For as long as Yvonne Byrd can remember she’s loved Detroit’s music and nightlife scene. In 2008 Byrd took that love and opened Vondie’s On The River (her nickname), a bar known for live entertainment and garlic-flavored chicken wings. It quickly became one of the cornerstones for Detroit nightlife and music in the mid-2000s. Artists like Stretch Money, Marv Won, and Monica Blaire graced its stage and it routinely brought in DJs during the Movement Festival weekend before closing in 2012 when its lease wasn’t renewed.
“It was a learning process but we loved it,” Byrd says. “We loved the hospitality aspect of it, my son was really good at it… I’ve always enjoyed partying in the city of Detroit.”
Byrd went on to open the Epitome Lounge at 205 W. Congress St., but closed after the building was sold in 2015. She then opened Minnie’s Rhythm Cafe (named after her mother) on 546 Larned St., but that fizzled after she says she was duped by her business partner.
“I wasn’t ready to give up on this,” Byrd says. “And at that time Downtown was coming back after COVID, and every other block was popping up. Every block you got a new restaurant or bar. I looked around and my son came to the rescue. He said, ‘Hey ma, let’s see if we can buy a building.’”
In 2023 Byrd was able to purchase a 7,000-square-foot building on 5221 Trumbull St. in Woodbridge, which will open as Minnie’s Detroit on Saturday, Jan. 25 featuring dining and live entertainment from Natasha Miller and Mic Phelps. Byrd says she plans on offering regular live entertainment, poetry, reasonably priced dining, and a boutique hotel in the rear.
“We built a beautiful deck up top, so when springtime comes we’ll have outdoor-indoor activities,” says her son Curtis Johnson II, who assists in all business operations. Johnson lived in Las Vegas for two years and says he was inspired by his time in that city to bring in DJs from all over the world to Minnie’s.
Byrd also sees ownership as a way to add on to her family’s historic legacy. Her grandfather Rev. Edward Solomon founded New Providence Baptist Church, which has grown into one of Detroit’s more notable places of worship.
“It’s interesting because we come from the whole religious background, but we sang, we danced, we had a good time growing up,” Byrd says though a laugh. “We were a happy family.”
Byrd admits that entrepreneurship isn’t for the timid. She says she’s independently financed all of her ventures, received very little help from fellow business owners, and also fought breast cancer three different times over the last 14 years. Ultimately she sees Minnie’s as a way she can bring back the energy and nostalgia from Detroit’s Paradise Valley culture she grew up in.
“We’re just getting a feel for the area,” she says. “I love hospitality, I love to have a good time. Just come down, we got good food, good cocktails.”
The grand-reopening celebration for Minnie’s Detroit is set for 1 p.m.-2 a.m. on Saturday, Jan. 25; 5221 Trumbull St., Detroit; minniesdetroit.com. RSVPs for the grand re-opening event can be made at eventbrite.com.
