What’s in a name? Everything in downtown Ferndale. The city that has recently resurrected its name to create one of Metro Detroit’s most progressive brands is about to do the same with one of its most infamous local names: The Loving Touch.
For years The Loving Touch was one of Ferndale’s most infamous establishments, a massage parlor that was the scourge of downtown until it closed in the early 1990s. In 2008 the name will be revived into a pool hall adjacent to one of downtown’s best brand names, Woodward Avenue Brewers.
"Our goal is to make it a positive thing for Ferndale," says Chris Johnston, co-owner of the Woodward Avenue Brewers (commonly known as the WAB) and a partner in The Loving Touch. "I told the city of Ferndale and other people in politics in Ferndale and they just rolled their eyes."
The pool balls are set to start rolling at The Loving Touch this summer. The pool hall will take the place of the old Paperbacks Unlimited storefront next to the WAB facing Woodward. The 5,000-square-foot space will have eight or nine pool tables and an atrium in the back. On the side of it all will be two walls "alive with plants," according to Johnston.
Johnston and his partners at the WAB (his wife Krista, his brother Grant and his friend Brian Reedy) are currently renovating the building. The pool hall will share the liquor license with the WAB but the two will not be connected to customers.
"It’s going to be more so a bar with pools than a traditional pool hall," Johnston says, adding putting it together hasn’t been the easiest task in the 15 months the project has taken so far. "It’s just something that takes time. We’re trying to do it right the first time which always takes longer."
But the group hopes turning the name of the new business into something Ferndalites can be proud of won’t take too long. They even have a few of the original The Loving Touch signs in the WAB’s basement in case it really takes off this summer.
"We’re getting closer all of the time and it’s looking like we will finish soon," Johnston says.
Source: Chris Johnston, co-owner of Woodward Avenue Brewers and The Loving Touch
Writer: Jon Zemke
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