from Belle Isle on the East side, to the West Riverfront on the West Side. I define this as the original Detroit border (before it expanded to eight mile), which is Grand Blvd. We wanted to be in the general Downtown vicinity. So we really liked the emptiness and creativity of the area, but we didn’t want to be too far out into the city.
The only active buildings in that direction were the Recycling Center, which is run by some of the most creative free thinkers in the city, and some lofts that were full of artists and creative minded people, some of which we had already been friends with. To the West of us is all commercial over to the Recycling Center and The Lodge Freeway. The residential neighborhood directly to the West had been deteriorated by decades of disinvestment to a point where it is still not very densely populated. But it was definitely a cool spot in an interesting part of town- Northwest Goldberg. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but I was not part of the gay leather scene in Detroit. Sundays were the one night of the week where The Eagle was not a gay leather bar.
At that time I was unaware of the caliber of DJs we were seeing. RB: Yes, I had been to the Sunday nights at the Eagle more than a few times. Did your background in Urban Planning play a role in choosing your spot in New Center? Did you hang out there when it was the Eagle? If so, they had some great DJs play there like the Macho City Crew (Scott Zacharias, Jeffrey Sfire, Mike Trombley, Ron Morelli) to name a few. It was only a matter of time before the rest of the world noticed that Detroit was a gem.ĭEQ: Your location on Holden, when you opened it, was a bit of a ghost town. The art and music scene in Detroit has always been one of the richest in the country, so opening up a cultural space had always been a goal. I had been living in the city since 2005 when I graduated from college. This was at a point in Detroit where big money developers were not yet flooding into the city.
At this point I was able to put together the investors necessary to make the dream happen. Then, some time around 2012, the price dropped in half. I had looked at the property then, but at that point the price was still a bit beyond our means considering the repairs and renovations that were necessary. RB: Well, at some point after the price of real estate collapsed in 2008, The Eagle had closed and had gone up for sale. Would you tell us how you and your partners met and how Marble Bar came to be? How did you pick the Eagle as the location? He is a strong cultural presence and appreciator of music and art scenes.ĭEQ: First of all, thank you so much for your vision in helping create one of the best, most diverse dance venues in Detroit in Marble Bar.
Raphael Blake is part owner of Marble Bar. (Pictured in main photo: Raphael Blake (center) with Edward Stefanko (co-owner,left) and (booking agent Ted Krisko, right)