- [Tom] Welcome to a special edition of "UTR" called You Wanted to See It.

That's right.

For the next 30 minutes, we'll feature awesome stuff you asked us to show you.

We'll tap into Native America, sample sensational sausage, and find more Ford.

Heck, you even picked a very popular pizzeria.

Get ready to explore the cool people, places and things you wanted to see.

(lively music) - [Narrator 2] A visit to the Stahls Auto collection will take you back to a time when cars were more than just a way to get around.

A fantastic assortment of gas pumps, neon signs, and automated music machines dating back 150 years that must be seen and heard.

Info at stahlsauto.com.

- [Narrator 1] Brought to you by Frankenmuth, a Great Lakes Bay region community.

Visit gogreat.com for more info.

- I've been around the world, but there's one place I keep coming back to.

And the more I explore, the more I realize it's the place to be.

I'm Tom Daldin, and this is "Under the Radar Michigan."

(upbeat music) - [Narrator 2] "UTR" fans.

You told us to ask you to tell us, no, wait.

We wanted to know what you wanted and you asked us to ask you, uh, no, that's not right either.

Hold on, give me a moment.

Uh-huh, got it.

"UTR" fans, it's time for You Wanted To See It, America's almost exciting new TV adventure show where you, the viewer, tell us at "UTR" what you want to see on the show.

Brought to you in part by Glumpy's chicken flavored peanut butter, all of the flavor with none of the taste.

Glumpy's, try it today.

(chicken clucks) We dare ya.

And right now get ready for some fun because here's your hapless host, Tom Winkledale Daldin.

(graphics swoosh) - Hello everybody and welcome to "UTR's" first ever You Wanted To See It, the show where you tell us where to go and we like it.

Now our first email comes from Robert L. in Dearborn.

Bob goes on to say, "You guys sure eat a lot on "UTR," which is great, but how about mixing in some history in between entrees?

You should check out a place called the Ford Piquette Avenue Plant Museum in Detroit.

It's an awesome place with a fascinating past."

Well, Bob, you wanted to see it, so control room guys, let's show it to him.

Yep, thanks to Bob, you're about to hear one of Detroit's greatest origin stories because the Ford Piquette Plant is where Henry Ford teed up the Model T and forever transformed the way we live.

These hallowed halls are the heart and soul of the American auto industry and the very reason Detroit became known worldwide as the Motor City.

Now, to take me back to a fascinating past, I spent some time in the present with Museum president and COO, Jill Woodward.

I just learned a fascinating fact.

Why do they call it the dashboard?

- Henry Ford's main competition before building his Model A, - Yeah.

- was the the curved dash Model A.

The dashboard is a reference to the horse that's in front of the carriage and if it's dashing, it's gonna kick up manure that's from the streets.

- Right.

- So eventually it becomes the dashboard, but once upon a time it protected you from, let's say the detritus in the road.

(Tom laughs) - Well, there's so much history here that we should probably start with the past.

I mean, what Henry Ford managed to do is absolutely amazing.

And this has been here since when?

- Since 1904.

It is one of the oldest surviving automobile plants in the world.

And it's right here at the epicenter of the Motor City.

It's the origin point for everything that follows.

- This is where the Model T and actually, a lot of people don't know that there were a lot of models that happened before the Model T, correct?

- Yes, indeed.

This was Henry Ford's, actually, third try at a business.

He worked for other automotive companies with his name on it before, but this, the Piquette plant is the first purpose built factory by Ford Motor Company.

And this is where he produced eight different car models.

- Yeah, didn't he start with, like, the B and then the C and the D?

He went like through half the alphabet before he got to the T. - B, C, F, K, N, R, S and T. And there are also some SR's in there.

- Really?

So the Model T was just like, that was the one that put him on the map.

- Actually, the Model N was the number one selling car in the United States before the Model T. He was really almost, already a millionaire from the production of the Model N, which really had no competition in terms of its weight and price.

- God, you never hear about the Model N, it's always the Model T. But now we're sitting in a Model T right now, right?

- Yes.

And the, the Model T is really the car that put the world on wheels.

And it might sound, you know, trite at this point in history to say that, but you have to understand that by the early 1920s, every other car on the planet was a Model T. Think about that market share.

