Detroit isn't Cambridge, Mass., two transplanted restaurant owners are learning the tough way.
Melissa Jasper, who runs The Zenith restaurant and tiki lounge on the Fisher Building's ground floor with her husband Robert, talks with Eater Detroit about a rocky start here after running two successful restaurants near Boston.
"Business has been spotty in their first six months and the seasoned husband and wife restaurateurs appear to be getting schooled on how risky opening a restaurant in Detroit can be," contributor Serena Daniels writes. "The New Center location has yet to experience the same type of renewal as other parts of town."
Here are parts of Jasper's replies in the Q&A post:
• Location drawback: I wish that we didn't come in as the forerunners of New Center's redevelopment. . . . With CCS and Wayne State so close and so few restaurants, we felt like this place was in need of a restaurant. But these three buildings are not that occupied
• Non-Detroiters: The best customers we have are coming from the suburbs. I hate to say that. We've been growing slowly busier as people find us from farther afield.
• 'Freaking people out:' Most of the people around here, they want normal and they want inexpensive. There's a huge resistance to Mexican food. There's a lot of unfamiliarity with the things on our menu. We've changed our menu several times, really, because people didn't know what chorizo was. I remember arugula being a big issue. Mexican cheeses were freaking people out.
• Burger fans: A lot of people would say, why can't you serve a hamburger, and I would say, New Center is already full of regular stuff.
• Another disappointment: A lot of people promised us the liquor license was going to change our life. And we've had it for a month and that hasn't been true at all. There could just be a lot more slow growth still ahead for us. We will have to wait and see.
Read more:
Eater Detroit
