A hipper Hazel Park?

FEATURE

Top: From horse-racing to high-end pop-ups, young professionals flock to a hipper Hazel Park. Bottom: Yani Frye prepares a creative cocktail at FRAMEbar.

?STEVE NEAVLING

A hipper IN 2020, TWO YEARS AFTER GRADUATING from college, Brandon Gaines was bored with his hometown of Rochester Hills and began searching for a new place to live with his boyfriend. They looked at all the usual places for young proHazel Park fessionals in metro Detroit — Ferndale, Royal Oak, Midtown. Each had an eclectic mix of restaurants, bars, and coffee shops within walking distance of apartments. But all were well beyond their budget. Then a friend recommended Hazel Park. Why the longtime “Hazel Park? What’s in Hazel Park?” he recalls responding. blue-collar suburb is Turns out, there’s a lot going on these days in Hazel Park, a 2.8-square-mile city that is experiencing a experiencing a renaissance renaissance. The couple found a two-bedroom apartment in Hazel Park for $850 a month, just blocks from a stretch of John R Road that is undergoing a transformation. By Steve Neavling “Moving here was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made,” Gaines said. “The community has accepted us, and I feel more at home here than I ever did in Rochester Hills. Everything I need is right here.” A longtime blue-collar suburb bordering Detroit, Ferndale, Madison Heights, and Warren, Hazel Park was known for decades for its horse racing, dive bars, and greasy spoons. Today, it’s home to a sizable LGBTQ community, JOE VAUGHN two high-end restaurants, new condos, eight recreational cannabis dispensaries (plus the state’s first marijuana consumption lounge), and an industrial

JOE VAUGHN

STEVE NEAVLING

Clockwise, from top: Diners at the trendy Frame restaurant. Young entrepreneurs are revamping the Eastern Palace Club, which closed last year. This year, LGBTQ-friendly Hazel Park celebrated its second annual Pride month celebration.

park that has embraced the new green economy.

Young professionals are drawn to the relatively inexpensive houses, hip new businesses, and the city’s close proximity to I-696 and I-75.

“The most important thing that happened is that everyone found out we’re open for business,” Hazel Park City Manager Ed Klobucher tells Metro Times. “We’ve been very interested in bringing newer, updated businesses to Hazel Park. It was a conscious decision to attract some destination businesses.”

Politically engaged new residents helped elect progressive city officials, and two of the five city council members are LGBTQ.

In April 2021, the council passed a human rights ordinance to protect LGBTQ residents from discrimination, and in February 2022, the city banned conversion therapy, the widely discredited practice that aims to “cure” LGBTQ people. A month later Hazel Park joined the psychedelic revolution by becoming the third city in the state to decriminalize psilocybin mushrooms and other entheogenic plants, following Ann Arbor and Detroit.

The votes were unanimous.

At 33, Luke Londo is the youngest city council member. He was elected to a four-year term in November.

“Politics at this level is about community, not ideology,” Londo tells Metro Times. “We sit down at the end of the day and talk about being good stewards of the residents. The decisions are simple. These are the things our constituents want.”

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“It’s a cool renaissance, and it’s just the beginning. In the next five years, HAZEL PARK is going to E X P L O D E. ” Hip, high-end eateries

In September 2015, renowned chef James Rigato helped set Hazel Park on a new path when he opened his restaurant, Mabel Gray, inside an abandoned diner on John R just south of Woodward Heights. Across the street was a blighted, long-vacant CVS pharmacy that is now being converted into a four-story building with apartments and retail stores.

With exposed plaster walls, vintage tableware, and an open kitchen, the snug, 1,600-square-foot restaurant features a seasonal, constantly changing menu of fresh, local, and made-from-scratch ingredients. Mabel Gray quickly became a celebrated restaurant that draws people from all over Southeast Michigan, providing diners a glimpse of a city on the rise. In 2017, Mabel Gray won the coveted Detroit Free Press restaurant of the year and was featured in The New York Times.

