Workers at the site Thursday as it prepares for next month's opening. (Photo: Deadline Detroit)
For more than four decades the Eid family has been operating Phoenicia, an upscale Lebanese restaurant on Old Woodward Avenue in downtown Birmingham.
Now the father-son team of Sameer and Sammy Eid plan to open Leila, a more casual version in Capitol Park in downtown Detroit. A debut the week of Oct. 14 is envisioned.
The 130-seat "cosmopolitan" restaurant will be in the Farwell Building at 1249 Griswold St. and will occupy 4,500 square feet. It will include a 20-person private dining room and lounge.
The kitchen will have a pita oven and charcoal grill.
Staff interviews are under way Thursday until 5 p.m.
Leila joins a host of new restaurants in the once-distressed part of downtown, including the Prime + Proper steakhouse.
