Music Venue, Restaurant El Club Opens in Southwest Detroit

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El Club, an all-ages music venue, restaurant, and bar will open today in Southwest Detroit, offering a variety of shows, pizzas, and craft cocktails.

El Club is located in the former Mexicantown Fiesta Center (also known as El Club), 4114 Vernor Hwy., near Clark Park. The Mexicantown Fiesta Center was sold last year.

Graeme Flegenheimer, curator of El Club, plans to bring a wide variety of artists, such as singer/songwriter Chelsea Wolfe, Trip Metal Festival, and Wax Idols. He has built a stage, added sound installations, and created a VIP seating area in the 4,800-square-foot converted bank space.

El Club also offers a 1,000-square-foot outdoor patio with a bar and seating.“My goal is to eventually to activate the other property on our space for after-school music and art programs and have it run on a DIY nature and the club and bar sales will help facilitate that,” Flegenheimer says. “(El Club is) a space for music and art to live.”

Kyle Thousand, formerly of The Oakland in Ferndale, will manage the bar program, offering craft cocktails such as an avocado margarita, cucumber mule, and rhubarb daiquiri. The cocktails will be priced between $6-8. Flegenheimer also plans to offer a wide variety of non-alcoholic beverages.

He says El Club will begin serving pizzas from af wood oven from Italy by the end of May. The pizzas are cooked at 900 degrees for 90 seconds by Pepe Z’s Matt Ziolkowksi.

Initially, El Club will only be open for shows, with plans to offer a full dinner/drink service by the fall. The venue opens tonight with a family and friends show.