Southwest Detroit Restaurant Week returns with food truck rally

Southwest Detroit Restaurant Week is back in action this weekend after two years of pandemic shutdowns.

What's happening: About 20 Latin restaurants are offering exclusive heritage dishes from today through Oct. 9.

• New this year, organizers are getting food trucks more involved in the festivities. More than 10 of them will set up at Batch Brewing in Corktown on Monday from 4-10pm, along with music and non-alcohol drinks from Cafecito Alvarez.
• A mobile health unit will offer general health screenings, COVID-19 testing and vaccinations.

What they're saying: The event returns this year with a larger team providing support and "guiding voices" that give it "more intention and a more defined purpose about what the event should include," co-founder Juan Carlos Dueweke-Pérez, also founder of local marketing agency Featherstone, tells Axios.

• Those involved in organizing include Taste the Diaspora co-founder and chef Ederique Goudia and two-time MasterChef contestant Amanda Saab.

Zoom in: A few participants, their region of origin and their dishes:

• Asty Time, Dominican Republic: albondigas a la criolla, or creole meatballs with rice and beans.
• El Rey de Las Arepas, Venezuela: chicken and waffles.
• La Cuscatleca, El Salvador: empanadas filled with plantain and corn.

What we're watching: A new restaurant week is in the works for the Banglatown neighborhood this spring, Dueweke-Pérez says.