Detroit, MI
Some of Metro Detroit’s oldest restaurants share secrets to longevity
What’s the secret to lasting love between a restaurant and its customers?
To find out, I asked four restaurant owners whose businesses have been with them or their families for 50 years or more.
“Don’t cut corners” and “be consistent” are the phrases I heard repeated most often.
There’s also the advantage that long-lasting restaurants have over new ones. As years go by, more customers have special moments — first dates, engagements, baby’s first chicken parm — and that makes the restaurant part of their life story.
“You have to have perseverance, but most important is you have to be a romanticist,” said Rina Tonon. She opened Cafe Cortina 50 years ago this year — the anniversary is in December — with her husband, Adriano Tonon. The secluded Italian restaurant in Farmington Hills is one of our area’s most romantic destinations.
Tonon, who grew up at her Italian-born parents’ restaurant, said to keep a place going for this many decades requires “genuine warmth.”
“Genuine hospitality, warmth and love of people, love of food,” she said. It can’t just be the owners, either, the staff has to have a similar passion. “It’s not an easy business.”
Along with having a staff that treats customers as well as the owners would directly, it helps to have family as part of that staff. Many of the restaurants in the area that have lasted since the 1960s and ’70s could not have continued without the next generation stepping up.
That’s what happened at Troy’s Mon Jin Lau. A destination for Chinese cuisine, sushi, cocktails and its Lunar New Year party each winter, the Troy restaurant was founded in 1969 by Jin and Mon Chin. Their son Marshall Chin took it over years later, and today it is run by his sons Bryan and Brandon Chin.
Bryan Chin says, “Consistency is everything.”
“From the quality of our ingredients to the care we put into every dish, our guests know they can count on the same exceptional experience every time they walk through our doors,” he said. “By never cutting corners and always putting our guests first, we’ve built lasting relationships and earned the trust of our guests for so many years.”
Farther up north in Oakland County, Gino’s Pizzeria and Restaurant also opened in 1969. It’s more casual than Cafe Cortina or Mon Jin Lau, but they’re similar in they’ve been in the same family for decades and they offer space for special events.
Owner Gino Santia knows about the hardships of having a restaurant for so long. The family-style Italian restaurant has persevered through recessions, road construction and even a 2022 fire.
“We went through the hard times like everybody else does, but we endured,” said Santia. His sister and her husband started the business in 1969, naming it after Gino while he was in the service. When he returned home, he ran it with his family, and today his son is on board.
Santia says being part of a tight-knit family and community is one of the things that’s abled Gino’s to continue for so long.
“As far as our lounge goes, we’re very friendly. My son’s got a great personality, and we try to treat everybody kindly. And we try to be fair with our prices. Fair to the customers and fair for us.”
Service and personality will go a long way with customers, but the food must be a home run, too.
“The most common thing I’ve heard from so many people is: I’ve never had a bad meal,” said Nick Piunti, whose family has owned Sibley Gardens in Trenton since the 1930s. “In the rare occurrence that someone does have a bad meal — or more importantly, thinks they’ve had a bad meal — we’ll make it right.”
“I also think having some signature dishes that you can’t get anywhere else, like our steak sammy, for example,” he said. It’s sliced tenderloin from Fairway Packing that’s been sauteed in wine, garlic and beef stock. “Everyone has chicken parm or their version of chicken piccata, but our steak sammy is kind of a unique dish. It’s tough that our signature dish is one of our most expensive to make but people still order it.”
Piunti also echoed what other owners told me about the importance of an invested staff.
“It’s not just myself, or my dad or the managers doing it. It’s everybody that works here that has a lot of pride in what they’re doing. They stay here long, we have a very low turnover, and I think that’s rare for the restaurant industry,” he said, adding that his 93-year-old dad still comes into Sibley Gardens most mornings.
“It’s a real team, a real family feeling.”
Melody Baetens is The Detroit News restaurant critic
mbaetens@detroitnews.com
Where to find the restaurants in this article
Cafe Cortina, 30715 W. 10 Mile, Farmington Hills. (248) 474-3033. cafecortina.com.
Gino’s Pizzeria and Restaurant, 1999 Cass Lake, Keego Harbor. (248) 682-6540. ginospizzakeego.com.
Mon Jin Lau, 1515 E. Maple, Troy. (248) 689-2332.
Sibley Gardens, 916 W. Jefferson, Trenton. (734) 285-1707. sibleygardens.com.
Detroit, MI
Bruce Campbell announces cancer diagnosis; ‘Fear not,’ he tells fans
Treatment will delay the Royal Oak-born actor’s plans to tour his new film ‘Ernie & Emma’ this summer.
Royal Oak-born movie star and cult hero Bruce Campbell announced on social media on Monday that he has been diagnosed cancer — a type that is “treatable” but not “curable,” he said.
“I apologize if that’s a shock — it was to me too,” the “Evil Dead” star, 67, wrote in a message posted to Instagram.
He went on to say “I’m not gonna go into any more detail,” and he didn’t. He said the public announcement had to do with scaling back appearances on his schedule, including tour dates behind his latest film, “Ernie & Emma.”
Campbell planned to show the movie June 5 at the Redford Theatre; as of Monday night, that date is still on the Redford schedule, but Campbell wrote in his note he plans to get “as well as I possibly can over the summer so that I can tour with my new movie ‘Ernie & Emma’ this fall.”
