Cosm's Tech Is Cool (But Can Be Costly) & Cass Cafe Returns

0:00Hello friends and welcome to your daily Detroit. It is Friday, September 11th, 2026. I am Jare stays coming to you from our studio tech town and joining me on the line is Mr. Friday on a Friday himself. Devano Riley, happy birthday, my friend. Oh, thank you. I appreciate it. Like I'm glad you made sure to not include the year. It's not important. It's not important. Once you get to 29, I just say you're just celebrating your 29th birthday, X amount of time. I'm forever 29. Forget that forever 21 store. I'm forever 29. Yeah, we'll stop there. I did do the 30 something for a while and let's just say I can't really do that anymore. So well, let me tell you, I'm closer to the half century myself. So it's just a birthday. Right. It's just a birthday. So yeah, by the way, before we get started, I want to thank Josh and Ingrid, our new members on Patreon. Our 313 tier has been really

1:03popular as well as people stepping up for more amounts. I really appreciate folks. We've been pretty spicy lately, Devano Riley. And so your support has been really useful. Yeah, no, absolutely. I think we've delved into some topics. We've talked about, I mean, it is political season. We had a fun show last week though. So I'm looking forward to doing another mostly fun show here today. Yeah, we've got a lot to talk about. I'm very much looking forward to it. But first, I got to ask you because I've got to where I've been, but I understand you've got to what you're drinking. I do. I do. I thought we hadn't done that. I hadn't done that in a while and I hadn't really been anywhere in the last week. I was thinking that with the season coming around a little bit cooler. It's not quite there yet. But I really feel like we're dipping in a fall here. And so I wanted to do something that really harkened to the time of year. And I as I usually do, I research some some recipes and then I kind of just made my own. But I didn't made a delicious banana bread old fashioned. Ooh, that I think is a perfect and easy cocktail for this time of year. I will tell you that we have had listeners requesting us to bring back what we're

2:06drinking. So how do you put together a banana bread old fashioned? Okay. So it's not too difficult. And it's it barely basically built like an old fashioned. So what you're going to do is get a little bit of brown sugar in rather than just any other kind of sugar. But use brown sugar bottom of the glass. You're going to throw in your bitters. You still want to use the Angostura. Maybe a few dashes of that. A few dashes of black walnut bitters, which you can get at most of your kind of local wine and spirits distributors. So your black walnut bitters, a few dashes of those. You're going to add your spirit, urban, whatever you like. I'm not going to say a specific one. Whatever you think is best. I would go with something a little sweeter. So something with a little bit more of corn versus a rye mash. And then the kind of kudagra here is your banana la cour. But it's really important that you use not like a 99 bananas or like one of those cheap six seven eight dollar bottles of money. I mean, you'll get the flavor, but it's not going to be the same. You really got a spring for when I say spring for talking about right about $30 a bottle. But either

3:09this Gaffard banana or this tempest fuzhett spirits is cremde banana. It's pretty widely available. Like your total wines will have it. Your bottle shops will have it. But it's the cremde banana la cour, which is what I bought specifically. It's got a little red label. And it's really, it's more of a natural banana flavor as opposed to that kind of like candy banana flavor. And so it's a little more kind of warm and sweet. And it's fantastic. So you add, you know, basically three ounces of your bourbon, one ounce of your banana la cour. You stir that in the glass with with a big ice cube and garnish with a garnish with a banana that if you have one of your flame guns or even just a lighter, I've realized it works. You just give that give that banana a sizzle and you got a little garnish there. And it's great. My grandmother would have really liked this. She used to make rumbles. And I think she also loved to make banana bread. The rumbles had a lot of rum rum in them, but she also would make banana bread. I feel like she would absolutely love this. I know that I would like it. Two things. When you said 99 bananas, the first thing that my head started

4:10doing was playing 99 lift balloons. Oh, interesting. It kind of shows you could do 99 banana, the 99 bottles of beer on the wall. You could do that. Yes. But I think those of us who lived through the the the odds, the 99 bananas was quite a staple of any liquor store trip. Because then they had 99 apples and 99 grapes and 99 cherries and they did a whole thing. But 99 bananas was the original cheap banana liquor. So I have some food trivia for you. As I understand it, you mentioned that the candy banana isn't the real banana, but did you know that the candy banana? That flavor is based off of banana that is not widely available anymore that used to be what all bananas taste like until there was like a banana issue. And they had to switch the species of bananas. And in fact, you can order those original bananas via the mail. They're rather expensive to get a bunch of them. But that candy banana flavor is closer to what bananas used to taste like. That is a great piece of trivia. I didn't I did not realize that. I literally watch an entire

5:13documentary about this. And I know that you could go really deep in the banana history because I know there's some really shady stuff that happened and some all sorts of stuff in the banana trade and monopolies and you know, you know, basically genocides and in other countries for the banana trade. So I don't want you to get in that in this episode, but I know there's a lot to unpack there. Fascinating stuff, fascinating stuff. I was out on Thursday morning to somewhere new and very interesting. Okay, where did you go, Jerry? You're always up to something now. Me and photographer Ryan Southin went to Cosm. Oh my gosh. Okay, this is big because I've been back when I was back working at the chamber. I could see this go up. I've been interested in what it's actually going to be like. I've seen videos. You actually going there is I think a big, big kind of inside boon for listeners here to understand and for me. So I got a lot of questions, but why don't you give me your overall review? I'll give you the layout and then I would definitely want all of your questions. Then I'll try to answer them best I can. I think first off, I'm going to start with

6:13the positive. It's super cool. Like it's really cool technology. The exterior of the building, very cool. Now listen, I would have rather them stick like a five story boutique hotel on top of that three story building. I love density downtown, but I'll take what I can get for now. This building has a really cool look to it. It's got curved edges, which reminds me of places like Queen's bar and that art deco feel it echoes that it's new, but echoes the city. Well, it's also got lots of metal textures on the outside of it. I thought they did a really good job with the design of the outside of the building. The inside is very modern. I almost think about like, Cosm is almost like the Apple experience for movies because it's like very high end with with everything. There are multiple levels to this place. Okay. So you've got your entrance. You've got a a hall area. You've got an area that would be really great for watching like a sports book like they showed up a demo of how they would do like multiple sports at the same time with the two levels of bars right there. That's

7:19separate from like the. We haven't even got we haven't gotten to the dome yet, brother. Okay, I just want to make sure. So there's like multiple rooms. It's not just like one big theater. Yeah, and in fact, there's tickets for each thing. Okay. Like there's different ticket prices for each thing, which is important to remember, depending on the experience you want to do. Okay. I will say that the tickets do include parking, which is very nice for people. Four hours of parking in nearby garages, specifically, I'll put I'll put notes everything on our website. Oh gosh, and that's that's 50 bucks right there. Depending on the night. Yeah, depending on me, I don't I've never paid $50 for parking in downtown Detroit in my life. But but you know what, you know what, here, it's not crazy. That's what the Z deck I did park in the Z deck and it was 50 bucks on us at a night. So yeah, so yeah, including parking is a huge thing. I'm expecting we'll get to the price of the tickets, but that off the bat is a very helpful actually. Yeah. So it makes it like a turnkey experience. I think it's really good. Now there's kind of like two main themes of content. It is either, you know, sports or movies is kind of the vibe of movies. I only thought of sports.

8:23Right. So there's actually four movies they do in this thing called a shared reality, where it's the original 16 by nine and then around it, they create this extra experience for these movies. Now these are currently are all movies that you've probably seen. Harry Potter, for instance, the Matrix. Never seen Harry Potter. Never seen Harry Potter. You know it. You know what? You're in the gap, aren't you? Wow. Absolutely in the gap. Now Matrix 100% saw that at midnight at Star Fairland. So that is a really interesting way to look at movies and it's a great way for them to like showcase the technology and then sports. So they have a very special kind of a camera setup with with their sports. So anyway, we've got those areas that are outside of the dome. There's also a couple of rooftop like porches and patios to check out with unique views of campus marshes and also the Rensen. And as I said, our photographer Ryan South, and we'll have all kinds of photos for you to check out. So it's really nice like that. And then you go into the dome area. And the dome is

9:28gigantic. It's like 87 feet wide, like nearly 90 feet wide. This LED dome wraps in front of you, above you. And they call it a shared reality experience. And what they do with the sports is interesting. They've got special cameras. It's between four and 12 depending on the game. They've got their own crews that go out and these special cameras like put you either like on the sideline at the 50 yard line, court side. Sometimes if they're doing more cameras, they'll have what they call like a slash angle. So it's very much like you're in the place. So it's and then on laid over it, they'll also do like virtual monitors that are like the live TV feed at the same time. So they can't just play every game. They only can play games on that screen that they are at with cameras. Right. And it's a whole and I did not know this. It's a whole integrated technology thing that is very cool. Where it's all this like pipeline, where it's all work together. If you want to see

10:30multiple games at once, that's kind of what the other area is for. That will have like a ticker and like multiple things and more of like a sport traditional sports bar thing. But it's a very big curved screen. So it's kind of like two vibes at once. We need more sports bars. Honestly, we really do. So that's pretty clutch. I didn't realize that whole element of it. And I was always picturing what would what would come and what would the use case be for kind of the giant shared reality reality screen as you were talking about. But I didn't even think about the other aspects of it. That's just a separate area with different screens and different use cases. Just kind of multiple sports and you know, bar more of a bar. It sounds like well, let me give you context here. So the the Dome itself seats around 500. But the capacity the entire complex is around 1500. So it gives you an idea about how things are laid out and everything's like their own integrated ticket thing, ticketing, everything else. You know, the technology is like worth it to go. I hate to say it, but I've also got to put like a caveat on this whole experience.

11:34Okay. Is that they use dynamic pricing, which means the pricing on everything adjusts over time. And so if you want to go, you need to like go on the website and like jump in even for the movie. So like right now, I am literally looking at movie prices where it's $68 just for the ticket for the Harry Potter plus $40 in food. This is for the movie portion. And is that is it cheaper like if it's on a Wednesday versus Saturday? So it's all dynamic. So you've got to go look at the individual thing because I think what they do as more people are interested in something, the price goes up. So with the Lions right now, as I'm recording this, as we're recording this on their website, there are three tickets left for the Lions game coming up this weekend. Do you know how much each of those tickets run? $150. $605. Holy. That's what it probably cost to go to the actual game. Exactly. I think this technology is super cool. The demos were awesome.

12:36Though like live views of different places around the country, they show this great demo of the Sistine Chapel. Like this is super cool. And it's something that like I found really interesting. But like for me to go, I'm going to have to like snipe tickets because there is no way I am paying like to take me in my partner. I would have to pay my side of the rent and the bills for the month for two tickets. Dang. That that. Okay. That's wow. That in the parking part. Yeah, I guess that's a that's a that's nice to have. But I was thinking that was going to cover like a third of it. That seems incredible. I mean, I'm I just looked right now a quick cursory look at Lions games. You could go to the one this Sunday at the Saints for $200. This is where I'm so torn. I totally get like this is a big city experience. They want to expand this thing to 100 cities. Dan Gilbert is an investor in Cosm and he's also the developer because you know, it's them in Roblox. So he's kind of like double-side on this. This project got no subsidies. So no tax dollars to do it.

