Award-winning Beans & Cornbread moves, becomes Cornbread Restaurant & Bar

If you're looking for baked macaroni and cheese, sweet potatoes and collard greens from longstanding soul food restaurant Beans and Cornbread, look a little further down Northwestern Highway. 

The nationally recognized restaurant, started by Patrick Coleman in 1997, has moved to a new location and is donning a new name: Cornbread Restaurant & Bar. It opens at 3 p.m. Dec. 10 at 29852 Northwestern Highway in Southfield, just a few steps up the road from the original location. 

"Cornbread is a sequel to Beans & Cornbread," said Coleman. "After 24 years and things being so different in the world, we decided that we needed to become more efficient and more ergonomically correct ... we had an opportunity to sort of create what we feel is the perfect space for dining and carryout."

He said the new, modern spot will have a lot of the same food that the community has grown to love at Beans & Cornbread, plus vegetarian dishes and a full cocktail menu with a large selection of tequila. 

"This is not your mother's Beans & Cornbread," he told The Detroit News. "This is a totally different vibe. It's more upbeat. Beans & Cornbread was very laid back, very bluesy, very R&B. This is a little bit edgier, more fast-paced. It's got a more up-to-date vibe." 

One thing that will be the same is the tributes to figures from American Black history with photos of people like Dorothy Dandridge and Jack Johnson on the walls. 

"We pay homage to the people who came before us whether they're sharecroppers or boxing champions or folks hat played in the Negro league, there's a lot of history ... and of course when you get that down home flavor that you've always come to know for the last 24 years," said Coleman. 

Beans & Cornbread has won many "best soul food" awards and in 2019 was named a "new classic American" restaurant by GQ Magazine. 

"We could not name this restaurant Beans & Cornbread because, guess what, Beans & Cornbread was a classic in itself," he said. "We're just ready to continue being a part of the community and we'll see what the next 24 years brings."

Cornbread Restaurant & Bar is open Thurs.-Tues. for lunch and dinner, closed Wednesdays. Dine in or place a carryout; the restaurant also does catering and has a Beans & Cornbread food truck. Order online at cornbreadsoulfood.com or call (248) 208-1680.

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