Greektown at Sundown, which includes street performers, began July 17 and runs through Sept. 7. (Photo from Greektown Preservation Society)
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A three-week-old experiment in Greektown could bring an ongoing change that turns Monroe Street into a pedestrians-only festival at dusk each summer weekend.
"Outdoor dining and other live entertainment options might become a regular fixture on the main city blocks through Greektown," Kirk Pinho writes at Crain's, where he describes how Monroe is a vehicle-free for part of every weekend until Labor Day.
To create the Greektown at Sundown program, the Greektown Preservation Society — which spearheaded the summer event series — had to get city permits to close off Monroe from Beaubien Street to St. Antoine Street from car traffic during the evening hours (5 p.m. to 2 a.m. Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays). . . .
If the program is successful in the coming month, Greektown visitors can expect . . . the roughly 25 business owners in the society to start working on an encore for Greektown at Sundown, perhaps making it an annual event series and expanding it west to Brush Street.
This summer's activities include street performers, live music and art displays.
Pinho talks with Tasso Teftsis, head of the neighborhood's business society:
"We want to first test this to see how it works — see how owners and our guests like it — and then we will go from there," said Teftsis, who is co-owner of Astoria Pastry Shop, Red Smoke Barbeque and the Krema pastry and coffee shop, all in Greektown. All of those establishments feature outdoor dining.
In addition to those three restaurants, others including outdoor dining for the next month are Santorini Estiatorio, Pappy's Bar & Grill, Golden Fleece Restaurant, Plaka Café and Pizza Papalis.
Expanding Greektown at Sundown west to Brush would encompass Fishbone's and Firebird Tavern.
Deadline reader Steve Mamat of Royal Oak is among those who've enjoyed the traffic-free street, which he says (on Facbeook) "had a very Bourbon Street feel to it." Shema Young, another recent visitor commenting at our Facebook page, says it "was cool not to worry 'bout cars."
At the Greektown Detroit page on that social network, Teftsis says:
“Festivals and public events have played an important role in the history of Greektown. The increased foot traffic from Greektown at Sundown will have a lasting positive impact on the entire downtown Detroit community.”
