Eminem opens new restaurant in his hometown of Detroit
By Brandon Yip, Senior Columnist
Eminem has some very blunt culinary advice for customers regarding how to eat his spaghetti—rules that he will “Stan” by.
Eminem’s new restaurant, Mom’s Spaghetti, opened in his hometown of Detroit on September 29. Of course, Mom’s Spaghetti is a lyric that begins Eminem’s 2002 hit, “Lose Yourself.” The song appeared in the rapper’s film debut, 8 Mile—released in November 2002.
During an appearance on Sirius XM to celebrate the opening day of his restaurant, Eminem said Mom’s Spaghetti was the appropriate name for his eatery. “In [Lose Yourself], I was saying it from the perspective of Jimmy Smith Jr., the character I was playing in the movie,” he said. “You make a spaghetti sandwich. It’s definitely some white trash shit. I still eat it today.”
The restaurant is located at 2131 Woodward Avenue in downtown Detroit; the restaurant has limited seating and a walk-up window. The Detroit News reported that fans started lining up at around 10 am, seven hours before the advertised opening. At approximately 4 pm—one hour before opening—the first dozen fans were called to the serving window, located in the alley between the newly opened Fillmore Detroit and Union Assembly. Fans were then served up helpings of Mom’s Spaghetti by none other than Slim Shady himself.
However, the menu is quite “slim” and definitely not “shady.” Customers do not have just “one shot,” instead, they have four shots as there are only four items on the menu: Mom’s Spaghetti for $9, Mom’s Spaghetti with Meatballs for $12, Mom’s Spaghetti with Rabbit Balls (vegan) for $14 and a ‘Sghetti Sandwich for $11.
According to CNN, Eminem, in 2017, had experimented with the restaurant as a pop-up eatery. In a statement, Paul Rosenberg, Eminem’s manager, said the feedback from fans has been “overwhelmingly positive.” Rosenberg then alluded to the prior pop-ups as “really a test for us to determine whether there was enthusiasm for a regularly-occurring Mom’s Spaghetti spot that would be open all year long.”
Erin Farrer, a resident of Detroit, had the lucky opportunity to meet Eminem. Farrer told The Detroit News, “This has been my dream my whole life,” after she had her photo taken with the famed rapper. She chatted with him briefly, and hugged him and also got his autograph. Slim Shady then signed her container of Mom’s Spaghetti—one of the first served at the new spot, “And I bawled my eyes out,” she said.
Eminem says the spaghetti sandwich is his favourite item on the menu. But he has some very blunt culinary advice for customers regarding how to eat his spaghetti—rules that he will “Stan” by. “Don’t even eat a bite of your spaghetti until you put it in the bread, because otherwise you’re gonna ruin the whole fucking thing,” he said during the same Sirius XM appearance. “Don’t be stupid, if I fucking catch you doing that without the fucking bread, I don’t know what I’m gonna do. Hell, there’s gonna be hell to pay. I’m not trying to offend anyone, but if you’re a fucking idiot, don’t eat Mom’s Spaghetti.” After those comments, customers’ “palms” are probably now even more “sweaty.”
