St. Martin de Porres Nursing Home

Summer 2008

Reminiscent of times past, it was Don & I alone departing the kingdom of Eddie Francis to cross the Detroit River for better times. Free from the female shackles of oppression we strove for the old school staple of visiting Detroit - 10% alcoholic content Evil Eye malt liquor.

Evil Eye had appeared on the shelves shortly after we began visiting Detroit. 40 ounces of 10% malt liquor was something that captivated us and it quickly joined the ranks of 211 and Camo High Gravity as the malt liquors of choice.

The problem was that, as quick as Evil Eye entered our lives, it left. For quite some time now, we haven't seen Evil Eye anywhere in Detroit. We're pretty sure it's not just 'our' liquor stores either, as we try to visit new ones frequently by choice and also when we find ourselves far away from the southwest sector.

I should explain that liquor stores don't exist by their proper names to us, but by the unique stories we have of them. The Toque Toque Liquor Store at Trumbull & Fort is named after a crazy crackhead who wore a tall toque and scared Steve away; the 'You have a sexy body' Liquor Store is named after the mid 50's arab owner saying this to a random female in our group and then there's the Evil Eye Liquor Store.

The Evil Eye Liquor Store sits on West Fort; a mere stones throw from the section of Interstate 75 connecting Detroit and Toledo. The Evil Eye Liquor Store is known as such because of their existing stock of Evil Eye. This liquor store would be more popular amongst our group, but EE Liquor must have noticed the demand and the fact that they couldn't get Evil Eye anymore - and then promptly marked up their remaining stock!

Now, we are talking about a Detroit markup here - approximately $2.29 to about $3.75; but it is the principal! The audacity of this liquor store to turn Evil Eye from a right to a privilege. It was with this attitude, that neither of us had purchased an Evil Eye in Michigan for a good two years.

This would become the day that we decided to treat ourselves and improve the day dramatically with this high powered brew.

Once Evil Eye was in our grasp, we decided to set our sights on the St.Martin de Porres Nursing Home.

For years we have seen this place and thought it may be okay; but we always had something better to do.

In turned out that St Martin de Porres was unbelievably brutal. The place was completely cleaned out, and only the drywall shell was left behind.

Even the roof view, which sometimes saves a place, was brutal. Its height allowed us to see very little.

We spent, at most, 20 minutes at St Martin de Porres before leaving unsatisfied and directly to something better on Jefferson Avenue.


The reason I'm even discussing this excursion came when driving up Moran Street towards Jefferson Ave.

Moran Street runs parallel to Mt.Elliott and provides a route from the area near the Packard to Gratiot Avenue. Since our next destination was on Jefferson, we needed to take one of these roads over to that area of the D.

Driving down Moran Street we came upon a house which had been converted into a party store. I pointed out the location and simultaneously we came to the conclusion that we should stop. Neither of us were done our Evil Eyes yet, but we also rarely venture into this area of the city and wanted to see inside.


The door to Boyd's is like any other liquor store, but once you open it, you come into a dimly lit room with wood paneling surrounding you. Walls on both sides contain newspapers and channel you towards the counter at centre. The candy is behind the counter to prevent snatch and grabs and two narrow spaces flank you to each side.

Turn right and you're upon a small area with colas and bottle return, turn left and you'll find coolers with sports drinks and the requisite liquor. The liquor selection is a random collection of various brews. You don't have shelves and shelves of quickly replenished liquor here; as it is far more random than that.

We talked to the man at the counter for a minute (forgive me for not remembering his name - see above about drinking Evil Eye). "Used to be an all white neighborhood, bought this house and expanded onto the front lawn. Place sure has changed a lot since then," he told us.

He was friendly and happy to allow me to take pictures inside. We both loved the place & Boyd's instantly became the go-to eastside party store.

We hadn't finished our Evil Eyes yet so we just bought a 211. We'll be back for more I'm sure.


I'm not trying to steal DetroitBlog's bit here as DetroitBlog has been posting some amazing, hidden Detroit spots on his website for over a year. It was just that I really enjoyed Boyd's to the point of where I was carrying on about it more the next day than any vacant place we went to.

Plus some cute girl had came out of the house while I was taking the above picture. I told Don that I should have said something, but he told me she was looking at me like I was nuts.

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