A new cafe and music venue is ready to open in Detroit’s Wildemere Park neighborhood.
Located at 8045 Linwood St., the artist-led Moondog Café says it hopes to continue the legacy of small music venues in the Dexter-Linwood corridor, which included clubs like the Minor Key, Hobby Bar, the Linwood Theatre, and others.
To that end, the club will focus on jazz and electronic music, hosting both local and nationally touring acts “with an objective to build stronger bridges between Detroit and music communities worldwide,” it says.
The venue will offer cafe service from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. every Saturday and Sunday with a menu including coffee, espresso, teas, mushroom lattes, kombucha, craft sodas, and pastries, and also feature a “mini-shop” selling records and analog audio equipment.
In addition, internet radio station Blue Moon Radio will broadcast live from the cafe from noon-3 p.m. every Saturday. Music production collective D.Cipher also plans to host a jam session on the last Thursday of every month.
Neighborhood groups the LaSalle Gardens Community Association and Wildemere Park Neighborhood Association have also been invited to hosy regular meetings in the space, the venue says.
Moondog Café is the brainchild of Jared Talaga, Rob Nash, and Joe Darling, who started work on the project in 2023. Development included a Motor City Match grant and a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo.
While the Moondog Café has hosted some soft launch events in recent months including The Straits: Detroit in Motion, a photography exhibition by Andrew Petrov, it is billing Saturday, April 5 as its official grand opening party. The event will feature music including DJs sets by Whodat, Supreme Gratitude, others from noon-5 p.m. as well as live performances from the Caleb Robinson Trio at 5 p.m., Jon Dixon Live at 6:30 p.m., and Ahya Simone at 8 p.m.
