Chef pop-up features famed Roast restaurant burger at Corktown brewery

Michael Symon's Roast is gone, but fans have a chance to get one last taste of the beloved Roast burger, a highlight of the downtown restaurant's popular happy hour menu.

On Tuesday, Batch Brewing Company in Detroit's Corktown neighborhood is hosting a Roast burger pop-up event with John Yelinek, who worked as sous chef at Roast until 2020.

Stephen Roginson, Batch owner and operator, had initially planned a barbecue event for Tuesday, his 45th birthday. After hearing of Roast's closing, he shelved that idea and came up with "one last goodbye to Roast's happy hour burger." All proceeds from Tuesday's event will go to Roast employees who lost their jobs abruptly last week.

Burgers are $10 and Roast's addictive rosemary fries will be available for $5. The Roast beef burger is topped with cheddar, bacon, pickled red onion and a fried egg and served on an English muffin.

Batch Brewing will also have variety of beers on tap to go with your burger. All the food will be packed in to-go containers to enjoy in Batch Brewing's heated and tented outdoor pavilion.

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Roast abruptly closed after the final shift on Jan. 8. The upscale steakhouse with a meat-centric menu was a prominent part of the downtown dining for more than a decade.

If you can't attend the Roast burger send-off, you can make a donation to the Roast staff through Batch's Brewing's feelgoodtap.org nonprofit arm. Roginson started Feelgood Tap as a way of giving back to the community. The idea is for bars, breweries and restaurants to charge an extra $1 for a selected beers. Proceeds are then donated to the Feelgood Tap, which supports local and regional nonprofits throughout Michigan.

For more info: batchbrewingcompany.com.

More good news about olive oil

A study from Harvard University suggests that consuming olive oil cuts the risk of dying from heart disease and other diseases by nearly one-fifth.

The study was published Monday in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. The study found that consuming more than a half-tablespoon (7 grams) of olive oil daily lowered the risk of cardiovascular death by 19%. It also showed that olive oil lowered the risk of deaths from cancer by 17%, neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's by 29% and respiratory ailments by 18%.

More: Mediterranean diet still No. 1; Estia brings Greek fare to Grosse Pointe Woods

Researchers also stated that swapping out 10 grams a day of margarine, butter, mayonnaise and dairy fat with olive oil was found to lower the risk of death.

"Our findings support current dietary recommendations to increase the intake of olive oil and other unsaturated vegetable oils," Marta Guasch-Ferré, the study's lead author, said in a news release. "Clinicians should be counseling patients to replace certain fats, such as margarine and butter, with olive oil to improve their health."

The study began followed more than 90,000 participants (60,000 women and nearly 32,000 men) for 28 years. Participants were free of cardiovascular disease and cancer when the study began in 1990. Those who consumed more olive oil were often more physically active, had southern European or Mediterranean ancestry and were less likely to smoke. They also consumed more fruits and vegetables than those who consumed less olive oil. The researchers said their work accounted for these differences.

Olive oil is known as a good source of heart-healthy monounsaturated fats, also called "good fats." Olive oil is a hallmark of the Mediterranean diet, which was recently ranked as the best overall diet for the fifth consecutive time by U.S. News & World Report.

Free popcorn at Emagine

Americans consume lots of popcorn — some 15 billion quarts of it, according to the National Popcorn Board. If you have a hankering for some this week, head to an Emagine theater on Wednesday, which is National Popcorn Day.

You'll get a small order of movie-style popcorn free at more than a dozen participating theaters. You can upgrade to flavored popcorn for a fee. For locations, go to emagine-entertainment.com.

Coney kit benefits children's charity

Variety the Children's Charity of Detroit, which has served children with special needs since 1932, is having a fundraiser that celebrates coney dogs and football.

Just order a $100 American Coney Island meal kit for your Super Bowl party this year, and proceeds from funds raised will benefit children in southeast Michigan. Each kit contains 12 Dearborn Sausage hot dogs, 12 buns, onion and the Keros family's famed chili sauce. For a $150 contribution, you can get the coney kit and a special edition T-shirt.

Place orders by Jan. 31 and the kits will ship Feb. 7 in advance of the Feb. 13 Super Bowl. To order, call 248-258-5511 or email info@varietydetroit.com.

Contact Detroit Free Press food writer Susan Selasky and send food and restaurant news to: 313-222-6872 or sselasky@freepress.com. Follow @SusanMariecooks on Twitter.

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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Pop-up at Corktown brewery features famed Roast burger