Cass Cafe, a restaurant and longtime fixture of Detroit’s arts scene which closed in 2022, is slated to reopen full-time on Nov. 6.
The Chalfonte Foundation, a Michigan nonprofit led by President Aaron Timlin, plans to reestablish it as the Cass Cafe Cultural Center. Under the new ownership, it will operate similarly to the original owner Chuck Roy’s vision, Timlin says.
To give people a taste of what’s to come, Cass Cafe held an open house during Dally in the Alley on Sept. 12.
“It was one of the most moving days I have had in 25 years of doing this work,” Timlin tells Hour Detroit. “By the end of the night, the phrase I kept hearing was some version of ‘It feels like coming home,’ [and] that is exactly what we hoped for.”
How To Visit Before It Officially Opens
While the cafe will not officially open until November, it will host a number of public and private events in the meantime. On Sept. 26, there will be another open house with a cash bar. And on Oct. 17 and 31, the Cass Cafe will be open for costume karaoke and a Halloween Party, respectively.
What’s New (And The Same)
While some changes to the cafe have been made, the “bones” of the space are the same, Timlin says. One major new element will be an in-house, community-based radio station. It will be the Detroit location for Village Radio, a Chalfonte Foundation-owned, low-power FM station based in Elk Rapids. There will also be several new cultural enrichment activities.
“We are planning talks with Motor City Cinema Society, a Detroit-based nonprofit, about hosting regular film nights at the Cultural Center,” says Timlin. “Beginning in January 2027, the Cass Cafe Cultural Center will host an Iyengar Yoga program for adults and children living with cystic fibrosis, made possible by a $25,000 anonymous gift.”
On the food and beverage side, many of the restaurant’s familiar favorites will be returning. However, it will be more friendly to vegetarian and vegan guests, as well as those abstaining from alcohol.
“I have been vegan for over 35 years, so you will see a much stronger whole-foods and plant-based menu than the original Cass offered, alongside the comfort food and bar program people remember,” said Timlin. “Alongside the full craft cocktail program, we will have an entire mocktail menu. The goal is a zero-proof bar that treats alcohol-free drinking as an intentional, sophisticated experience: layered flavors, house-made syrups, botanical ingredients, and real complexity.”
The Path to Reopening
Efforts to reopen the restaurant and gallery space have been going on practically since it shuttered. Last year, it opened temporarily for an arts exhibition called Retrospective: A Life in Art through Detroit Contemporary, which showcased the works of Detroit artists Jim and Lucille Nawara.
Timlin says the timing of the exhibition was because “we genuinely believed we would be opening last year.”
He explains, “The deal itself went through several evolutions over nearly four years. Over time we worked toward what we always believed was the right structure: owning both the building and the business and reorganizing the business as a community-owned social enterprise with an employee stock ownership plan.”
The Foundation Behind It
The Chalfonte Foundation — of which Timlin has been president since 2019 — has been behind numerous arts programs and institutions throughout Michigan since its founding in 2000. Among them are PuppetART, Detroit Contemporary, WEIE 99.7 LPFM (Village Radio), and the Chalfonte Theater in Elk Rapids, which is housed inside the historic Elk Rapids Cinema.
While the organization has many balls in the air, the project of reopening the Cass Cafe was a welcome addition, says Timlin.
“The Cass Cafe has been part of Detroit’s cultural fabric since 1993, and its absence since 2022 left a real hole,” says Timlin. “The interest in reopening was never really a question.”
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