As sad as it is to admit it, the glory days of a lot of the iconic automotive institutions of Detroit are either dead or dying. If you’ve ever seen the Clint Eastwood movie “Gran Torino” you realize what has happened to former inner city neighborhoods and stores. For gearheads, Woodward Avenue is a place of honor where heroes raced in the 1960’s, and where nostalgia takes places annually with the Woodward Dream Cruise. The Vinsetta Garage, a staple of automotive history on Woodward Ave, closed it’s doors in 2010, but this time it won’t be to endure a slow and extended death. Instead the garage has literally been given a new lease on life and will become, of all things, a restaurant!

Curt Catallo and his wife Ann Stevenson, who own 2 other restaurants already, have partnered with AutoWeek publisher KC Crain in the endeavor and are now in process of turning the building into a restaurant without ruining the architecture and automotive history inside of it.

They put a new roof on the building, repaved the parking lot, removed all of the garage equipment, and steam cleaned it prior to the Woodward Dream Cruise to prepare it for a kickoff party. Plans are underway to open the doors on the restaurant next spring. The menu will be a mix of “great, big comfort food.” Sounds perfect to us!