Legendary owner of Tom's Tavern in Detroit dies

John Carlisle | Detroit Free Press

Ron Gurdjian, the legendary owner of Tom’s Tavern in Detroit, died at his Bloomfield Hills home last night of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, with his family by his side. He was 78.

For nearly three decades, he was behind the bar at Tom’s, a rickety shack on 7 Mile Road on Detroit’s west side, the victim of countless cars that crashed into it and the slow effects of gravity. Yet it remained standing thanks to his dedication to its history and to the devoted customers who regularly came to see him.

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Gurdjian was famous for his wit, his friendliness and his willingness to engage in long discussions about poetry, philosophy, history and the finer things in life. He often spent hours in the bar’s small kitchen, with a glass of wine in hand, cooking elaborate meals for the handful of people in the bar as Billie Holiday or Otis Redding played on the old-fashioned jukebox. In 2014, the Free Press profiled Gurdjian and his bar.

He is survived by his longtime partner, Sara Hizer of Royal Oak; and his children, Jennifer Milan of Naperville, Ill., and David Gurdjian of Howell.

Last year, Gurdjian closed the bar for what was to be a short time, largely due to health reasons. But he and his customers always believed that it would be open again, once he felt better.

“He never walked away from it; his heart was always with it and his heart was always with getting it up and running,” Hizer said. “He wanted it open and he would’ve been there if he could’ve been there. He loved it until the last minute.”