We thought we had seen the last of Norma G’s when owner Lester Gouvia announced the Detroit restaurant’s closure at the end of August. But Gouvia has begun hosting pop-ups at the shuttered Eastside diner after stepping away from operating it full-time.
On Thursday, Oct. 12, the chef opened the restaurant for takeout only (including to-go cocktails) for dinner. On Friday, Oct. 13, Norma G’s will be open for dine-in from 5-9 p.m. with a limited menu on a first-come, first-served basis.
“I’m not dead yet,” Gouvia tells Metro Times over the phone. “My community, the people that have been regulars for me, have been asking for a pop-up. I miss cooking food and I miss some of the people. I was very sad with how I had to close.”
The chef announced he was closing the upscale Caribbean restaurant on social media without giving a reason, saying, “This decision was not easy, but it will be best for future plans.” He declined to provide specific details about the restaurant’s closing but cited COVID-19 and the location as challenges.
“I was in business for five years and three and a half years were during COVID. I’m not just blaming COVID, but there are a lot of reasons beyond what people understand and I’m not at a point where I can discuss all those issues,” he says. “I’m not on the west side or downtown. They are thriving on that side of town because of the infrastructure and anchors around them but it’s a challenge when you feel like you’re on the outskirts. My Grosse Pointe community was critical for my survival. People don’t wanna hear that, but it’s true.”
So the restaurant is closed, but kinda not, but definitely not operating with consistent hours. Gouvia tells Metro Times, he’s trying to work some things out and can’t say for certain how often he’ll do the pop-ups. Instead, his message for customers is, “keep an eye on our Facebook page.”
“I don’t wanna be done. I don’t feel like I’ve done everything that I could,” he says. “If I’m still around in a few weeks or a month, if I have time, I’ll do another pop-up here and there. I’m dealing with a lot of nonsense right now and I’m just trying to keep myself busy.”
The chef is also hosting a“Modern Carribbean” dinner at Frame in Hazel Park on Oct. 27. The menu includes dahl soup, Trinidadian Buljol codfish crostini, jerk chicken, and coo coo — a Caribbean polenta with okra.
“I’m nervous but I’m excited,” the chef says about his first dinner at Frame. “I’m trying to rethink how I do things differently and how I do them better. I’ve got a good following so if it goes well and I’m still around, I’d love to do more.”
While the closing of Norma G’s felt abrupt to many, Gouvia says he had been wrestling with it for a long time. He says he felt blindsided by certain local media outlets, however, when the news was published before he could make a formal announcement. Initially, he only told some of his regular customers, who posted about it on social media.
“That bothered me that the Free Press put out the story from a post that somebody else made without even talking to me. I thought that was pretty rude and insulting,” he says. “It was a little unnerving to me and unfair… I’m sure my regulars weren’t sure how that information would be used when they posted that.”
Gouvia opened Norma G's on Jefferson Avenue in 2018 after running it as a pop-up and food truck for several years. He says it’s “up in the air” whether he’ll go back to the food truck.
“It’s hard for me to give a definitive answer even to myself,” he says. “Being back in the saddle this week was kinda fun. I always get nervous, but you know you just hope for the best.”
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