A year after announcing her intentions to open a restaurant in North Corktown -- which turned out to be another in a series of false starts -- chef Kate Williams is cautious about releasing too many details concerning her forthcoming Lady of the House restaurant.

But One thing is certain, however: The restaurant will take the place of the former St. CeCe's Pub at Bagley and Trumbull when it finally opens this spring.

Williams and her investors pulled out of the original location at 14th and Perry in April due to issues with the space, and uncertainty about a possible large development slated for the neighborhood, Williams said.

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But when they heard that an out-of-town group was among the interested parties in St. CeCe's, they decided to make an offer as a bid to keep the property under local control -- and to keep Lady of the House in Corktown.

"It was really important to keep this as a welcoming place for Corktown residents," Williams, 31, said.

Williams' great-grandparents, immigrants from Ireland, met at the Gaelic League and her grandfather grew up on nearby Vermont Street, she said. Williams herself has lived in the neighborhood since 2014.

"I felt like I had to be in Corktown," she said of her restaurant. "This is my home; this is my heritage."

The silent partners backing the former Republic executive chef purchased the building in November for $770,000 with a liquor license and three parcels included in the cost, she said.

The building had originally been listed for $850,000 by O'Connor Real Estate and then dropped to $824,900. According to public records, it was last sold in January 2011 for $330,000, signifying a 133% increase in value over the intervening six years.

Williams said she hopes to preserve the warmth and vibe of the space, but a facelift by Detroit-based Patrick Thompson Design will brighten things up a bit.

Almost a year behind on her original opening timeline, Williams said the changes to the interior will be cosmetic only to speed up the build-out. The fireplace will stay, but the beloved stained glass windows will not. The drop-ceiling will be covered by wood beams to give the space an added dose of coziness. The large basement may also come into play down the road, as will the outdoor patio.

In all, the 3,200-square-foot main floor will seat about 65 diners -- a size conducive to the chef's plans to personally touch each table.

At Lady of the House, hospitality will be a major focus. Dinners will begin with a traditional Irish tea service by Joseph Wesley Tea.

"Irish food isn't really known or respected around the world, but Irish hospitality is," Williams said. "I wanted to be the ultimate hostess. ... When you host someone, you are taking responsibility for them for the entirety that they're in your care. That's exactly what this is supposed to be."

The menu will be made up of small plates and a few larger plates designed for sharing (a whole roasted chicken, for example). There will also be bar snacks that include a couple of tartares, olives and a shrimp carpaccio.

Lady of the House will open with dinner only Wednesday through Sunday, but weekend brunch will be added down the road.

As with Republic, there will be a focus on whole-animal butchery and produce sourced from local farms. Williams has already recruited a roster of urban farms including ACRE, Food Field, Brother Nature and Recovery Park to provide produce, and will be using Cover Crop Ranch beef and Michigan shrimp and trout.

Though she's not naming names, Williams said she's enlisted a seasoned Detroit-area bar manager to head up the beverage side. But craft cocktails, despite making an appearance, will not be the focus here. Instead, beer, wine and whiskey will take center stage, at exemplifying a wide range of price points. Williams said that might include a "quality" boxed wine on one end of the spectrum and a top-flight bottle on the opposite.

"I want to do a cool whiskey list, too, even though my dad will say 'no Protestant whiskies,' " she quipped.

A Northville native and graduate of the French Culinary Institute in New York (now called the International Culinary Center), Williams became a sous chef at Wolfgang Puck in Chicago before moving back to Michigan in 2009 to private chef for Peter and Danialle Karmanos.

In 2012, she opened her first restaurant as executive chef at the short-lived Rodin in the Park Shelton building in Midtown.

Before starting to commencing work on opening Republic Tavern, Williams spent a few months in Copenhagen working at Relae, No. 40 on the World's 50 Best Restaurants list.

Despite a high-profile launch at Republic in early 2015, Williams was again on the move just three months later.

Asked if she felt any additional pressure because of the series of false starts in Detroit, Williams calmly replied, "No.

"I now know what not to do and what I don't want to do," she said.

"This is finally what I want."

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