Granite City Food and Brewery opens 700-seat RenCen restaurant Wednesday

Granite City Food and Brewery will add 16,000-square-feet and over 700 seats to the Renaissance Center dining cache Feb. 10.

The national chain has 34 locations across 14 states, but picked Detroit -- its 35th location -- to be a flagship location, and the largest yet.

Construction started on the brewery in 2014. Crews had to build an addition on the northwest corner of the RenCen to accommodate the restaurant, which has 700 seats in the dimly-lit dining room, 115 seats in a private room and, hopefully by the Detroit Tigers opening day, another 109 seats on an outdoor patio.

http://www.mlive.com/business/detroi...rt_river_index

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Originally Posted by hybridy

Granite City Food and Brewery will add 16,000-square-feet and over 700 seats to the Renaissance Center dining cache Feb. 10.

The national chain has 34 locations across 14 states, but picked Detroit -- its 35th location -- to be a flagship location, and the largest yet.

Construction started on the brewery in 2014. Crews had to build an addition on the northwest corner of the RenCen to accommodate the restaurant, which has 700 seats in the dimly-lit dining room, 115 seats in a private room and, hopefully by the Detroit Tigers opening day, another 109 seats on an outdoor patio.

http://www.mlive.com/business/detroi...rt_river_index

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That is quite a large restaurant. Are there any restaurants as large as that in Michigan outside Frankenmuth? It will be interesting to see how they do.

Seems both a little large and upscale for the fast-casual lunch set to fill on a regular basis. They will need to rely on evening and weekend business also. Will enough locals make the trek, either drive & park or make the pedestrian stroll across Jefferson? A river view would have helped but here's hoping it's successful. Still miss Nemo's and Big Boy in the Ren Cen from days gone by.

good luck. they've already hired everyone?

I went to their soft opening last night and it was great....fantastic service, great bar manager , huge space and good food

I don't know if I'm interested in eating in a restaurant that seats 924 people. Reminds me too much of the big house.

Do they validate for free parking in the Miller garage?

Hee-e-heee!....:cool:....

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Originally Posted by Honky Tonk

I don't know if I'm interested in eating in a restaurant that seats 924 people. Reminds me too much of the big house.

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Originally Posted by mwilbert

That is quite a large restaurant. Are there any restaurants as large as that in Michigan outside Frankenmuth? It will be interesting to see how they do.

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HopCat in Midtown is 12,000 square feet also also claims to seat about 700 people.

But this seems like a not so great location for a brewery.

"Still miss Nemo's and Big Boy in the Ren Cen from days gone by."

Me too! Had many "business men's luncheon's" at Nemo's. And several times, kinda didn't make it back to work. It was ok though...the boss was buying:)

They are probably angling for conventioneer business. The company I work for held a relatively small conference at the Ren Cen last year, and at only around 100 people we maxed out the Mariott's in-hotel restaurant.

If you had a really large conference, I'd imagine Granite City would hope to pick up the overflow.

Im still waiting on Panera Bread to open in the Winter Garden

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Originally Posted by stasu1213

Im still waiting on Panera Bread to open in the Winter Garden

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I noticed that a few weeks back when I was in there. I didn't know there was one going to be opening there. I only found articles from when it was first announced and they say early 2016. So if nothing by March 15 I guess...

http://www.freep.com/story/entertain...ncen/30195717/

That is an enormous space. The overhead on a space that large is huge [[although I bet its rent is lower than you'd expect, probably with sales incentives). But it is not necessarily a foolish gamble. It is attached to a major corporate HQ and a 1000+ room hotel. Also, they will be one of the relatively few places downtown that can regularly accomodate very large parties associated with conventions, hotel groups, and business functions.

But there is a another, long-term upside to the location: the Riverwalk is only getting busier, becoming a major destination in and of itself. Also, the RiverEast collection of developments, including [[ultimately) thousands of residential units, and substantial commercial & non-profit projects. The whole area flanking RenCen is now where Midtown was 5 years ago: poised to be hip, busy, and growing. RenCen is a great gateway/homebase for visiting the riverfront and its assorted transactions.

This large project is a gamble, to be sure, but I suspect a well-calculated one. We'll see. I wish them well, and will repeat my mantra: more downtown dining places is good for all downtown dining places. More people will visit, and more often. I hope to check it out in the next few weeks.

The next DetroitYes gathering should be here. lol.;)