[Metromode] A New Breed of Restaurateur Pt. 2

Bastone. Photo by Nicole Rupersburg. 

The days of metro Detroit's restaurant empires are over. The latest breed of successful restaurateur is anti-corporate and anti-chain. They create unique businesses in unique spaces, care about people and preservation, and even managed to open some of Metro Detroit's most successful restaurants in the midst of the economic downturn.

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This is part two of a two-part series. This half focuses on Jon Carlson and Greg Lobdell, the development duo behind such popular metro Detroit spots as Bastone and Jolly Pumpkin Brewery and Cafe; and Mindy Lopus, owner of Tallulah and Bella Piatti in Birmingham, who is opening three new concepts in Grosse Pointe Park. Read part one here.

The Week We Ate (The EID Week in Review)

One! One restaurant. Two! Two restaurants.

The "Castle Building" will have not one but TWO new restaurants inside. [Curbed Detroit]

Corktown: one of the 50 most stylish neighborhoods IN THE WORLD. The WORLD. [Complex]

It's Greek Week in metro Detroit! KouZina Street Food opened in Royal Oak, and Santorini Estiatorio in Greektown (the remodeled Mosaic) isn't far behind. [Crain's / EID FB]

Jon Carlson and Greg Lobdell are the BEST. [Freep]

People are the WORST. [Detroit News]

When I first moved to Lafayette Park there was a cafe in the strip mall on Lafayette called Paris Cafe. It was merely okay, but at least convenient. A few months later it closed. Now, 5 years later, FINALLY, someone else is opening a coffee shop (if only temporarily), and YAAAY it's Jordi from Cafe Con Leche! Meet Cafe con Leche de Este, a pop-up coffee shop in the LP opening 11/4. [CCLDE FB]

Is it possible for a business model to be "viral?" If so, such is the concept of a pop-up. The Villages are being a thing and using pop-ups to show it. [Curbed Detroit]

The Caucus Club will serve their last lunch next Wednesday, October 24. Guys, did you "get" my string of Barbra Streisand references in the post that first mentioned their closing? It's really important that you realize how clever that was. [CC FB / EID]

Michigan once again had some big winners at the Great American Beer Festival: Kuhnhenn Brewing Co., Bastone and Redwood Lodge all took home medals. (Kuhnhenn and Bastone both seem to be GABF favorites.) Which is awesome! Except that none of these guys distribute (except Kuhnhenn in VERY limited quantities), so you actually have to go to the brewery. Which is awesome is you live near-ish Warren, Royal Oak or Flint. And not if you don't. [GABF]

And here is the line-up for next weekend's Fall Beer Festival. Start planning. [MBG blog]

Which also means Detroit Beer Week is now upon us. [EID]

And for those "out west," Bill's Beer Garden in Ann Arbor is now open. [BBG FB]

More beer news from the Ace Deuce: World of Beer, a Florida-based craft beer chain, will be opening in Ann Arbor. But don't get too excited: A2 is not without its share of stellar craft beer bars and there's no promising this chain will focus prominently on Michigan crafts, which is what the locals will demand most. (I see a lot of Sam Adams in their future.) Plus, IT'S A SPORTS BAR. *shudder* [AnnArbor.com]

And even more from Ann Arbor: dude behind Mani Osteria still opening a Mexican joint, still doesn't have a name for it. Mario Batali loves it already. [Concentrate]

The Freep does a game day round-up of places that have opened in A2 in the last two years and includes Lena. I also wrote about Lena. So there. [Freep / EID]

Between Lena, as-yet-unnamed Mexican Mani Osteria, and 2012 Hatch Detroit winner La Feria, it would seem the Latin invasion is upon us once again. Here is a pre-preview of La Feria. [Model D]

The Sugar House is now open at noon on Saturdays and Sundays with a special "Eye Opener" menu. [SH FB]

And Local Kitchen + Bar is now serving brunch on Saturdays AND Sundays. [Local FB]

Market Studio Kitchen + Detroit Emergent Future Lab are the latest concepts taking shape in Eastern Market that support and promote our local food system through community engagement and hands-on education for both youth and adults. [HuffPo]

Nationally distributed PBS show "Start-Up" is based here in metro Detroit, produced by Parliament Studios in Clawson, and has already profiled some favorite local start-ups like Astro Coffee and McClure's Pickles. [HuffPo]

City Wings is cleaner than some hospitals. Meet the guy behind it. [UIX]

Welll ... we want to be known as "design-savvy." Soooooooo... [Detroit News]

Why yes, in fact I am incredibly selfless. [Metromode]

Got money? Feel like giving it away? Here are three current Kickstarter campaigns for you to do just that:
~Belle Isle to 8 Mile. An "insider's guide" to Detroit with some 750 listings (a few authored by yours truly!).
~Chartreuse. A raw vegan organic local food business looking to expand.
~The Brinery. Trying to buy and preserve 12,000 pounds of locally-grown cabbage using lacto-fermentation: "40 barrels in 40 nights."

