Gifts for Someone Who Moved Away From Detroit

Koegel Meats in Flint says plainly on its website that it does not sell its meat products online. The company has been in business since 1916, and it says its products are sold almost exclusively in Michigan, with a small share going to Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky. For anyone who grew up on Koegel's and now lives in Phoenix or Charlotte, that means the Viennas come home in a cooler, in somebody's trunk, or not at all.

If you are shopping for someone who moved away from Detroit, that is the useful starting point. The things people miss are specific, cheap and mostly hard to find outside the state. A big basket of generic gourmet snacks will get a polite thank-you. A can of Vernors and a bag of the right chips can get a phone call.

The short list

The Detroit version of homesick food is not complicated. Vernors, and the Boston Cooler made with it. Faygo, Rock & Rye in particular. Better Made chips. Koegel's. Coney dogs. Sanders bumpy cake and hot fudge. A square of Detroit-style pizza. Paczki in February. Mackinac Island fudge from the trip up north. Then the deeper cuts: olive burgers, Superman ice cream, almond boneless chicken, a pasty from the U.P., dried cherries, Kar's Nuts, a box of Jiffy, Trenary Toast.

Not all of it can travel. Here is what can, and what to do about the rest.

The ones that ship well

Vernors. James Vernor, a Detroit pharmacist, first served his ginger ale to the public in 1866, according to Keurig Dr Pepper, which owns the brand now. Fans marked its 160th year on June 14 with a block party on Riopelle Street in Eastern Market. Send the cans with a note on how to make a Boston Cooler, because the person on the other end may not have had one in years. Our method: chill the Vernors hard. Put two big scoops of vanilla ice cream in a tall glass, pour the Vernors in slowly so it foams up instead of over, and let it sit a minute before you stir.

Faygo Rock & Rye. Faygo has been made in Detroit since 1907, and it has bottled on Gratiot Avenue since 1935, according to the Detroit Historical Society. Naming the flavor matters. Anyone can buy a variety pack. Rock & Rye, which Faygo introduced in the 1920s according to a company history adapted from the International Directory of Company Histories, tells the recipient you remember what was actually in the fridge.

Better Made. Cross Moceri and Peter Cipriano started the company in Detroit in 1930, according to the Detroit Historical Society, and Better Made still lists 10148 Gratiot as its address. If they grew up eating the Rainbow chips, send those. Better Made says it worked with potato breeders and farmers for years to develop a higher-sugar potato for them, and the sugar caramelizes in the fryer, which is why the chips come out dark. Pack chips on top so the cans do not crush them.

Sanders hot fudge. The bumpy cake is perishable, and it is the one many people mention first. The hot fudge is the version that survives a trip across the country. Fred Sanders opened his first Detroit shop in 1875, according to the company. The toppings vanished from shelves for nearly a year after Sanders paused production in fall 2022, WXYZ reported, which is a good reason not to take a jar for granted.

The ones that don't, and what to send instead

Coney dogs are the hardest. The dog, the chili, the onions and the steamed bun all need to come together hot, and nothing in a box does that. What does travel is canned Detroit coney sauce and a recipe card, so the recipient can make a reasonable version on a weeknight with whatever natural-casing hot dogs they can find locally. If you live close enough to drive, bring Koegel's in a cooler.

Detroit-style pizza is easier than it used to be. Buddy's, where Gus Guerra made the first square pizza at Six Mile and Conant in 1946 according to the company, now ships frozen pizzas nationwide through Goldbelly. Tell the recipient before it arrives so it does not sit on a porch.

Superman ice cream, paczki and olive burgers are better left to the card. Someone who grew up here will know exactly which shop you mean.

The cheap things that say the most

Some of the strongest items on the homesick list cost less than $10.

Jiffy corn muffin mix. Mabel White Holmes created the first prepared baking mix sold to the public in 1930, according to Chelsea Milling Company, which has been family owned since its founding as a flour mill in 1901 and still runs out of Chelsea. Put it next to the coney sauce and it is dinner.

Trenary Toast. Trenary Home Bakery in the Upper Peninsula was founded in 1928 by Finnish immigrants, according to the bakery. Its toast is a dry, cinnamon-sugared bread meant for dunking in coffee, and the bakery sells it online. Anyone from up north will recognize the bag before they open the box.

Mackinac Island fudge. Sara Murdick opened Murdick's Candy Kitchen, the island's first candy shop, in 1887, according to Original Murdick's Fudge. The Mackinac Island Tourism Bureau says island fudge can be ordered online year-round, and many shops run holiday flavors in winter.

Packing it

The simplest version is a flat-rate box: cans in the middle wrapped in a towel, chips on top, jars in a zip bag in case of a leak, and a real note. If you would rather have it done, The 313 Box ($79) has Better Made chips, Faygo Rock & Rye, Vernors, Sanders hot fudge, Germack cherry and praline nuts from Eastern Market, Red Pelican mustard and Leo's Greek dressing. A build-your-own box, from $89, can add canned Detroit coney sauce with our coney recipe card and Jiffy corn muffin mix. Both are packed by hand in Detroit, with a handwritten card in every box, and ship to all 50 states. For someone who moved to Canada, send The 313 Box, which ships there too. The coney kit stays in the U.S. because the sauce contains meat, and Jiffy stays with it.

On timing, the U.S. Postal Service recommends mailing by Dec. 17 for Ground Advantage delivery by Christmas within the lower 48 states, and by Dec. 18 for Priority Mail. For Canada, the Postal Service lists Dec. 9 for First-Class Package International Service and Priority Mail International. Our own order-by dates are in the shipping section of our homepage.

Write the card by hand. Name a street, a restaurant, the Thanksgiving game, a cousin, the bench on Belle Isle. The Vernors gets the box opened. The card is the part that stays on the fridge.