Arts, Beats and Eats

Royal Oak is a city in Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan. An inner-ring suburb of Detroit, Royal Oak is located roughly 14 miles (22.5 km) north of downtown Detroit. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 58,211.Royal Oak is located along the Woodward Corridor, and is served by Interstate 75 and Interstate 696. The city has one of the largest downtowns in Detroit's suburbs, and is also home to much of the Detroit Zoo, with portions extending into neighboring Huntington Woods.

Mark Ridley’s Comedy Castle is a comedy club located in Metro Detroit, at 310 S. Troy St., Royal Oak, Michigan 48067.

The Main Art Theater was a movie theater located at 118 North Main Street in downtown Royal Oak, Michigan, at the corner of Main Street and 11 Mile Road. Opened on August 7, 1941 by Robert Anthony, it was originally a single-screen theater with 800 seats. In 1983, the original 800-seat theater was split into two theaters during renovations, and a third theater was added to the building in 1993.The Main Art specialized in art films and independent movies, and regularly held midnight showings of classic films on Friday and Saturday nights. The theater showed mainstream films prior to its arthouse renovation in 1983. Landmark Theatres operated the Main Art from 1997 until its closure in 2021. In May 2022, A.F. Jonna Management & Development gained approval from the Royal Oak City Council to demolish the theater for a mixed-use building. The Main Art was officially demolished on the afternoon of July 25, 2022.

The Hilzinger Block is a commercial building located at 106-110 South Main Street in Royal Oak, Michigan. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2006.

The B and C Grocery Building is a commercial building located at 417-19 South Main Street in Royal Oak, Michigan. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2006.

The Royal Oak Transit Center is an intermodal transit station in Royal Oak, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. It is served by Amtrak's Wolverine, which makes three round trips daily from nearby Pontiac to Chicago, Illinois. It also serves as a major hub for the region's SMART public transit network, serving four crosstown routes, and housing the system's only staffed ticket office in the suburbs. The station's Amtrak platform is unstaffed, though there is an Amtrak ticketing kiosk within SMART's facility.

George A. Dondero High School (formerly Royal Oak High School) opened in 1927 in Royal Oak, Michigan in Greater Detroit. It was named after former Royal Oak School Board president and U.S. representative George A. Dondero. A part of the Royal Oak Neighborhood Schools, it and Clarence M. Kimball High School were consolidated to form the current Royal Oak High School.

Hedge's Wigwam was a Native American-themed restaurant in Pleasant Ridge, Michigan, operating from 1927 until 1967. It was located at 24362 Woodward Avenue, one block from the original Saginaw Trail.

Pleasant Ridge is a city in Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan. An inner-ring suburb of Detroit on the Woodward Corridor, Pleasant Ridge is located roughly 11 miles (17.7 km) northwest of downtown Detroit. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 2,627.With a land area of 0.57 square miles (1.48 km2), Pleasant Ridge is the fifth-smallest city by land area in the state of Michigan after the cities of Sylvan Lake, Keego Harbor, Petersburg, and Clarkston.

The Horace Rackham Memorial Fountain (1939), also known as the Bear Fountain, is a fountain located in the Detroit Zoo, Royal Oak, Michigan. It was designed by Frederick A. Schnaple (1872–1948) and sculpted by Corrado Parducci.

The Pleasant Ridge Historic District is a primarily residential historic district located in Pleasant Ridge, Michigan. The original portion of the district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992, and encompassed an area west of Woodward Avenue to Ridge Road, and running from Millington Road to the city limits of Ferndale. The boundaries of the district were increased in 2010, to include the area west of Ridge Road to the city limits of Royal Oak, Huntington Woods, Oak Park, and Ferndale.

The Detroit Zoo is a zoo located in the cities of Huntington Woods and Royal Oak in the U.S. state of Michigan. Spanning 125 acres (50.6 ha), it houses more than 2,000 animals and more than 200 different species. It was the first U.S. zoo to feature bar-less habitats, and is regarded to be an international leader in animal welfare, conservation and sustainability by the Detroit Zoological Society.