- Wow.

- And why is that?

That's because everyone else was building big expensive cars for rich people.

Henry Ford was really the first person to say, I wanna build a car for the everyday person, whether they live on a farm or, you know, anywhere.

And really, the ripple effect of that is unimaginable for us today.

But it impacted everything from where people live, to how much they traveled, to their livelihoods.

It's one of the world's, it's one of the most incredible inventions you'll come across in human history.

- So this plant made Model T's, and other models, from what years to what year?

- The Model T was invented here in 1908, started production in early 1909, and they were only here until 1910.

The demand for this vehicle was so massive that he had already started building the Highland Park plant, which is just a few miles from here.

So, but the first 14,000 Model T's were made here.

And the other story we like to tell is, you've heard the saying you can have it in any color, but black.

Well, that's not true until 1914.

The first Model Ts were red.

- That's another thing I didn't know, seriously?

- Yes, we have number 220 out of 15 million vehicles here in the museum, and 220 is a beautiful carmine red.

- Wow, yeah.

Now, if people want to come here, you're open year round?

- Yes, we are open year round, Wednesdays through Sundays from 10 to 4, with guided tours at 10, noon and 2.

But if we have groups or schools that wanna come on a different day of the week or after hours, we'll take that as well.

- Yeah, you've been on our short list for a long time and I'm sorry I'm just getting here now, but yeah, this is, like I said, a blast.

It's fun, it's interesting, it's educational, it's awe-inspiring in what came out of this place.

Yeah, thanks for keeping it around for us.

- My great pleasure.

The building is really our most important artifact - Yeah.

- at the museum.

And we're a national historic landmark and we have a Save America's Treasures grant.

We're working on a lot of preservation issues that are crucial to preserving the building and our collections.

So we'll just keep plugging away.

- This historic site is a remarkable place of great global importance.

And lucky for us, it's right here in our own backyard.

And it really makes you proud to know that Michigan intellect, ingenuity and sheer willpower put the entire world on wheels.

If you want a fascinating look back at the things that are still moving us forward to this very day, come spend some time at the Ford Piquette Avenue Plant Museum in Detroit.

Oh, and when you go tell 'em "UTR" and Bob from Dearborn sent you.

Thanks again, Bob.

(bright music) (graphics swoosh) Well, now our next email comes from a Laura S. in Rogers City and she goes on to say, "Dear "UTR," my husband and I were driving through Alpena this past summer and stopped by a place called Nowicki's Sausage Shop.

Their sausage selection is incredible and the people are really nice.

We haven't even finished the sausages we bought and we're planning a trip back.

You should feature this place on your show."

Well, Laura, like the title of the show says, you wanted to see it so take a look.

Well, turns out Laura was right.

The more we looked into Nowicki's Sausage Shop in Alpena, the more we found out how much people love this palate pleasing place.

But what's not to love, we're talking about sausage.

Plus at Nowicki's, five generations have been developing unique sausage since 1917.

Now to make sure I left no sausage unsampled, I checked in with the current generation, Brian Peterson.

First of all, I can't believe that your family's been making sausages for five generations.

I mean, five generations ago in my family they were troglodytes, still trying to forage for sustenance.

But it's like, how did it all start?

- Came over from Poland and, it was Louise A female was the first sausage maker.

- Yeah.

- And her husband.

And she, they had Nowicki's in Rogers City.

- Yeah.

- And she, they bought a stuffer, and kind of in the market, she was making sausage.

And as generations kind of went on, like in the 70s, the corner, the convenience store kind of came in.

- Yeah.

- Like, the corner grocery store kind of went away.

So my family kind of went from a one stop shop grocery store, you know, you could get delis, you know, everything that you would get at a corner store.

- Yeah.

- Now we kind of went, well, what do we do best, sausage.

- Yeah.

- And we stayed in that lane and- - Wow, five generations.

I mean, and, I was gonna ask you, how do you come up with all the different sausages?

I mean, 'cause I'm sure you do some creative twists.

- I think I'm eating something and you're like, I can make it into a sausage.

(Tom and Brian laugh) That'd be a good sausage, right.

This is the best sausage in a cup I've ever had.

