Bites

FOOD

Yum Village owner and chef Godwin Ihentuge.

RANDIAH CAMILLE GREEN

Yum Village’s second Motor City location is now open in former Detroit Vegan Soul space

YUM VILLAGE’S SWEET and sour plantains, jerk chicken, and jollof rice bowls are now available at a new location in Detroit’s West Village.

The Caribbean restaurant’s second Detroit spot is open for business at 8029 Agnes St., which used to be Detroit Vegan Soul before it closed in January. Yum Village owner and chef Godwin Ihentuge acquired the former vegan space and an adjacent beer garden where Yum Village used to operate as a food truck back in February.

Yum Village West Village is primarily carry-out and pickup-focused, as there is little space for sit-down dining inside. Customers are free to eat in the garden, however, which features a few picnic tables. On Sundays, the beer garden gets activated as a communitystyle brunch event complete with a DJ and djembe player.

There’s no beer in the garden just yet, as Ihentuge is still waiting on his liquor license to be approved, but you can bring your own liquor to mix with Yum Village’s fresh juices if brunch without booze just doesn’t feel right.

Ihentuge tells Metro Times the brunch menu is always changing depending on his mood and what recipes he wants to play around with. Previous offerings have included jollof-style deviled eggs, candied beef bacon, and suya (peanut rub) chicken and wa es with hibiscus syrup. Tickets, which cost around $50, are extremely limited — the link to purchase them is released sporadically through Yum Village’s social media accounts, so you have to really be paying attention to get in on it.

“We just try to have some fun with it,” he says. “We got our start doing pop-up dinners back in the day, so it’s really going back to our roots doing that. The chicken and wa es will probably always be on the menu, but other items will change depending on our ingredients and what we want to do.”

Ihentuge has applied for a Motor City Match grant, which he hopes will help him spruce up the bare-bones space. Eventually, he plans to add a partial enclosure in the garden and incubator space for small business pop-ups.

He was previously awarded a grant from Motor City Match to open Yum Village’s original location in Detroit’s New Center neighborhood.

Ihentuge is a busy man. Beyond Yum Village’s staple shop in New Center and this new spot, Ihentuge also recently opened a Cleveland location. But at the West Village outpost, Ihentuge is in the kitchen with help from his mother and niece as they struggle to staff the restaurant.

“It’s tough. It’s summer and people don’t want to be inside working. I get it,” he laughs. “So I’m here making jerk bowls until we get another team member. Since I’m in the kitchen I get to play around more.”

And play around, he does. Besides brunch, the West Village shop features creative weekly specials that put a Caribbean spin on favorites like tacos, egg rolls, and even banana bread.

“This week we’re doing plantain bread,” Ihentuge says. “It’s just banana bread, but with plantains instead. We’ll probably also do like a beans and cornbread, but instead of regular cornbread it will be the plantain bread with a bean and okra stew.”

As expected, the new location also has Yum Village’s signature items like customizable rice bowls with oxtails, akara (black-eyed pea fritters), jerk chicken, tru e greens, and vegetarian maafe peanut stew.

While other restaurants have shuttered during the pandemic, Ihentuge says um Village’s variety of offerings and DIY spirit has kept them going.

“Forty percent of Black-owned restaurants closed last year due to the pandemic, but we’re more than just a restaurant,” he says. “We have graband-go meals in five grocery stores and we sell a lot of meal plans. There’s a lot of income from outside just the restaurant that comes in to help us supplement the ebbs and flows of the restaurant industry. Plus we DIY a lot of this stuff ourselves to keep our costs down. We just painted the walls here ourselves.”

Focusing on pickup orders which are placed online and ordering via tablets at the New Center location has also helped with staffing issues.

Since the West Village location was previously a restaurant, which already had kitchen equipment and didn’t require a massive build out, Ihentuge was able to open up shop relatively quickly. While the restaurant is still being set up, he’s pumping out online orders and rolling with the Sunday brunches.

—Randiah Camille Green

New Mediterranean restaurant Bohemia opens in Royal Oak

BOHEMIA IS ROYAL Oak’s newest restaurant offering Mediterranean flavors like Israeli dips and salads, hummus, and kabobs. The new spot opened last week at 100 S. Main St.

Menu highlights include branzino, lamb chops, vegan kafta, halloumi cheese, and bread fried to order in a tandoori oven. Bohemia also boasts an extensive list of wine and signature cocktails such as the “Bohemian Rhapsody” with Valentine Vodka, lemon, strawberry, and tarragon and “Detox Retox” with tequila, cucumber, mint, lime, and matcha.

