Detroit's Woodbridge Pub changes hands, makes plans for renovations

Woodbridge Pub has finally sold after originally being listed on the market in April of 2017.

The popular bar and restaurant just west of Wayne State campus sold early Tuesday morning, Crain's reports. The 1,300 square-foot property on Merrick Street and Trumbull was purchased by partners Yanni Dionisopoulos and Spiro Vamvakas. Both of Woodbridge Pub's new owners bring previous Greektown restaurant experience to the table: Dionisopoulos owns Exodos nightclub and Golden Fleece restaurant in Greektown, while Vamvakas is the owner of Pappy's Bar and Grill on Monroe Avenue.

Jim Geary, who opened the bar and restaurant in 2008, will maintain ownership of the building, but Dionsiopoulos and Vamvakas will absorb the establishment's restaurant equipment as well as its business and liquor license.

The original asking price for the building and a nearby parcel of land was $1.225 million in 2017, but Geary settled for a restaurant buy-out of $215,000 with a monthly lease of $4,000, according to Ryan Cooley of O'Connor Real Estate.

Dionosiopoulos and Vamvakas have plans to renovate the interior early in spring of 2019, which will require the bar and restaurant to close for at least a week. Vamvakas told Crain's that he intends to bring live bands, host trivia nights, and offer new specials to attract people to the neighborhood.

Although Geary opened Woodbridge Pub in 2008, he was never "a restaurant person," he told Crain's last spring. "I just did it because that's what the neighborhood needed."

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