Meet Metropolitan Variety Store, the Bar and Market Moving Into West Village

The chefs behind former Corktown restaurant Gold Cash Gold are taking over the shuttered Craft Work address in West Village, bringing a fresh perspective to the Agnes Street restaurant space. Chefs Hailey Enszer and Brendon Edwards plan to open Metropolitan Variety Store this spring, offering a combination of neighborhood boutique market and bar with lighter Latin American-influenced food.

Enszer’s and Edwards’s project has been in the works for a while now. The chefs, whose restaurant closed in February 2020, began hosting pop-ups in the vacant Craft Work restaurant last fall. The pair in partnership with developer Jonathan Hartzell of Detroit Shipping Company, construction executive Rick Stanza, and Ashley Price (beer, wine, and liquor buyer for Holiday Market) have formed the DSC Hospitality management group.

Price will take the lead in developing the market side of the space, which formerly housed Craft Work’s dining room, while Edwards and Enszer will manage and develop the menus for the bar and restaurant. “We’ve gotten a lot of feedback already from the neighborhood that they’re really excited about is having something local they can walk to,” Edwards says of the market project, noting that the market will feature Guernsey and Calder Dairy products as well as local produce, pantry staples, and grab-and-go items.

Edwards and Enszer are also looking forward to reviving the bar, which was a popular gathering spot for people in the neighborhood prior to Craft Work’s closure. Based on feedback from the community, particularly members of the nearby Live Cycle Delight spin club, the chefs are prepared to introduce some “healthier options” to the menu incorporating ingredients from local farms.

“I excited to be in the kitchen again and to be a part of the community,” Enszer says. “We both got into this industry because we like cooking for people. And I do miss the dynamic at Gold Cash of having our regulars who live upstairs and people who want to support us, because we’re supporting them.”

Currently, Metropolitan Variety Store is offering some curbside pickup options with online ordering from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday The partners are currently waiting on a license transfer from the Michigan Liquor Control Commission, which they expect will be completed sometime in the next month.

After that transfer is complete, the group will get to work doing a light renovation of the restaurant. Edwards and Enszer say the plan is to preserve the Ouizi art in the dining room-turned market and do some general brightening and rearranging of the bar area to while preserving the gorgeous apothecary woodwork. With a little luck, service will begin this spring.

In the meantime, Metropolitan Variety Store is still accepting community investment. People who would like to get involved can support the project through Honeycomb.

Correction: Metropolitan Variety Store is open for curbside Wednesday through Saturday, not Wednesday through Friday.

• Gold Cash Gold’s Brunch Is Back for a Limited Run in West Village [ED]
• Metropolitan Variety Store Website [Official]
• Metropolitan Variety Store and Metropolitan Bar & Kitchen [Honeycomb Credit]
• All Eater Tracking Coverage [ED]