The Grand Army of the Republic Building has been waiting on a tenant since the pandemic. The 30,000-square-foot Richardsonian Romanesque "castle" at Grand River and Cass went up in 1899 as a clubhouse for Civil War veterans. When the last vets died, it became a recreation center, then sat boarded up through the 1980s, then got a National Register listing in 1986.
In the 2010s the production company Mindfield turned the ground floor into a gastropub and a diner. Both closed for the pandemic and never came back. Barbat Holdings bought the building in 2023.
Sexy Steak opened February 26, 2024, on the ground floor. The name is the part that makes some people stop reading. The food does not.
The 4,000-square-foot main dining room seats 120 around a Himalayan salt-lined display case where guests pick their own cut from a temperature-controlled wall of beef. All the beef and poultry is halal certified, much of it sourced from Creekstone Farms. An eight-ounce ribeye runs $65.
The 32-ounce Creekstone porterhouse goes for $145. The pasta is house-made. Veal, oyster bar, dover sole, lobster scampi.
This is the most ambitious project under the Prime Concepts Detroit umbrella, the hospitality arm of the Joe Barbat operation behind Aurora Italiana, Prime29, NARA, and PAO. Stolion Liti runs operations. Joe Barbat told the press it was the team's most dynamic concept to date, which is the language CEOs use, but the buildout supports it.
The historic work is the actual story. Royal Oak's Art Harrison Interiors led the design with Barbat's team. Original windows, staircase details, and entrance tile flooring stayed.
Wood floors got restored. Brick walls got exposed. Custom wallpaper came from Detroit Wallpaper across all five floors.
GAR historian Bruce Butgereit helped curate a public memorial space inside the building that displays artifacts left behind across the past 150 years. The third floor, "Castle Hall," holds the Cass Hall and Adams Lounge event rooms. The fourth-floor Grand Ballroom seats 180 for events with mezzanine balcony and skyline views.
A halal-only Italian steakhouse inside a Civil War veterans' building is the kind of thing only Detroit assembles. The salt case glows pink behind the host stand. The original tile at the entrance is still under your shoes.
1942 Grand River Ave., Detroit.
