September 2005, Detroit:
Slows Bar BQ opens its discreet wooden doors. Detroit hasn't been the same since.
There are few other restaurants in the metro Detroit area that have received as much national attention and acclaim as Slows. When Phillip Cooley opened this barbecue joint with his partners he was still in his late twenties. There was no way he could have anticipated the enormous success he would have with this casual concept restaurant.
"We really appeal to a broad demographic," Cooley says of his restaurant's unprecedented success. "We picked barbecue because everyone likes it, it's an American tradition, and it's one of the culinary art forms that's affordable."
Cooley heralded a new breed of restaurateur in Metro Detroit. They're young, attractive, smart, and savvy; they love food and know what it takes to run a successful business. As a result, their restaurants are hugely popular…but don't ever think it's easy.
While it may be that Cooley and his partnership at Slows had caught lightning in a bottle, it would be a mistake to assume that Cooley has the Midas touch. Last year Mercury Coffee Bar, located across the street from Slows and involving Cooley along with eight business partners, didn't even survive the six-month mark.
"Because of the success here [at Slows], we got caught up in our own arrogance," Cooley admits. "While Mercury was a great concept with quality food in a quality space, ultimately it missed the mark with too-high prices, and in-fighting amongst the nine partners didn't help."
Mercury Coffee Bar should not be held up as the de facto example of how hard it is to do business in the area, but rather an example of what happens when a business fails to take into account factors such as demographics and affordability. "In truth, it was nine owners doing a bad job running a business and it was inappropriate for its location," he concludes.
"I hope to do more [restaurant] projects in the future. Mercury Coffee Bar didn't deter me from trying to do it again. But it did make me realize that [this kind of business] is more likely to fail than succeed!" Cooley laughs good-naturedly.
Slows succeeded exactly where the coffee bar failed: at the time that it opened, it catered to a gaping need in the market, a need for a fun, casual, comfortable place to eat quality food at an affordable price, the kind of place that really didn't exist in the city at the time and hasn't been successfully replicated since.
"We created an atmosphere that is appealing to a lot of people, a space that people feel comfortable in," explains Cooley. "For a long time there were people that were afraid of the city—we're really happy to help break down those barriers. We enjoy being a positive part of Detroit's history."
Learning the lay of the landIf you ask some of Metro Detroit's other young restaurateurs how they've succeeded in their businesses, they'll tell you the same thing: it's all about location, affordability, and market demand.
When
Crave Lounge opened almost six years ago in Dearborn, it was unlike anything the region had seen before. Bistro-style sushi was still a fairly new idea in the area, and a high-end restaurant/lounge modeled after European boutique hotels simply didn't exist. Owner Khalil Ramadan was 31 years old and had traveled the world multiple times over, seeing how things were done in New York, Miami, Greece, and Tokyo. Ramadan identified some gaps in the local market and Crave was born.
"I always thought Detroit was lacking a certain kind of nightlife vibe," Ramadan explains, which led to him opening Pure Nightclub in 1999. "But being in the nightlife industry I wanted to create something more versatile. What would make it more fun, more energetic?" Incorporating his background in fashion, advertising, entertainment, and nightlife, Ramadan designed Crave to offer both a fine dining as well as a trendy nightlife experience, and in a way that was accessible and affordable.
"My first experience with sushi was in a party store in New York City. I was ignorant to sushi but had heard of it and I remember thinking, ‘Man, this is good!'" Savvier friends introduced him to "real" sushi and a love affair was born. "I was eating it five times a week while I was living in New York; I would crave sushi, and that's exactly how I got the name for the restaurant!"
Upon returning to Detroit he found little in the way of traditional Japanese cuisine. Ramadan partnered with his chefs to create a new way of presenting sushi to new palates: by infusing familiar Mediterranean flavors of citrus, herbs, and spices, and offering rolls that were baked, torched, and seared. He knew that if you introduced the concept to people slowly, they would eventually make their way to the raw rolls. And they did: "85% of my business is repeat business," Ramadan states. "We started by introducing about 100 new people per week to sushi; now it's only about 10."
