from “le détroit” · the strait
A second-floor cocktail room marked only by a red COCKTAILS sign has opened at 1454 Gratiot, the work of veteran Detroit bartender Nelson Kazan.
The only sign out front is a red neon that reads COCKTAILS. There is no name on the door. Walk the wrong stretch of Gratiot Avenue and you would miss it.
That is the idea behind Pocket Change, a cocktail bar that opened April 23, 2025 on the second floor at 1454 Gratiot Avenue, just across the street from Eastern Market. The room sits in the roughly 1,200 square foot space that Collect Beer Bar left behind before moving to Detroit's east side. Up a flight of stairs, the bar is dim, intimate, and seats about 49, with a rooftop attached.
The bar comes from Nelson Kazan, who spent roughly a decade behind some of Detroit's better-known bars before this. His resume includes Flowers of Vietnam, the Apparatus Room, the now-closed Republic Tavern, and SheWolf, named Hour Detroit's Restaurant of the Year in 2020. His partners are brothers Kris and Fred Lelcaj, who first worked alongside Kazan at Sava's in Ann Arbor more than ten years ago.
"I wanted to create a fun, upbeat bar where you can mingle, go on a date, meet friends, or connect with new people, all while enjoying a quality drink without having to wait for a table," Kazan said in the bar's opening announcement.
The look pulls from New York cocktail rooms and Japanese hi-fi bars, with a nod to mid-century design. Kazan worked on it with local designer Colin Tury of Tury Design. The drink list is short by intent, built around hand-made cocktails like the Bingo Bango, a spicy tequila drink, alongside classics and a rotating wine list that leans into Italy, France, Slovenia, and Austria, with most bottles at $60 or under.
The bar opens Thursday through Sunday, per its own listed hours: 7 p.m. to midnight Thursdays, until 2 a.m. Fridays and Saturdays, and 2 to 10 p.m. Sundays.
1454 Gratiot Ave., Detroit.
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