Joinin

A Chaldean and a Jew have bet their fortunes
and long hours on the rebirth of Eight Mile Road.

enaissance

Michael Esshaki and
Glenn Bednarsh
in front of Mel's.

narsh and Mr. Esshaki's 15-year
friendship. Mr. Esshaki, oldest
son of Chaldean immigrants from
Iraq, reveres Mr. Bednarsh as a
brother. The young restaurateurs
met at Farmington Harrison
High School where, at the time,
there were few other Jewish or
Chaldean students.
During the course of their
friendship, Mr. Bednarsh and Mr.
Esshaki have partnered a valet
parking service, a snow plow/
landscaping operation and a re-
cently closed Detroit pizzeria
called Pizzafix.
Looking for another Detroit
business, Mr. Bednarsh and Mr.
Esshaki bought the abandoned
building, a former Flaming Em-
bers restaurant franchise, across
the street from Mel's. They sold
watermelons and fresh flowers

while deciding what to do with
the space.
Arbor Drugs soon offered to
buy that building. The proceeds,
combined with their own savings,
provided enough to buy Mel's lo-
cation and undertake major
structural renovations.
Sharlan Douglas, executive di-
rector of the Eight-Mile Boule-
vard Association, sees Mel's Diner
on the cutting edge of entrepre-
neurs capitalizing on opportuni-
ties to develop business in
re-emerging neighborhoods.
'We can't improve Eight Mile
without businesses like Mel's,"
says Ms. Douglas. "Mel's Diner is
just one success we've seen as part
of a boom that's hit Eight Mile
since 1994 involving more than
750,000 square feet of new devel-
opment between 1-275 and 1-94."

Ms. Douglas says there is ter-
rific potential for developers re-
selling commercial real estate to
chain businesses rediscovering
stable, working-class neighbor-
hoods.
Mel's Diner is a neatly de-
signed, stainless steel, red-and-
white tiled throwback to 1950s-
style restaurants, replete with
nostalgic Coca-Cola napkin hold-
ers and juke boxes in each booth.
Customers wearing a range of
clothing, from professional attire
to motor cycle colors, eat quietly
side by side.
Mr. Esshaki tiled the floor,
resurfaced the exterior in stain-
less steel, installed the booths and
outside flower boxes by hand. It
was the first major construction

JOINING page 66

PHOTOS BY DANIEL LIPPI TT

lenn Bednarsh seems almost as
out of place on the commercial
strip adjoining Southfield and De-
troit as Mel's Diner does.
The sole heir to Antwerp Jew-
elers, a thriving fourth-genera-
tion jewelry business in West
tcvm Bloomfield, Mr. Bednarsh wash-
es dishes, mops floors, busses ta-
bles and pitches in when called
on by his partner, Michael Es-
shaki.
"We love Detroit," says Mr.
Bednarsh. "Everyone complains
there are no opportunities to start
businesses out there. We were
able to start a business here for a
quarter of the costs of opening in
Farmington Hills.
"We think Detroit's on the bor-
derline to explode since Mayor
[Dennis] Archer took office.
Archer wanted to pull people to-
gether from both sides
of Eight Mile and at
least its going though
their minds now."
Although other res-
taurants in the area
serve "breakfast any-
time" food, the caliber of
Mel's menu and atmos-
phere is far more West
Bloomfield than Eight
Mile. Mel's, on the north
side of Eight Mile three
blocks west of Southfield
Road, serves burgers
and eggs to the lunch
crowd as well as vege-
tarian entrees, corned
beef sandwiches, pasta
and other non-coney
fare.
Mr. Bednarsh, 30,
and Mr. Esshaki, 29, are
equal partners in Mel's
and visionaries about
the rebirth of Eight Mile
and Detroit.
The first anniversary
of Mel's is the largest
milestone in Mr. Bed-

ERIC BAUM SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS