Tickets to go on sale for Top 10 Takeover pop-up dinner by Ayiti Spaghetti
Susan SelaskyA Detroit pop-up known for offering authentic Haitian dishes is the next featured restaurant in the Detroit Free Press and Metro Detroit Chevy Dealers' popular Top 10 Takeover dining series.
Ayiti Spaghetti landed at No. 5 on the 2025 Detroit Free Press/Metro Detroit Chevy Dealers Top 10 New Restaurants & Dining Experiences list.
Haitian American chef Franchesca Lamarre is behind Ayiti Spaghetti, named so for its signature dish. The dish is Lamarre's take on a classic, but "unlike an Italian spaghetti dinner, Haitian spaghetti is a traditional breakfast food made with a sweet tomato base and hot dog rounds," wrote Free Press dining critic Lyndsay Green in the Top 10 review.
Lamarre's version, Green wrote, is sweet and spicy in a peach jerk, tomato sauce topped with "an epis chimichurri, a verdant slurry of bell peppers, scotch bonnets, garlic, green onions, cilantro, pikliz — a spicy pickled slaw — and various herbs."
For this Top 10 Takeover event, Ayiti Spaghetti will pop-up at BasBlue Café in Midtown on Aug. 7 with a Haitian-inspired menu. In Midtown Detroit’s Cultural Center, BasBlue is in a historic, 12,000-square-foot house that provides meeting rooms, a wellness area, event spaces and other amenities.
Tickets for the Ayiti Spaghetti pop-up are $68 per person, which includes tax, gratuity and a $3 donation to Forgotten Harvest.
Tickets for the series go on sale every other Thursday when Free Press subscribers have first access to tickets for each event. Subscribers should check their email at noon Thursday, July 17, for a link to ticket sales for the Ayiti Spaghetti pop-up at BasBlue Café.
Following subscriber sales, tickets for the general public go on sale at noon Friday, July 18, at freep.com/top10, where you will also find a schedule of upcoming dining events.
Each Top 10 Takeover dining experience offers diners a specially curated menu and direct access to Free Press writers and restaurant leadership. Each dining event takes place as a private event and, at times, is held when the restaurant is closed.
As in years past, the Metro Detroit Chevy Dealers are once again offering a contest for a chance for one diner to win two complimentary tickets to each dinner of the series. You can enter the contest at chevydetroit.com/top10.
The menu for the Ayiti Spaghetti Top 10 Takeover
First course
- Ayibobo (chicken or vegetarian option) with Haitian hush puppies, epis avocado sauce, pikliz
Second course
- Ayiti Spaghetti: Jerk peach tomato sauce, epis chimichurri, cotija cheese, fried egg, fried onions, orange zest
Third course
- Tamarind fried snapper or tamarind fried lions mane mushroom with cilantro scotch bonnet cream sauce, grilled pineapple, fried leeks
Fourth course
- Kompa: Pineapple orange rum cake with soursop cream, crispy rice, orange zest
Contact Detroit Free Press food and restaurant writer Susan Selasky and send food and restaurant news and tips to: [email protected]. Follow @SusanMariecooks on Twitter.