After several years running the bar and working as a bartender at Downtown Louie’s Lounge, Petra Anthony now has a place to call her own.
Anthony has opened the neighborhood cocktail establishment Destination1905 Bar in Detroit's West Village neighborhood.
For managing partner Anthony, a Slovak immigrant that moved to Michigan more than a decade ago, the bar is a chance to tell a story as much as it is a place to serve drinks.
"The year 1905 is when a wave of immigrants began to move to West Village. And now I’m one of them, more than a hundred years later," Anthony says. "I’ve always wanted a destination bar."
With an international flair, Destination1905 will feature monthly rotating cocktails from different corners of the world. Cocktails, beers, and wines are complemented by charcuterie boards and bar snacks. Anthony plans on hosting live music on the weekends.
Destination1905 is part of the Kercheval 3 development, three historic duplexes that have been redeveloped as a mixed-use complex. Residential units remain upstairs while businesses occupy the ground floors. A large deck connects the three buildings together.
Hers is the first to open, with Anthony saying that a massage parlor is planned for another unit while the third occupant has yet to be determined.
Given the nature of the building, Destination1905 is a quaint and cozy space. The former three-bedroom duplex unit has a 49-person capacity, with that number nearly doubling in warmer weather. A 40-person patio opens as the seasons allow.
Located within the residential neighborhood, the bar will keep limited hours, opening from 5 p.m. to midnight, Wednesdays through Saturdays. Anthony says that those hours may change as the business grows.
"You will see me there all the time, because it’s like my second child," she says.
Destination1905 Bar is located at 8130 Kercheval Ave. in the West Village neighborhood.
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