13:39It's going to it's going to make a hell of a lot of money at those prices. Right. And so, you know, I'm not against people charging what they think they can get, right? Like I'm not that person. But I cannot like like fake it to you with the audience to be like, oh, this is something that I can afford to go to because I can't. And so like that's kind of frustrating. Like there are other games I could do. So like to go check out the technology, the tickets are a lot cheaper on other games that are not local or like don't go to the Michigan Ohio State game or whatever, right? Like if you just want to go check out the technology and it's worth it and it's a cool experience. And I tried the food like go on the site and like make some plans. Look ahead because the longer you look ahead with this dynamic pricing, which by the way, I hate dynamic pricing. I hate it. I hate it on Amazon. I hate it everywhere, but they made this decision. So you got to play the game and the game is plan ahead, pick something that you are interested in like one of the movies ahead. So the prices are lower and then go to that to check it out because it is super cool. But I feel like

14:43the only way this is going to work is if this is a destination and it might be because it is very cool. They're draws in people from across Michigan or it opens up the corporate expense accounts where it's like, I'm going to bring 30 people in from the office to check out the Lions game. Well, I think, oh, okay, well, let me, let me help you out here. Let me, uh, use your, use your mind here. I don't think it's going to get any more expensive than the first six months or the first one month of this place. I actually like dynamic pricing because it is a give and take. It's a catch 22. Yes, at sometimes it's going to be so expensive. That's cost prohibitive to be able to do something, but you know what, you're if it's too expensive for for everybody, then the price has to plummet and if this place is only 50% full in a year because the novelty is worn off, then prices are going to have to go way, way down and it'll have become become much more affordable. So we'll see. This will be a good test to see how the free market works here because maybe you'll be able to go if not as many people see this as a huge thing once they've done it once or twice. So I think the first six months, I think they'll be they will be able to maybe charge these prices,

15:44maybe, but I think you're going to quickly see a de-escalation in prices as time goes on and, uh, and it will be more affordable. Now, of course, for the one-offs, a Lions playoff game, a high-o-state Michigan, like those will forever, those will be, you know, sounds like they'll be just as cost prohibitive. It's actually going to the game if not more. Um, but you know, for me, I'm actually looking forward to going to this, the sports book that you described, the bar, the big TV's, like I could see just posting up there and, uh, and watching some watching some football and, uh, or catching games there. That that that might be where I would probably first, my first foray there. Right. Well, and the key to that, remember those, you'll also need a ticket for that. You, yeah. Oh, guess. Oh, good. I can't, okay. Good. That was a question. I can't just walk in off the street. Let's look up ahead. Let's call it sports because they, they do a lot of cool things like they do tennis. They do the UFC. They do the WWE. They do the premier league. They do baseball, right? So like, there's some cool things like a paper view or something, but I also imagine what that's going to cost. I don't know. Yeah. A lot of the things are TBA. So

16:47like they say that survivor war games, uh, in November is coming. They don't have pricing for that. But let me look at like I'll go look at sports at NFL at college games. Or I look at the NFL. So NFL cowboys at giants. Okay. Sunday, September 13th. I don't think very little of our audience cares about the cowboys are the giants, right? So you can get into the dome from $28. You can do general admission from $11 and you can go to the whole concept for 17. Got it. Okay. That's helpful. So that's the key, right? So it's almost like covering like for those other spaces. It's almost like paying a cover charge. And if you're going to do that and there's tickets available, you may as we'll get the dome. Right. All right. Fair. That helps. Well, we'll see how this experiment goes here. Uh, I'm looking forward to checking it out. I am very much so too. And I want to hear what people think daily Detroit at gmail.com or 313 789 30 to 11.

