1993 Corktown purchase sits on the edge of a jackpot

Allie Gross | Detroit Free Press

In April 1993 — less than a year after Moody's cut Detroit's debt rating to junk status — Joe Mifsud made a bet on the neighborhood where he was born.

Agreeing on a $25,000 land contract — he didn't have the capital to pay in full or borrow — Mifsud purchased 2415 Michigan Ave., a beautiful, but decaying, historic brick building in Corktown, a stone's throw from Roosevelt Park.

"There was not one door on it, not even a pedestrian door. All the windows were broken," Mifsud said. "When I bought this building, you could take a bowling ball, roll it down Michigan Avenue and it wouldn't hit a car."

This emptiness — the lack of investment — could have turned off some. As Mifsud remembers it, his family was skeptical of a city rebound. While his father was convinced that a recovery was possible, he believed it was predicated on private investment. There simply weren't enough people, like them, willing to buy in on Detroit to make it happen, Mifsud recalls his dad thinking.

Mifsud, on the other hand, was optimistic: 2415 Michigan Ave. — with its gaping holes and leaky roof — was one of several buildings he purchased in the neighborhood.

A quarter of a century later, his intuition has paid off. Corktown is bustling. Restaurants that currently lease space in Mifsud's buildings — think Ottava Via and Mercury Bar — are packed. Sealing the deal in the revival narrative is news that Ford, last month, purchased the long-vacant Michigan Central Station. The powerful auto company will be moving up to 5,000 workers to the neighborhood in the coming years.

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While Mifsud has long been behind the scenes as a property owner, he's in the process of expanding his investment. Come fall, he and partner Matt McGrail will be opening Cork and Gabel, an Italian, German, Irish fusion restaurant at 2415 Michigan — the historic, brick building in Corktown that he has saved for all these years for just this purpose.

"I always knew I wanted to do something like this there," Mifsud said. "But I wanted to wait until the neighborhood changed."

Fortitude and faith

With the space a short walk from Michigan Central Station, the opening could easily be pegged as a story of luck — did the owners of the restaurants just win the jackpot? — but in reality, it's one of fortitude and faith. A belief in the neighborhood one grew up in. A trust, by the owners, who are both Detroit natives, that the city that raised them would bounce back.

"My dad liked buildings and invested with properties, but he said for a comeback to happen it would take privatization — private investors like he and me and other people who have the same belief and interests," said Mifsud, listing off all the people like Dan Gilbert, Tony Soave, Eric Larson and the Cooleys who have since taken the same interest in the city.

"He was right," Mifsud continued, recalling an afternoon, over a decade ago, when he realized how prescient his dad had been.

Mifusd had been outside working on the Mercury Bar building. Across the street, Phil Cooley — the owner of Slows BBQ — was also sprucing up the street.

"My dad didn't get to see the rebirth," said Mifsud, who notes that his father passed away in 2002. "But I am and my son will."

The idea of Cork and Gabel came to being several years ago, but the wheels began to move in September 2015 when Mifsud met McGrail, who will serve as the Executive Chef of the restaurant.

McGrail was working at the Great Lakes Culinary Center and Mifsud came in to price out a kitchen and see how much equipment would cost. He asked whether anyone knew any chefs that would be interested in a financial partnership.

McGrail's name was quickly tossed out. The 38-year-old, who grew up on Detroit's east side, had been working in restaurants since he was 17. He had always dreamed of opening a restaurant of his own.

German ... and Italian and Irish

The duo met and clicked. Originally the idea was to open a German restaurant. Mifsud wanted a place where he could go with friends to grab a beer and a bratwurst. He wanted to call it "The Gabel" — German for fork.

This intrigued McGrail, but there was some worry that a purely German restaurant would be unable to attract regulars — that people would only go once every couple of months because the selection was so narrow.

Turning to his own childhood, he expanded the offerings to include Italian and Irish cuisines — two staples that were constants in his home growing up. After presenting Mifsud with a menu tasting in the summer of 2016, the two agreed to fully move forward with the restaurant.

"It really did just work. It tasted good. It was excellent," said McGrail, who said after the tasting Mifsud came up to him, shook his hand and said, "So you want to do this restaurant or what?"

In October 2017 they began building out the space.

"When I do renovate buildings, I try to make sure I do it correctly and aesthetically right," said Mifsud, who notes that he uses reclaimed bricks and always tries to reuse what is there. "I want it to look like it did when it was built brand new, whenever possible."

While the restaurant was originally scheduled to open in the spring, the opening has been pushed back to the fall (they need to install a sprinkler system). A September opening is now the goal.

In the beginning, it will be open for just dinner during the week and brunch and dinner on the weekends. The cheapest offerings on the menu will be $8 (fried Dubliner cheese and soft pretzel sticks), the most expensive will be an entrée at $30.

While McGrail and Mifsud did not know about Ford's forthcoming venture when they decided to open the restaurant, they did feel confident in the neighborhood already.

"With or without Ford, I have no doubt in my mind that going into that building we were going to be successful," said McGrail, who points to the success of neighbors like Takoi, Mercury Bar and Slows. "It's a wait for lunch, it's a wait for dinner. With Corktown, I absolutely believe we were in the right building."

Still, Ford's forthcoming arrival builds additional excitement — but also pressure. While being a great location, next to tons of potential customers is wonderful, opening a restaurant is also known as one of the hardest business endeavors. Corktown has already seen several businesses come and go in the past five years, including Rubbed (2014-2016) and Red Corridor (2016-2017), two restaurants with prime locations that just never took off.

Mifsud is particularly aware of this problem. Before the owners of Mercury Bar became tenants he saw two businesses come — and go — in the space. Both went bankrupt.

"Within two and a half years I had an empty building again," said Mifsud, who said he interviewed more than 60 different people before he selected the owners of Mercury to be the new tenants and operators of the restaurant. He didn't want to have to go through the process again.

McGrail is aware of this reality as well.

"I guess more or less the pressure is in the sense that you can have the best spot ever and have great prices and have the concept there, but if we don't execute, people won't come," said McGrail, who notes that the main focus right now is about getting the doors open.

"There is pressure on us to say 'OK, we have Ford right next to us, they can walk out the front door they can literally walk to restaurants, so what are we going to do to make sure they can come to our building, our restaurant?' "

It's a bit anxiety-inducing — especially as the restaurant still sits as a concept right now — a concept so close to being. But it also is ultimately incredibly exciting. And a reminder of just how far the city — the city that raised both owners — has come.

"I didn't do the typical chef thing of leaving the state to go to Chicago or New York or Europe," said McGrail who went to culinary school at Schoolcraft in Livonia. "I stayed here, I cut my teeth here. Worked all around. It's a cool, cool feeling that I am able to do what I'm doing and I didn't have to leave home to do it."

Contact Allie Gross: AEGross@freepress.com. Follow Allie on Twitter @Allie_Elisabeth.