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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.”

This article appears in Jul 30 – Aug 5, 2014.

For 25 years, Douglas Trattner has worked as a full-time freelance writer, editor and author. His work as co-author on Michael Symon's cookbooks have earned him four New York Times Best-Selling Author honors, while his longstanding role as Scene dining editor has garnered awards of its own.

7 replies on “Battery Park Wine Bar to Close. CHA Spirits & Pizza Kitchen to Take its Place”

  1. kind of a shame I liked battery park wine bar, but the new place sounds like it could be real nice as well.

  5. I am excited for anything popping up in the Greater Cleveland Area. I also think that there is a void being filled by CHA. There really isn’t a Pizza Spot in the Detroit Shoreway location. Having great food and creating and an upscale casual ambiance is something we all enjoy. Cha will a be destination for those looking for casual mature dinning! Just one more addition to the Battery Park community and the Cleveland-Edgewater coast line.

  6. Just stopped by Cha and honestly I will be surprised if they make it 6 months. Services was meh at bet and after waiting 15 min for fried mozzarella, we asked the bartender (who btw looks like shaggy from scooby doo!) where the food item was and his response was “like there making it…” How about – let me check on that for you (this would have been a much better response). So, the app came, and we tried but again, meh – not great and not bad. So, here’s the best part; the pizza comes and we were pretty excited to try it but just as we take our first bite, the bartender leave out the side door (by our seats) with his buds, leaves the door ajar and they start smoking – ugh. I get that people need a break but when the wine bar was there, it was the central hub of the restaurant and off in some corner so Shaggy the bartender could go and smoke a butt! can’t wait to see this place fail or at the very least bring into the neighbor hood more of Shaggy’s buds and then go under. Either way, wait long enough by the river and eventually trash will float by you…

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