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The Foxtown Grille, adjacent to the Fox Theatre, is a downtown Detroit fixture. It opened in 2001 when there weren't many restaurants around.
Sadly, the restaurant closes at the end of the month after failing to get a long-term lease, co-owner Ed Barbieri tells Eric Lawrence of the Detroit Free Press. The Ilitch family owns the building.
"I'm a little disappointed. I think being there almost 20 years and they don’t offer you a lease," Barbieri says, adding that his restaurant started "when there was nothing, nothing down there except the ballpark."
Barbieri's sister, Ann Barbieri Kolinski, says the restaurant was offered only a month-to-month lease.
"You can't operate a business on a month-to-month situation," Kolinski told the Free Press. "It's not fair to the customers and it's not fair to anyone's livelihood."