Detroit Shoreway home, garden and pet owners likely are familiar with Grace Brothers Nursery (1907 W. 65th St., 216-513-3262), a wonderful shop loaded with essential home and garden products. Since it opened four years ago, the shop has been managed by Kevin Kubovcik, the resident expert on all things urban farming.
In April, Kubovcik will partner with Alan Glazen to open a similar style operation in the heart of Tremont. Tremont Farm & Market will be located in a sunny storefront at the corner of Professor and Jefferson, a building owned by Glazen. The location features a 1,600-square-foor main floor plus a large yard for a nursery.
“I’m very excited about it,” says Kubovcik. “It’s such a wonderful opportunity.”
When it first opened, Grace Brothers had a few staple products like dog food, chicken feed and plants. In the intervening years, Kubovcik continued to grow the inventory, adding tons of local food products like eggs, milk, cheese, meat and fermented products. Books guide readers through the finer points of urban homesteading. And Grace Brothers has become the number one spot for chicken owners and beekeepers (including this writer).
“I’ll be taking the best of that store and bringing it to Tremont,” Kubovcik says. “Location is everything.”
The spot, across the street from Fahrenheit, will provide easy access to scores of urban gardeners. Kubovcik intends to stay open late on Artwalk nights, with open houses and workshops on urban farm topics like container gardening.
“It’s beautiful on the inside,” he says. “The only thing left to do is fill it.”
The endeavor might sound like a departure for Glazen, who is best known (these days, anyway) as the man behind popular bars and taverns like ABC the Tavern, XYZ Tavern, and Ontario Street Café. But the same efforts and skills he used to set up restaurant owners could be applied in other disciplines as well, he says. He’s calling his new organization Glazen Urban, and Kubovcik and Tremont Farm & Market are its first beneficiaries.
“I came to realize that I don’t really run bars or restaurants, Randy [Kelly] and Linda [Syrek] do,” Glazen explains. “I looked back and saw that what I’ve really done is take properties – nine different properties – and by my investment and getting somebody else we turn those properties into good places in the city. And I’m going to continue doing that.
“This turns really deserving business people, who were never going to get anywhere equity-wise, now to own their own business without penalizing them for not having the money.”
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