The coronavirus has claimed another victim in Michigan’s Great Southwest. This time in the form of a small business enterprise that has found the current shutdown to be insurmountable in the long run, folding operations before mounting debts become insurmountable as well. Downtown Baroda’s Red Brick Cafe has just faded into history.
It was just over a year ago that I first told you the story of the colorful building in the heart of downtown Baroda with a storied past, whose present at that time was rapidly garnering attention as a truly hidden treasure. The building began its interesting journey way back at the turn of the century when it was built to house a bank. In fact, the bank vault is still in existence today. Later it became a meat locker and butcher shop for the community of Baroda. For a very brief time it was a photography studio, and then became a church. Until the mandated stay home order that closed restaurants and cafes to any on premise service, it had been the dynamic little diner and performance house known as The Red Brick Cafe.
It was a bit of a journey once taking on the Red Brick moniker. Owners and operators Larry and Joan Litke launched renovation at the cafe in the summer of 2015, but did all of the work themselves, so while it was a labor of love, it was also a time-consuming process.
In the beginning it was all about the music. They love music and wanted to bring live performances to the Village of Baroda. They even hosted an Open Mic Night every Thursday evening with dinner starting at 5:00 pm and enjoyable music starting at 7:00.
Today however, Joan took to Facebook to tell the sad news of the end of the journey:
With great sadness in my heart, Larry and I went down this morning and told our landlord we are folding the Red Brick Cafe. There is no way we could bounce back from this pandemic we are in. Thank you to all who supported us we love you all.
The Red Brick’s origin was as a coffee shop, opening in the summer of 2016, a year after renovations were begun, but it was still very much a hot house for the live music scene, with live entertainment every Saturday night from 6-10pm.
Driven by the desire to have a relaxed atmosphere and that small-town feeling, the Litkes opened a full scale kitchen in the spring of 2018, to reviews that were overwhelmingly positive for the Red Brick Cafe’s specialty of home-style cooking for breakfast and lunch every day.
Sharing the history of the building with not only residents of the region, but the tourist community as well, the Red Brick Cafe had become that truly hidden treasure they’d been referred to as. The uniqueness of the cafe was readily evident. As Joan said last year, “Walk in our doors and step into the past!”
Now, the Red Brick Cafe in the heart of Baroda at 8952 First Street in the village joins the storied past of that iconic building, and the Litkes step away with heavy hearts, their delightful cafe taken from us by the ongoing health crisis ranging across the globe.