Really, like the chicken fajita brat was one of, the buffalo chicken brat, those are some newer ones that we came up with.

And that was just it.

We started doing franks.

- Yeah.

- So we do all pork shoulder pot dogs.

- Yeah.

- And they're awesome.

And my kids are eating 'em, and they're like, dad, why don't you make a cheese dog?

And I didn't, it was like, I need a VA moment.

I'm like, I don't know.

And so we started making cheese dogs.

- Well, I love this place because not only can you come here and just get a mess of really cool sausages to take home, but you can get, you can actually get a brat, right?

You can get- - Yep.

So you can sit in the back and eat.

- Yeah, we got seeding for about 50 in the back and we got that little ice cream shop in the front area.

And then we do six different flavors of brats every day.

And we'll do, we do wings.

So on Wednesday, today, we got smoked wings.

Thursday we do brisket, ribs and pulled pork.

And Tuesdays we do Taco Tuesday.

So we make our own soups and chilies.

- [Tom] Are they actual tacos or they're taco sausages?

- No, it's like a taco bar.

You build your own- - Oh, okay.

- [Brian] It's by the pound.

But we have a lot of workers over here with Lafarge and- - Yeah.

- So they come here for lunch.

So for them it's really convenient 'cause we're just right.

You know, there's nothing as close as us.

So we make a nice convenient lunch, they pop in, pop out.

- Yeah.

- So it's a very symbiotic relationship.

Now you guys do special events, you guys do do catering?

- We do catering.

Actually we're gonna do a wedding in upstairs this summer.

- Ah.

- So we're gonna, that'll be our first wedding outside of our own.

And then I have, we do the three events, Posen Potato Festival, Nautical Festival, and Alpenfest in Gaylord.

- Yeah.

You got a truck or?

- We got a food truck.

- Oh, awesome.

And who wears the hot dog suit?

- Well, we draw straws on that.

(Tom laughs) I'll say Brian Junior does probably the best job in it.

- Right.

- If you've (indistinct) through, like, Facebook and stuff, if you see a guy dancing around, it's him.

And he has a good time with it.

- What did you want to be when you were a little kid, when you grew up?

- Well, a sausage maker.

- There you go, right answer.

(Tom and Brian laugh) - Well enough talking about these tantalizing, taste tempting, tubular treats.

It was time for Tommy to sample some sausage.

And I have to say that every sausage I sampled was sensational.

And again, Laura was right, the people here are wonderful.

If you're within a day's drive of awesome Alpena, make it a UTR day trip and stop at Nowicki's Sausage Shop.

Trust me, the sausage lover in you will say (speaking in foreign language) And as an added bonus, my favorite word, Brian invited us to dinner right down the street at his restaurant, The old Polish Corner.

And there's nothing old about this place.

It's cool, comfortable, and has an amazing selection of Polish fusion, palette pleasing plates that'll blow your mind.

It's a restaurant you definitely need to check out.

(bright music) (graphics swoosh) Now our next email comes from a Maggie G. in Lansing and she gave us a great suggestion.

"I saw an episode a while back where you guys featured the Ziibwiing Center in Mount Pleasant.

It was fascinating and it made me want to learn even more about Native American history.

I had no idea what a beautiful and rich culture Michigan's first people had.

There's a similar place up in St. Ignace called the Museum of Ojibwa Culture.

A friend of mine went there last summer and said it was wonderful.

So you might wanna feature it on your show."

Well, Maggie ask and ye shall see it on "UTR's" You Wanted To See It.

Yep, if you are genuinely interested in Michigan history, it's a good idea to go back.

And I mean, way back to Michigan's original history.

I'm of course talking about our fascinating Native American heritage.

And one of the best places to experience it is at the Museum of Ojibwa culture in St. Ignace.

This magical museum will educate, entertain, and enlighten you to a proud people and culture that continues to this very day.

Tom and Francis Wyers are part of this museum's heart and soul.

And they made sure I took it all in.

I have to be honest, I've been so excited about coming back here 'cause as you know, we were here a couple summers ago with Dave Lorenz from Pure Michigan and discovered this wonderful gem.

People must come here from around the world.

- Yeah, we were just saying that we get people from all over the world that come here.

In the last four or five years since I've been here, we've probably met people from China, France, Japan, Scotland.

