After releasing that Five15 had bought the Royal Oak restaurant Pronto!, 608 S. Washington Avenue, Five15 co-owner Gary Baglio was not anticipating the reaction they received. “The amount of excitement and enthusiasm…is so encouraging. I hope we can live up to the expectation and I’m sure we’ll be able to,” he said. It turns out this transaction had been in the works for about a year, according to Baglio, but their connection goes back further to when Five15 partnered with Pronto to use their liquor license to serve alcohol during Five15’s Drag Queen Bingo nights, which now has a permanent home just down the street at 600 W. Washington Avenue. The new owners plan to keep the Pronto! name but

Three out of four restaurants – San Morello, The Brakeman, and Penny Red’s – at the Shinola Hotel, 1400 Woodward Avenue, and Shinola Hotel Annex, 22 John R Street, Detroit, have officially reopened as of July. Owned by the NoHo Hospitality Group, which includes Chef Andrew Carmellini, Luke Ostrom, and Josh Pickard, the trio of spots have all the necessary safety standards in place, including face masks and disinfecting all surfaces in-between use. Is it worth it to open all three if they can only be at half-capacity, though? “Time will tell,” said Carmellini. “I believe for most places being able to employ your core team, pay the bills, and do it all safely and at the same level as before wi

When guests enter Jim Brady’s Detroit location in Royal Oak, 1214 S. Main Street, they’ll notice not only their new safety precautions – be sure to wear your mask when you enter the building – but a new menu as well. “This menu is definitely the best one that we’ve done since we’ve been around as a company,” he said. New menu items include pork belly poutine, tuna poke tacos, and a few different pastas, like their chicken carbonara. Classics from the restaurant, especially their salmon and fish tacos, are still there, but with slight tweaks. Completing the new menu played a role in their late June re-opening, compared to others which opened earlier in the month. While they aren’t at a level

“Just so you don’t think that we’re crazy, the original grand opening date was scheduled for March 28 of this year,” laughed Andi Numan, a partner in The Ebenezer in downtown Plymouth, which opened in June. Located in the basement of an old bank building at 305 Fleet Street, their main entrance is through an alley, that takes you to the windowless basement, where the interior was created by Birmingham’s Ron & Roman. On one side of the establishment is where the bar and tabletops are, and the other is a lounge area with large furniture. Keeping with the speakeasy era-theme, the interior has true antiques, giving it a 1900s feel but with a fresh touch. As for the drink menu, expect a rotating

Jeremy Sasson, Heirloom Hospitality president and CEO, reopened another one of his restaurants in late July, Prime + Proper, 1145 Griswold Street, Detroit. Even though they haven’t hit full stride yet, Sasson’s been pleasantly surprised with the amount of volume and guest feedback they’ve received since reopening. Face masks and the use of hand sanitizer are required for guests at the front door, among other safety precautions. The restaurant has made some physical changes to the space, with integrated booth partitioning that’s been added inside, and they’ve expanded their outdoor seating. Since they had such a long time to think about the menu – Sasson said it almost reminded him of pre-ope

After a slow start – both in regards to retraining staff and customers – when they reopened in late June, Mootz Pizzeria + Bar’s, 1230 Library Street, Detroit, operating partner, Lisa Walters, said things have been picking up. “I feel definitely things are on the upswing for us,” she said. Even though the planned patio isn’t finished yet, they have been able to expand their outdoor seating with unused tables from inside, where they are primarily serving guests in their booths, which surround the perimeter of the restaurant. Prior to the pandemic shut down, the pizzeria was already in the middle of doing a menu change and expansion. Now guests can try their Pappardelle Bolognese, a wide-egg n

Opening Slyde has been years in the making for the team behind it, but due to the coronavirus, its opening date has been pushed back again, this time to October 2020. That doesn’t mean they couldn’t introduce their menu to the city, before then – which they started doing in July through pop-ups serving carry-out at their future home, 7960 Kercheval Avenue, Detroit. “We had an overwhelming response from the neighborhood in the community, which was a little bit unexpected for us,” said Dana Frost, head of branding and marketing at Slyde, about their first pop-up in July. The menu consisted of affordable dishes that will probably be served at the new brick-and-mortar, including their mushroom c