River Bistro, a Caribbean-comfort food carryout and delivery bistro with limited seating and weekend brunch. TARGET OPEN: AUGUST 1.

COOP, a Caribbean-Asian rotisserie chicken fast-casual stall in the Cass Corridor shipping container food hall. TARGET OPEN: FALL 2017

Honey, a full-service Afro-Caribbean 120-seat restaurant in one of first new construction buildings of The District Detroit. TARGET OPEN: 2018

How many chefs can say they’ve cooked for both Missy (Misdemeanor) Elliott and the Prince of Dubai?

Maxcel Hardy can, and Detroit is about to find out what a chef to the stars can do.

Hardy, who spent five years as former NBA star Amar’e Stoudemire’s personal chef, is readying to open three new restaurants in Detroit within the next year.

His first, a small Caribbean-Soul spot called River Bistro, is slated for an Aug. 1 debut, just a few weeks before the publication of his latest cookbook, a collaboration with Bob Marley's son Rohan on coffee-based cuisine.

The Detroit-born chef officially returned to his hometown on New Year’s Day after two decades in Miami and New York, eager to build a culinary legacy while also making a difference where he’s from.

“One of the reasons for me to move back home is to show that black chefs are here,” Hardy, 33, said over a plate of his honey-spiced fried chicken at his soon-to-open bistro in a not totally converted former fried chicken joint.

“There are black chefs out there that are just as good as any other chefs, but we get fewer opportunities,” he continued. “What I wanna do in the city is open the doors to these chefs that didn’t have the opportunities I did.”

The way he tells it, Hardy grew up on Detroit’s west side – not far from where River Bistro is set to debut in a few weeks – with dreams of becoming an NBA star.

At age 12, he moved with his mother to Tampa, Fla., enrolling in the culinary arts program at Wharton High School. It was under the mentorship of the chef who ran the program that Hardy first considered becoming a culinary star instead.

“I realized I wasn’t going to make it to the NBA, so I started making my way as a chef,” Hardy recalled.

It didn’t take long.

Still in high school, Hardy began catering school events, developing his reputation and his hustle. He printed out business cards that read "Chef to the Stars" and stuck them in the windows of expensive cars around town.

A full-ride to Johnson & Wales University in North Miami helped kick-start a fast-rising career. By 21, Hardy was an executive chef responsible for a $6-million food and beverage budget at a swanky South Florida country club.

Determined to go into business for himself, the young chef developed a Miami-based catering and private events company, and when the economy tanked in 2008, he pivoted to focus more on his well-heeled clients. Chef Max Miami was born and his early business cards now proved true.

Hardy would go on to serve as Stoudemire’s personal chef for five years, capping the run in 2014 with a cookbook co-authored by the two, garnering press from the likes of Essence and Bon Appetit. An appearance on the Food Network's "Chopped" followed, along with a line of chef's apparel and the creation of a not-for-profit foundation that fights hunger.

In 2015, Hardy sold out a series of pop-up dinners at Revolver in Hamtramck within 18 hours. Another dinner on a farm celebrating black chefs that he headlined in 2016 sold out, too.

That kind of demand from Detroiters gave Hardy the impetus to give his hometown another look.

Here, Hardy saw opportunity.

"You always think of mom-and-pop places or barbecue or soul food (in Detroit)," he said. "You don't think of chef-driven restaurants here."

And while that's changed over the past couple of years with high-profile places downtown, there are very few chef-driven restaurants helmed by black chefs.

But if all goes as planned – a big IF in the restaurant business – Hardy will have at least three high-profile restaurant concepts open in Detroit by this time next year, beginning with River Bistro.

It wasn't part of the original plan. Coop, his Caribbean-Asian rotisserie chicken fast-casual joint slated for the shipping container food hall in the Cass Corridor was supposed to come first.

But building delays held that project up, and Hardy had a good feeling about the old Good Taste Louisiana Fried Chicken building that straddles the Rosedale Park and North Rosedale Park neighborhoods. The kitchen was turn-key. The building just needed a little sprucing up. Step one: removing the bulletproof glass from the counter.

“I wanted to bring good food and good service back to this area,” Hardy said. “This area had the stigma of the service being (expletive) and the food all being fried. Why not have a bistro with outdoor seating on Grand River? Let’s bring some love back to the community.”

River Bistro is Hardy's soft intro to the community, designed to be “comfortable food that’s familiar to this community but also gives a little flavor of the kind of chef I am,” he said.

It’ll be focused on takeout and delivery orders, but there are also two communal eight-tops in the small dining room that will allow for the full-service experience during weekend brunch, as well as a private dining room in back for special dinners.

The menu is priced gently and draws from Hardy's Caribbean and Lowcountry cooking background: jerk ribs with island slaw and plantain chips, a basket of honey-spiced fried chicken and house-made pickles, ackee and saltfish (Jamaica's national dish), as well as his grandmother's three-cheese scalloped potatoes and meatloaf. Nothing is more than $13.95.

Things are moving fast. Hardy took over the space just two weeks ago and is preparing it for the Aug. 1 opening. Meanwhile, the Detroit Shipping Co. project – a shipping container food hall next to the Peterboro – has finally broken ground and is slated to open this fall with Hardy's Coop as one of the vendors.

But diners will have to wait until next year for the full Max Hardy experience. The chef has inked a deal to open a full-service, African-inspired 120-seat restaurant in the District Detroit, the new entertainment district surrounding the forthcoming Little Caesars Arena.

That project, dubbed Honey, is designed to be the chef's flagship.

"In a city that's like 85 percent black, how is it that it's not a black chef that's the face of restaurants in Detroit?," Hardy asked.

He isn't quiet about his goal to become just that.

And if his history of attaining his professional goals is any indication, we'd probably do well to listen.

RIVER BISTRO

Opening Aug. 1.

18456 Grand River (near Fenkell), Detroit.

313-777-9311 and riverbistrodetroit.com.

Lunch and dinner midweek; brunch and dinner weekends

Open seven days a week

Caribbean-inspired comfort food with soul food influences

Mostly takeout and delivery; small dining area for eat-in and private dining area by reservation

No liquor license

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