- Scotland.

- A lot of people from France come.

- Well, what you can experience and learn in this one small building.

It's amazing the art, and the artifacts, and the history that you have in this, and explain to people, it was a church, but it's now a museum.

What can people expect when they come here?

- A lot of history.

You know, even when I greet the customers, we, you know, like I said, talk about the building, but we explain a little bit about the history, the grounds, and definitely Father Marquette.

And what they experience in here is definitely, you know, the beginning history of the Native Americans.

And we have artifacts that were found on the grounds here.

We have in our gift shop, handcrafted items by local people.

We have Native American local artists.

We make sure everything is handcrafted by Native Americans.

- Well, I wanna mention before we get too far too, that we fought a blizzard to get here today, but you guys aren't normally open in the winter.

You opened for us.

Thank you so much.

- Yes, you're welcome.

- But what's the normal time that people can come here?

- From May 15th till October 31st - May 15th to October 31st, yeah, okay.

And when you see the size of the building, you don't realize till you step in here, the depth and the breadth, and all the artifacts, and the beautiful, I mean the, I mean, you know, these aren't costumes.

These are- - Regalia.

- Yes.

I mean, it, it's unbelievable what you have in here.

You should be very proud.

- We have a lot of customers that come in and they're just, you know, very pleased.

We have wonderful staff, and educated.

We always read the comments because we have forms for the, our guests to fill out comments.

And it's always they- - Which helps us improve.

- Yeah.

- It's always nice 'cause not everything- - There was nothing negative.

- People will be honest, they're a little more honest when they can write something down instead of just coming to your face.

And they'll write things down, and you look at that and you go, you know what?

We should do that or we should do this, you know?

But I like it when people come in and they right away, out of respect, when they come through and they look, and then they'll come back up front and they'll go, is it okay if we take pictures?

Absolutely, you know, because, we do like two festivals here every summer too.

So we do a Native American Festival, then we do a Heritage Day Festival, and we do those in May, and then we do one in August.

- Well, you guys should be very proud because the experience, in this little building, the experience people can have when they come through here, like I said, I've already been here and I couldn't wait to get, thank goodness somebody wrote in and said, please go back.

So it gives us another chance to come back.

- It's awesome, yeah.

You'll have to wait a couple more years to come back again because there's a lot, we change things, every year we add something.

- Yeah.

- Last summer we actually added three different things, and kind of still working on those.

So that was a little too much, take a big step.

It's just small steps, but we're going in that direction where we're changing everything.

We want to definitely have the outdoor, more outdoor exhibits again so.

- Well, like I said, history, especially Native American history is very important because you don't know where you're going until you know where you've been.

- Yeah.

- Think about it.

After our awesome and telling talk, I spent some fun and serious time touring the entire museum.

And I have to say that my fascination, and admiration and respect for Native Americans continues to grow.

The art and artifacts you'll see here are priceless.

What a creative, amazing and resilient people.

So trust me on this one, the Museum of Ojibwa Culture in St. Ignace is a great place to go and even take the whole family.

And if you're a low plains flatlander like me, you also get to cross the mighty Mackinac Bridge to get there.

Bonus.

(graphics swoosh) Now our final You Wanted To See It comes from Carl T. in Royal Oak.

And Carl had this suggestion for us.

"Dear Tom, Jim and crew, I saw the pizza episode you did and it was fantastic."

Thanks, Carl.

"However, you forgot the missing link, the big kahuna and the piece de resistance."

By the way, Carl, that's French "Loui's Pizza on Dequindre in Hazel Park is an institution for pizza lovers.

It's owned by an awesome family.

Their loyal employees have been there forever and the atmosphere will make you a paesano even before you finish your pizza.

It's a tradition for many Michiganders.

Please go, you'll thank me later."

Well, Carl, I'm gonna thank you right now.

Take a look.

Now, when it comes to the periodic table of pizza, Loui's stands as Detroit's most substantial.

Pound for pound, it's the heavyweight of deep dish pizzas.

Heck, this pie is so solid.

It can knock out your hunger in a single slice.

Yep, Loui's Pizza on Dequindre Road in Hazel Park is a classic, old school, really cool place you go to when your inner Italian wants out.

