An acclaimed Irish chef is trading Dublin's dining rooms for Detroit's neighborhoods next week, with a lineup that runs from a $40 outdoor cookout in Core City Park to a $175-per-person, five-course finale dinner inside one of the city's most talked-about cocktail lounges. Kevin Burke, who has worked at Michelin-starred restaurants in Ireland, arrives for four events spread across four days, starting next Tuesday and next Friday.
The visit is a joint effort between Bog & Thunder and Detroit's Bev's Bagels, according to The Detroit News, whose Melody Baetens reported on the full schedule. Bog & Thunder was co-founded by Belfast-born Kate McCabe and her husband, James Beard Award-nominated chef Max Sussman, as a company built around connecting Irish and American food cultures, according to Frame. Sussman also happens to run Bev's Bagels, giving the two organizations a direct line into Detroit's neighborhood food scene.
Cookout Kicks Off the Week in Core City
The festivities begin next Tuesday with an outdoor cookout at Core City Park starting at 6:30 p.m., with tickets running $40 per person, per the same Detroit News report. The menu includes merguez sausage on Bev's house-made hoagie rolls along with side dishes built around Michigan produce, and guests are welcome to bring their own alcohol. The cookout also marks the debut of Bev's Soft Serve, a new ice cream offering from the bagel shop, with flavors including cherry-yuzu, caramel apple, cinnamon raisin, and berry cheesecake.
Bev's Bagels itself is only about a year old. Sussman launched the organic sourdough bagel shop in May 2025 at 4884 Grand River Ave. in Core City, taking over part of the former Detroit Institute of Bagels space, according to ClickOnDetroit, and named it after his grandmother Bev. The shop has grown quickly since: in December 2025 it announced plans to double its Core City footprint and open a new 1,500-square-foot location in downtown Ann Arbor this year, a market Sussman knows well since it's where he started cooking more than two decades ago, according to Axios.
A Free Pop-Up, Then a $175 Finale at Aleo
Two days after the cookout, Burke heads back to Bev's Bagels at 4884 Grand River for a free pop-up on Aug. 20, running 6-8 p.m., where he'll provide a special pizza for the occasion, per the Detroit News report. The visit then closes out Aug. 21 at Aleo, the bed and breakfast in Detroit's Little Village neighborhood, where Burke's finale includes four separate dinner seatings, each featuring a five-course meal for $175 per person. The team behind Aleo's Father Forgive Me cocktail lounge will offer wine and cocktail pairings for purchase during the dinner.
Father Forgive Me has built a serious national reputation of its own in recent weeks. The bar, housed inside a converted 1911 church garage on The Shepherd cultural campus, opened in June 2025 in partnership with hospitality partner Joe Robinson, according to Crain's Detroit Business. In July, USA Today named it one of the best bars in America, and World's 50 Best Bars ranked it No. 83 on its North America extended list, as Hoodline previously reported. Aleo and The Shepherd campus were developed by Anthony and JJ Curis, founders of the Library Street Collective art gallery, as part of a 3.5-acre Little Village neighborhood transformation launched in May 2024 that blends art galleries, public parks, bed and breakfasts, and food destinations, according to Forbes.
Burke's Own Dublin Pedigree
Burke's credentials stretch well beyond this single visit. He studied culinary arts at the Dublin Institute of Technology and went on to work at Michelin-starred restaurants in Ireland, according to the Detroit News. His own Dublin restaurant, Library Street, opened in 2021 on South Frederick Street and has earned critical acclaim, taking its name from an 18th-century street plan leading toward Trinity College, per background from Castlemartyr Resort.
This is not Burke's first Detroit-area appearance. He previously worked with Bog & Thunder and Sussman in March 2023, hosting a multi-course St. Patrick's Day dinner at the Hazel Park venue Frame that paired traditional Irish ingredients with local drinks. That earlier collaboration suggests next week's four-stop run continues a culinary exchange that's been building between Burke and Detroit food organizers for several years, part of a broader trend of transatlantic tours linking Michigan chefs and Irish producers — Bog & Thunder has also charged up to $9,500 per guest for a weeklong Cork food tour led by Ann Arbor chef Joseph VanWagner, according to Current Magazine.
