Cuban-Influenced Burger Favorite Frita Batidos Opens Next Week in Detroit

After more than four years of anticipation and many delays, Ann Arbor’s Cuban-influenced burger favorite Frita Batidos is scheduled to open the doors at its second restaurant in Detroit next week. Chef Eve Aronoff confirms to Eater that the restaurant will debut on on Wednesday, October 2 along the new pedestrian-friendly Columbia Street promenade in downtown Detroit near the Fox Theatre. Several invitation-only previews are scheduled for this weekend.

Frita Batidos features counter service format where customers place orders and meals are delivered to the table. The menu was influenced by Aronoff experiences growing up in Miami. The Detroit restaurant will offer all of the popular items including award-winning fritas — burgers made with a choice of beef, chorizo, chicken, black bean, or beef patty — and creamy tropical milkshakes.

In Detroit, Frita Batidos will serve an expanded list of express items such as sandwiches, salads, and ginger rice bowls for workers on their lunch breaks and customers visiting the entertainment district during events and game days. The restaurant also features a full bar with cocktails served by-the-glass and in large-format fishbowls as well as beer.

The 2,400-square-foot Frita is close to double the size of the original location in Ann Arbor with 96 seats indoors and an additional 45 seats on the patio. The restaurant designed by architecture firm PUSH Design with input from University of Michigan assistant professor of architecture Neal Robinson features a similar look and feel to the Ann Arbor location with minimalist white walls and picnic table-style seating.

Brenna Houck

This is one of the first businesses to open in the promenade, which is being redeveloped by the Ilitch family’s Olympia Development. Sahara Restaurant & Grill and a new restaurant from the Union Joints hospitality group are also slated to open along Columbia Street, near the long-delayed Little Caesars World Headquarters.

• Frita Batidos Is Finally Bringing Cuban-Style Burgers to Downtown Detroit [ED]
• Cuban-Style Burger Spot Frita Batidos Aims for Mid-July Debut in Detroit [ED]
• All Frita Batidos Coverage [ED]
• All Openings Coverage [ED]