A fire last year at the Capital Grille on the north side of the Somerset Collection in Troy, which closed the restaurant for nearly a year until it reopened in June, is proving to be divine intervention.
As a result of water damage and other factors, the owners of the upscale steakhouse, Darden Restaurants Inc. in Orlando, Fla., invested in replacing the kitchen and renovating the dining room, private rooms, and bar.
“It was a weird blessing,” says Tim Wilkins, managing partner of the Capital Grille in Troy. “To be able to take a 27-year-old restaurant and make these changes is fantastic. Most places don’t get that chance. We put a brand-new restaurant into an existing successful building and we were able to modernize it. Everything is now modern. It’s a weird byproduct of the fire.”
The late afternoon blaze that broke out on Tuesday, June 13, 2022, was confined to the kitchen’s exhaust stack, which travels three stories up to the roof of the mall. After being out of service days shy of one year — or 331 days, as Wilkins prefers to refer to the forced hiatus — the renovated Capital Grille reopened for business on June 9, 2023.
“Our goal was to make this place look the same, but a little different and freshened up somewhat. We wanted people to feel like they’re back home, but something is a little different — and I think we accomplished that,” Wilkins says. “Our guests are happy we look similar to what we were, but with some changes.
“The entire kitchen was gutted out, back to the studs; everything from walk-in coolers to freezers, every piece of equipment was taken out of there,” Wilkins says. “Floors, ceiling, lights, counters — it all suffered water damage.”
The most complicated challenge, however, and the one that kept the restaurant closed for nearly one year, was the replacement of the kitchen exhaust stack.
“We thought we were going to be down a shorter window because we envisioned (that) replacing the exhaust would be a quicker process. Then, when you realize how much damage was done and the process it took to get a new one made and reinstalled, it took much longer than we all anticipated,” Wilkins explains.
He points out that when the restaurant was built in 1996, the space above it was empty and easily accessible.
“To put an exhaust duct up wasn’t any big deal when there (weren’t) any other stores there, but now you’ve got two levels of stores, a food court, and infrastructure,” Wilkins says. “Now there are walls and stores, so all of that had to be navigated. Fortunately, no other stores were damaged.”
Wilkins says after the completion of the investigation into the fire, the decision was made that the duct would have to be cut up and removed in four to five sections. The removal and replacement process was a collaborative effort with The Forbes Co. in Southfield, which owns the Somerset Collection. The work was carried out by Goyette Mechanical, a heating contracting firm in Oscoda.
“They had to engineer and design it, then build it and put it up there. The install went up in small pieces, but you’re still dealing with the stores above and that was quite a challenge,” Wilkins says. “The mall (management) was crucial in helping us build the new exhaust with the finest design. We now have something installed that’s state-of-the art, and it’s just absolutely as safe as you can build it.”
Wilkins says even as the fire was burning, neither the staff nor their guests in the restaurant initially realized anything was amiss.
“At first we didn’t even know we had a fire, or how long it was going,” he says. “People driving down Big Beaver Road were the first to see smoke coming off the roof of the mall, and they didn’t know what it was — whether it was the roof on fire or the exhaust.”
That afternoon, bartender Jason Ceresnie was setting up glasses behind the bar when he noticed a whiff of smoke coming from a vent. “Everything was normal. We had a few people at the bar and a few ladies in the lounge,” he says.
Ceresnie, who has worked at the restaurant since it opened, says he continued with his chores until smoke appeared near the ceiling. A few minutes later, it formed into a cloud. “At that time, we asked the customers to step outside and told them the checks are on us,” he recalls.
Wilkins says soon after, the Troy Fire Department was swarming the area with firefighters and equipment, and clambering up to the roof of the mall. At first glance, after the fire was put out, the damage seemed minimal to the restaurant’s interior. The heavy dark mahogany wall fixtures were all intact.
It was soon determined, however, that water had seeped in behind the walls and into the drywall. Nearly three-quarters of the interior’s mahogany panels had to be replaced, along with the back surface.
“As we started peeling back the mahogany wood panels to make sure there wasn’t water damage, we realized we (could) do some refreshing,” Wilkins says.
New furnishings, including chairs and booths, were added. The entire back bar, one of the restaurant’s top attractions, was removed and rebuilt.
In a sentimental nod to the regulars who view the bar as their club, the brass bar top was carefully removed, refinished, and polished to a point where water rings from cold drinks are nonexistent. “Saving the bar top was important, as there are a lot of memories there for a lot of people,” Wilkins says.
Replacing 75 percent of the mahogany interior of the restaurant was a particular challenge. The remaining wood had to be blended seamlessly with the new.