The movie is written, directed by and stars Campbell as a man who goes on a journey following the death of his wife. Campbell produced the movie alongside his wife, Ida Gearon, and filmed it in Oregon, where he now lives.
Campbell told The News in January he dedicated “Ernie & Emma” to his childhood moviemaking pals, including Scott Spiegel, who died of a heart attack in September 2025.
“It’s a callback to the carefree days of Super 8, where we could do whatever the f–k we wanted to do,” Campbell said of “Ernie & Emma.” “So I thought, ‘All the boys are responsible for this,’ so they’re all in there.”
Campbell got his start making movies around Metro Detroit with his childhood pal, Sam Raimi. Campbell starred in Raimi’s “Evil Dead” trilogy and has since appeared in most of Raimi’s films; Campbell makes a brief appearance in a photograph in the background of an early scene in Raimi’s latest, “Send Help.”
He’s also an author; Campbell’s autobiography “If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B Movie Actor” was published in 2001.
In his post on social media, Campbell thanked fans and said he was not out to elicit sympathy.
“Fear not, I am a tough old son-of-a-bitch and I have great support, so I expect to be around for a while,” he wrote.
agraham@detroitnews.com
Detroit, MI
Michigan State Police sends message to drivers after trooper involved in hit and run:
“Slow down and move over” is the message that Michigan State Police is sending to drivers after one of its troopers in a parked patrol car was struck while investigating a crash this weekend. The driver of that vehicle fled the scene.
Michigan State Police tells CBS News Detroit that we’re two months into the year, and it has had six incidents across the state where patrol cars were struck by oncoming vehicles. One of those incidents occurred on Sunday evening.
“Could have been much more tragic,” said MSP Lieutenant Rene Gonzalez, First District public information officer.
Gonzalez says on Sunday, an MSP trooper was near M-10 and Schaefer Highway in Detroit, simply doing his job, when his patrol car was hit from behind.
“Trooper was out there, and he was investigating a crash when, at the time, a Jeep SUV drove into the rear of the parked vehicle,” Gonzalez said.
The impact slid the trooper’s car into a concrete wall. The 29-year-old Detroit woman driving the Jeep SUV struck the center median, got out of the vehicle, and ran away.
“Not sure why they did it. Maybe not paying attention if they were distracted. They’re attempting to locate her at this time,” said Lt. Gonzalez.
The trooper walked away with minor injuries. Gonzalez says this incident is an example of why Michigan’s Move Over Law was put in place many years ago. The law, which went into effect in 2019, requires drivers to move over into the next lane and reduce their speed by at least 10 mph when emergency or service vehicles — police, fire, rescue, ambulance and road service — have their lights activated.
Drivers who are not able to move over are still required to reduce their speed.
“Trying to do our jobs, however, people are not paying attention. The law is easy. It’s simple. You see us, you see our lights activated, you have to slow down ten miles below the posted speed limit, and then if able, move over to the next occupied available lane,” Gonzalez said.
Gonzalez says crashes like this can be deadly and often avoided.
“One life lost over something that was a totally preventable crash, it’s way too much. We’re asking that you slow down and move over when you see our lights. It’s a simple message that we’ve been pushing out for years,” he said.
Sunday’s crash remains under investigation. Michigan State Police detectives are still working to track down the 29-year-old suspect.
In the meantime, police are out enforcing the Move Over Law.
Detroit, MI
Rex Satterfield’s 1956 Bel Air takes 2026 Ridler Award in Detroit
The impact and history of autos in Detroit, The Motor City
Here are some facts about Detroit’s auto industry.
Rex Satterfield hoped to see his 1956 Chevrolet Bel Air convertible snag one of the BASF Great 8 finalist spots at this year’s Detroit Autorama. But winning the Ridler Award — one of the highest honors in the custom car business — was something he didn’t foresee.
“It’s just overwhelming right now,” said the man from Russellville, Tennessee, as he left a ballroom at downtown’s Huntington Place and made his way back to the show floor on Sunday, March 1. “We weren’t expecting this.”
Getting a car recognized as one of the BASF Great 8 vehicles is a win in and of itself as they are considered the “absolute pinnacle of custom automotive craftsmanship worldwide,” according to the show. The cars undergo an intensive judging process.
And this effort had an unexpected and emotional complication with the passing in December 2024 of the original builder, Jeff Wolfenbarger, who was battling cancer even as he continued working on the car named “Elegant Lady.”
Kevin Riffey of Kevin Riffey’s Hot Rods and Restorations in Knoxville stepped in to finish the work Wolfenbarger started. He’d had two other cars in the past make the Great 8. He said the goal with this vehicle was straightforward, calling it a “purpose-built show car.”
From its prominent spot at the front of the show floor, “Elegant Lady” sported a creamy exterior, dubbed Light Coffee. The car carries a 1,000 horsepower Don Hardy race engine. The gauges, wheels and gas tank are custom, and the dash is from a 1956 Pontiac.
Satterfield plans to show the car around some and enjoy the moment with it. He said he’s been a car guy since he was a little kid.
The Ridler Award, named in honor of Detroit Autorama’s first publicist, Don Ridler, comes with a $10,000 prize. It was awarded on the final day of this year’s Detroit Autorama, which ran Friday, Feb. 27-Sunday, March 1. This was the event’s 73rd year.
Eric D. Lawrence is the senior car culture reporter at the Detroit Free Press. Send your tips and suggestions about cool automotive stuff to elawrence@freepress.com. Become a subscriber. Submit a letter to the editor at freep.com/letters.
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