Co-owner Steve Kay said about 230 people attended the three-day, invitation-only soft opening this past weekend, with two sandwiches emerging as favorites on the menu: The Stache Favorite made with house-made bologna, smoked thick-cut bacon, caramelized onions, American cheese and tangy Carolina mustard; and the Southern Belle, which includes smoked turkey and braised collard greens.

“Honestly, it went so smoothly," Kay said of the preview. "There were some things as far as ordering we needed to fix internally and obviously our servers in house got an idea of what we need to do ... but we’re feeling confident and ready for Thursday.”

The restaurant will use locally sourced ingredients such as meats from its neighbor Gratiot Central Meat Market, bread from places such as On the Rise Bakery and Avalon International Breads LLC, and vegetables from nearby Red Truck Fresh Produce. Several of its meats are smoked and cured in house, such as bacon, bologna and fresh sausages. In the future, Kay said, the restaurant may invest in a curing chamber to offer other charcuteries such as prosciutto and hams. Nearly all of its sauces are also made in-house.

Another potential investment is a liquor license for the new shop. According to Kay, he and the other co-owners Ray Moses and Lary Pope have been on the fence, deciding between procuring the license or building a service window to share with Thomas Magee’s.

“If we do get the license, then doing the work to get the window in might not be as beneficial. That’s something that we’re really not sure of, so we haven’t made a move either way yet,” Kay said. “There was never a point we didn’t want to get a liquor license, it just wasn’t feasible at all at the time. But we’ve got a little extra help now where that might be able to happen. We 100 percent want one, it’s just a question of when.”

Stache International will also offer delivery services during its late-night weekend hours to its Eastern Market neighbors Thomas Magee’s and Detroit City Distillery as well as The Well Detroit on Randolph Street. Menus will be available at those locations with online ordering coming soon, Kay said. A texting option might also be available in the future.

In total, the initial investment for the restaurant was $200,000. The two-year planning and renovation process involved dramatic rehabilitation of the space, including filling an old elevator shaft in the middle of the floor and the addition of a front wall of windows.

The team had planned to open this past July, but plans were put on hold due to snag in upgrading the electrical operations. The renovation of Stache International also coincided with the renovation of the 1920 building that houses the restaurant, Crain’s reported in October.

Stache International will be open for the remainder of the winter 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday and 11 a.m.-2 a.m Friday and Saturday. On weekends, restaurant seating ends and delivery begins at 6 p.m. Hours will be modified at the beginning of spring.