Mid-century style comes to Midtown Detroit on Friday when the Hammer & Nail cocktail bar makes its debut on the ground floor of the historic building at Woodward & Selden.

Renamed The Plaza and converted to a residential high-rise by Roxbury Group in 2017, the '60s-era building is well-known to passersby thanks to a neon sign that once adorned the building's exterior peak, depicting a hammer striking a nail. Though it was officially called the Professional Plaza building, many know the former headquarters of the Carpenters Union simply as "the Hammer & Nail building."

From the design to the drinks, the new bar is designed to pay homage to the building's past, complete with one of the two original exterior signs prominently hanging behind the bar.

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“Our goal was to honor the space," said Roxbury Group Founder & Principal David Di Rita. “Our goal in what we’re doing is always to present something — particularly in a historic building — that seems appropriate to that building. My definition of appropriate is typically: Would somebody walk in here and think this was always here? That doesn't mean you have to be slavishly devoted to the era. But in a building like The Plaza, I think it really dictated a certain fidelity to the original design.”

Designed in partnership with Patrick Thompson Design, the interior is simple and sparse, with a long marble-topped bar anchoring the 1,700-square-foot room that's surrounded on three sides by floor-to-ceiling windows. At least half of the 60-some seats are at the long bar, though there are walnut and leather banquettes that flank it with Saarinen-style tables and globe lighting. The animated neon sign behind the bar is unmistakably the focal point.

“Because the building is so deliberately '60s, we did the same thing with the drinks and just went back to some things that were popular in the '50s and '60s that were overlooked," said general manager Rick Paulger, dressed in his white suit and black bowtie uniform. “By adding ingredients or tweaking techniques a little bit, we’ve tried to bring those drinks up to the standards of today."

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Paulger is a well-known figure in the Detroit cocktail scene, most recently as head bartender at Roxbury Group's Buhl Bar downtown and previously at nearby Roast and the Sugar House in Corktown.

He and head bartender Desmond Oliver crafted a list of 10 house cocktails, many of which haven't graced local menus in decades. Drinks like the Harvey Wallbanger and the Blue Hawaii will share space with the Black Russian and the Pink Squirrel, the latter predicted to become the house drink.

“We’re very proud of that one because there were no companies carrying Crème de Noyaux in the state," Paulger said of one of the Pink Squirrel's more obscure ingredients. "We found that one of the suppliers carried a very good one and so we lobbied to get that here and we got it just before we opened.”

All the house cocktails are $13, though the seasoned bartenders can make any drink from the full bar.

Beer selections are also reflective of the era, with $3 cans and $6 drafts of Schlitz, Blatz, Stroh's, PBR, Budweiser and Black Label. There's also a half-dozen wines by the glass on offer, but Hammer & Nail is first and foremost a cocktail bar.

“One of our inspirations or motivations for opening this establishment was that — no disrespect to some really fine cocktails that are being made in Midtown — but there isn’t an obvious, full-on cocktail bar," Di Rita said. "There are good bars inside of restaurants and then there are great venues with good bars like the Willis Show Bar and places that kind of skirt the edge of the space, but not an obvious 'I'll meet you there for a drink bar.' So we feel like we’re giving that to the neighborhood."

The Hammer & Nail is just the latest foray into the bar world for real estate developer Roxbury, which has formalized the food-and-beverage arm of their business as TreeFort Hospitality. Paulger has been named director of food and beverage for the fledgling hospitality group.

TreeFort's portfolio also includes bars downtown at the Aloft hotel inside the David Whitney Building, the Buhl Bar and the recently opened Monarch Club atop the Element hotel. The group also had a hand in the historic Cadillac House in Lexington.

Hammer & Nail debuts at 4 p.m. Friday and will be open daily from then on. In addition to the ample street parking nearby, the bar will be validating parking for the Ellington parking structure at Woodward & Mack.

Hammer & Nail: 3800 Woodward (inside The Plaza building), Detroit; facebook.com/hammerandnaildetroit.

Send your dining tips to Free Press Restaurant Critic Mark Kurlyandchik at 313-222-5026 ormkurlyandc@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @MKurlyandchik and Instagram @curlyhandshake. Read more restaurant news and reviews and sign up for our Food and Dining newsletter.