Detroit's London Chop House to reopen in early 2011, owners say

[Designerguy24]

One of the vanished names of Detroit's storied past is about to make a comeback

The London Chop House, a legendary downtown eatery that closed in 1991, will reopen early in 2011, owner Nico Gatzaros and his father, developer Ted Gatzaros, said Friday.
Located on the lower level of the Murphy-Telegraph Building at 155 Congress, the London Chop House long reigned as one of Detroit's A-list restaurants, drawing the powerful and well-to-do for its cuisine and attentive service.
"You're still going to get the great quality, but it's going to be much more reasonable" in terms of prices, Nico Gatzaros said Friday. He suggested entrees might run in the $25-$30 range.
"The place is truly just a gem down there. It just needed to be polished up," he said.
The Gatzaros family also owns and operates the popular Fishbone's restaurants, from which personnel will be drawn to staff the reopened London Chop House.
Nico Gatzaros described the new version of the restaurant as "just like it used to be ....Everything's going to be back to the old school." He said Friday that he hoped to open within 30 days.
Established in 1938 by the Gruber brothers, the old London Chop House went on to win numerous awards as one of America's top restaurants. Several notable chefs worked there, including Jimmy Schmidt, who later established the Rattlesnake Club restaurant in Detroit.
http://www.freep.com/article/20101218/BUSINESS04/12180314/1322/Owners-London-Chop-House-to-reopen-in-2011

[401don]

What would possibly make these guys think there is demand for this? The Chop made its money on the power lunch, which no longer exists, at least in Detroit. I heard the Finn & Porter in the Shelby is already closed for dinner most nights.

[gdogslim]

I nice big marbled prime rib and baked potato and a good cab does sound good now.
I hope they are very well capitalized and have a few wealthy investors that need large tax breaks, they will need it, unless that is, the whole purpose is to lose money for tax reasons.

I don't think they can compete with the casinos, Roast, and the others, but who knows?

[Lowell]

What would possibly make these guys think there is demand for this?

Maybe the same thinking that thought Slow's could succeed with no parking in a depressed location?

Businesses succeed for a number of reasons. The revived Chop will have a few notable advantages, high foot traffic location, great historical brand and the very deep pockets of the Gatzaros'. Great news and good luck to them.

[DetroitPlanner]

What would possibly make these guys think there is demand for this? The Chop made its money on the power lunch, which no longer exists, at least in Detroit. I heard the Finn & Porter in the Shelby is already closed for dinner most nights.

There are a lot of people working off of Griswold and Congress. Foot traffic has picked up with the Couty consolidating at the Gaurdian and new firms going into Chase and Compuware. Finn and Porter is several blocks away. If you are looking for a nicer lunch, your pickings are slim in this area, its either fast food or bar food. Caucus Club is right accross and does good lunch business.

[Patrick]

Sounds like they will compete with Roast

[Hypestyles]

who remembers going to this place in its heyday?

What was the food like? what was the service like? was it a family friendly environment?

anybody know how the cuisine will be updated?

[midtown1982]

Finn & Porter's problem may also have something to do with the awful interior and making the servers wear those skirts and fishnets.

[bartock]

I don't think the Gatzaros family is just doing this to compete with Roast or Finn & Porters [[F & P may have an awful interior, but their food is good). They opened up Wah Hoo in that area this year, and I was a bit surprised by that. Now they are adding/reinventing London Chop House. News of the patent office coming downtown, etc., and they probably have information that even the best bloodhounds on this board can't dig up. Economy looking relatively better is one reason obviously, but I think the ongoing purge of red tape/corruption in City Hall cannot be understated.

[Gistok]

I wonder if the Patent Office will move to the virtually empty 1001 Woodward Building [[formerly First Federal HQ)?? That would make the reopening of the London Chop House more promising.

The good news is that the Gatzaros family has deep pockets... thanks in part to the fact that they were denied a Greektown gaming license, and had to be bought out of their 20% interest [[the other 20% was held by Jim Papas who owns 1001 Woodward, and also was denied a gaming license). That was about $124 million for each of them [[paid out over several years).

Since the denial of the Gatzaros gaming license, Ted Gatzaros must have cleared up his name, since he later obtained 1% interest in Greektown gaming.

But regardless of their past indisgressions both Gatzaros and Papas [[who are reportedly no longer on good terms with each other) have put a lot of money into downtown developments.

Despite their faults, it is difficult to image downtown without the investment that these 2 families have put into the city.

[sumas]

Hey why not? It's got a great name and rep. Never had much in the way of deep pockets but was there a few times. It was seriously classy. The floral arrangements in the ladies rooms were to drool for.

Dumb story on myself, went to a comparible place in Toronto. Walked out of the ladies room strolling casually and a waiter politely told me I had at least 20 ft of tp stuck to my 5" high heels. Needless to say, I am better in a dive than high end spots.

