WYOMING — The owners of the Garage Bar & Grill are selling the bar to the owners of India Town, a restaurant located adjacent to the bar along South Division Avenue.
India Town owners Manjit and Tony Multani, via Manny’s Bar & Grill LLC, are buying the bar from an affiliated entity of Grand Rapids-based Third Coast Development LLC and told MiBiz they are not planning to change business.
Third Coast Development LLC purchased the bar — then called Drake’s Pub — in 2017, along with Kuzzin’s Lounge on the west side of Grand Rapids. The company bought the bars from the Farah family after its previous operators were sentenced to prison for tax evasion.
The development group converted Kuzzin’s to Local 741 and sold it in 2019. Third Coast renovated Drake’s Pub into Wyoming Garage Bar & Grill in 2018, following a similar style to its Garage Bar in Grand Rapids.
“The conversion was successful,” said Third Coast Development Partner Dave Levitt. “Making it a Garage Bar and bringing that product to that part of town had a significant improvement to sales pre-pandemic.”
The pandemic exposed that because of the size and location of the bar, it is more suited to being owner-operated, Levitt said. Third Coast decided that it could either expand to add more seating or find a buyer that would be more successful operating the facility at its existing size, he said.
The bar features about 85 seats, which made operating under state COVID-19 capacity restrictions difficult, according to Levitt.
3C Restaurants LLC owns the Wyoming Garage Bar with Kevin Farhat and Tony Knight, according to records from the Michigan Liquor Control Commission.
Third Coast plans to continue to operate the original Garage Bar location in Grand Rapids on Ottawa Avenue north of downtown, as well as Graydon’s Crossing on Plainfield Avenue.
“In the long term, I’m still very bullish on the restaurant business in Grand Rapids,” Levitt said. “I think there will be a bit of resettling in the next 8-12 months.”
The sale of the business is not expected to cause changes for current employees at the Garage Bar in Wyoming, Levitt said. The sale also does not affect the Garage Bar in Grand Rapids, where business has been “solid,” even during the pandemic, Levitt said.
“We’re very thankful because like everybody we’ve had our struggles, but we have been very supported by the community,” Levitt said.
Details of the sale were not disclosed.
