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Detroit Restaurant Owner Hopes Carry-Outs Will Carry Business Over

(CBS DETROIT) – Le Culture Café went from a three month waiting list for the dine in experience to being shut down for nine months and two weeks after re-opening the owner was forced to close the doors for a second time.

Drew Matthews rolled the dice on a new location for his restaurant.

The buzz about Le Culture's up-scale comfort food drew such a large customer base that he outgrew his original spot and invested in a new one, three times bigger, not knowing the price of betting on his dream would be so high.

"Right after getting this space and getting ready to move into this new location, COVID hit us. So, it was really hard for us because you know a lot of our resources were put into getting a new location," said Drew Matthews, Le Culture Café owner/head chef.

Matthews closed his reservation book back in March, when Gov. Gretchen Whitmer issued the first stay-home order.

"Like I say it's a little frustrating but I'm 100 percent supportive of her decision," he said.

The kitchen kept running through loyal customers and carry-outs.

Although the governor lifted the order back in June --- Le Culture's new dining room wasn't ready until November.

Despite the successful grand-opening, Matthews only enjoyed two weeks of business before getting shutdown again.

"You can't cry about it. You know you can't do anything. All you can do is you know like I say, stay prayed up, and you know keep trying to provide a decent service to help us get through with our carry-out and curbside and door dash and you know that type of stuff until things open back up," he said.

Le Culture Café is open weekends only through Michigan's three-week pause.

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