Forget Park Place. You Can Put a Hotel on Ima Now in the New Special Edition Detroit Monopoly. #DetroitFood
The special Detroit edition of the legendary board game sold out in 48 hours. But here’s how to secure your set.
One of the city’s most recognized noodle houses and an iconic downtown coney island are now among the hot properties featured in a limited edition Motown version Hasbro’s Monopoly, released earlier this month. Ima — with locations in Cass Corridor and Madison Heights, and an izakaya in Corktown — along with downtown stalwart American Coney Island were among several food businesses included on the special edition board, launched on Friday, November 8.
In addition to Ima and American Coney Island, other landmarks featured on the board include Detroit’s own Faygo and the Roostertail, a riverfront event space that in the mid-20th century was a swanky restaurant and nightclub to the stars.
Mike Ransom, owner and chef of Ima, tells Eater that a representative from Top Trumps, the company that partners with Hasbro to produce official special versions of the famous board game, reached out to him several months ago from — and asked if he wanted his restaurant to be featured on the board. “I thought it was a spam email,” he says.
Turns out, Top Trumps was in the midst of narrowing down the thousands of recommendations from Detroiters, who chimed in on the landmarks they felt were deserving of inclusion on the game set, says Tim Barney, a representative for Top Trumps. Points of interest that made the final cut include Belle Isle, Book Tower, Eastern Market, the Ambassador Bridge, and the College for Creative Studies. New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago, among other cities, have been given the Monopoly treatment since 2020.
For the Motor City launch, organizers held a party at the Detroit Historical Museum, which included an appearance by a performer who wore an oversized Monopoly Man costume and posed with attendees.
Barney tells Eater that within 48 hours, the initial 10,000 copies available for retail had been claimed. For folks who’ve gotta get their hands on a set in time for the holidays, pre-orders are currently being accepted on the Top Trumps website, with stock of the game expected to return on Thursday, December 19.
Ransom and his team have been having fun with the unique experience of being included in such an influential piece of pop culture history, hiring local photographer Jacob Lewkow to snap pics with the Monopoly Man at Ima’s Corktown location. Ransom also worked with another artist, Kobie Solomon (who painted Ima’s signage when it opened its original spot in a small space in Corktown in 2016) to create an illustration of the famous character and give it a subtle Detroit makeover, which included outfitting the iconic figure with a pair of Chuck Taylor sneakers and other culturally specific touches.
“Whether it’s a landmark or a great restaurant, or an architecturally [significant] building, these are all things that when you come to the city, you want to either have the inside scoop from a local that tells you that these are things to check out or that you hope to be able to find in a directory somewhere,” says Ransom. “I kind of feel like the Monopoly game will live as a directory of cool things to do when you go to the city, but it’ll live in a game that will be on people’s shelves.”
from Eater Detroit - All
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