So to find out more about how it all started, I sat down for a solid slice with the one and only Nykolas Sulkiwsky.

You must be proud of your grandpa.

- Oh, absolutely.

Growing up, you know, I grew up in the restaurant, and my grandfather was my best friend, so I was attached at the hip with him, you know, so.

- But I understand when he first started Loui's, he didn't even offer, he said no toppings.

- No.

Just, like this- - Pepperoni under the cheese or nothing else or just cheese pizza.

- Really?

- Yeah.

I think, the first couple of toppings that he picked up was maybe like mushroom or onion, but anything after that it was, no, not at all.

- Well, how did the whole thing with the Chianti bottles start?

Because I mean, truth be told, "UTR" we've had our Christmas party here.

I've been here with, I'm a member of this birthday club.

We come here.

So there are, I mean, full disclosure, there's some bottles with my name on them in the walls here, but how did that start?

- Well, the bottles all started, my grand, this was before me, but my grandfather took the family out to Mexico for vacation and stuff like that.

They were at a hotel resort, you know, and they were at one of the restaurants in the resort, and the restaurant kind of did something like this, but with their own, you know, their own spirits or whatever.

And my grandpa just thought it was so cool that you write your name, have a memento for the next time you come back, and took it with him to the restaurant with the Chianti bottles.

- Well, the pizza here is, I've never had a pizza like it before in my life.

It is the, how do I even say this without making it sound, it's like the heavyweight of pizzas.

It's like one piece of Loui's Pizza can almost,- - It'll get you good.

- Exactly.

How do you make it with such a dense molecular structure?

I mean, how do you do that?

- I mean, first with all good pizza starts out with the dough.

You need to have something that'll hold up to the weight of the cheese that we put on there.

I mean, we're all old style and we don't weigh anything.

Everything is by eye.

If it looks good, it's good, you know, things like that.

So you build your pies.

You don't just make 'em, there's a process to it and you follow all the processes, you know, to a T, it'll come out good.

- What's the special sandwich?

- The Loui's Special?

- Yeah, Loui's Special.

- I actually, on the way here, I had to pick some of the meat up because- - Because it's that big?

- Yeah, it's so popular.

But, so it's a shaved rib eye steak sandwich and grill it up and then we, cheese, and then our own homemade barbecue sauce.

And then we griddle it all up like a toasted sandwich and it's very popular.

- Maybe tonight I won't be having, maybe I'm gonna be having that.

- And we put the meat on it too so its- - It's kinda like this is your legacy.

I mean, this is what you were meant to do, is to carry this on.

'Cause you started here as a cook, right?

- So I would work here.

- You're probably still cooking, right?

- I still cook, but I started here at 12 years old and during summer, and I would do pizza dough.

I would do, you know, prep, you know, anything without a knife, so like, (Tom laughs) - Well you're 12.

- Anything without a knife, folding boxes, stretching pizza dough, prepping pizzas for the, you know, the line and stuff like that.

And whatever anybody needed of me, you know, just do whatever to help out and, yeah.

- Well, as you can tell, Loui's is an absolute destination you should drive to.

But since I'm already here, I guess it's time to eat.

So I napkined up, hunkered down, and dug into some of the best Detroit style Pizza I ever did at, and all in an atmosphere that made me feel like Sophia Loren was my sister.

If you want your next pizza to be a complete throwback dining experience, you'll never forget, spend an evening eating at Loui's Pizza in Hazel Park.

And if there's something you wanna see on "UTR," send us an email, that way we'll know where you want us to go.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I got more pizza to eat.

Thanks for watching "UTR's" You Wanted To See It brought to you in part by Glumpy's chicken flavored peanut butter, made with real Michigan peanuts.

Cluck up your next sandwich with Glumpy's.

(chicken clucks) (bright music) - [Narrator 1] A visit to the Stahls Auto Collection will take you back to a time when cars were more than just a way to get around.

A fantastic assortment of gas pumps, neon signs, and automated music machines dating back 150 years that must be seen and heard.

Info at stahlsauto.com.

- [Narrator 2] Brought to you by Frankenmuth, a Great Lakes Bay region community.

Visit gogreat.com for more info.

(upbeat music) (bright music)