Paramita Sound is the only Michigan bar on USA TODAY's first Bars of the Year list

When USA TODAY compiled its first ever Bars of the Year list in July 2024, it named 27 spots from across the country and exactly one in Michigan. That spot was Paramita Sound, the Black-owned wine bar and record shop on Broadway downtown.

Detroit's entry was chosen by Lyndsay C. Green, the Detroit Free Press food writer, who pointed to the bar's minimalist, local-first drink program and the way the small room pulls people together through music. It was the only Michigan name on the inaugural list.

Paramita Sound traces back to 2014, when owner Andrey Douthard opened the original version in an empty house in the West Village on Detroit's east side. The early years built a following around The Beat Profile, a free monthly showcase that ran for three years and drew Detroit producers and crowds in the hundreds, according to the venue's own account.

The operation later moved downtown to 1517 Broadway St., into a building that has anchored the local music scene since the early 1980s. The pandemic shut the space in 2020, and what reopened settled into its current form: a record shop and wine bar with a deliberately short menu of beer and Michigan wines, built around a DJ booth where local and visiting selectors play.

Douthard has framed the project as community work first. "We use music as a vehicle to build bridges between generations," he said in a Detroit City FC community spotlight, noting that at 38 he sits between the city's older and younger waves of music. He has also been a Detroit City FC backer from the club's early days, telling the team he held season tickets in its first two seasons.

The national attention brought a stretch of out-of-town traffic. The bar itself did not change. The records, the wine and the room stayed the point.

1517 Broadway St., Detroit.