Food & Drink

Corktown casualty: Brooklyn Street Local stops serving after a decade in Detroit

October 14, 2021, 12:47 PM


No longer hot off the griddle on Michigan Avenue. (Photos: Facebook)

Brooklyn Street Local, a popular cafe opened on Michigan Avenue by a pair of Toronto transplants in 2012, is "pivoting" to pop-up events and quiche sales at an Eastern Market stand.

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Deveri Gifford: "Please keep following us for updates." 

"We are closing but not saying goodbye," co-owner Deveri Gifford posts on social media Thursday. "I have made the very tough decision to close." (Her husband, Jason Yates, hasn't been active in the 40-seat restaurant since 2019.)

The pandemic, long weeks and other "challenges took a toll," the entrepreneur adds. "After nine and a half years, I just do not have the capacity to keep going."

Gifford adds in her four-paragraph post:

It was the creativity, the strength, the compassion, the ingenuity of Detroiters that drew us to this city and why we fell in love with it.

The past ten years have been so much hard work, but it has also been so wonderful and rewarding. I am so proud and honoured to be a part of this community and I love the welcoming, neighbourhood spot we have created.  It truly was what I dreamed it would be.

But it is hard. Even in the best of times, it is always hard.  When Jason stepped away from the business two years ago, I was not sure if I could run it without him but wanted to try. Then we entered the pandemic -- we shifted, we pivoted, we kept putting one foot in front of the other. We had a core group of staff who stayed, Jason and former staff helped out, customers came and supported us, our farmers and customers helped us create new revenue streams, everyone rolled with the changes and the uncertainty.

Words cannot express how grateful I am for our community.  However, these challenges took a toll, and after 9 and a half years I just do not have the capacity to keep going. ...

But as I said, this is not goodbye. I still love food, farming, the hospitality industry, Detroit and you. We are scaling down, pivoting again and trying to figure out how to do this in a way that is sustainable. We are not selling the building. There is a plan for this space, more on that later.

We will be hosting pop ups in the coming months (there will be poutine); quiche and brunch items will be available through Eastern Market and Metro Detroit Crunchy Club, we will be celebrating our 10-year anniversary in May 2022.

Please keep following us for updates and events and continue to support small businesses, Detroit artists, creatives and entrepreneurs


Packaged quiche will be sold at Eastern Market.

In addition to poutine and quiche, the breakfast and brunch menu featured scones, salads omelettes, fried eggs, pancakes and spicy tofu sandwiches from time to time.

Updates will appear, whenever, on its Facebook and Instagram pages.



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