Spot Lite and UFO Bar close at the end of June as owners leave nightlife

Two of Detroit's independently run nightlife venues, Spot Lite in Islandview and UFO Bar in Corktown, will close at the end of this month. Spot Lite holds its last night on Saturday, June 28. UFO Bar closes Monday, June 30.

Roula David and Jesse Cory, who own and operate both spaces, announced the closures and said they are stepping away from nightlife. In their note to patrons they wrote, "We are incredibly grateful to all of our patrons, artists, dancers, and most of all, our team that made the party happen each night."

Spot Lite opened on May 19, 2021, at 2905 Beaufait St., in a roughly 5,000 square foot building tied to the early 1900s lumber trade that once belonged to Beyster Lumber. David and Cory, who also run the Detroit publishing house 1xRun next door, turned that shell into a hybrid space that held a bar, an art gallery, a record store, a coworking area, and a dance floor under one roof. The project was a Motor City Match grantee, awarded a $40,000 cash grant in an earlier round, and Mayor Mike Duggan marked its opening. For five years it gave the city's east side a sustained late-night creative anchor. Cairo Coffee, the specialty coffee shop that operates inside the building, will stay open temporarily at 2905 Beaufait while it looks for a permanent home.

UFO Bar sits in a building with a long bar history at 2110 Trumbull, a Corktown address that once housed Hoot Robinson's, a watering hole near the old Tiger Stadium. A later iteration ran for years as UFO Factory, a dive bar with live music, arcade games, and hot dogs. In August 2017, a construction crew working on the neighboring Elton Park development struck the building and damaged it, and the city condemned the space, forcing a long closure before the venue reopened. David acquired the business in 2024 and reopened it as UFO Bar.

The UFO Bar building will not sit empty. It is set to reopen under new ownership as Detroit Vinyl Bar, a record store and cocktail bar. David and Cory spent five years running two very different buildings in two very different neighborhoods. That chapter ends this month. What follows at each address is still ahead.