The Machus Red Fox Salad was once served at the swanky Red Fox restaurant in Bloomfield, Michigan. It is a simple chopped salad with wedges of ripe tomatoes, rings of red onion, crumbled roquefort and chopped crisp bacon. What truly makes the salad (besides the bacon and blue cheese) is the dressing. It’s a super simple, light and sweet dressing that brings all these wonderful ingredients together.
While I was chatting with my mom on the phone about her Detroit-style pizza recipe, she was telling me how she loved [she still loves to actually] to recreate recipes at home — something I already knew because hello?! that apple doesn’t fall to far from the tree.;)
She told me about the time when she read a request in the Royal Oak Tribune food section, that someone was looking for the recipe to the Machus Red Fox Salad dressing. First of all, this was before internet, before food blogs and way before a simple entry into the Google search bar could answer your question in seconds. People turned to their local newspaper and had to wait and hope to find an answer. Huh. Imagine that?
Of course, my mom had already made a copycat version of the Machus Red Fox salad dressing and replied back to the newspaper, I’m assuming via postal mail and The Tribune printed my mom’s recipe in the newspaper, giving her full credit. My mom still has the clipping attached to a recipe card. How cool is that??
I asked my mom for that recipe too and she texted me a snapshot of the article.
Later that night, I was thinking about our phone call and wondered how did a salad get the name Machus Red Fox? There had to be a story there, right? It was too late to text my mom, so I did a quick Google search [bless you technology!] and what I found out, made her story so much more interesting than it already was. From what I found/read, the Red Fox was a hip restaurant in its prime during the 60’s and 70’s (and eventually closed in 1996) that mainly wealthy people frequented. It also is the last place Jimmy Hoffa was seen at.
So I’m only guessing here, but I think this is the restaurants “house salad” and I can totally see why. It’s the perfect salad for just about anything. It’s light and delicious and the perfect starter or side salad to any meal. I made it and served it with my Detroit-style pizza and it was delicious.
It makes a large salad so it’s a great salad to feed a crowd. But you could easily scale it down.
The dressing though is where the money is at.
Crumbled roquefort, sliced red onion, ripe tomato wedges and crispy chopped bacon. I totally get why people loved this salad.
The dressing is SO simple: into a jar or container that has a tight-fitting lid, combine 1/3 cup granulated sugar, 1/3 cup white vinegar, 1/4 cup olive oil (back then they used salad oil but what is that exactly? jk) and 1 teaspoon kosher salt.
Shake the dressing really well so the sugar has a chance to dissolve.
In a large bowl combine 1 medium head of chopped romaine with 1 head of chopped iceberg lettuce. If serving immediately, toss with enough of the dressing to lightly coat the leaves, not drench the lettuce.
If making in advance, do this right before serving.
Then top those dressed greens with wedges of tomatoes (I used campari), the chopped crisp bacon pieces, crumbles of blue cheese and slices of red onion.
Serve with extra dressing on the side.
Enjoy! And if you give this Machus Red Fox Salad recipe a try, let me know! Snap a photo and tag me on twitter or instagram!
Machus Red Fox Salad
Ingredients
FOR THE DRESSING:
- 1/3 cup white sugar
- 1/3 cup white vinegar
- 1/4 cup light olive oil
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, more or less to taste
FOR THE SALAD:
- 1 head ice berg lettuce, chopped
- 1 small head romaine lettuce, chopped
- 6 compari tomatoes, cut into wedges
- 1 medium onion, sliced red onion
- 4 strips cooked bacon, crumbled
- 2 ounces crumbled roquefort blue cheese
- freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- In a small jar or container with a tight fitting lid, add the sugar, vinegar and olive oil. Secure the lid and shake well until the sugar has dissolved. Season with kosher salt to taste.
- In a large bowl toss the lettuces with a little of the dressing. The leaves should be lightly dressed and not soggy. Top with wedges of tomatoes, red onion slices and sprinkle with cooked, crumbled bacon and blue cheese. Grind fresh black pepper over top and serve with the extra dressing on the side.
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I am anxious to try this! I live in Beverly Hills MI…. and remember that salad! Thank you!
Ah! I hope you love it, Cynthia!
Being from Canton, Michigan this post was so fun! Can’t wait to make this.
I have family in Canton! I hope you enjoy the salad, Julie!
