Hygrade Deli's corned beef is coming back. The counter at 3640 Michigan Avenue, which opened in 1955 and closed in December 2025, is getting ready to reopen. The new owner hopes to have the doors open by the end of October.
That owner is Kim Lambert, who with her husband John bought Mike's Famous Ham Place, the lunch counter down the block, in October 2024. She is buying Hygrade out of receivership. Litt sold the deli to Chuck Nolen, who defaulted in September 2023 on $642,790 in loans from the nonprofit lender Invest Detroit. Nolen also owns Cutter's Bar and Grill in Eastern Market. The court-appointed receiver reported in January that the building needed serious repairs.
Stuart Litt is coming back to help: "She has asked me if I would come back, put an apron on and help her get it up and running," he wrote on Facebook. His father, Bernie Litt, bought Hygrade in 1972, and the family ran it for half a century. Linda Holmes, a waitress who spent 30 years behind the counter, is returning too. Lambert said she called Litt, whose family had owned the deli for a long time, because she and her husband run Mike's and cannot be everywhere.
Lambert said the menu will be mostly the same, with dinner added. In the past that has meant hot corned beef, a hot pastrami special on rye, a salami sandwich and grilled cheese, with salads, cold plates and hamburger steak alongside. The plan is breakfast, the sandwiches and some evening entrees, with hours of 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. The corned beef will be Sy Ginsberg's, made to Litt's own recipe.
Hygrade opened in 1955 near the old Western Market at Roosevelt and Michigan Avenue, and took its name from the market's meat supplier, Hygrade Food Products. When the market was torn down for the I-75 and I-96 interchange, the deli moved six blocks west to its current corner. Over the decades it served mayors, lawyers, journalists and blue-collar workers. Filmmakers were drawn to its vintage 1950s interior, and it played Ralli's Diner in 2016's Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.
Litt says he will post updates as he gets them.