Eat It GR
So there's been a lot happening in Grand Rapids lately which I haven't been posting because some people get sand in their vaginas if I take one out of my 10+ posts per day to discuss something that isn't happening within 15 miles of the Royal Oak epicenter, so here is a collection of news bits from Beer City USA:

~The Grand Rapids Public Museum's "Thank you, BEER!" exhibit opened this weekend and will remain through December 30, exploring the importance of beer throughout human history. Or, as they say, "Celebrating beer, brewing and the meaning of life." [GR Museum]

~During the course of organizing the above exhibit, museum curators (with the help of several Grand Rapids craft breweries and private collectors in the community) combed through their own collections of local brewing history, a history that started 15-20 feet below the current city streets. This is a great article on the city's long brewing history. Also, the historic Grand Rapids Brewing Co. will re-open next month (from the folks behind HopCat). [MLive]

~Here are some coordinating events that go along with the exhibit. [MLive]

~And here is more more about Founders' commemorative "Furniture City Stock Ale" brewed specifically for this exhibit, only available in west Michigan, and with all profits being donated to the Grand Rapids Public Museum. [Founders]

~And here is a video with 16 breweries celebrating Grand Rapids as Beer City USA. [Whiskey Neat]

~For whatever random reason, Trillium Haven was getting a lot of love (at least on Facebook) this week from various persons-about-town. Founders is doing a "Beer and Butchery" five-course dinner there next Sunday and Monday and the GR CVB also made this great video. [Founders / GR CVB]

~UPDATE: In the 20 minutes since I posted this something else happened. This Tuesday the "Grand Pumpkin," a Beer City USA collaboration brew between 11 Grand Rapids breweries, will be released. (Each brewery has their own version, all different recipes with the same base ingredient: pumpkin.) [MLive]

[EID Feature] Sexy Time in Ann Arbor: Lena + Habana

All photos by Nicole Rupersburg.

Two of my favorite people in restaurateuring (actually, it would probably be safe to say that these guys ARE my two favorite restaurateurs, the end) have opened yet another business in Ann Arbor (two, really) and it looks like they've got yet another winner(s) under their belts.

Greg Lobdell and Jon Carlson of 2Mission Design and Development have been on a tear here, there and everywhere. Jolly Pumpkin is expanding their Dexter brewing facilities (so Ron Jeffries can keep brewing unicorn tears and more of it) and they'll be opening a third Jolly Pumpkin Cafe soon (this one in Royal Oak). Together they own more than a dozen restaurants and bars in Royal Oak, Ann Arbor and Traverse City, and they're not slowing down any time soon.

Meet Lena (Lay-na), the team's newest venture and Ann Arbor's latest in cosmopolitan Latin-fusion cuisine. The place is total sexy time with a stripped-down aesthetic and an emphasis on clean, curved lines. From the Jetsons-inspired ceiling-mounted fireplace (get your own for a mere $8,500) to the curved wall and sparse west coast palette (save for the very very green exterior), this place just oozes sexy savvy chic. Oh, Ann Arbor, you.

But that's not all: in the basement is the newly-relocated and revamped Habana. It's still everything that it was before (Latin-inspired food and drink, salsa dancing, nightclub on weekends), only better. Sexier.  And minus the "Cafe." (The old Cafe Habana space, in the basement of Blue Tractor BBQ + Brewery, is now Mash, a whiskey and beer bar which admittedly fits the BBQ joint above it a bit more naturally.)

Lena and Habana are both Latin-inspired concepts but the similarities end there. They are otherwise as different as night and day, black and white, below ground and above ground. Where Lena upstairs is light and airy with an open floor plan awash in natural sunlight, breezy like an outdoor cliff-side patio on the Baja Peninsula, Habana is its dark underbelly. Literally. Located beneath Lena, Habana is dark and cavernous, an ultra-sexy nightclub carved out of the earth in the footprints of former secret vaults found beneath what was once Cunningham's Drug Store.

The building itself dates back to the late 1800s (possibly as far back as 1860), when it was home to the department store Mack and Co. When the store shut down, the top floors were removed and it became Cunningham's (1940). That store closed in 1973, replaced by a flower store briefly and then the Greek restaurant Parthenon in 1975, which closed in April of this year after more than 40 years of service.

The renovations were fast and furious (the Parthenon wasn't the cleanest of places, and the basement was pretty much dirt). During the renovation process, secret chambers were found behind the walls of the basement running under the sidewalks of the city; the walls were blown out and those chambers are now lounge areas. As for the very very green exterior, it is a faithful recreation of the original Cunningham's Drug Store facade; metalwork, awnings and all.

Lena is conceived to be a culinary experience inspired by the foods and traditions of Latin America and influenced by contemporary American cuisine. Chef Gabriel Vera is from Ecuador but uses French techniques with his own spin. He also recently represented Team Michigan at the Culinary Olympics in Frankfurt earlier this month -- this guy ain't no Tex-Mex joint line cook.

The menu is tapas and tacos with items like roasted corvina (an excellent fish from the coast of Ecuador you won't find anywhere else around here), an excellent selection of ceviche (try the sampler), traditional items like Caldo de Bolas (shredded beef soup), tostones, Spanish yapingacho (potato cakes stuffed with queso blanco, avocado, peanut sauce and chorizo), giant broiled Spanish sardines (not the kind that come in cans), 58-day-aged NY Strip steaks, a primarily Latin American wine list, and a huge emphasis on craft cocktails made with fresh-squeezed juices and house-made infusions. Plus rotating Jolly Pumpkin handles and Brazilian-style Chopp beer (light and dark) brewed especially for Lena and Habana.

I could use more words to say all of these things in more detail, but I'm going to let pictures do the talking here.

The bar at Habana.

Former secret vault made lounge.

House-infused vodka.

Ceviche sampler.

Want to see more? View the Flickr set here.