from “le détroit” · the strait
A small NoHo Hospitality and Gilbert family cocktail lounge opened Friday in the basement below Gilly's Clubhouse on Woodward, trading shot-glass martinis and caviar with Bugles.
Saksey's, a small throwback cocktail lounge from New York's NoHo Hospitality Group and the Gilbert family, opened Friday in the lower level of Gilly's Clubhouse at 1550 Woodward Ave. The entrance is off Parker's Alley.
The room is intimate by design. Daniel Caudill of DTM Consulting, formerly Shinola's creative director, dressed it in dark cherry wood paneling, a brass back bar, deep green velvet banquettes, and vintage lounge furniture from the 1960s and 1970s.
The name reaches back to a Detroit lounge from the 1970s near Seven Mile and Woodward, run by Sam Gilbert and Irv Saks. Sam Gilbert was Dan Gilbert's father. The new lounge is a partnership between the Gilbert family and NoHo, whose Detroit portfolio already includes San Morello, Evening Bar, the Brakeman, and Penny Red's at the Shinola Hotel. NoHo partners Luke Ostrom and Josh Pickard also run Gilly's directly upstairs. Gilly's carries the name of Nick Gilbert, Dan Gilbert's son, who died in 2023 at age 26 after a lifelong battle with neurofibromatosis, per the Detroit News.
"When we started shaping this new bar, we wanted to honor that spirit while making it entirely our own," Ostrom said in the venue's opening announcement, as reported by Hour Detroit. "It's not about recreating the past."
The drinks lean playful and the bites lean rich. The cocktail program comes from NoHo bar director Darryl Chan, who has worked New York rooms including the Portrait Bar, Cafe Carmellini, and Westlight, alongside head bartender Tara Wong. The list runs to a Dirty Snow Cone built on boozy shaved ice, a Root Beer Negroni, and the signature Teeny 'Tinis, martinis poured at roughly shot-glass size and garnished one by one.
The kitchen plays the same game with cracker-aisle nostalgia and caviar money. The menu includes caviar with Bugles, cornflake-crusted fried chicken with Dynamo Sauce, pretzel tots, a bar burger, and a Cap'n Crunch berry sundae, per the venue and DBusiness.
Saksey's runs Tuesday through Saturday, 5 p.m. to midnight on weeknights and 5 p.m. to 2 a.m. on weekends. Reservations are on Resy and walk-ins are welcome. In a room this small, both will matter on a busy night.
1550 Woodward Ave., Detroit. Entrance off Parker's Alley.
One dispatch a week. No tracking, no filler. Free, always.