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Blaming "gentrification," the owner of Louisiana Creole Gumbo in Eastern Market is closing that location, one of three, after failing to reach a deal with a landlord who wants to sell the building.
Louisiana Creole Gumbo at Gratiot and St. Aubin (Photo: Google)
Fox 2 Detroit reports on Joe Spencer's Cajun spot on Gratiot, "one of the oldest black-owned restaurants in Detroit":
"Unfortunately, our landlord has decided after 50 years of being located on Gratiot that he wants to sell the building and he told us we have to go. We are kind of upset about it as we try to figure out what to do," Spencer said.
No matter what, the restaurant will find a way into another space in the Eastern Market area to continue the storied tradition. But that doesn't stop his concerns about gentrification and how it's crushing small businesses like his.
"This whole gentrification thing is really unfair. Especially for people who have held on for this property, we’ve carried this property, we paid for it more than once, twice through the years. We have paid rent, we’ve been a good customer to him. But, he didn’t want to sell to us, although we made an offer to buy it," Spencer said.
Louisiana Creole Gumbo still has locations in Farmington Hills and in Northwest Detroit, but the one by the Sheefy McFly mural at Gratiot and St. Aubin will no longer be your Saturday lunch choice, at least until they find a new address.
