Empty Linden Road restaurant to become buffet style sushi, seafood and Japanese steakhouse; Leo's Coney Island also coming to Flint Township
by Melissa Burden | The Flint Journal
Tuesday July 21, 2009, 9:53 AM
Alex Slitz | The Flint JournalThe former Mr. Brown's Backyard Bar & Grill in Flint Township could become a buffet style Japanese steakhouse also serving sushi and seafood this fall.
FLINT TOWNSHIP, Michigan -- A restaurant that has been vacant for more than a year and a half could be serving sushi, seafood and steak by the fall.
Detroit area restaurateur Zhi Bin "Ricky" Dong of D & W Properties LLC bought the former foreclosed Mr. Brown's Backyard Bar & Grill, 3022 S. Linden Road, from Chemical Bank on June 30, according to the listing real estate agent and Genesee County Register of Deeds.
"He's talked about a nice sushi restaurant," said Win Cooper, broker/owner of Cooper Commercial Group in Flint Township.
Dong, who along with his family owns and operates 11 Michigan restaurants such as Fuji Japanese Buffet in Madison Heights and Samurai Steak House in West Bloomfield, said he plans to add a 40-foot long round sushi bar that people will see as they walk in.
"It's a new style," he said.
Dong said the restaurant, which he hopes to open in November, will combine a buffet style with fine dining into a Japanese steakhouse, also serving sushi and seafood.
Dong said he found the property about three to four months ago and believes he can do well in the Flint market.
"Flint, they need a fine restaurant," he said.
It may have some competition with nearby Sagano Japanese Bistro and Steakhouse just north on Linden Road. The Flint area got its first taste of a Japanese restaurant and sushi when Sagano opened in 2003.
Mr. Brown's opened in fall 2003 and closed Jan. 1, 2008. Before that, the space housed a Golden Corral.
The Mr. Brown's 8,700-square-foot property initially was listed at $1.5 million and was later relisted for $900,000. Cooper wouldn't disclose the sales price, but said it sold close to the $900,000 listing price.
The township's economic enhancement director is excited that the Mr. Brown's space is going to be rehabbed.
"Anytime someone comes in and is going to fill up an empty building, it's good for the township," Tracey Tucker said.
Another empty restaurant space, the former Moe's Southwest Grill at 4151 Miller Road, also is becoming a Leo's Coney Island, Tucker said.
That space has been empty since the Tex-Mex restaurant closed in mid 2007.
Leo's Coney Island, an expanding metro Detroit chain, has a Genesee County location in the Heritage Park development in Grand Blanc Township.
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