Florian East offers a refreshing take on crafting beer

Hamtramck has a new addition to its nightlife with the opening of Florian East, which offers its own brewed beer. Photo provided by Florian East

By Charles Sercombe
For the first time in perhaps decades, Hamtramck has its own brewery.
During the past week, Florian East, at 9350 Jos. Campau, has had a soft opening, and from the reviews we heard, it’s a hit.
A lot of sweat and probably a few tears went into renovating the building, and it looks like time well spent. We caught up with one of the owners, Milo Madole, who walked us through the brewery experience, and talked about what they will be offering.
It’s a good tale, so sit back, pour a cold one, and enjoy.

The Review: Talk about what inspired you to create a brewery here in Hamtramck, and who is involved in this project.
Madole: There are five owners — in alphabetical order: Chris Burtley, John Abbo, me (Milo Madole), Shang Kong, and Will Mundel.
And the inspiration was really something very organic. Somehow, each of us basically came to Hamtramck independently, and the partnership grew naturally out of a shared love of the city.
Will moved here in 2013, and I met him through Zlatan Sadikovic, the owner of Oloman Cafe. Chris and I were young law firm associates, spending weekends at places like Boostan Cafe and Whiskey in the Jar back in 2014 and 2015.
Shang is a longtime devotee of Yemen Cafe. John’s family owns an electrical supply shop on 8 Mile, and he grew up nearby.
Through happenstance, we all realized that we were independently spending time here and were all drawn separately to the city’s diversity, density, and culture.
I think Will has had the idea of building a brewery just about since he started brewing, and I moved here in 2017. When we met Will and decided we wanted to do a project together, Hamtramck was the obvious choice.

The Review: What was it like renovating the building that you are in?
Madole: We bought the property in 2019, and renovated the apartment on the second floor over the next year, in order to maximize our ability to get financing for construction of the brewery. And that was really the hardest part.
Diversified Members Credit Union, who gave us our construction loan, and the Michigan Strategic Fund, who gave us a grant, were fantastic to work with.
But figuring out how to actually pay for the renovations took quite a bit of time and work with our contractors and architects. In the end, that forced us to be really disciplined and creative.
It meant that we purchased almost all of our equipment second-hand. Our fermentation tanks came from an auction in New England and sat in Will’s back yard on Edwin for 6 months. I had a used glycol chiller that we “rescued” from a West Michigan pole barn in my yard for even longer.
But once everything was in place, the actual renovation process actually went fairly quickly. We started construction in January and effectively finished in July.

The Review: What was located here, prior to you owning the building?
Madole: The building has been around since about 1915. In looking through the National Park Service’s records, we learned that, at one point, the building was operated as Shilman Silk Shop.
Later, it operated as Lady Gentry. During the financial crisis it was tax foreclosed, and then the DDA took ownership. The owners before us had owned the property since they bought it from the DDA and, basically, used it as a warehouse for shoes that they sold at their shops down the street.
Some people used to refer to it as the “shoe building” because there were haphazardly stacked boxes of shoes taller than I am in the window displays. We actually saved some of the most fantastic shoe box tops and framed them in the displays as a reference to that history.
The Review: That’s a great idea! Do you feel comfortable talking about the cost involved?
Madole: At the hearing for our tax abatement, there was some skepticism — during the public comment — that we would actually be spending $700k. We ended up spending more than that.
Renovating buildings that have been vacant for 5 years is extremely costly to do right. And this building had been effectively vacant for close to 20. At one point, there was a literal lake inside the building.
I think we were lucky to end up where we did. And there’s absolutely no way we could have done it without the support from the city (in the form of a tax abatement) and the state (through the Michigan Strategic Fund).
Each of the owners (other than Will, who is now full time with Florian East) still work our day jobs, and the funds we invested came from those day jobs.

The Review: What will the interior look like, and what will be the seating capacity?
Madole: The capacity is 94. And I will mostly let the photos speak for themselves, but I think the interior will be welcoming, warm, and sort of the antithesis of the airplane hangar feel that is way too common with taprooms.
There is also a heavy dose of Hamtramck. The windows have the name “Florian East” written in 6 different languages/scripts: Arabic, Polish, Bangla (Bengali), and Ukrainian for Hamtramck. And Neo-Aramaic (one of the partners, John, is Chaldean) and Chinese (one of the partners, Shang, was born in Harbin, China).
Inside, our backsplash is something I built with my partner, using broken Polish pottery from Polish Art Center. The only framed “art” is the shoeboxes we salvaged from the display cases. The rose wallpaper that is the inspiration for our logo was something that we think dates back to when the building was a store selling women’s clothing.

The Review: Some developers have sometimes complained about working with the city. Were there any problems or inconveniences imposed on you?
Madole: Overall, we’re extremely appreciative of the City staff and all they did to help us with this project, particularly the office of Community and Economic Development.
The state, too, was terrific to work with. By far, the most difficult experiences we had were with Wayne County in trying to get approvals related to replacing the lead service line to the building and the final County Health Department approval.
It’s really tough on small businesses when it takes 8-12 weeks to process payment refunds, repeated emails go unanswered for days, etc. That part was unfortunate, so I hope there’s some attention placed soon on improving processes at the county level, particularly for the municipalities outside of Detroit, like Hamtramck.

The Review: When do you expect to open, and what will the hours of operation be, and what programs or features will you offer?
Madole: The taproom opens to the public on Thursday, Aug. 29. Typically, we’ll be open from 2-10 p.m. on Wednesday through Sunday (closed Monday/Tuesday). But we’ll be open on the Monday of Labor Day, and likely have special extended hours that weekend (check our social media).
Starting Sept. 14, we plan to open for strictly non-alcoholic (N/A) Saturday and Sunday morning café time.
Our N/A hours will run from 8-2 p.m., and will feature coffee and tea service, plus pastries, run by Honey Dirt Coffee, a local coffee roaster and mobile cart. Premier League soccer games (and potentially other sports) will be screened during the N/A coffee services.

The Review: What will be unique about the beer you craft, and other drinks? Will there be food? Will there be entertainment?

Madole: First off, it will be unique because it’s the first commercial brewery that we’re aware of operating in Hamtramck for something like 80 years!
Also, as someone in his mid-30s, I’m pretty relieved when I can find beer that tastes great, and isn’t a 14% IPA.
Many of our beers will be relatively low-ABV (alcohol by volume). And the hand-pumped ales are a great, modern take on a European-style beer that would be more commonly found in a London pub than in most breweries in Michigan.
Additionally, I know that our entire ownership group is very excited about the cocktail-style drinks and mocktails we’ll be serving.
There are so many non-beer drinkers and non-drinkers in the area (including one of our partners), so we felt really strongly that we needed to have options for everyone when they walk in the door.
On most busy nights there will be either pop-ups or food trucks. We’re also working with Kitab Café to hopefully develop a few sandwich/snack-plate type options that would be available every day. There’s been talk of a “Florian Sandwich.”
Other than the premier league soccer mornings, we will definitely host events for things like the Hamtramck Blowout. And, starting late September/early October, one of our partners – Chris Burtley – plans to start a recurring monthly event aimed at young Black creative professionals.

The Review: Anything else you would like to add?
Madole: We’re super-excited to open our doors and to serve the community. Come by any time!
Posted Aug. 30, 2024