Wednesday, March 21, 2007

A Glimpse of The Whitney
















Photos by: Donna Terek of The Detroit News

Friday, March 16, 2007

The Whitney is looking better than ever...

We hope you’ll notice the initial changes to The Whitney. For the first time in years you can see us from Woodward. We’ve removed about 20 years of overgrowth. More improvements will be coming. Inside we’ve cleaned and scrubbed, we’re doing some painting, we’ve removed some of the excess furniture, created a new menu, are bringing in some fun and interesting new wines, have a newly energized staff, etc. We’re ready to welcome you back. Come see how we’ve changed! We reopen March 22.

Thursday, March 1, 2007

Welcome to The Whitney Blog

Strange thing, huh? A blog from a 113 year old building in Midtown Detroit. Well, we said we wanted to change some things at The Whitney and this is only the first. We hope you’ll drop by often and give us your thoughts.

“Us” is me, Bud Liebler, who just purchased The Whitney effective February 22; my son, Patrick, who is my partner in this endeavor; my wife, Nancy, who will be our interior decorator, menu conscience and collaborator-in-chief; and Tim and Lisa Wilkins, owners of The Historic White Horse Inn in Metamora (MI.) and the only real professional restaurateurs on our start-up team. There are others, too, but they’ll be introduced later.

As a lifelong PR/marketing guy who knows nada about the restaurant business, you might ask “Why?” Well, I have, too. Especially the other day as I was working up a combination migraine and debilitating writers’ cramp signing checks galore to finalize this purchase and start this new venture. The answer is, “Why not?” I am a Detroitophile. I love the city and am excited about the growth and changes I see springing up all around town. I also love The Whitney and am excited about the things I think we can do to build on what it has been for the past twenty years and take off from there.

We’re not short of ideas, everything from menu changes to landscape changes to interior décor and uniform changes. New entertainment, new attitudes, new excitement and new energy. The restaurant is closed for a couple of weeks ‘til we get our opening act together, hopefully no later than mid-March. Then we’ll throw open the doors, fire up the ovens, tune the piano, and jumpstart The Whitney back into life. We’re enormously enthusiastic about what can be. We’ll try to keep you up to date with our plans, and with the day-to-day happenings. We welcome your comments about what we’re doing right, what we’re doing wrong and, most importantly, what we can do to make the place even better and more appealing to you.

Welcome to The “new” Whitney!