New York Landmark City Bakery Is Expanding to Detroit

New York City powerhouse, City Bakery, is expanding to the Fisher Building in Detroit this fall. The cafe and bakery, founded in 1990 by Maury Rubin, is known for its hot chocolate and for developing one of the original trendy hybrid pastries — the pretzel croissant. City Bakery was also famously featured in an episode of Sex in the City. This will be the first U.S. outpost outside of New York, though the company expanded to Japan in 2013.

Detroit-based developer The Platform, which has been involved in several projects in the New Center neighborhood, is helping bring the cafe to location to Detroit. The coffeehouse, bakery, and chocolate shop will be located inside the Fisher Building’s stunning ground floor arcade. The Platform also plans to build out a full-service commissary kitchen for City Bakery and other future restaurants in the building.

Detroit’s City Bakery cafe will open daily for breakfast and lunch with service until “late afternoon,” offering pastries, salads, sandwiches, desserts, coffee, and hot cocoa. During the winter, the shop also plans will also host a version of its popular hot chocolate festival to Detroit.

Despite the growth in development in the Midtown corridor, New Center has had a tricky relationship with restaurant developments. While spots like Stella Good Coffee, Cuisine, and New Center Eatery have survived the test of time, restaurants like The Zenith and coffee shop Cafe Con Leche struggled to make ends meet and ultimately closed.

Nevertheless, restaurant owners have continued to bet on the area and the promise of increased foot traffic from the QLine. Atomic Chicken opened a restaurant along Woodward this spring and Wilda’s, a restaurant from chefs Max and Eli Sussman and Lucy Carnaghi of Rose’s Fine Foods, is expected to debut later this year.

• All New Center Coverage [ED]

• All City Bakery Coverage [Eater NY]