The Lansing area lost nearly two dozen restaurants in 2024.
Some were short-lived, including Owosso’s Area 52 Diner, open for just over a year, and The Goat Marketplace and Bistro, open for just a few months. Others, including Canton, a Chinese eatery in Delta Township, and Stillwater Grill in Okemos, were open for over 20 years before closing.
Some owners said their businesses struggled to recover from 2020’s COVID-19 pandemic. Others cited health challenges, a changed restaurant landscape and increased operating costs when explaining closures.
Despite the losses, locally it was a busy year for restaurant growth. More than 30 new restaurants and bakeries opened their doors, including chains Art & Jake’s near the Eastwood Towne Center and Dave’s Hot Chicken in East Lansing, and those owned by area residents, including Takitos AF at Lansing Shuffle and Tantay in Okemos.
Other newcomers, including the Lansing area’s first Dave & Buster’s and Pizzawala’s, coming to East Lansing, are expected to open in 2025.
Here’s a look at the restaurants that closed in 2024.
Aloha Cookin’, East Lansing
Aloha Cookin’ on Albert Street photographed on Monday, Nov. 22, 2021, in East Lansing.
Before it closed in early December, Aloha Cookin’ was known for serving Hawaiian dishes, including poke bowls and pulled pork and cabbage seasoned with Hawaiian sea salt and herbs.
In 2021 owner Chris Hong, who was born and raised in Hawaii, told the State Journal the business was a family affair. His parents, Duck Ki and Hyun Ok Hong, who immigrated to Hawaii from Korea in the 1980s, were involved.
The restaurant, at 350 Albert St., closed this month. “We are closed indefinitely due to serious family health issues and plan to use this time to focus on getting better,” said a Dec. 6 post on the restaurant’s Facebook page. “We are hoping to relocate in the near future. Thank you so much for your support over the past three years!”
Area 52 Diner, Owosso
Owner Joel McGuire opened Area 52 Diner, a science fiction-themed diner on Stewart Street after closing his family’s food truck and mall restaurant Atomic Tacos in July of 2023. The move came amid health struggles for both Joel and his father Jeff, who ran the business together.
Area 52 Diner was the type of restaurant his father always wanted him to open, he told the State Journal over a year ago. “It’s a fun little diner with just breakfast food and hamburgers and stuff,” Joel said.
The diner closed its doors in late September.
Canton, Delta Township
Owner Chan Fai Chin said he closed Canton, the 875-square-foot Chinese restaurant he’d owned and operated for 27 years off West St. Joseph Highway, because it was simply time to stop working.
“I’m retiring,” Chin said in May. By summer, the business had closed.
Carrie’s Kitchen, Lansing
Mikal Moore works inside Carrie’s Kitchen on Monday, Jan. 29, 2024, in Lansing. The restaurant closed three months later.
Soul food restaurant Carrie’s Kitchen closed in September, less than three months after it opened in June at 3812 S. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
In August, owner Mikal Moore said the restaurant had seen decreased customer traffic. “It has been very slow, extremely slow,” he said. “It’s just the area support is not there.”
Moore said he planned to reopen the business inside the Meridian Mall foodcourt in the fall. It’s unclear why the restaurant hasn’t reopened there. Moore could not be reached this week.
Creole Burger Bar & Southern Kitchen, Lansing
Lansing-based Potent Potables Project opened Creole Burger Bar and Southern Kitchen as The Creole in 2015. The company changed the initial concept, which focused on fine dining, to a more casual concept in early 2018. The menu included burgers, sandwiches and cajun dishes such as shrimp and grits, shrimp etouffee, and jambalaya.
It closed in September.
Sam Short, an owner in the company, said Potent Potables Project couldn’t come to an agreement on a lease renewal with the building‘s owner. But Jamie Schriner, the property owner, said restaurant ownership asked to be let out of their lease early.
The historic space, on Turner Street in Lansing’s Old Town, will soon house Good Truckin’ Diner. The restaurant is relocating there from its space in REO Town.