17:49Real quick, I want to mention I heard that thanks to friends of the show melody over the Detroit news. The cast cafe is coming back open. This time is part of a nonprofit, which is interesting. The shell font foundation. They're going to do what they call a hub for food drinks, art and community gatherings, a full bar. There's going to be a September 12th open house this weekend during Dali and the alley. And then they're going to ramp up towards regular hours over on cast seven. I used to live in the cultural area. This one's a favorite. And I'm so glad to see this one come back after a few years. Oh my gosh. I'm so excited. I was not expecting this. I sent I sent the story to my family group chat and said, Oh, Riley's rejoice. This was a this was a family favorite for a long, long time. In fact, my parents were really the ones who started taking us to cast cafe. I don't know when I mean, maybe 15 20 years ago now, probably more like 15, 16 years ago, they would go. It was like one of their favorite date night spots. They would go to the cast cafe and then they would go to the hillberry for a show. And we started going there. And then

18:51when we lived in Midtown, we meet them there for dinner and drinks and it was just such a great like the food was just such a focus on quality. I remember they had a great chef there. There was such a focus on quality, but it wasn't super expensive. It wasn't too stuffy. It was very very casual. It was one of those places I love, Jared, where maybe you didn't want to eat dinner. Maybe you just wanted to grab some snacks. Maybe you just wanted to get drinks and sit at the bar. You could kind of do a little bit of everything there. It was a lot of really cool, interesting people, everything from professors to students to locals, tourists. So I'm just really happy. This is coming back. I was not expecting it. I hope they keep some of some of the original menu, but we'll see. I'm very excited by the news. I'm super excited. Excellent reporting by Melody is always going to be coming back talking about some of the new openings happening around the region the next couple of weeks. I'm very excited about that.

19:51Well, one more thing before we go, Michigan is looking at a new way to fund roads. That's going to be charging drivers by the mile rather than doing the gas tax. They're only in the test phase of this. MDOT is doing a voluntary pilot that would start in February with about a thousand drivers. The idea is that this road usage charge would help deal with declining fuel tax revenue as more cars become more efficient and more people drive electric vehicles. The idea is that an electric car drives the same distance as a gas car, but it doesn't pay into the roads in the same way. There's a ton of questions around this one for me. How are we reporting this? Privacy. I did first blush and I'm all for trying things, but I did first blush hate the idea of being tracked, especially by the mileage. I know we got to pay for stuff, but this just feels wrong on a bunch of levels. I have so many questions. Not even so much so that I just I don't believe this

20:52because I don't even I can't even fathom how you would implement it without just massive invasions of privacy and beating back lawsuits after lawsuits. You can't implement this for 10 years between all the legalities you have to get through because even what are you going to do? You're going to send people something to say stick this in your car. We'll track your miles and you're going to get a big middle finger back or you're going to say all new cars have to have this and you may say you have car company saying no we're not going to do that or you may say individuals say well then I'm not buying a new car. I'm going to ride it ride my car that I have. Like there's just so much pushback. There's so right for fraud, so right for non-compliance. I just I don't know man this sounds like some half baked idea honestly. I mean what do you do depending on like the size of your car? So like do you pay the amount? Like our engineer Randy drives a car is probably like 2000 pounds. I've gotten SUV is probably like 3000 pounds and like I know people who drive trucks on the regular that are like 5000 pounds. So do we all pay the same amount of money even though all of our cars are different weights? I don't know. Yeah I really I mean I don't know the gas techs at least was a

21:54real understandable like actual implementable idea. This just seems honestly it seems crazy. I I'd have to learn a lot more about it but I don't think by learning anymore it's going to make you more sense. Well I'd love to hear your thoughts daily to try to Gmail.com or 313-789-3211 I've already got a bucket of feedback about our DTE episode. We'll go through it next week and a whole diversity of opinions with this stuff. So I really appreciate it. I know we got to get rolling. The weekend is here. Devon O'Reilly so good to talk to you. Yeah great to talk to you Jair. Enjoy it. I look forward to seeing you in in our shared holy that we have. We will share reality again and again before I go happy birthday again my friend. I'm so proud of everything that you've accomplished. I appreciate it and we'll celebrate with the family this weekend looking forward to it. Absolutely. All right well until next time I'm Chair Stays. Remember that you are somebody and I'll see you around Detroit.