from “le détroit” · the strait
A dual restaurant and coffee shop at 8016 Kercheval, backed by a $65,000 Motor City Match grant, became the program's 181st business to open.
Robert Encarnacion opened two businesses under one roof at 8016 Kercheval Avenue in West Village. La Fonda Street, a Latin American restaurant, opened in June 2024. Encarnacion, the coffee shop next door, followed with a soft opening that November. The pair share a building Encarnacion bought from the Detroit Land Bank in April 2021.
Encarnacion is a Dominican Republic native who picked up a passion for coffee while living in Miami. He visited Detroit in 2019 to look at business opportunities, then moved later that year.
"It was a crazy idea, but I knew Detroit was a place full of opportunity," Encarnacion told the Detroit Economic Growth Corporation. "I wanted to create a space that showcased my background."
La Fonda Street is the larger of the two. The menu runs Latin American street food priced from $2 to $17, with the Dominican Bowl and $2 Taco Tuesdays among the early favorites. It mirrors the original La Fonda Street in Brighton, Massachusetts, which Encarnacion runs with co-founder Mio Ramirez and which pulls from Mexican, Dominican, Puerto Rican, Venezuelan, and Jamaican cooking. Next door, Encarnacion the coffee shop leans on espresso drinks, including a house pour called the Encarnacion Original, plus grab-and-go breakfast.
The project ran on a $65,000 Motor City Match grant. According to the City of Detroit, the money covered a commercial kitchen hood, an ADA-compliant elevator, and furnishings inside the renovated space.
The opening counted as the 181st brick-and-mortar business launched through Motor City Match, a program run by the city and the Detroit Economic Growth Corporation. The two businesses drew an official ribbon-cutting on March 26, 2025, attended by Deputy Mayor Melia Howard.
"Robert saw an opportunity where others didn't," Howard said in the city's announcement. "He's created jobs for Detroiters, brought new flavors to West Village and transformed a vacant building into a gathering place for the community."
The Kercheval corridor has been adding small businesses for several years. La Fonda Street and Encarnacion are two more.
8016 Kercheval Ave., Detroit
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