32 | MARCH 17 • 2022 

A

fter 50 years behind the 
counter of Detroit staple 
Hygrade Deli, Stuart Litt is 
retiring. 
Litt announced the sale of the 
business and building last March, 
and the deli’s sale was completed in 
December.
The deli originally opened in 1955. 
Litt’s father, Bernie, bought the business 
in 1972. It’s known for its corned 
beef sandwiches, soups, chili and the 
deli’s signature sandwich, the Hygrade 
Reuben.
The Hygrade Reuben, named one of 
five “Great Corned Beef Sandwiches” by 
the Detroit Free Press, features sauerkraut, 
melted Swiss cheese and a sweet 

Thousand Island dressing on rye. In 
January 2021, Food and Wine magazine 
named Hygrade Deli’s Reuben to its best 
sandwich in every state list.
Litt is passing the torch to Chuck 
Nolen, owner for 17 years of Cutter’s 
Bar and Grill, in the Eastern Market 
area. Litt plans to stay on through 
March to help with the transition.
Customers can expect the same from 
the new owner, Litt said, and his staff 
will stay on.
Litt says the last 50 years have been a 
blessing and quite a rollercoaster ride. 
“When my dad bought it, the area 
was thriving with business and people. 
Then Detroit started to die out in the 
1980s and it hurt them bad,” Litt said. 

“It was a major struggle for me, lots of 
sacrifices were made by me, my family 
and employees.” 
When Dan Gilbert started buying 
up property Downtown right after the 
2008-2009 recession, people started 
moving back in and Detroit slowly 
started coming back, which led to a 
resurgence for the deli.
“We started to get some of that 
action,” Litt said. “Social media also 
helped out tremendously. We started 
getting foodie reviews and newspaper 
articles and started getting movies and 
TV shows shot at the store.” 
The deli had scenes in the short-lived 
ABC series Detroit 1-8-7, in the 2010 
movie Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice 
and in the 2016 movie The Pickle Recipe.
“All this publicity, plus Detroit 
regenerating itself, helped to regenerate 
the deli to where business over the last 
four or five years has just started to 
trend upward. Last year, we had one 
of our best years ever,” Litt said. “As 
we got more well known, we had a lot 
of dignitaries and well-known sports 
personalities come through the store. 
Those are the things I really enjoyed, 
and I’ll really miss.” 
Most of all, though, Litt will miss the 
customers. 
“It’s the daily interaction. Being a 
place like ours, we have regulars that 
come in every day or every other day, 
and there’s a lot of schtick that goes on 
at the store. The schtick is all generated 
by me, and we call it entertainment,” 
he said. “After all these years, the 
customers kind of expect it when they 
come in for me to greet them the way I 
do. I’m going to miss that.”
In February, the deli celebrated Litt’s 
retirement and introduced Nolen as its 
new owner. Mayor Mike Duggan and 
other dignitaries were in attendance.
“What I told everybody in the store 
when I made my speech, and I’m 
including my dad in this, all we ever 
did was come in and show up for work 
every day,” Litt said. “To me, that says 
a lot. All we wanted to do was offer the 
community a good, fair product at a 
reasonable price. We were there every 
day and I think we succeeded for the 50 
years we’ve been down there.” 

Retiring Owner 
Completes Hygrade 
Deli Sale 

Stuart Litt plans to stay on through March 
to help with the transition.

DANNY SCHWARTZ STAFF WRITER

BUSINESS

Detroit Mayor Mike 
Duggan, Stuart Litt and 
his wife, Terri, at Litt’s 
retirement celebration 
event in February.