While Crave cannot single-handedly take credit for introducing sushi to the metro area (the first incarnation of
Oslo as well as
Little Tree in Royal Oak were already around at that time), it certainly made monumental leaps towards popularizing the cuisine by marrying award-winning fusion food with a stunning interior design and a consistently sold-out party scene.
Food + Nightlife36-year-old Paul Jenkins Jr., owner of the chic
Black Pearl in Ann Arbor and Royal Oak's charmingly dramatic
What Crêpe?, also has a background in nightlife and promotions. Having produced special events for the likes of Puff Daddy, MTV and the NBA, Jenkins knows what it takes to create an aesthetically pleasing scene that excites and entices. And with his experiences in his multi-generation family construction business, building such huge commercial properties as the
Motor City Casino, he has also learned the importance of effective design.
Jenkins says of his interest in restaurants, "I could build them, design them, and get people inside them. I had everything down except for the fact that I can't cook!"
He solved that problem by hiring talented, creative chefs to run his kitchens, and made each space a feast for the eyes as much as for the mouth and stomach. "I was always attracted to smaller, more intimate events and boutique-style restaurants, so I decided if I'm going to be doing restaurants then let's keep it boutique," he explains. "I wanted to keep it small enough to be able to speak to everyone there and also be manageable during economic downtimes."
Black Pearl opened two years ago, and introduced a new kind of youthful, trendy, lounge experience to the somewhat stuffy Ann Arbor dining scene. A2 may be known for culture, liberalism and intellectualism, but rarely has it been noted for its nightlife. Thanks to Jenkins, Black Pearl is now "the hottest thing in town; we're kicking butt! And if you went anywhere else for what you're getting there it would cost double."
What Crêpe? has had an equally open-armed reception, offering over 50 kinds of mouth-watering, instantly-addicting crepes in a cozy setting that instantly transforms patrons to Paris. PJ's inspiration came from traveling back and forth to Toronto just to eat crepes and shop; when the light bulb clicked on and he thought, "Why don't we have a crepe spot like this in Michigan?" he immediately dove deep into research and within two months was serving his first crepes.
"It has been a dream," Jenkins says of What Crêpe? On weekends it is common to see a line of people waiting an hour or more for a table—much like at Slows—and they do wait.
Location has been a huge factor in the success of both establishments. "In Ann Arbor, nobody offered a fun, chic vibe on Restaurant Row with seafood and martinis," says Jenkins. "With What Crêpe? we brought dinner in Paris to Royal Oak; people get that out-of-the-country feel when they're here AND the food is great!" (Not to mention inexpensive with generous portions.)
Both of his restaurants have been relatively new concepts to their respective areas, and both have seen tremendous success in what is typically considered the most difficult period for a new restaurant. Jenkins offers this by means of explanation: "I never really look at the trends of the market; I set my own trends. No one could have told me when I was throwing my first party in my mom's basement at 13 that I would be throwing a party on a yacht with Puff Daddy. I never look at the industry; I look at what I think I'm capable of doing."
Swagger never hurt any businessman, but having the know-how and talent to turn that into a successful business is what set Cooley, Ramadan, and Jenkins apart from the herd. And each is ready for the next step, including: Slows-To-Go carry-out in Midtown for Cooley, a second Crave location for Ramadan, and a new casual venture in Las Vegas for Jenkins. These young restaurateurs have their pulse on what's popular, and by taking factors such as affordability, style, and location into account, they've proven that even in the worst of times a savvy mind can find a way to feed people hungry for something new.
Nicole Rupersburg has plenty of swagger. She likes
Detroit, eating, and writing her blog
diningindetroit.blogspot.com. Her previous article for Metromode
was A Company Of Experts.
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All Photographs © Marvin Shaouni Photography
Contact Marvin here
Photos:
What's Crepe? - Royal Oak
Slows BBQ - Detroit
Phil Cooley Looooves his BBQ sauce
Khalil Ramadan, owner of Crave - Dearborn
Honolulu sushi roll at Crave - Dearborn
What's Crepe? ( interior ) _ Royal Oak
Mushroom crepe at What's Crepe? - Royal Oak