In Royal Oak This Year, the New Restaurants Moved Into Rooms the City Already Knew

The restaurant sits at 27400 Woodward Ave. At one time its façade read "Early American Restaurant," and inside, customers slid trays along a cafeteria line toward hand-carved roast beef. Sign of the Beefcarver opened on Woodward in 1957, never moved and never changed how it served people, according to The Detroit News. It served its last plate on Sunday, Oct. 25.

The chain once had 12 locations around Metro Detroit. The Royal Oak restaurant was the first of them and the last one left. Once the family announced the closing, WDIV reported that the line wrapped around the building and hundreds of people were waiting by noon. According to C&G Newspapers, the restaurant kept its 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. hours but closed early on several of its last days because it ran out of food.

The Beefcarver closing fits a pattern that has run through Royal Oak dining news all year. When a restaurant has closed, the reasons given were costs, leases, aging buildings and customer traffic that never fully came back. When a new restaurant has opened, it has taken over a room that already served food. That makes the Woodward building, with no plan for what comes next, the one large dining room in town whose future is open.

A Woodward Landmark Closed Over Costs and Thinner Crowds

Most of the family's explanation was about money. In its closing announcement, quoted by The Detroit News, the business said it had struggled since the pandemic and more so over the past year as the price of roast beef climbed. "Between the excessive food costs and the added burdens of onerous government policies, we can no longer absorb the excessive costs of operating," the post read.

Third-generation owner Joe Joliat told C&G that rising taxes, utilities, insurance and maintenance costs added to the strain, and that the restaurant had always tried to serve a good meal at a low price. "People have said that we should raise our prices or change our menu items, but it would have been too many changes," he said. "Had we done that, it's no longer the Beefcarver." Speaking to WXYZ, he said the restaurant had not drawn the crowds it saw before 2020. His father, CEO Jay Joliat, said the decision had been years in the making.

What happens next at 27400 Woodward is unusually clear for a closed restaurant, though it settles little. Joliat told C&G the family owns the building, will not sell it and has no current plan for it. That makes it different from the downtown spaces covered below, which changed hands between concepts within months.

There are a few last ways to take home a piece of the place:

• A "garage sale" of antiques, décor, fixtures and furniture, to be held on a day after the closing, ABC12 reported. The date will be announced on the restaurant's Facebook page.
• Merchandise, with all sales going to employees. The family has said it plans an online store.
• A GoFundMe started by employee Amber McKenzie, with the money going to her co-workers. Some of them worked at the restaurant for more than 50 years.

As of this writing, the garage sale had no date.

Downtown, the Openings Took Over Rooms That Already Served Food

Downtown, each opening reported this year went into a space with a restaurant history. Here is how that looks address by address.

Bijou opened in the Iron Horse space with chicken roulade, lamb lollipops, a wagyu flat iron steak, and starters like a cheese board, burrata and stuffed mushroom caps, The Detroit News reported in August. Crain's Detroit Business reported in July that For the Wise was open in the former Inn Place Bar & Grill on Main Street.

One Corner at 11 Mile and Main Has Changed Concepts Repeatedly

No address in town shows the turnover better than 100 S. Main. Restaurateur Adam Merkel opened Bella Limone there in August 2025, according to WhatNow Detroit. Merkel has also run a steakhouse and a rooftop spot called Pinky's at the same address.

Within a year, Bella Limone became the starting point for three separate concepts:

1. Little Bella's Pizza and Wine Bar opened in March in the lower level.
2. Bella Rose Italian opened on the main floor in August, after the rooftop Bella Limone closed. Its menus were developed with Cameron Mitchell Restaurants, which runs Big Rock Italian Chophouse in Birmingham, where Merkel is also a partner. The menu includes garlic bread, Sicilian saganaki, house-made pasta, steak frites, chicken limoncello and Chilean sea bass.
3. White Lotus, a planned sushi restaurant, had no announced opening date as of August.

Merkel explained the August change in a statement quoted by The Detroit News. "Bella Limone gave us the opportunity to learn what our guests really connected with," he said, adding that moving downstairs let the team "completely rethink the restaurant and create something that feels lighter, more energetic and more approachable." Beverage director Sean May, formerly of Adachi, runs the cocktails at both Bellas.

The corner has kept its neighbors through all of this. WhatNow placed the building next to Leo's Coney Island, with Royal Oak Marsala next door and The Great Dane Pub close by.

The Closures Took Out Formats Along With Restaurants

The closures did more than remove a few addresses. In some cases a whole way of eating out went with them.

Royal Oak had two self-pour taphouses, and both are gone. North End Taproom closed Aug. 30, after Elephant & Co. had already closed. When the Beefcarver closed, the cafeteria line that had run at 27400 Woodward since 1957 went with it.

Edo Ramen on 13 Mile Road closed in September, just short of its 10th anniversary, Patch reported. Metro Times had recently named it Best Noodle Restaurant. It was known for Filipino dishes like pancit and lumpia, and it hosted art shows and live music. The restaurant's farewell post pointed to an upcoming lease with an unknown rent, a building that needed an overhaul, and a business that "has been tougher in the last year."

The two closures with the longest explanations, the Beefcarver and Edo Ramen, both had loyal followings when they shut. The Beefcarver's final week drew more diners than it could feed, although its owners said everyday traffic had not matched pre-2020 levels. Edo Ramen closed shortly after winning a best-of award. The other reasons the owners gave were roast beef prices, insurance, lease terms and the cost of keeping old buildings running.

Where the Map Stands Now

Downtown Royal Oak heading into the holidays looks like this. There is a steakhouse on 4th Street in a room that held Iron Horse for more than a decade. There is seafood on Main next to Crispelli's. And there are two Italian concepts at 11 Mile and Main, with a sushi restaurant still to come in the same building. Up Woodward, the Joliat family is holding on to a 1957 building with no tenant and no plan, and the date for its garage sale will be posted on the Beefcarver's Facebook page.

The Madelon Collective keeps track of openings, closings and changes at Royal Oak addresses like these all year. Ask us what's changing on your block, and when you're ready, Start Your Home Search with us.