Duke’s Saloon, Lansing
A sign in the papered over front door of Duke’s Saloon, 414 E. Michigan Ave., says the business is closed.
Duke’s Saloon, a Michigan Avenue bar in the Stadium District, closed abruptly in February.
It opened in May 2015 as a roadhouse or country-themed nightclub. The bar previously had been the Harem nightclub but was completely renovated in a country theme.
GiGi’s Cupcakes, East Lansing
Gigi’s Cupcakes’ closure in March came with a plea to customers from its owner Gina Farhat.
In a March 1 post on the East Lansing bakery’s Facebook page, Farhat bid farewell to the 1020 Trowbridge Road business after an eight-year run. Then she urged people to shop locally.
On our way out we ask each of you to do your best to spend both your time and money within your local community!” the post said. “It is much more than a tagline when we say, ‘Shop small,’ or ‘Support local business.’ Doing so is often not very convenient, but well worth it. So yes, make the trip, regardless of the orange cones and detours, stand patiently in lines, promote local businesses on social media and before reacting to their prices, take the time to think about their costs and their shrinking margins; they are doing their very best to stay open… for you!”
Green Dot Stables, Lansing
Green Dot Stables, a South Clippert Street slider bar that closed in 2022 before reopening briefly for a few months this year, closed permanently in late June.
Co-owners Jacques and Christine Driscoll, did not say what led them to close with such little notice. The Michigan State University alumni invested over $100,000 to update the South Clippert Street property before reopening in February.
Irie Smoke Shack, Lansing
Irie Smoke Shack owner and Detroit chef and owner Max Hardy died in March. Irie Smoke Shack closed a few months later inside Lansing Shuffle.
Irie Smoke Shack, one of the first restaurants to open inside Lansing Shuffle, the food hall and entertainment venue in the former Lansing City Market building, shuttered in June. The closure followed the death of its owner, well-known Detroit chef Max Hardy, 40. He died in March.
The restaurant was one of several inside the food hall. Jonathan Hartzell, developer and director of acquisitions and programming at Detroit Rising, the Livonia-based firm behind Lansing Shuffle, told the State Journal “we eventually decided that we’d rather move on and bring in a new concept.”
Old Chicago Pizza + Taproom, Okemos
Old Chicago Pizza + Taproom closed its Meridian Township location on West Grand River Avenue in March.
Old Chicago Pizza + Taproom closed after more than two decades at 1938 W. Grand River Ave. in March.
News of the closure came less than a week after an Old Chicago Pizza + Taproom location in Southgate closed its doors on March 3.
SPB Hospitality, the Houston, Texas-based company that owned it, took over operations and management of Logan’s Roadhouse, Old Chicago Pizza & Taproom, Rock Bottom Brewery, Gordon Biersch, ChopHouse & Brewery, Big River Grille & Brewing Works, AIA Ale Works Restaurant & Taproom, Ragtime Tavern Seafood & Grill, and Seven Bridges Grille & Brewery in June 2020 after the original owners went into Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Osteria Vegana, Lansing
Osteria Vegana, a vegan Italian restaurant at Lansing Shuffle, closed in August.
In September, Hartzell of Detroit Rising said the business was transitioning into a catering operation.
Penn Station Subs, Delta Township
Penn Station Subs closed its West Saginaw Highway location in Delta Township in June.
Penn Station Subs operated a location in a plaza off West Saginaw Highway for a decade before the location closed in June.
A sign on the storefront read, “It has been an honor to serve you for 10 years! We are sad to announce that we are now closed. The economy just cannot support two locations in the same area.” The notice urged customers to visit the Penn Station Subs store at 3020 E. Saginaw St. in Lansing.
Sparty’s Kabob, East Lansing
The exterior of the former Sparty’s Kabob on Monday, Sept. 23, 2024, in East Lansing.
Sparty’s Kabob, at 930 Trowbridge Road, closed in late September.
The restaurant, open for four years near Fresh Thyme Market, served a menu that included Iraqi dishes like tandoori and grilled chicken, lamb shank, lamb and chicken kabobs, salads, hummus and desserts including baklava and cheesecake.
