The coolest new spot for Detroit’s music creatives and community officially opens on April 5.
Moondog Cafe, an artist-forward listening lounge and small concert cafe on Linwood and Montgomery is opening a year after hosting its first show with a special all-day celebration featuring Blue Moon Radio. The day will include sets from DJs Whodat and Supreme Gratitude, and live performances from the Caleb Robinson Trio, Jon Dixon and Ahya Simone.
It’s one of the only businesses to open in years in the neighborhood and continues the area’s legacy of small music venues, including the now-closed Minor Key, Hobby Bar, the Linwood Theatre and others. With frequent experimental and improvisational music performances, live cassette recordings, open jam sessions, film screenings and panels, a book club, collaging nights with live music performances and more, it’s both a music venue and a community gathering place.
Detroit jazz saxophonist and clarinetist Wendell Harrison grew up eight blocks from the Moondog location, walking by the building to get to school. Growing up, he said the neighborhood was full of residents, trees and blooming flowers, but now, it’s mostly boarded-up homes. In the immediate area surrounding Moondog Cafe, approximately half of homes are vacant, according to U.S. Census data.
“Moondog is great; it’s a blessing,” said Harrison, who has performed at the venue twice. He said everyone is welcome, young and old. In addition to the cuisine – his favorites being the herbal teas and sweets – he enjoys the record store on site, and that the venue offers plenty of jazz, hip-hop and poetry.
“It’s a welcome site in that particular neighborhood,” Harrison said, “like a diamond in the rough.
Moondog Cafe got started when Jared Talaga, Rob Nash and Joe Darling met at a holiday party in 2022.
“We were all really interested in facilitating music in some way, so this idea was kind of hatched then,” said Darling, who works at audio design company Uncanned Music.
In May 2023, they signed a five-year lease for a corner unit of a commercial building at 8045 Linwood, drawn to the location because of its accessibility from all parts of the city and the quieter nature of the area. Nash grew up visiting his grandmother, who lived on Dexter and Whitney not far from the venue.
The venue got off the ground and completed renovations with a $25,000 Motor City Match grant awarded in the fall of 2023 and nearly $16,000 in crowdfunding. In the back is a 2,107 square-foot area that the team plans to develop into outdoor seating as an extension of the main space, which fits 85.
The spot centers Detroit talent, like Harrison, drumming jazz legend Leonard King and pianist, producer and composer Ian Fink.
Darling said they’re inviting artists to not fit into a certain box and that they mix it up a lot.
“We’re doing a lot of experimental music,” said Darling.
“It’s intentionally artist-forward,” said Nash. “We definitely want to be the place that makes space for people to kind of just do what they practice and take raw elements of their art and bring it straight to the stage.”
Another focus at the venue was creating a space accessible to artists with disabilities.
“There were a number of accessibility factors that we’ve really prioritized, building it out to make sure that there’s a ramp to the stage and that there were two ADA accessible bathrooms,” said Darling.
At Moondog, the music is complemented by the cafe, which is stocked with baked goods from Walter Pat’s, espresso from Sepia Coffee Project, and drip coffee from Yellow Light. The cafe does not serve alcoholic drinks. Nash said the cafe creates a different music environment from other venues.
Having played at almost every Detroit music venue over the years, Nash said Moondog Cafe is an unconventional spot for music artists.
“It’s a way to put an artist forward and really freeing for the artists to come and do the art that they passionately sometimes may keep secret at home, because there’s no place to have an outlet for it, or maybe it’s not a crowd that they know of that wants to hear this eclectic-out- of-the-norm sound, but we offer it.”
Nearby resident Brian Stephens said it’s one of the first new businesses to come into the neighborhood in years and is a “beautiful thing” to see.
“We haven’t gotten any real stores in this immediate area that are popping up, nothing that’s bringing new access to groceries, services, to those key concepts that keep a neighborhood and community thriving,” said Stephens, who is a member of the Wildemere Neighborhood Park Association, which now hosts its meetings at Moondog.
“The establishment of Moondog Cafe lets people passing through our streets see that we are turning the corner, and we are now trying to revitalize our community here.”
Last year, Mayor Mike Duggan announced a $8.5 million renovation of a nearby property into the Helen Moore Community Center for recreation to help transform the neighborhood.
“Those [projects like Moondog] are the renovating, rejuvenating blood that we need to build upon to go out and fight to change our neighborhood over to a community and change it to a vicinity that people want to come in, they want to raise their families,” said Stephens.
Harrison said it’s a unique spot to perform at and reminds him of playing at clubs in New York City or San Francisco or at cafes back in the 1950s when Detroit had bohemian and beatnik clubs where musicians would talk about politics and recite poetry during performances.
“It’s like performing in my living room. I can play and people ask questions and stuff and I talk about my history. I converse with the audience, and I do a lot of storytelling and reminiscing and make the people a part of the show,” he said.
“Detroit, musically, we’re kind of conservative, you go and listen to some people and they’re all about playing music from their records and sometimes they don’t speak enough about the history and how they developed. But Moondog gives you the freedom to talk about your development, outlook on life.”
Moondog Cafe is located at 8045 Linwood. In addition to special events, the cafe will be open every Saturday and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., with plans to expand service to Mondays and Fridays later in 2025.