A new restaurant will soon bring late-night Greek and Lebanese cuisine to the Woodbridge neighborhood across from Wayne State University.
Toum and Tzatziki is inspired by the unique backgrounds of Woodbridge Pub owners Yianni Linardakis and Ibrahim Chahrour.
Linardakis is from Chania, a city on the northwest coast of Greece, while Chahrour is from Nabatieh in southern Lebanon. Both came from working parent households and spent their childhood with their grandmothers.
“We want to pay homage to our grandmas, so we’re doing a Greek-Lebanese street-style type deal,” said Linardakis, who immigrated to the United States in 1996. He noted that the cuisines use similar spices and herbs just in “different doses.” The name is an homage to both backgrounds as well: Toum is a Lebanese garlic sauce and Tzatziki is a Greek yogurt sauce.
Toum and Tzatziki is expected to open in the first week of June once renovations are complete. The 1,300-square-foot space on Merrick and Trumbull will feature lamb gyros and shawarma, salads, beef kebabs and spreads.
Omar Anani, a Palestinian-Egyptian American chef and owner of Detroit’s Saffron De Twah, is a food history fanatic. He said food from Greece and Lebanon became similar through colonization, trade, and similar climatic regions.
“What you’re looking at is the history of the Silk Road, colonization, and how that affected cuisine specifically through trade and the conquering of empires,” he said. “There were a lot of empires over time that stretched ingredients and recipes over different places.”
The climates in the different places also lend themselves to the similarities.
“The growing climate of Greece is very similar to the growing climate of Palestine or Syria or Jordan or Lebanon and you can easily take a boat from those countries to Greece,” he said, allowing for easy trade routes.
Anani said it’s cool how people interpret that lens into a “beautiful cuisine.”
Dishes prepared in Toum and Tzatziki’s open-kitchen will be packaged to-go, but there will be five or six tables that will allow for people to dine inside. Customers will be able to buy drinks from the pub and food from the new restaurant and enjoy it all outside.
“There’s not a freezer in here,” said Linardakis. “Everything is going to be made from scratch like it is at the pub. We make our marinades, our own spices and herbs. We’re even doing hand-cut fries here.”
Built in 1884, the building has sat vacant for the last decade and was formerly a carriage house, said Linardakis. The listed use for the property is a “tool and die shop” on the city of Detroit’s online parcel viewer and it has an assessed value of $13,500.
Linardakis said $300,000 has been spent on renovations, but he expects the investment to pay off in the first year-and-a-half. The building is next to a grass lot that the pair use for outdoor events as an extension of Woodbridge Pub. Starting May 16, the event schedule will become more regular with a Friday night music series featuring local artists. Linardakis said he’s also talking with neighbors to gauge interest in live outdoor jazz every Sunday.
Woodbridge Pub reopened in 2021 after closing due to COVID-19, Linardakis said, and since then, business has been great. The pub is open seven days a week from 4 p.m. to midnight, or a little later depending on the event schedule packed with live jazz, DJs and karaoke nights.
“I’m really proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish in the last three, three-and-a half years,” Linardakis said.
Garrett Burton, president of the Woodbridge Citizens’ Council block club, said Toum and Tzatziki will be a great addition to the neighborhood.
“It makes it a more livable, vibrant neighborhood. In large part because we don’t have very many takeaway options, late night options, or Mediterranean options,” Burton said. “He’s checking all those boxes in a way that I think residents are really excited about.”
Down the street, Woodbridge is expected to get another new restaurant. James Oliver Coffee Co. has signed a lease with Woodbridge landlord, Larry John, for a corner unit at W. Forest and Trumbull, but construction has been delayed with the city, according to John.
Linardakis said he wants people in the community to “taste our food.”
“I’m just so proud of the food I grew up with. My business partner is really similar,” he said. “It’s going to be great, authentic Lebanese-Greek food like something we ate back home.”
Editor’s note: This article has been updated since publication to correct the name of current Woodbridge Pub co-owner Yianni Linardakis. He was misidentified in an early version.