Rigato bought a house in Hazel Park and is now one of the city’s biggest boosters.

“I love Hazel Park,” Rigato tells Metro Times. “My goal was to open a funky space and have creative freedom. Sixteen hundred square feet allowed that. The Southeast Michigan community has embraced me.”

Rigato knows it was an unorthodox decision to open up in Hazel Park, but as someone who spent time in the city in his young 20s, he saw the potential.

“Ferndale and Royal Oak are the darlings of the area, but to me, Hazel Park has always been the overlooked, funky cousin,” he says.

Mabel Gray has 22 employees, and most are fulltime.

When Mabel Gray opened, an ice cream stand, Doug’s Delight, stood abandoned two blocks north of the restaurant. A staple in the community for nearly 50 years, Doug’s Delight closed when the owner died in August 2014.

Then Rigato purchased the building, pouring about $400,000 into it.

“It was a terrible idea,” Rigato half-jokes, “but it was good for the city. I’m playing the long game. I want it to be there in 30 years.”

In April 2018, Doug’s Delight reopened with ice cream, milkshakes, slushies, brownies, cookies, and sundaes. Two years later, Chicago couple Matt and Mo Marzullo took over and set up a savory eatery inside called Matt and Mo’s Italian Beef, which sells authentic Chicago-style Italian beef sandwiches (currently trendy thanks to the FX hit TV series The Bear), as well as hot dogs, toasted ravioli, cheddar fries, and pizza puffs. They still offer ice cream, too, including flavors like

key lime pie, Midnight Train to Traverse, Blue Moon, Detroit Grand Slam, and cookies n’ cream.

Rigato, like many entrepreneurs who spoke with Metro Times, credits Hazel Park officials for creating a business-friendly environment.

“The city has been incredible to work with,” he says. “They welcomed me with open arms. Those guys sat down at the table and said, ‘How can we help?’ There was no delay. There were no zoning arguments.”

Next door to Mabel Gray are two ephemeral restaurants with rotating chefs under one roof. In a nondescript building on John R near Woodward Heights, Frame and FRAMEbar have become destination dining spaces.

Opened by Cari and Joe Vaughn in 2017, Frame is a restaurant within a restaurant, accessed through a false door near the bathrooms of FRAMEbar.

With exposed brick and ethereal lighting, the hidden dining space offers something new every weekend, from modern Moroccan cuisine to a traditional Mexican dinner, all cooked by celebrated chefs.

Frame is also used for workshops to teach about wines, breads, crêpes, caviar, sourdough, ceramics, and even astrology.

In front of the building is FRAMEbar, a restaurant with a full bar and outdoor patio. The menu rotates every month with a new chef and is paired with cocktails and music. This month features sushi chef Shinya Hirakawa.

Behind FRAMEBar is a tented backlot with a bar, a shipping container kitchen with a wood- and gasfired oven, and plenty of space to hang out to watch films and comedians.

The restaurant owners also purchased a home across the street, which it uses to house visiting popup chefs from out of town.

“Sometimes we tell people we’re in Hazel Park, and they say, ‘Where?’” Mark Kurlyandchik, editorial director of Frame, tells Metro Times. “To us, this feels like the center of the universe. We’re exposing people from all over the region to Hazel Park.”

With Frame and Mabel Gray on one block, and a planned mixed-use development across the street, city officials have envisioned the beginning of a downtown.

“We would like more on the John R strip,” Kurlyandchik says. “There are a lot of millennials moving in with a lot of new energy. We want to bring some diversity to Hazel Park and make it a vibrant downtown.”

Also along John R, city officials are planning to transform a vacant lot into what they’re calling, “Pop Up Hazel Park,” a space for pop-up businesses, food trucks, and a farmer’s market. The project is funded by a $450,000 grant from U.S. Rep. Andy Levin.

