After more than 52 years on Gratiot near Eastern Market, the Louisiana Creole Gumbo restaurant will close its longstanding restaurant and expand its operations a few blocks north.
Louisiana Creole Gumbo has a long history in the city and is known for serving red beans and rice, creole, gumbo, Cajun and jambalaya signature dishes.
Joe Spencer, owner, along with his family and other partners, of the longstanding restaurant for the last 40 years, announced Nov. 28 will be the last day for the original location at 2501 Gratiot.
The new location is about three blocks north at 2830 Gratiot Ave. on the opposite side of the street from the original restaurant.
An opening is slated for next spring.
This new location is on the corner of Joseph Campau and is “designed to be a culinary cornerstone in Eastern Market’s Neighborhood,” according to a news release.
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“We had plans of growing our restaurant in its current location,” Spencer said in a news release. “But now we can expand upon our vision and bring a new culinary experience to the city.”
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The new restaurant will have a larger dining area with sit-down seating and two outdoor patios, have a liquor license and operate a tasting kitchen.
While the original location’s final day of serving is Tuesday, its signature dishes and other food service will go on during renovations of the new building.
Starting Dec. 5, Spencer and his staff will serve customers out of its commissary kitchen at the 7 Mile location.
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Moving and expanding to the new location means going from mainly carry out to moving onto “bigger and better” and a “broader business scope,” Spencer said.
“We’re going to a full dine-in restaurant with a bar and outside patio … the whole nine yards, Spencer said. “So, it’s really going to give us a chance to expand our menu, expand the number of people we employ and become a much more dynamic business.”
After decades in the spot, Spencer said there are, of course, a lot of memories.
“It’s a lot of years just going in and out of the building, a lot of customers in and out,” he said. So, it (the building) has its own … melancholy … we are moving on to something bigger and better.”
The new building, an Art Deco style built in 1933, was purchased for $725,000 by Spencer with, he said, personal business funds, as well as help from the City of Detroit, Detroit Economic Growth Corp and Invest Detroit.
Spencer said its new space has an interesting past.
The Art Deco building was previously owned by Hernan Bas, an American artist based in Miami.
“This was his home, his studio and his workspace that he used and bought 10 years and so it was in quite excellent condition and it’s an interesting design and the building is a unique space,” Spencer said.
After more than 50 years in the same location, Spencer said he wanted to relocate to somewhere that customers could easily find and feel comfortable.
The new place offered that proximity, but the bonus was the building.
“It is such a new, fantastic building that we found,” he said.
Leading the restaurant’s design is architect Beverly Hannah-Jones of Detroit-based Hannah Jones Associates.
The building is nearly 5,000 square feet and, Spencer said, encompasses an entire block on Gratiot.
There will be space for private dining and parking.
It was almost two years ago that Spencer was nearly forced out of the current location when the building’s owner got an offer to buy the building that housed the restaurant and the building next door.
Spencer said he had the first right of refusal in his lease. But the landlord, according to Spencer, wanted him to buy both buildings.
“I did not want to do that,” Spencer said. “So, we kind of went back and forth and we finally came to a resolution that allowed me to stay until now.”
The business is operated by Spencer, president of Louisiana Creole Gumbo (LCG) and his family and other partners.
The menu also includes chicken, shrimp or catfish Po’ boy sandwiches, mac and cheese and other Southern-style dinners. The original location is on Gratiot Avenue in the Eastern Market area. There is also a location on 7 Mile and Schaefer in northwest Detroit. A third, Farmington Hills location opened more than two years ago.
While the menu will be expanded, Spencer said it will still be based on Louisiana Creole-style and southern style cooking and food.
“It’s like gumbos can made in so many kinds of ways, in so many variations,” he said. We will expand the gumbos and creoles and the jambalaya and then we’ll put a couple more pieces of fish on the menu and more desserts.”
Louisiana Creole Gumbo is famous for its red beans and rice and plans to expand on those and other menu favorites.
The restaurant on Gratiot was originally opened in 1970 by Margerine and Joe Stafford. According to its website, the restaurant follows recipes that are more than 100 years old.
It was Margerine and Joe Stafford who opened the place in 1970 on Gratiot Avenue at the edge of Eastern Market. Called the Luzianne Creole Gumbo, the couple served Louisiana and Southern-style fare that Joe Stafford learned from his mother, cooking on the Bayou Lafourche in Louisiana, according to the website.
When the Staffords retired, they sold the business to Joe Spencer, Doug Morison and Charles Martin.
But that almost didn’t happen.
Spencer wanted to invest and develop apartments, while Morison wanted to invest in the restaurant.
As the story goes, the decision came to the toss of the coin, and the restaurant won.
Now so many years later Louisiana Creole Gumbo continues, expands and is known to be one of the oldest Black-owned restaurants in Detroit.
“It (moving) will let people know that we are going to continue doing business here in Detroit,” Spencer said. “It won’t be far from where we’ve been doing business for 50 years.”
Contact Detroit Free Press food and restaurant writer Susan Selasky and send food and restaurant news and tips to: sselasky@freepress.com. Follow @SusanMariecooks on Twitter. Subscribe to the Free Press.