[BrushStart]

The announcement of London Chop House is only one of a handful of other new restaurant announcements this week. The other 5 [[or so) are in Corktown, while Mudgies announced it is moving downtown to Library St. In sum, I really hope that these places are able to sustain themselves in the short-term. I suspect that these restaurateurs based their decisions to open, at least in part, on recent development news, i.e. Quicken, BCBS, and the renovation at Broderick Tower, etc. So, I hope that they are able to float themselves long enough in order to benefit from the effect of those developments, because while the long-term outlook seems very promising, the next 6-12+ months might be challenging.

[Downriviera]

who remembers going to this place in its heyday?

What was the food like? what was the service like? was it a family friendly environment?

anybody know how the cuisine will be updated?

I went once back in the day. We had a group of 10 at a large table. The food was great and the service was almost over the top. Waiters were hovering around our table and refilling water glasses after just a couple of sips. Men had to wear a jacket, and if you didn't have one they loaned you one. I felt like a big shot, but I was really just a punk cleaned up for one evening.

[DetroitDad]

Maybe the same thinking that thought Slow's could succeed with no parking in a depressed location?

Businesses succeed for a number of reasons. The revived Chop will have a few notable advantages, high foot traffic location, great historical brand and the very deep pockets of the Gatzaros'. Great news and good luck to them.

Lowell hit the nail on the head. The Financial District provides a attractive urban atmosphere and setting, a rarity in Southwest Michigan.

[English]

Exciting. The London Chop House shut down before I was old enough to go. Looking forward to trying this version of it...

[Crew]

I wish them well. The service at the London Chop House was always outstanding. These guys will have a difficult job living up to that standard especially as noted in the Freep article that they will be drawing staff from Fishbones. They really need an outstanding chef and manager to pull this off and offer the kind of customer service that the original London Chop House had.

[Planner3357]

Finn & Porter's problem may also have something to do with the awful interior and making the servers wear those skirts and fishnets.

Agree, Finn & Porter is poorly designed. The atmosphere is very cafeteria-like, the food is so-so and overpriced. The Fort is a nice place though. The Round Bar, while dead, makes pretty good drinks.

[ja!mz]

I've always wanted to have lunch or dinner at the Caucus Club. Has anyone been there and how was it?

[kenp]

Never been impressed with Fishbones service, though when I left my glasses on the bar one day the bartender ran two blocks to find me and return them.
I dont think it is possible to replicate the service at the Chop House. Those guys were very good and well trained. Those standards dont seem to exist anymore and thats one of the reasons it wont be as pricey.

[bartock]

I've always wanted to have lunch or dinner at the Caucus Club. Has anyone been there and how was it?

The last time I went was this past summer for lunch. The service was great, but the food was, eh...I also noticed that the windows were really dirty. It was not that busy. Overall a bit disappointing...I'd take 24Grille, Finn & Porters or even the 150 Lounge over it.

[BrushStart]

DEGC is lending them 200k to get the restaurant going.

http://www.freep.com/article/20110628/BUSINESS06/110628019/Detroit-s-Economic-Development-Corp-loans-200-000-resurrect-famed-London-Chop-House?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|FRONTPAGE|p

[Danny]

Chophouses are making a serious comeback thanks to culinary arts reality programming competition like Hell's Kitchen, Gordan Ramsey's Chef A'rama shows and and Food Network's Iron Chef competitions. The new owners of Detroit's London Chophouse sought the opportunity to reopen due to rise of Latin American Chophouses like Texas De Brazil Churroscara and Vincente's Cuban Cuisine. I hope it stay in Downtown Detroit and keep it lasting for over 50 years or more.

[Bham1982]

Why exactly is taxpayer money going to millionaires, for the purpose of opening a restaurant for the wealthy?

If downtown has a market for a new steakhouse, the millionaire owners can receive bank financing, find investors, or pay for it themselves. You know, like 99.999% of restaurants in the U.S.

It's insane to risk taxpayer dollars on a steakhouse, especially when the beneficiaries are extremely wealthy, and failure will result in a 100% taxpayer loss.

[bailey]

DEGC is lending them 200k to get the restaurant going.

http://www.freep.com/article/20110628/BUSINESS06/110628019/Detroit-s-Economic-Development-Corp-loans-200-000-resurrect-famed-London-Chop-House?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|FRONTPAGE|p

Guess they didn't learn anything after dropping a few hundred thousand on Frank Taylor's restaurants.

[SWMAP]

Gruber's Chop House closed [[according to Detroit Renaissance comments way back then) because the ad agencies and brokerages whose expense account execs supported it moved out of the financial district. Heintz Prechter tried to resurrect it at Coleman Young's request, but the demographic just wasn't there.

Remember that beautiful, grand Brooks Brothers store in the Penobscot went, too, supplanted by a U.S. Post office [[now gone, as well). More recently Orlando's, the classic menswear store in the Buhl Building, closed.

Are the expense account guys back ? I think the offerings will be greatly down-scaled. Dover sole stuffed with crabmeat won't probably be there.