Shuttered for 40 years, Willis Show Bar will reopen Friday in Cass Corridor

The stage is set and the bar is stocked. After four decades of decay, the Willis Show Bar will swing open once again this Friday night, offering era-appropriate cocktails and live entertainment to a part of town that used to thrum with cabarets and jazz clubs.

That was before the corner of Willis and Third became synonymous with the drugs and prostitution that defined Detroit's Cass Corridor during the latter half of the 20th Century.

The Willis' new owners – a group of Los Angeles-based hospitality veterans in partnership with the Detroit Optimist Society – are aiming to hark back to the pre-seedy era of the show bar's life, where guests will be encouraged to dress up to come watch live jazz and blues acts perform on the small stage behind the bar.

“We’re encouraging everybody to be a part of the landscape,” said managing partner Sean Patrick, a well-known L.A. nightlife programmer and promoter who moved to Detroit last May. “You’re here for the experience, but also to be part of the experience.”

The 3,000-square-foot space seats about 85, including 28 at a long bar designed to echo the curves in the striking Art Moderne ceiling, which itself took about 10 weeks to painstakingly restore. Another 35 or so seats are available in handsome tan leather booths that are elevated above two banquettes below, allowing for clear sight lines of the stage. Every seat in the house faces it.

The stage is bolstered by a state-of-the-art sound system and lighting, while another small stage near the front can be used for stand-up comedy acts or a larger band’s horn section.

“This project really represents us as people in our daily lives,” Patrick said. “We’re huge music-heads. We love the history of things. And that it’s a piece of Detroit history as opposed to just going into four walls and building something from scratch –​​​​​​​ it’s pretty amazing to bring this back to life 40 years later.”

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The Willis Show Bar originally opened in 1949 as an esteemed jazz club but slowly degraded into a den of ill repute over the course of its three decades in business. Its first life came to an end in 1978, when authorities padlocked the doors of the curved one-story building amid a neighborhood-wide crackdown on prostitution.

The new owners’ goal is to pay tribute to all three decades of its original existence, so classic martinis will be served with a sidecar, and funk and soul acts will share the stage, too.

Sex appeal –​​​​​​​ though no sex –​​​​​​​ will come in the form of six nightly burlesque performances accompanied by a DJ and house band led by Joshua James of the Theatre Bizarre Orchestra.

David Martinez, formerly of the Last Word in Ann Arbor, is heading up the beverage program, which will focus on champagne, sparkling wines, large-format punches and classic cocktails priced between $14 and $18.

There’s no kitchen, but a few bar snacks from local producers will be available for munching.

And though the partners are looking forward to their debut after contractor delays set them back a few months, they realize reopening a once-infamous cabaret in Detroit is no guaranteed home run.

“This is a niche project,” said partner Steve Livigni. “This is not a business that’s open seven days a week. This is not a thing that attracts everyone. So it’s a little scary in that sense. It’s not always active and that means that when it is active, it has to be excellent. That forces Sean on the booking end and David on the cocktail end to really make the 20 or 25 hours a week that it’s open (expletive) special.

“Especially recruiting all these artists and musicians and the training with all the dancers that’s going into this, it’s not like you just hire a few people and you open the doors and see what happens. There’s a little more to it. It might not work. But if this works it’ll be really rewarding.”

Willis Show Bar

4156 Third, Detroit.

Mid-century-style cabaret and with classic cocktails and bar snacks.

Debuting Friday.

Open 7 p.m. - 2 a.m. Tue.- Sat.

Reservations highly encouraged via willisshowbar.com.

Contact Mark Kurlyandchik: 313-222-5026 or mkurlyandc@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @mkurlyandchik and Instagram: curlyhandshake.