Dive bar no longer
Beloved sports bar and reporter hangout Anchor Bar sold last summer to the owner of Parc and 220 Merrill for around $1.58 million, Crain’s reports from property records. The bar has since reopened with a fresh look that pays homage to the 60-year-old establishment while upgrading its beer taps and installing banquette seating, tendy Sputnik chandeliers, and eight new televisions, per the Detroit Free Press. Those bargain prices? They’ve gone up nominally as well.
Old chili factory will become a house of charcuterie
The former National Chili Co. facility at 6700 E. Davison St. in Hamtramck will soon be home to the operations for Detroit Optimist Society’s charcuterie company Gratiot Avenue Provisions, according to Crain’s. The brand, which shares a name with a forthcoming (but very delayed) Eastern Market restaurant, has decamped from its Eastern Market production facility for the Hamtramck building as it pursues USDA certification. That will allow GAP to expand into retail sales. The company currently supplies cured meats to the majority of Detroit Optimist’s bars and restaurants including Grandma Bob’s in Corktown.
Chain outpost moves south
Panera is closing down operations in Birmingham and moving to the new Beaumont Health’s Woodward Corners development near Thirteen Mile and Woodward Avenue in Royal Oak, per the Detroit Free Press. The company cited challenges with parking in Birmingham as the main reason for the relocation. The new outpost is on track to open this summer alongside Brown Iron Brewhouse, New Order Coffee, and Wahlburgers.
Coffee shop shutter
Longtime downtown Royal Oak coffee house Bean and Leaf Cafe shuttered last week, citing rising rents, Crain’s reports. The owners hope to return elsewhere in the city.
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