New Cocktail Bar By Rusted Crow Distillery Nesting in Kales Building

Dearborn Heights distillery Rusted Crow is expanding to downtown Detroit this spring. Manager Arielle Bumbul confirms that the new cocktail bar and restaurant will take over the former Mo Better Blues space in the Kales Building near Grand Circus Park.

Operated by the brother in law of distillery founder Joe Schebel, Rusted Crow Detroit will be far larger than the Dearborn tasting room with a full bar and kitchen. The space will seat 150 customers at a 50-foot bar and booths. Schebel is designing the Kales Building bar, giving it a similar flavor to his original tasting room with exposed brick, rustic barn wood embellishments, and Edison bulbs.

"They're going to spotlight all of our products," including vodka, gin, rum, and moonshine, Bumbul says. The tasting room in Dearborn can only serve products made on-site, which limits the types of cocktails bartenders can produce there; however, the new location's licensing will allow Rusted Crow to showcase its liquors with a wider variety of products, she explains. The eatery will also serve a full lunch and dinner menu with "upscale bar food" such as soups, salads, burgers, and other entrees. The owners acquired the site last fall and are aiming to debut "within the next month and a half," pending licensing approval.

Rusted Crow's Detroit Steam Vodka. [Photo: Facebook]

Rusted Crow Detroit isn't the only under-construction project in the Kales Building. Wine bar, retail shop, and community event space The Royce Detroit is slated to debut this summer next door.