Otus Supply in Ferndale Abruptly Closes

Otus Supply — the whimsical, owl-themed restaurant, bar, and event space in Ferndale that opened its doors in 2016 — has permanently closed. In an announcement posted to Instagram late Monday, February 27, the ownership said the venue would be closing its doors, effective immediately.

The post offered no explanation for the closure, but thanked the establishment’s family and friends for their support and apologized to its staff. “Effective immediately we will be closing our doors to our wonderful, beautiful establishment. We thank each and every one of you for the years of patronage. From the togetherness, great food, cocktails and live music we’ve been able to supply to all of you we are so very thankful. To our amazing staff we’ve been able to build out of Covid 19, we sincerely apologize and wish you nothing but the best in your futures. No one knows what the future holds but this is goodbye for now,” the statement reads.

Otus Supply — co-owned by Thom Bloom and Scott Myrick — arrived on the scene in 2016, following a nearly three-year, $4 million build-out. On top of its captivating interior design, the space also held the Parliament Room, a small music venue. Prior to launching Otus Supply, Bloom had previously been a partner with the all-day brunch spot Toast until 2016.

Bloom tells Eater that the business has struggled to overcome a revenue shortfall throughout the pandemic.

“It’s really unfortunate because we put our heart and soul into this place,” says Bloom. “We love everybody here and we love what we do but it’s just for whatever reason, we could not get the revenue back to the level that we needed it to be.”

Bloom says that the property is currently available for sale or in a leaseback agreement by Bloomfield Township-based Thomas Hospitality Group, which listed the property for $3.5 million.

The restaurant and venue ran into issues in 2018 amid allegations of bouncing paychecks and violating labor laws. In February 2020, Jason Osburn, a respected chef in metro Detroit’s restaurant industry who had taken the helm at Otus Supply in 2019, died unexpectedly. Later that year, Bloom told The Detroit News that the pandemic COVID was both a disaster and an opportunity to revisit its place in the community.

Correction: March 2, 2023, 10:50 a.m. This article was corrected to show that Bloom was was previously a partner with Toast until 2016.