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For decades Chung’s restaurant on Cass Avenue at Peterboro served Chinese fare to everyone including actors, drug dealers, sex workers, journalists, students, doctors, lawyers and politicians including the late Mayor Coleman A. Young. In 2000, after many ups and downs in the neighborhood, the Chin family closed the business.
Chung's at Cass and Peterboro
Since then, for nearly a quarter century, the building in Detroit’s Cass Corridor with the red Pagoda-style awning has sat vacant, a reminder of what once was a thriving Chinatown.
Now, comes hope.
The American Community Developers of Harper Woods purchased the deteriorating building last year and has been restoring it, with plans to house up to three different Asian restaurants.
Mike Essian, vice president of ACD, tells Deadline Detroit that at least one of the restaurants will be Chinese or Chinese fusion and the others, Asian or Pan Asian. Though the 8,200 square-foot building is being reconstructed to accommodate three different restaurants, he said it’s possible one could take up two spaces.
He said the building could be completed in five or six weeks.
“We haven’t signed any leases yet or committed to anyone," he said. "We’ve taken through a lot of interested groups but we don’t have anything to announce yet.”
He said the restaurants could possibly be a mix of full service and fast casual.
“The key is to finding the right mix for the building,” he said. “We want to make sure it’s successful for both them and us.”
Essian says he’s been talking to state Sen. Stephanie Chang about some initiatives in the neighborhood including improvements in user space and streets. And he’s spoken to the Association of Chinese Americans to find the right match for the building.
He also said initially he approached Curtis Chin, whose family owned Chung’s, about returning the restaurant to its glory days. Chin worked there growing up and wrote a book about it last year, “Everything I Learned, I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant."
“A year ago, Mike Essian contacted me about re-opening Chung's. I was intrigued by it, but frankly unable to commit to it," Chin, 56, a Los Angeles filmmaker and writer told Deadline Detroit.
Curtis Chin
"It's exciting to see all this interest in the neighborhood," Chin said. "Growing up, I only saw buildings burning down and residents moving away. Now, it seems to be the opposite and things are coming back to life."
"I've been following the development of the property, both in person and on-line. It's great to see it coming together."
"It would be great to re-open Chung's and occupy the same corner. I would love to find a way to make that happen, but the timing now isn't right for me. If anyone has ideas on how to make that happen, I'm game."
