Susan Walters is getting back in the restaurant business. The pioneering restaurant owner and consultant behind such concepts as KeKa and SubStance will take possession of the Battery Park Wine Bar next week. The four-year-old Detroit Shoreway wine bar will close after service this coming Sunday.
Following a one-week closure, the wine bar will reopen on August 12 in an interim state — hosting guest chef events, pop-ups dinners, sneak previews — through Labor Day, at which point it will close for two weeks and reopen as CHA Spirits & Pizza Kitchen.
“It would be a shame to close down during summer, what with the Gay Games and all the fun events at Edgewater Beach,” Walters says.
When it reopens, CHA (Walters’ friends call her Cha-Cha) will feature a fresh new look that best takes advantage of its dramatic lakeside setting. The bar will be moved from the front-right section to the rear of the space, so patrons at the bar can enjoy sunset views. In place of the bar will be a new open kitchen. The retail wine section will remain, says Walters. A new patio and expanded outdoor space is being planned for next spring.
Walters describes CHA as a “really casual, neighborhood place that you can go to a couple times a week with bar snacks, sandwiches, stone oven pizzas, small plates and a really small, ever-changing entree selection.” Craft beer, cocktails and boutique wine list will round out the offerings.
The chef is Michael Marich.
One unique asset of the operation is a liquor license that permits delivery of beer and wine. “I can’t tell you how many times we’ve been sitting around at 11 p.m. and said, Man, I wish somebody would bring us a bottle of wine and a pizza. Well, now we can.”
