Midtown's Yum Village Restaurant Adds Afro-Caribbean Marketplace In Preparation To Reopen Indoor Dining Monday
(CBS DETROIT) - As restaurants in Michigan prepare to reopen their indoor dining February 1st, one Detroit restaurant will look much different inside, and I'm not referring to the limited capacity. Like thousands of restaurants in the state, Yum Village in Detroit's Midtown has seen its struggles during the pandemic.
Owner Godwin Ihentuge says they're getting by on carry outs, but business is still down 30%. He's happy starting Monday indoor dining can resume, but says in his small space 25 percent capacity is not truly beneficial, so he's switching things up.
"We're converting ourselves to Yum Village Market Pantry where you can still get your food from us but also get our clothing like Eat Jollof Rice"
Ihentuge says with thousands of small businesses forced to shut their doors, especially black owned, he needed to find a way to reinvent himself just to survive. His new marketplace will offer something unique for the city.
"Featuring our Afro-Caribbean spices as well as our cookbooks, when we're finished we're gonna have a demo station in here where we'll have a chef doing cooking demonstrations while people are shopping amongst their goods."
Although he's excited to reopen and began this new journey, Ihentuge does have concerns about the new COVID variant, so his establishment will take extra precautions to keep everyone safe.
Ihentuge says, "Variant aside we'll be here February 1st serving that good, good Afro-Caribbean food"
The first cooking demonstration takes place on February 11th.
For more information visit their website at http://www.yumvillage.com
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