Councilman Londo says it’s only a matter of time before a downtown takes shape, and points to Nine Mile Road in Ferndale as an example of how a small city can create a walkable destination with bars, restaurants, coffee shops, and retail stores.

“Hazel Park is going to have a downtown,” Londo tells Metro Times. “I’m really hoping that in five years or so that John R is going to be similar to what you see in Ferndale, but we’re trying very deliberately to curate our own sense of identity. The goal of Hazel Park is to be a one-stop destination.”

WELOME TO THE SOUTH END

In Hazel Park, John R stretches from Eight Mile to 10 Mile. The area south of Nine Mile has been dubbed the South End, where vacant buildings still dot the landscape. Only one restaurant, Pizza Connection, is open in the South End, even though John R is surrounded by residential neighborhoods.

But city officials and entrepreneurs are beginning to transform the landscape, and they believe it’s going to be Hazel Park’s next bright spot.

Seeing the potential, three young business partners — Mike Pierce, Dustin Leslie, and Adam O’Connor — are completely revamping the Eastern Palace Club, a Mediterranean restaurant that closed in September 2021, located on John R between W. Madge and W. Evelyn avenues.

If all goes as planned, the Key West-themed Eastern Palace Club will open in September or October, with a tiki-themed bar and dining area with plenty of space to share a craft cocktail or mocktail with friends.

Channeling tropical paradise vibes, the Eastern Palace Club will feature beach-inspired food from the people behind the Smoked Lotus BBQ pop-up. The menu is expected to include broasted chicken, ribs, barbecue rice rolls, and briskets.

“Imagine being on a vacation,” Pierce tells Metro Times. “As soon as you walk in, you are transported to this beach-side dive bar. It’s really mind-blowing. You feel like you are transported somewhere warm and somewhere not necessarily in Michigan.”

Pierce, who bought a house in Hazel Park about five years ago, says there’s “huge potential” in the South End.

“It’s just the perfect time and place,” Pierce says. “I’ve seen what’s going on. With the city continuing to become an inclusive, up-and-coming area, we’re seeing this community go through a full shift where we’re getting a ton of artists and musicians. It’s a cool renaissance, and it’s just the beginning. In the next five years, Hazel Park is going to explode.”

Three blocks north on John R is Dairy Park, an abandoned, barn-shaped ice cream shop that had been a staple in the community since 1954.

After several recent owners failed to keep the Dairy Park afloat, Mike Piciali is renting the unique build-

A staple in the community for nearly 50 years, Doug’s Delight reopened and now houses Matt and Mo’s Italian Beef.

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ing and offering a new menu: shredded meat sandwiches, burritos, and skillets with his signature crispy seasoned hash browns sold out of his popular food truck Shredderz. He’ll also serve ice cream, grilled cheeses, chorizo burritos, and pulled pork.

The 32-year-old hopes to open in September, but customers may have to wait until next spring or summer.

“Hazel Park is an up-and-coming place,” Piciali tells Metro Times. “Ferndale and the surrounding cities are noticing what Hazel Park has to offer. There are a lot of great properties, and people want it to be better than what it has been.”

Piciali doesn’t expect the transformation to happen overnight, but he says each new business is lifting up Hazel Park.

“Developing piece by piece is going to get where it needs to be,” he says.

THE GREEN RUSH

With all of the new developments in Hazel Park, nothing has been quite as impactful and noticeable as the legalization of recreational marijuana. The city now has eight adult-use dispensaries, more than anywhere else in metro Detroit, along with more than 30 other recreational and medical marijuana businesses — including the state’s first cannabis consumption lounge, Hot Box Social, just two blocks south of Mabel Gray and Frame on John R.

Unlike many communities in Michigan, Hazel Park embraced cannabis legalization, providing a business-friendly environment that is paying back in dividends.

Most of the new cannabusinesses occupy previously abandoned buildings, and all are contributing to the city’s cash-strapped budget.

The excise tax on recreational marijuana alone brought in more than $300,000 in the past year, says Hazel Park Councilman Mike McFall.