Vinsetta Garage Eatery in Berkley Wants to Level Houses for More Parking

[Thruster315]

I dig their food. The interior of the place is neat. But I just don't understand the mass appeal to go to ANY restaurant and wait hours to get a seat. Every time I've gone I've been sat within 15 minutes; any longer and I'm gone.

I seriously feel for the neighborhood people though. I get that the Vinsetta owners want to buy up the homes to turn them into parking but as is with most restaurants, it'll fade one day and just become run-of-the-mill. What's the neighborhood to do then? Somehow embrace some gravel lot as a neighbor?

[Novine]

"
If the zoning allows demolition of house and replacement with parking... well then the neighbors should have known this.

if it doesn't, then Vinsetta should have known that."

It doesn't, that's why the owner is asking for a change. It's one thing to live near Woodward. It's quite another to have a business come into the neighborhood tearing down homes and putting in parking lots.

[Oddz313]

Actually it comes down to the most important thing in this world. $$$$, it is the reason the mexican joint never got a liquor license and they got one immediately and it is the reason they will be tearing down homes for a parking lot. The owner is doing big numbers and is greasing the wheel.

[Gannon]

Actually it comes down to the most important thing in this world. $$$$, it is the reason the mexican joint never got a liquor license and they got one immediately and it is the reason they will be tearing down homes for a parking lot. The owner is doing big numbers and is greasing the wheel.

The Catallo family wealth has some depth, I'd hope, still. This restaurant isn't owned by some fly-by-night or get-rich-quick flash-in-the-pan.

Curt's father, Clarence, used to head Merrill Lynch's midwest offices...MI, IN, OH, and IL. He was quite the character, going back to his days in CA with his Little Deuce Coupe immortalized on a Beach Boys' album cover.

I did the first hifi he put into that church in Clarkston when it was renovated into a fabulous home...which Curt turned into a restaurant decades later. I learned this when reading about the firehouse restaurant in Fenton last year.

I wonder if Curt still has that Nakamichi 505 cassette deck and NEC CD player...he was my example of selling to the customer's needs, not his "book-cover", for years. I can remember when he walked into the Gramophone dressed not unlike Peter Pan...and the other salespeople avoided him as if he were rabid. It was my great pleasure writing a sale that met a third of my bi-weekly goal in front of 'em when he came back later with the check. I need to thank him, actually, since his father's church-home work was some of the earliest I did when I launched my custom-installation business in the late-80s.

I hope he gets this resolved...but I have no doubt it'll swing his way.

Cheers

[Honky Tonk]

The Catallo family wealth has some depth, I'd hope, still. This restaurant isn't owned by some fly-by-night or get-rich-quick flash-in-the-pan.

Curt's father, Clarence, used to head Merrill Lynch's midwest offices...MI, IN, OH, and IL. He was quite the character, going back to his days in CA with his Little Deuce Coupe immortalized on a Beach Boys' album cover.

I did the first hifi he put into that church in Clarkston when it was renovated into a fabulous home...which Curt turned into a restaurant decades later. I learned this when reading about the firehouse restaurant in Fenton last year.

I wonder if Curt still has that Nakamichi 505 cassette deck and NEC CD player...he was my example of selling to the customer's needs, not his "book-cover", for years. I can remember when he walked into the Gramophone dressed not unlike Peter Pan...and the other salespeople avoided him as if he were rabid. It was my great pleasure writing a sale that met a third of my bi-weekly goal in front of 'em when he came back later with the check. I need to thank him, actually, since his father's church-home work was some of the earliest I did when I launched my custom-installation business in the late-80s.

I hope he gets this resolved...but I have no doubt it'll swing his way.

Cheers

As a side note, the Nak's sucked because they used a different bias than any other cassette deck manufacturer. Cassettes made on a Nak, sounded good on a Nak, but not on anything else. Same with store bought recordings. Still, the 1000 was probably the most serious cassette machine ever built. Wish I had one just to take apart and look @ the innards. That's all I have. Back to the rich people crapping on the poor people.

[Thruster315]

I hope he gets this resolved...but I have no doubt it'll swing his way.

I'm hoping it gets resolved too but not completely his way though. Buying up four homes/ five lots is quite a bit of property to be turning into parking lots in a thriving neighborhood.

That being said, I hope if things do swing by Vinsetta's way- they do a helluva lot more than that gravel mud pit they did one block north of the restaurant. I heard that was a rental home that was bought specifically for the valet parking guys. It obviously looks like someone leveled the house and filled in gravel over the basement; it looks like hell after it rains and even with complimentary free parking I'm not so sure I'd want my car parked in that lot.

If the restaurant is granted the chance to turn those properties to parking lots, it comes with a heap of seriously maintained landscaping which would include trees, bushes, fences, lights and every other third thing to make it look like a part of the neighborhood. I hope the city and the neighbors bring up how bad the mud lot looks and if the restaurant wants to change established zoning ordinances, they have to pony up a few bucks to make a decent looking parking lot. Westborn Market did a heckuva nice job integrating their landscaping into the neighborhood [[I'm sure it cost them a pretty penny too) but if you say that they Catallo family is as deep pocketed and caring, they should be able to do this to appease the neighborhood.

