, when Shawn Randazzo won a world pizza championship in Las Vegas with a Detroit-style pie.

Why it matters: National chains sell their version now. Detroiters know where it started. Ships: Buddy's ships frozen pies through Goldbelly.

13. Paczki in Hamtramck

Fried, filled, sugared Polish doughnuts, eaten on Fat Tuesday before Lent. Polish families came to Hamtramck in the early 1900s for jobs at the Dodge Main plant, ClickOnDetroit reported, and at their peak made up about three-quarters of the city. The lines on Paczki Day start before dawn. New Palace Bakery on Joseph Campau, family-owned since 1908, opened at 3 a.m. one recent year.

Why it matters: Paczki Day is the one morning metro Detroit eats breakfast in Hamtramck. Ships: No. New Palace lists pickup, not shipping. This one you eat fresh.

14. Mexicantown

Mexican families began arriving in Detroit in the early 20th century, some fleeing the Mexican Revolution and many drawn by sugar beet work and Ford's $5-a-day wage, WXYZ reported. They settled first in Corktown, then moved southwest. In January 2026 the Bagley-West Vernor Historic District was added to the National Register of Historic Places, Outlier Media reported. The district includes places like La Gloria Bakery, which has been on the strip for about 45 years.

Why it matters: Tacos, tortas and pan dulce on Vernor have fed the city for a century. Ships: No. Go there.

15. Middle Eastern food in Dearborn

Arab immigrants, most from southern Lebanon, began settling in Dearborn's Southend in the 1920s to work at Ford's Rouge plant, according to The Conversation. In 2023 Dearborn became the first Arab-majority city in the country, with roughly 55 percent of its 110,000 residents reporting Middle Eastern or North African ancestry. The bakeries, shawarma counters and nut shops along Warren Avenue are the result.

Why it matters: For a lot of metro Detroiters, Dearborn is where they learned what good garlic sauce tastes like. Ships: The restaurant food doesn't. Some bakeries do: Shatila, founded in 1979 by Riad Shatila on West Warren, takes orders online.

16. Superman ice cream

Red, yellow and blue swirled together. The blue is nearly always Blue Moon. The other two vary by maker: red pop, raspberry or black cherry for red, and lemon, vanilla or banana for yellow, according to Tasting Table. Popular tradition credits Stroh's in Detroit, which went into ice cream when Prohibition shut down its beer, but Tasting Table notes the origin is disputed. The Stroh's ice cream part is solid; the Detroit Historical Society confirms the company's ice cream came out of Prohibition and is still sold today.

Why it matters: It's the flavor every Michigan kid ordered for the color. Ships: No.

17. Olive burgers

A burger topped with chopped green olives. This one belongs to the whole state more than to Detroit. Halo Burger, the Flint chain that started in 1923 as a Kewpee hamburger stand and was bought by the Thomas family in 1967, made it a signature, and QSR Web reports it is still the chain's best-known item.

Why it matters: It sounds odd to outsiders, which is part of the appeal. Ships: No.

18. The Hudson's Maurice salad

Strips of ham, turkey and Swiss cheese with sweet gherkins and olives over lettuce, under a lemony mayonnaise dressing. It came from the J.L. Hudson department store's restaurants downtown. Nobody knows for certain who created it. The Detroit Historical Museum still serves it, made from the original Hudson's recipes, at its holiday brunch.

Why it matters: It's a taste of a building that isn't there anymore. Ships: No. Make it at home.

Sending a box of it

The foods that ship are the ones people actually ask for. The 313 Box ($79) packs Better Made, Faygo Rock & Rye, Vernors for a Boston Cooler, Sanders hot fudge and Germack nuts. For someone who wants a coney at their own kitchen table, a build-your-own box, from $89, can hold canned Detroit coney sauce and our recipe card alongside the Sanders, Vernors, Faygo and Better Made.

Paczki, the Maurice and a double order from Lafayette still require a trip home.