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A Model Citizen for Detroit
Catwalker turned carpenter. A grass-roots champion. Detroit’s Renaissance man.
Phillip Cooley has been given many titles —and he certainly has the resume to back them up. Cooley received his Bachelor’s degree in fine arts from Columbia College in Chicago in 2000. However, an unexpected modeling career after graduation granted him a bustling big-city lifestyle traveling the world and living in metropolitans such as New York City, Paris, Milan and Tokyo.
Unsurprisingly, Cooley gave up his modeling chops for a “career with more substance.” But what may surprise you is that he landed in Detroit, and as far as anyone can tell, he won’t be going anywhere anytime soon.
Five years ago, Cooley opened and became proprietor of the successful Slows Bar B-Q restaurant in Detroit’s Corktown that he operates with the help of his family and a friend. Building off the success of Slows, Cooley is in the process of opening Slows-to-go for customers who want expedient bbq fare and the option to purchase Slows ingredients.
Other endeavors under Cooley’s belt include launching ClandesDine — a service that stages dinners "in unlikely locations" to spark conversations between Detroiters; and just about anything from beautifying the landscape around the Detroit’s vacant Central Michigan Train Station in his free time to scheduling meetings with key influencers of Detroit to get them talking about the betterment of the city.
So why Detroit? Cooley offers a few reasons in the several interviews he’s been the subject of over the past several years:
“I am in Detroit because I wish to be here. There's an openness here that New York and Chicago don't have. Unlike other cities, here it's a level playing field — as opposed to 'Get in line. This city is a blank canvas and its residents are the artists.”
What better billboard for Detroit than someone who can speak from the experience of living in cities that offer what nearly all young people are longing for and say “Been there, done that. I chose Detroit.”
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