[Novine]

Parking lots, no matter how much you pretty them up, don't belong in a single-family neighborhood. What city with any sense sacrifices residential neighborhoods in this way?

[old guy]

As an outsider. I find this whole situation somewhat ironic. It looks like a nice restaurant. But tearing down homes in Detroit that people are living in to build parking lots? Are the owners of the restaurant going to create a large number of good paying jobs by destroying homes in what looks like a somewhat vibrant neighborhood? I love Detroit, but is there a method to the madness? Sorry, just seems strange to me.

[animatedmartian]

UPDATE: Berkley rejects controversial Vinsetta Garage parking plan

Catallo apparently has signed a deal to share the parking lot with the medical building on Catalpa for now but is still in the process of purchasing homes on Eaton and putting his parking there. The residents have won this battle, but not yet the war.

[animatedmartian]

As an outsider. I find this whole situation somewhat ironic. It looks like a nice restaurant. But tearing down homes in Detroit that people are living in to build parking lots? Are the owners of the restaurant going to create a large number of good paying jobs by destroying homes in what looks like a somewhat vibrant neighborhood? I love Detroit, but is there a method to the madness? Sorry, just seems strange to me.

Well for one, you sound as if you think of this as somewhere in inner-city Detroit. This issue is in the suburbs and the area as different from inner-city Detroit as night and day.

[FbO Vorcha]

margaritas had good mexican food, i miss that place everytime i pass by.
just goes to show good food gets no respect in royal oak.

as long as we're talking woodward eateries, i cant believe anyone eats at redcoat tavern. served me a raw-pink hamburger! disgusting.

Raw-pink, sounds perfect, You stick to Red Robin and fast food, and I'll go get me a real burger at Redcoat Tavern.

You don't order your steaks well-done by chance, do you?

[Danny]

Vinsetta Garage don't need any more parking lots. They will have to make due of what they got. Too bad for them.

[Oddz313]

UPDATE: Berkley rejects controversial Vinsetta Garage parking plan

Catallo apparently has signed a deal to share the parking lot with the medical building on Catalpa for now but is still in the process of purchasing homes on Eaton and putting his parking there. The residents have won this battle, but not yet the war.

The medical center down woodward has more than enough parking spaces after 6 pm

[e.p.3]

LOL; the bros at Vinsetta Garage are not going to take the bus to the restaurant.

I support the neighbors. The restaurant owners knew parking was tight for Woodward restaurant space. The solution isn't to demolish residential neighborhoods, it's to have a more rational parking policy or simply to not accept more patrons.

I do wonder, though, how much money this restaurant is taking in. If they're buying up to four homes in what is one of the nicest streets in Berkley, that could run up to $1 million or more. They must be making huge money to bet on big crowds continuing to show up for their mediocre, ho-hum burger-and-beer menu, that might as well be a TGI Fridays.

And the fly by night "fancy" restaurants in Birmingham are doing such creative cuisine at 2 to 3x the price? Not a huge Vinsetta fan, but they're more original than most of the blase spots in the Ham -- full of obnoxious clientele, obsessed with being seen.

[old guy]

Well for one, you sound as if you think of this as somewhere in inner-city Detroit. This issue is in the suburbs and the area as different from inner-city Detroit as night and day.

Oh, thank you. I guess tearing down viable homes anywhere in Detroit makes sense. I guess my ignorance of the location was the downfall in my interpretation of why you would eliminate homes in a time when a city is disappearing.
Again, as an outsider, I'm probably ignorant as to how the city needs to function and why people that live in homes that create a decent neighborhood would like to maintain the lifestyle they are comfortable with. My mistake.
Tear that schitt down. Build a parking lot.

[animatedmartian]

Oh, thank you. I guess tearing down viable homes anywhere in Detroit makes sense. I guess my ignorance of the location was the downfall in my interpretation of why you would eliminate homes in a time when a city is disappearing.
Again, as an outsider, I'm probably ignorant as to how the city needs to function and why people that live in homes that create a decent neighborhood would like to maintain the lifestyle they are comfortable with. My mistake.
Tear that schitt down. Build a parking lot.

Yea there's somewhat of a difference but I understand where you're coming from.

The city of Berkley is actually gaining population [[at least according to the last census estimates). But the thing is, the city pretty much has no room to grow outward. In fact, many of Detroit's inner-ring suburbs have this problem, specifically the suburbs that are popular, like Royal Oak, Ferndale, Birmingham, etc, or other suburbs that might see growth in the future. Most people don't really have a problem when smaller homes are replaced with businesses, apartments, and high-rise condos, but of course all those people are going to need a place to park their car. That's where the issue comes in.

People need places to park but parking lots also take up a lot of space [[in addition to being pretty uninteresting to look at and pass by). So there's one of two outcomes in this situation; A) Growing businesses tear down nearby homes/other businesses for parking lots or B) business stop growing because no one has any place to park. Maybe a solution towards a compromise would be for Berkley to look into building public parking garages or encourage people to use more mass transportation options in order to get around in this area [[but good luck with that). A third option would be to requiring people to pay for parking which is typically unpopular. But hey when space becomes a commodity, this is what happens.