Stillwater Grill, Okemos
Stillwater Grill, a longtime restaurant in Okemos, closed in April after a 24-year run at 3544 Meridian Crossing Drive.
Kevin Gudejko, president and CEO of Mainstreet Ventures Restaurant Group, which owned the business, said it struggled to regain the business it had before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ace Hardware’s plans to occupy the space along with two other storefronts adjacent to it in the shopping center were announced in June. Cutler Martin, the store’s owner, is partnering with Jon Brown, who owns Midwest Ace Hardware at 7410 E. Saginaw Hwy. in Haslett, to operate the store.
St. Johns Brewing Co., St. Johns
Customers get their takeout orders at St. Johns Brewing Co. Saturday, Dec. 12, 2020.
St. Johns Brewing Co. owner Jim Holton put the downtown business in a 130-year-old former bank building up for sale in May. The restaurant at 200 N. Clinton Ave. had opened in 2020.
Holton, who also owns and operates businesses in Mount Pleasant and Alma, plans to retire.
Scott Berman, an owner of One North Kitchen & Bar, a restaurant in Delta Township, purchased St. Johns Brewing Co. in September. He reopened it as The Heist Grille.
Tatse & Alobosa Bar, Lansing
The entrance of Tatse photographed on Tuesday, July 26, 2022, in downtown Lansing.
African restaurant and bar Tatse & Alobosa Bar in downtown closed in July.
Owner Taiwo Adeleye opened the business at 221 S. Washington Square in February 2022. Tatse struggled. The COVID-19 pandemic and the rising costs of everything from food to supplies were factors, Adeleye said.
He opened Handie, a fast-casual eatery serving African-infused wraps, sandwiches and other items in a storefront at 515 E Grand River Ave., Suite G in East Lansing two months later.
The Goat Marketplace and Bistro, Delta Township
The Goat Marketplace and Bistro entrance on Wednesday, Nov. 22, 2023, in Lansing.
The Goat Marketplace and Bistro, a restaurant inside the Lansing Mall, was open for just four months before it closed in February.
The restaurant debuted in November inside the mall in a 2,300-square-foot space previously home to Chipotle Mexican Grill.
The Junction, Lansing
After replacing Green Dot Stables in 2022 at the South Clippert Street property, The Junction, an entertainment venue closed in January.
The Junction, an entertainment venue at 410 S. Clippert St. closed in January to make way for the short-lived reopening of Green Dot Stables at the property.
It opened in the fall of 2022, filling the void Spiral Dance Bar left in 2020 for drag performers and audiences, while it was open.
Wendy’s, Dimondale and Lansing
Three Lansing area Wendy’s restaurants were among about a dozen removed from the company’s website this month.
Three Lansing area Wendy’s restaurants were among about a dozen removed from the company’s website this month, the Detroit Free Press reported.
The locations at 9805 Davis Hwy. in Dimondale, at 2727 Eaton Rapids Road, and 3920 W. Saginaw Highway are all listed as “permanently closed” on Google. Phone numbers listed for them were inactive.
Zaytoon Lansing, Delta Township
The previous home of Zaytoon Mediterranean Grill Lansing, which closed over the summer.
Zaytoon Mediterranean Grill’s Delta Township location closed abruptly in July. The apparent closure came after a brief closure in September and following news articles and allegations raised by former employees after Fox 47 reported some Zaytoon employees said they weren’t properly paid.
Sultan’s Mediterranean Cuisine is expected to relocate to the property, at 940 Elmwood Road, from East Lansing next month. Sultan’s has operated at 1381 E. Grand River Ave. since August 2020. It moved there after first opening off South Hagadorn Road in East Lansing in 1995.
READ MORE:
Small Lansing area chocolatier building US, international audience on TikTok
Lansing hasn’t had a comedy club in 10 years. A local comedian wants to change that
Contact Reporter Rachel Greco at rgreco@lsj.com. Follow her on X @GrecoatLSJ .
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Nearly two dozen Lansing area restaurants closed in 2024
