DETROIT (WWJ) — The flagship Bobcat Bonnie’s restaurant in Corktown has closed.
Bobcat Bonnie’s opened in 2015 along Michigan Avenue in the historic Detroit neighborhood and was approaching its 10-year anniversary.
"It breaks my heart to confirm that my flagship restaurant, Bobcat Bonnie’s Corktown, is closing immediately after a decade on Michigan Avenue,” owner Matt Buskard said in a statement sent to WWJ Newsradio 950 on Tuesday.
Buskard said Bobcat Bonnie’s will continue to operate its Ferndale and Lansing locations, noting that many employees from the Corktown location have been brought to the Ferndale restaurant.
The Corktown location is the fourth Bobcat Bonnie’s to close since last summer, along with the Clinton Township, Ypsilanti and Wyandotte locations. Another location in Grand Rapids also closed, but officials said at the time they were planning to move to a new spot in Downtown Grand Rapids.
Plans for that location, along with a planned Kalamazoo restaurant, are not clear in the wake of Tuesday’s announcement.
In a lengthy Facebook post Tuesday afternoon, Buskard said “we tried to stay as long as we could.”
“Over the years we have proudly served the downtown community, and Detroit’s Oldest Neighborhood - Corktown,” his post said. “We have seen Tiger’s Stadium go from a lot to an amazing facility with PAL. We’ve seen vacant buildings turn into hotels, apartments, and cool businesses! And most importantly we’ve seen the outstanding transformation of the train station.”
“This decision is heartbreaking, but we must make one based on where things are currently in the economy,” Buskard continued. “It seems like daily we hear or read of a new place closing, or ‘rebranding,’ or selling. We have been inundated with news stories on how many small businesses (and some large) have decided to move on, and it breaks our hearts losing these unique, community supporting small businesses. It can feel tough thinking that we survived the pandemic only to never really be able to recover over the longer term. Truly this is never the situation I foresaw us ever being in — but this is where many of us are at.”
Buskard called Corktown a “magical neighborhood, that in the next 6-12 months as the train station opens more will be a booming area downtown.”
“We tried hard to stay as long as we could, to be a part of that boom, but at some point it becomes detrimental to your other businesses and that brings its own unique stressors,” he said. “In a business segment where a majority failed- to have made it almost 10 years is an impressive feat. I am excited for the next business that takes our place- and excited to see how they add to the magic of the neighborhood. I hope they are loved and welcomed as kindly as we were.”
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