The new restaurant is the latest brainchild of Adam Merkel Restaurants. It’s located below Pinky’s Rooftop and adjacent to Pearl’s Deep Dive, which are both also owned and operated by Merkel. Bohemia’s bright interior is decorated with colorful tile work, plants, and woodworking that give it a bold and ornate atmosphere. It also features an open kitchen so guests can watch their meal being prepared.

“Our team has envisioned this concept for over five years, and it’s beyond exciting to see it all finally come to life,” Adam Merkel said in a press release. “The food tastes and feels incredibly authentic, while still maintaining a vibe that is true to our brand. We can’t wait to share Bohemia with the community!”

The 2,500-square-foot restaurant has seats for 110 diners and has capacity for 24 seats on an outdoor patio lounge. Brunch and lunch menus are anticipated to follow in the coming months.

—Randiah Camille Green

COURTESY PHOTO

Street Beet’s Megan Shaw joins Ferndale’s Public House

FERNDALE’S REIMAGINED PUB-

LIC House has hired Megan Shaw, a chef known for her work with the former Street Beet vegan pop-up and restaurant, as a permanent member of its management team.

According to a press release, Shaw, who was also recently tapped by the restaurant as a consultant to help develop its expanded vegan menu, will “oversee its vegan kitchen, develop seasonal menus, and help manage front-of-house operations.”

“It’s good to have more options. It’s good for everyone,” Shaw said in a statement. “I mostly make comfort food, and I like to do mocks of things that aren’t vegan. The goal is to create food that people miss eating. You can make healthy vegan food at home, but when I go out to eat, I like to eat a fried chicken sandwich.”

Originally launched as a pop-up, at Street Beet Shaw and her former partner Nina Paletta earned recognition for their playful vegan replicas of popular fast food, like “Taco Hell,” “Pizza Butt,” and “McDaddy’s.” In 2020, they settled inside 3rd Street Bar, though that partnership dissolved in 2022.

“We know deep down that this is the right thing to do, and as individuals we are ready for the next chapter in our lives,” the duo wrote in a post announcing the closure.

Shaw previously worked at Public House sister restaurants One-Eyed Betty’s and Pop’s for Italian.

Opened in 2013 under the same ownership as Ferndale’s Imperial taco spot, Public House was acquired by Hometown Restaurant Group in 2021, who remodeled it and added a second all-vegan kitchen and menu in addition to its main menu.

In addition to One-Eyed Betty’s and Pop’s for Italian, Hometown Restaurant Group also manages Tigerlily in the former Antihero space, an Asian-themed spot which was also previously owned by the same management group as Imperial. According to a press release, Tigerlily will continue Antihero’s Asian theme, with the addition of a tiki bar, and is scheduled to open sometime later this summer.

—Lee D eV ito

Kura Sushi opens second conveyor belt sushi spot in Michigan

INTERNATIONAL SUSHI CHAIN K ura Sushi opened another conveyor sushi spot in Michigan, where plates of sushi are delivered via conveyor belts.

The company’s second location in Michigan and 38th in the U .S. opened last week at 26425 Novi Rd., Suite C, Novi.

Kura Sushi opened its first Michigan location in Troy in 2021. The company was founded in Japan in 1977 and has locations all over the world.

Besides the conveyor belt aspect, the company also recently introduced another high-tech element — drinks are ordered via a tablet and delivered to tables by a robot named K ur-B.

Kura Sushi is also known for partnering with different brands for its “Bikkura Pon Prize System,” where diners get a prize for every 15 sushi plates ordered. The company has partnered with the anime Demon Slayer for exclusive prizes that include rubber keychains, lanyards, and badges, while supplies last.

—Lee D eV ito

Insomnia Cookies opens in Detroit

IN CASE YOU ever need a scoop of ice cream slathered in between two gooey cookies at 2 a.m., Insomnia Cookies opened its first Detroit location last week.

It’s conveniently located near Wayne State U niversity, which makes sense because only college students would get cookies and ice cream delivered that late. (OK , and potheads.)

The shop offers its cult cookies and ice cream with in-store, pickup, and delivery options seven days a week, staying open as late as 3 a.m. some nights. It has all the warm cookies the brand is known for, as well as ice cream sandwiches, cookie cakes, and a host of vegan options.

Insomnia Cookies was started in Philadelphia in 2003 and the Detroit store is the brand’s eighth store in Michigan. It’s located at 5171 Anthony Wayne Dr., Detroit. Hours are Sunday noon-1 a.m., Monday-Wednesday 11 a.m.-1 a.m., and Thursday-Saturday noon-3 a.m.

—Randiah Camille Green