Hygrade Deli in Detroit to reopen soon under new ownership

A southwest Detroit deli known for its piled-high corned beef sandwiches and for being part of the community is coming back.

Hygrade Deli, an institution on Michigan Avenue for more than five decades, is set to reopen under new ownership.Kim Lambert, the owner of Mike’s Ham Place, Hygrade’s longtime neighbor to the west, told the Free Press she bought the business. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed.

“We are starting to clean it up,” Lambert said. “We are working on the inside and outside getting it fixed up.”

Hygrade Deli closed late in 2025 and was put into receivership.

Stuart Litt, Hygrade’s decades-long owner, is returning to help Lambert.

“We are getting it back to being the best deli in Detroit,” Lambert told the Free Press.

Back on the menu, Lambert says, is Sy Ginsberg corned beef using Litt’s recipe.

Litt wrote about the plans in an Aug. 31 Facebook post.

“She is a dedicated, hard worker who has kept the Ham Place going strong and has every intention of bringing the deli back to the way it was when I owned it. She has asked me if I would come back, put an apron on and help her get it up and running.”

Litt also posted that a longtime waitress at Hygrade Deli will be back.

Plans are for Hygrade’s to serve breakfast as well as some to-be-determined dinner entrees.

Hygrade’s hours will be 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday.

Lambert expects to have a grand opening in October.

About four years ago, Litt sold the deli that his father bought in 1972 to Chuck Nolen, owner of Cutter’s Bar and Grill in the Eastern Market area.

It was late December when Hygrade’s shuttered and was put into receivership. In an email to the Free Press last January, the court-appointed receiver, Turkia Mullin, wrote that upon taking possession of Hygrade Deli, operations were suspended and that efforts are now “toward asset preservation, safety, and risk mitigation.”

Contact Detroit Free Press food and restaurant writer Susan Selasky and send food and restaurant news and tips to: sselasky@freepress.com. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter: @SusanMariecooks. Subscribe to the Eat Drink Freep newsletter for insider scoops on food and dining in metro Detroit.