I love all of the components to this salad and it looks fantastic! I am very curious, however, about the ratio of oil to vinegar….seems strange to use only 1/4 cup oil for 1/3 cup each of vinegar and sugar. Will have to give it a try.
Julie, I know! I thought the same thing (1/3 cup sugar!!) but trust me, it really works. Enjoy!
I remember this salad! Can’t wait to make it.
Yay! Enjoy, Karen!
Hello Laurie!
Thank you for this recipe! I remember going to Machus on Wood word with my grandma when I was 12 and having this salad thinking it was the best thing!
I laughed at your story and remembered trying to get recipes from the Tribune! I still have many clippings from the Detroit News/Free Press!
I now live in western New York so this will be great to try! Glad we found you on Pinterest also. I’m eager to look on your blog to see if you have recipes with Vernors—You know, “Michigan penicillin”!
I want to serve salad to a group of 25 women. How many would your recipe serve. Salad would accompany main dish. Thank you.
I dined at Machus Red Fox many times and loved their salad. I still make it. The red onion is NOT sliced into a thick round as your pic shows. It was sliced extremely thin- almost shaved. This scant flavor made the salad all the more alluring and delicious.
Great, Elaine!
I worked at the Red Fox from 1979-1981 and during lunch on some Saturdays would make the salads. The chocolate chip cookies from the attached bakery we’re out of this world.
That’s awesome, Dave! I wish I could get my hand on that cookie recipe!!
Any idea how they made their garlic bread Dave? It was wonderful! I always had it with my machus salad.
I worked at the Birmingham Machus a long time ago. It was served on a chilled plate with a chilled fork and you were required to mention that when placing it in front of the customer. Anxious to try your recipe!
You’ve got everything down right as far as the ingredients go but the salad is not pre-mixed like you show. You toss the greens with the dressing and plate it. THEN you add the blue cheese, onion and bacon on top of the greens.
Machas ALWAYS served this salad with a chilled fork. Almost freezing.
And the Lettuce was extremely cold as well.
You’ve got everything down right as far as the ingredients go but the salad is not pre-mixed like you show. You toss the greens with the dressing and plate it. THEN you add the blue cheese, onion and bacon on top of the greens.
Do you know how they made there icing for there wedding cakes.
I tried to make this dressing with sugar substitute — tasted like stevia and oil. Terrible!! I’ll wait until I’m off keto and try real sugar. I bet it’s great. In the meantime I’ll eat the salad with creamy blue cheese dressing. Yum!
I love this salad! Recently moved back to area after many decades and sad the Machus salad is gone. Can’t wait to try this dressing to recreate the salad at home that made me fall in love with salad in my teens. Yes, to the chilled plate and fork! Yes, to the very thinly sliced red onions! But no one who remembers this culinary delight mentioned the crushed croutons yet. They were savory and a mix of white and brown bread, crunchy and crushed almost to crumbs. Just the right crunch on top, but not jaw breakers.
Surprised this salad is not on local menus like the Hudsons salad is at so many local restaurants.
When I made the salads when I worked at the Machus Red Fox, I would just mix up enough for 4 salads at a time so the lettuce wouldn’t get soggy. We’d just have one wedge of tomato and the bacon was in very small chunks. We served them with chilled plates and forks. The dressing came pre-mixed so I never had to mix it up. They also sold it in the bakery attached to the back.
My FAVORITE ! I grew up “down” the road in Franklin Village, remember so many wonderful times
and special occasions we enjoyed at Machus Red Fox! When we moved to California in the seventies we actually had a dear friend ship us bottles of the dressing! We so enjoyed our secret stash!
Can’t wait to try this at home!
I used to work for one of the sister restaurants in the Manchus family. Sly Fox. HO Manchus the founder was a war hero. Called the sly fox which the one restaurant was named for. This restaurant used to be the old Greenfield cafeteria. Now the Red Fox served a different exclusive salad. Bacon bits were on served at the Red. Foxys the cafeteria all used toasted rye croutons. Yes the dressing was made to recipe from a large dressing maker. Shipped in 4/1 gallons and then distributed to each restaurant. What great Birmingham memories
I lived there (in Bloomfield)
and had their salad many times!
They always, however, sprinkled bread crumbs(dried) on top of this salad.