WINDSOR, ONTARIO - It turns out Steve Perry of Journey was right. There is a South Detroit. It just isn't located in Michigan and it happened many years after Journey's hit song "Don't Stop Believin."
"South Detroit" name obsession:
Mlive has had a bit of a mystery on its hands. An old Steve Perry story from the Mlive.com archives recently emerged. No one seems to know why the story from January 2011 has seen an incredible resurgence across the Internet.
The story features Perry finally answering the question about South Detroit from the popular Journey song "Don't Stop Believin."
Perry admitted he simply made up the geographic locale of "South Detroit" for the 1981 hit song.
"I ran the phonetics of east, west, and north, but nothing sounded as good or emotionally true to me as South Detroit. I fell in love with the line. It's only been in the last few years that I've learned that there is no South Detroit. But it doesn't matter."
There is a "South Detroit" after all"
It turns out, "South Detroit" is born and raised in Windsor, Ontario in Canada. It's a restaurant.
South Detroit restaurant opened in August 2013 at 255 Ouellette Ave.
The owner, Mat Mathias, tells Mlive when coming up with a name for the restaurant, he saw a cool historic fact about Windsor in a book "500 Ways You Know You're From Windsor." He learned the city was almost named South Detroit when it officially became a city in 1892. But, of course, the city went with the name Windsor.
So, mystery solved. You can check out South Detroit restaurant in Windsor. It's open seven days a week.