“A lot of restaurants change their entire décor, and it’s fantastic for them. We wanted the opposite,” Wilkins says. “We wanted our clientele to come back to the same clubhouse, even though we made a lot of changes.”
Nate Forbes, managing partner of The Forbes Co., says the restaurant’s closing did not go unnoticed. “I can’t tell you how many calls we received about when will the Capital Grille reopen,” says Forbes. “The restaurant really does a great job of taking care of their customers, and now that Tim and his team are planning to expand the bar area where the patio is, it will bring them more business. The kitchen is brand new. It’s an exciting time for everyone.”
Wilkins says the change that has drawn the most comments from customers is the new paintings. Replacing what was a series of auto barons are portraits of famous Detroiters like Aretha Franklin, Sonny Bono (yep, he was a Detroiter), and a life-size portrait of the late Chuck Daly, the beloved coach of the Detroit Pistons who guided the Bad Boys to back-to-back NBA championships (1989-90).
A recent visitor, James Edwards, the former center on that team, admired the portrait. “I said to James, ‘Chuck’s keeping an eye on you,’ ” Wilkins says with a laugh. “James said, ‘I’ve seen that stare before.’ ”
For all its success, the Capital Grille hasn’t expanded in Michigan — it was the fifth such steakhouse to open nationwide. The first restaurant opened in 1990 in Providence, R.I.
Overall, Darden Restaurants operates 1,900 restaurants and has 190,000 employees around the country. Its brands range from Olive Garden, Red Lobster, and Bahama Breeze to pricier attractions like Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse, Eddie V’s, and Seasons 52 (the latter three establishments are located nearby along or near Big Beaver Road).
Wilkins is a nine-year veteran of the company, and has been the managing partner of the Troy restaurant for two and a half years. He says the staff’s dedication to the dining experience and the loyalty of its customers sets it apart from its competitors.
“We’re the only Capital Grille in Michigan, and the reputation the company has nationwide makes people travel from Brighton, Ann Arbor, and Howell. We had people come down the other day from Saginaw,” he says. “One of the hard things when we closed was that for a lot of people, this was their daily stop. This was their home, this was their clubhouse, and it was hard for them, as all of a sudden it was taken away.”
The new carpeting includes added gold coloring to help brighten the dining room, while the lighting and sound systems were replaced, as were the heating and cooling systems.
Despite months of uncertainty about an exact opening date, the restaurant didn’t have trouble putting the team back together. “The veteran staff that came back to us has over 380 years of service. We returned 95 percent of our front of the house people, and 76 percent of our kitchen and back of the house team. And we’ve added some fantastic people,” he says.
Wilkins says the loyalty the group has with the guests is remarkable.
“We have servers who have been here for 25 years or 27 years, and they have gotten to know their people. We have servers who were here when their kids were born and those kids now have kids,” he says. “To see that is a great thing, and our guests feel connected with them. Our staff is very much a reason why this place has been so successful.”
Ceresnie, the bartender, and Debra Hurley, the restaurant’s front desk hostess, say the outpouring of support from customers who contacted them during the closure was remarkable.
Hurley says special relationships she developed with her customers over the last 27 years helped her stay at the Capital Grille.
“It’s a great family atmosphere, it’s cheerful and pleasant, the food is wonderful. It’s something like a ‘Cheers’ feeling,” she says, referring to the long-running television comedy set in a fictional Boston bar in the 1980s.
During the time the Capital Grille was closed, Hurley went to work at Eddie V’s and Seasons 52. Some of her regular customers turned up to see her, she says.
She compared going back to work at the Capital Grille to visiting family for a few days over the holidays. “You enjoy spending time with the family, but after a while you’re ready to go home and sleep in your own bed,” she says.
Ceresnie says he went on his scheduled two-week vacation after the fire, thinking he would soon be back at work. Then, as a return date never materialized, he decided to take the summer off.
His down time lasted through the fall until a manager at Ocean Prime, near the Somerset Collection, reached out and brought him in to help out over the holidays. He found a similar welcome mat at the Tallulah Wine Bar & Bistro in downtown Birmingham, where he worked part time. At both restaurants, his Capital Grille customers often showed up to keep in touch.
He says the June 9 reopening of the Capital Grille was like a family reunion.
“We had tons of amazing guests who had been reaching out to us, coming to see us, and hugging us and kissing us,” Ceresnie says. “Even some people we hadn’t seen in some time just came in to see us and support us.
“Our regulars were lined up at the door when we reopened, and many had called ahead of time to make sure they had a seat. Even the bar was full the first day, and it hasn’t let up. We’ve rebounded very nicely.”
