New Detroit Restaurant Was Previously a Restaurant

DETROIT - Everyone is well aware that Detroit's food scene is hotter than a ghost pepper. All sorts of the fanciest and ground breakingist gastro-eatery pubs are popping up. We've seen the conversion of old factories, like The Cork and Gabel. We've seen church conversions, like Atwater Brewery's "Atwater in the Park" Biergarten. We've seen it all around here and we know what works. But Sabastiano Mariano of Eastpointe has a vision that some of us may not be able to see. Mariano is in the process of trying to open a restaurant through renovating an old restaurant. "It makes perfect sense." says Mariano, "What don't you understand about this?"

Mariano is blazing a trail that may become a trend in the city, yet he probably doesn't even know it. "Restaurants become restaurants. Factories remain as factories. That's not a world I want to live in, but it's a cunning plan and we will see how it plays out." says the owner of the buzzy cocktail-centric steakhouse, Grey Ghost. "He's actually going to use prebuilt tables and not build his own?" asks the puzzled owner of the local Micro-Nano Brewery Batch Brewing Co.

Mariano plans to open his concept restaurant on the corner of John R and Canfield in the bones of the abandoned La Palma Restaurant building. Mariano plans to cut renovation costs by actually using the old equipment and tables from the existing restaurant. He plans to serve what he calls "a pretty normal menu with reasonable portions at a good price." The idea may seem outlandish, but only time will tell if this business plan will be one for Detroit history books. We wished Mariano the best of luck to which he responded, "Why are you even interviewing me?"