Ferndale Restaurant and Food Truck Park Aims for June Debut

Detroit Fleat, a restaurant and food truck park, is readying for a summer arrival in Ferndale. Co-founder and Delectabowl truck owner Aaron Tye tells Eater that after a relatively quick buildout the restaurant is aiming for a June opening.

Fleat announced plans to takeover the former Wing Hing Inn Chinese restaurant at 1820 E Nine Mile Road in January with the goal of bringing a more permanent truck hub for street food lovers trying to hunt down their favorite mobile restaurants.

Tye and partners Katie Picard and Sean Collins drew inspirations from The Little Fleet in Traverse City when envisioning the format. Like that restaurant, Fleat will feature a full bar alongside three food trucks in residence — Delectabowl, The Mac Shack, Pita Post. Mobile cafe Drifter Coffee will likely fill the fourth slot, with a fifth reserved for a rotating selection of trucks. Tye says that they received more than 60 applications from area trucks in their first round of submissions.

Brenna Houck

Each rolling restaurant will have a permanent trailer parked onsite at Detroit Fleat, allowing the regular trucks to continue roaming to different rallies and events, Tye says.

In addition to the trucks, the main building will feature a traditional restaurant and bar serving beer, wine, and cocktails. Fleat’s menu will focus on Mexican street food and sliders with Treat Dreams ice cream for dessert.

As part of the layout, diners will be able to move freely between the indoor and outdoor restaurant whether picking up their food outside and grabbing a stool at the 23-seat reclaimed wood and corrugated tin bar or ordering from the inside menu and eating on the patio.

Although the hours aren’t completely set yet, Fleat will open for lunch and dinner six days a week with slightly longer hours on the weekends. The food trucks will close earlier than the main restaurant provide time for cleaning and next-day food prep, while the main restaurant kitchen will be there accommodate customer’s late night cravings.

Meanwhile, Ferndale is slated to welcome even more new spots this year. Urbanrest Brewing Company is expected to debut sometime this summer and New Order Coffee will convert its downtown Ferndale “coffee lab” into a cafe (after the Brush Park location launches, of course). Stay tuned for more updates closer to the opening.

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