The last brewery in Hamtramck closed in 1941. Auto City Brewing Company, gone since the early 1940s. The next brewery in Hamtramck opened on Joseph Campau on August 29, 2024, with the name Florian East written across the front of the building in English, Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, Chaldean, Polish, and Ukrainian.
Seven languages, six scripts, one block of Detroit's most diverse city. The ownership group is five. Will Mundel is the head brewer and the only full-time hire.
The other four are attorneys: Milo Madole, John Abbo, Christopher Burtley, Shang Kong. They met working at the same downtown firm, started spending time in Hamtramck independently, and bought the Joseph Campau building in 2019 for what would become a $1 million renovation. The space had been empty for almost two decades.
Madole says there was a literal lake inside it at one point. Burtley is a vice president of strategy at MLS team DC United and started teaching sports law at U-M the fall Florian East opened. Abbo is Chaldean.
Kong was born in Harbin. Madole lives in Hamtramck and chairs the city's downtown development authority. The diversity of the ownership group shows up directly in the org chart, not just in the marketing.
The beer is European-style lagers, hoppy American ales, and British-inspired cask ales, all on the lower-ABV end. The kitchen is not really a kitchen.
Pop-ups and food trucks rotate, sometimes sandwiches from Kitab Café next door. Weekend mornings the taps stay closed. Coffee, mocktails, hibiscus-orange spritzes, lemon-ginger drinks inspired by Yemeni cafés, and Premier League soccer on the screens.
Hamtramck's largest population is Muslim. The schedule reflects it. Capacity is 94.
The backsplash is a mosaic Madole built with his partner using broken Polish pottery from Polish Art Center down the street. The rose-patterned wallpaper is original to when the building sold women's clothing. The framed art is salvaged shoeboxes.
The events calendar has Lunar New Year, Juneteenth, Hamtramck Blowout nights, and a recurring monthly evening Burtley runs aimed at young Black creative professionals. Florian East opened Labor Day weekend. The Hamtramck Labor Day Festival was a few blocks south.
The brewery filled up its first weekend, ending an 83-year stretch with no brewery in city limits.
9350 Joseph Campau Ave., Hamtramck. Open Wednesday through Sunday.
