Detroit's Antietam restaurant announces that it's closing

It’s been a very good run for Antietam, the French-inspired, art deco jewel box of a restaurant located across from Eastern Market. And it’s a run that, for owner Gregory Holm, is enough.

He announced Friday that after nearly four years anchoring a once-forgotten, now-bustling block of Gratiot, the restaurant would be closing its doors at the end of March. He’s going out on a high note – not sorry, not apologetic and perfectly happy to step back and find whatever his next passion project might be.

“What happens, happens. I’m not really preoccupied with any of it. Everything is custom and everything that I continue to do will be. I never had an affinity for art deco. Figuring out what you want to do and creating the parameters to do it – the only underlying code is to not have any compromise. But who knows what’s next?” Holm says.

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With several letters of intent in hand, Holm has not yet settled on a buyer for the property. But just as he took his time creating Antietam – a painstaking 2.5 years to restore the building to its gleaming present state – he’s willing to take his time to place it into the right hands and continue its legacy. That could be with a turnkey sale to another restaurateur, or something entirely different.

“There was nothing here when we first started. ... You had Slows and you had a Michael Symon hotel bar. So I came to the city because I wanted to bring something that didn’t exist here,” he says.

It's a very different city today, he says: "There’s a lot of hype and a lot of inflation as to downtown development, but a city is grown organically. It’s not grown with money. And the kind of love and passion that I put into this place, I should be in a different city quite honestly. ... Over the last year or so have I’ve just felt like my talents lie somewhere else."

Talking Saturday at the restaurant, Holm gave insight into his approach to the restaurant, while explaining that he looks forward to spending more time with his young son, who was born just as Antietam was getting off the ground.

"I was here last night ‘til close, I’ll be here ‘til 1 a.m. tonight, I’m always here,” says Holm. “It’s not because I’m taking a paycheck, because I never have. It’s because I want things to be a certain way. The lighting, the music, shoveling snow, all of the little things – they’re not little, they’re part of running a business, but I’m the one that does it. I’ve just decided that I want to get out of here.”

Holm acknowledges that part of his motivation to move on is the ramp-up of development in his section of the city: Busy Bee Hardware across Gratiot sold in April and The Platform is putting a mixed-use development on the former site of Joe Muer’s Seafood, along with other construction slated for the immediate area. “This is going to be a very, very different place. But I’ve always kind of gravitated toward the fringes of it all. It’s much more interesting for me to not have a sign, you know? To create something that’s not already here.

“I wouldn’t say that I’m necessarily done with Detroit. I mean, I still have an apartment in Brooklyn after four years. (But) I would not move to Detroit today if I were in Brooklyn. I’m sure that all of the projects I’ve done over the last 5-7 years have contributed to this new identity, which is bittersweet, but it’s just become a city of property purchasers. The city in some ways doesn’t change. People think that they’re entitled to millions of dollars because they sat here paying taxes.

“What I did is different. I pay my taxes, but I work nonstop, not at a job, but at creating an immaculate place. That’s what I’m interested in doing. Unfortunately, for the last few years I’ve just been running one. So I’m interested in reconsidering those roots.”

After a tumultuous opening year that saw staff departures and an unexpected closure while the restaurant retooled, followed by a few subsequent kitchen shuffles, Antietam has been a consistent bright spot in Detroit’s dining scene under the steady hand of chef Seth High, whose beautifully plated French-inspired cuisine at times can make the physical space’s gorgeous details virtually melt into the background. But for now, both he and Holm are ready for a break from the daily restaurant grind to reinvigorate their creative souls.

“The opportunity that he afforded me here, I can never thank him enough for it. It’s been immensely gratifying to be here for the last two-years-plus as the chef and during the opening period in a lesser role,” says High.

“We’ve had a couple of close brushes the last couple of years and we’ve managed to fight our way out of them. (Closing) is something that Greg and I have been discussing for 6 or 8 weeks, I suppose. I’ve reached a point where I need a little bit of downtime and unfortunately our operation doesn’t afford the kind of ability for a sabbatical or anything. My main plan is to take a little downtime, hopefully travel a little bit.

High says he doesn't planning on leaving the city or the work: "I don’t have any concrete idea of what the next opportunity is right now. But I’m not going to turn into an accountant all of the sudden.”

High’s exquisite cookery and Holm’s exquisite design will continue to be on display through March 31, including brunch service on Saturday and Sunday mornings and an under-the-radar, ever-changing tasting menu every weekend in addition to regular house and bill of fare. For anyone that has yet to experience Antietam’s hospitality, there is, literally, no time like the present.