Downtown Restaurant Gets New Lounge, New Front In Advance Of Main St. Prom
‘Earns’ $15,000 While Expanding
Downtown Restaurant Gets New Lounge, New Front In Advance Of Main St. Prom
A local restaurateur “earned” about $5,000 a week by wielding a hammer, saw, and paint brush to net his restaurant an additional cocktail lounge, new main entry-waiting room and new front.
L. G. (Greg) Fenerli, owner of the Rubaiyat, 341 S. Main, has just completed remodeling work which cost more than $25,000.
Fenerli and one tradesman accomplished the work in three weeks and by working 75 hours a week on the project, Fenerli estimated he saved up to $15,000.
The entire fore-part of the restaurant was revised, with all design work and interior decorating done by Fenerli a professional engineer and former contractor.
Here’s what Fenerli got for his efforts.
1) A third cocktail lounge area, adding 40 seats and bringing the capacity of the lounges to 100;
2) A new main entry with vestibule and foyer with increased seating capacity off which there is a 1,000 bottle “wine cellar” and cloakroom;
3) An additional 250 square feet of food preparation area;
4) A new restaurant front of glass inside which is two-way red felt “framed” by anodized gold-color expended screening, an unusual front which Fenerli designed and built. The same kind of “front” forms the backdrop in the new cocktail lounge which is raised one step, and elsewhere.
The new cocktail lounge, which was remade from the former main entry and foyer, is oriented toward a band stand and dance floor.
Fenerli said the project is in line with his plan to “bring to Ann Arbor East Coast and European professional entertainment this fall.”
He added that the restaurant’s new front is to “keep up with the times” and in advance of installation of promenades on Main St. between Huron and William.
“I sincerely hope other downtown area merchants do the same to boost the downtown area,” Fenerli said.
The revised, expanded Rubaiyat now has a main restaurant of 240 seats along with the cocktail lounges of 100 seats. Up to 380 persons can be seated at banquets, Fenerli said.
The Rubaiyat was opened almost five years ago. It employs 45 persons.
Fenerli also announced he is now half-owner of the Inn America Motor Hotel of 3250 Washtenaw. He manages and operates the inn’s restaurant and cocktail lounges.
One of the lounges, which was created from the inn’s registration desk-lounge area, is what Fenerli calls a couch cocktail lounge.
It has settees and couches grouped around an 18-foot-high stone fireplace with copper hood at which there are low cocktail tables. A two-way bandstand has been set up, oriented toward the couch cocktail lounge, which is designed to appear as an old English club, and the main dining room. It can seat 68 persons and has been just completed.
Fenerli said he shares ownership of the local Inn America with Howard and Richard Lazar of Ann Arbor. The inn has rooms and employs 85 persons.
Its restaurant will seat 140 persons. Two cocktail lounges have a capacity of 98 persons. In addition, the inn has three banquet rooms which can seat 330 persons.
Fenerli reports: “In the last six months the response at the inn has been tremendous,” indicating the hostelry is showing constant gains on the balance sheet.
Restaurant’s New Entry
This new foyer was formed from a small banquet room at the Rubaiyat of 341 S. Main and an existing entry area was turned into a third cocktail lounge. The foyer has multiple seating for guests waiting to be seated in the restaurant. Its simulated vaulted ceiling, board and batten paneling, oriental tapestries, art objects from India and wine “cellar” add notes of luxury to the space. The design work was done by the restaurant's owner. He did much of the construction work himself.
Additional Cockled Lounge
The third cocktail lounge, which seats 40 persons, has a backdrop of red felt and gold-color anodized expanded screening. Part walls of field stone and paneling add variation. The space is oriented toward a bandstand and dance floor.