Skewered meats and grilled vegetable plates are about to take over a stretch of Cass Corridor that spent 11 years pouring beer for Jolly Pumpkin. Spiedo, the Mediterranean-inspired restaurant from Takoi chef Brad Greenhill and chef Michael Goldberg, opens Friday, Oct. 23, at 441 W. Canfield in Detroit, next to Third Man Records.
Greenhill confirmed the Friday opening to The Detroit News, which reports the restaurant will serve Mediterranean-inspired skewered meats, grilled vegetable plates, cocktails and more. For the first few weeks, the new spot will stick to dinner only, with the owners hoping to add lunch service featuring sandwiches as soon as November, according to the same report.
The Detroit location is a bigger, more ambitious build than the original Ann Arbor restaurant that put Spiedo on the map. It's more spacious and has a broader menu than its predecessor, per the Detroit News account, with seating that includes a rail, banquette seating and a large 12-person round table at the center of the dining room, complete with a lazy susan.
A Bigger Build With the Same Design Team
The Detroit Spiedo is a collaboration with architect Ishtiaq Rafiuddin, who also worked on Takoi and the Ann Arbor Spiedo, the outlet notes. That continuity matters for a project replacing a longtime neighborhood fixture — Jolly Pumpkin's Midtown location closed after 11 years in business, according to a statement reported by Metro Times, which said simply, “After 11 incredible years, JP is closing its doors.”
Crain's Detroit had earlier reported that the self-described “Mediterranean-ish” concept would take over the Canfield Street space later in the year. Greenhill had told Metro Times the Detroit restaurant would differ from Ann Arbor mainly in scale, saying, “The Detroit one will be a little bit different in that it's in a much larger space and we're going to expand the menu a little bit, at least for dinner.” That same Metro Times report had cited Greenhill's earlier target of a summer opening, though the date ultimately landed in October.
From a Grab-and-Go Counter to a Second Detroit Address
Greenhill and Goldberg opened the first Spiedo at 307 S. Fifth in Ann Arbor in 2023, officially debuting at the end of that September, according to MLive. That original location was designed as a casual grab-and-go spot inside a compact 1,300-square-foot space, with a menu built around flatbread sandwiches, rice bowls, vegetables and other sides, MLive reported at the time. Greenhill, who also owns and cooks at Takoi, worked alongside Goldberg to build out those dishes, per the same account.
The Ann Arbor kitchen runs on a scratch-cooking philosophy, meaning everything served there is made with fresh ingredients that are never processed or frozen, according to The Michigan Daily. Whether that same approach carries over wholesale to the larger Detroit menu wasn't detailed in the available reporting, but the expanded dinner lineup suggests the new location is aiming for more than a quick-service counter.
A Corktown Original Gets a Cass Corridor Sibling
Takoi, Greenhill's flagship restaurant at 2520 Michigan in Corktown, marked its 10th anniversary earlier this year, a milestone that underscores how established Greenhill's presence in Detroit's dining scene has become before this expansion. With Spiedo now opening two locations under the same ownership team, Cass Corridor diners will get their first taste of the skewer-and-cocktail format that's been drawing crowds in Ann Arbor since 2023.
