I've got a two-punch motherlode of restaurant info coming out this week and next in Metromode. I'll drop the relevant names now: Curt Catallo and Ann Stevenson (Union Joints, aka Union Woodshop, Vinsetta Garage et.al.), Luciano del Signore (Pizzeria Biga, Bacco), Jon Carlson and Greg Lobdell (2Mission Development, aka Jolly Pumpkin, Bastone et.al.), and Mindy Lopus (Silver Pig Restaurant Group, aka Tallulah, Red Crown et.al.).
LOTS of new news coming from these cats, but you're just going to have to wait. In the meantime, I'll hand-tip a few of the tastier morsels:
Jolly Pumpkin's new production brewery in Dexter and Avalon Breads' new production facility in Detroit should both be open and operating within two weeks.
2Mission is still going forward with the Jolly Pumpkin Cafe in Royal Oak and have already completed construction plans and design work. The guys are very eager and excited to move forward; an unforeseen issue with the title on the seller's end is the cause of the delay. Jon and Greg also have some other plans for new spots in both Royal Oak and Ann Arbor in the works, but sorry my lovelies: spoilers!
Mindy's Red Crown will be open by mid-January and perhaps earlier depending on liquor license approval. Bona Fide Baking Co. will follow shortly thereafter. She's also got other concepts in the works at various stages of planning in Birmingham, Grosse Pointe Park and ... wait for it ... Detroit! But again: spoilers.
The Cafe con Leche del Este pop-up in Lafayette Park has closed (the final weekend was very funereal), but owners Jordi Carbonell and Mellissa Fernandez have plans to do a second pop-up on the east riverfront and are also looking towards Eastern Market for a potential permanent location that would be more than "just" a cafe. You'll know more when there is more to know.
Incidentally, the space that housed the pop-up will now be a laundromat, despite Fernandez doing everything she could to keep the space for a permanent location. (PS, this laundromat lease was confirmed before the pop-up's run even ended, in a direct affront to the rhetoric that this pop-up was intended as a "test run" for the coffeehouse to open in the space permanently.) For those of you not familiar with Lafayette Park, all of the high rises, condos and town homes in the immediate vicinity of this strip mall have their own laundry facilities, but perhaps it's just, you know, easier for the owner. As one friend observed on the Facebook, "Ownership politics seems to be as big an impediment to renewal as much as anything." To which I added, "At this point I'd argue it's quite possibly the BIGGEST problem, all throughout Detroit." So here's a great feature idea: the nightmarish experiences of would-be entrepreneurs with viable business plans trying to deal with property owners in this city. (I've heard dozens such stories myself.)
And finally, Rodin, a French-ish restaurant/lounge owned by Torya Blanchard that builds off of the French theme of her Good Girls Go to Paris Crepes also located in Midtown's Park Shelton building, will open 12/12/12.
