I watched as Shimar Mitchell stood behind the counter taking orders with a big smile on an extremely busy Friday afternoon. He was attentive to his customers’ needs and even had his chef restart an order to increase his customer’s satisfaction. He was so hands on I almost forgot that he was actually the co-owner of  The Great Lakes Burger Bar, a new restaurant to hit the Grandmont Rosedale area.

The Great Lakes Burger Bar is owned by two culinary chefs and twin brothers Shimar and Omar Mitchell. Shimar attended Sinclair College and Ohio State, while Omar studied at Johnson and Wales University in Providence Rhode Island. Shimar has spent the last 10 years in the hospitality business honing his craft. While Omar has done work for the NAACP plating gourmet meals, Trendy Meals for the Massachusetts State Police Academy and worked for Food Network as an onsite chef for Cooking Across America. They have both decided to share their passion for making delicious meals in the form of hand crafted burgers.

Their Burger Bar features 6 different types of burgers from steak, to salmon and even burgers for vegetarians. The have 18 types of premium toppings including Applewood Smoke Bacon, garlic butter lobster, fried egg, and grilled pineapple. The Burger Bar offers 3 types of salads and sides which include grilled corn on the cob, spicy fried green beans and sweet potatoes fries. To top things off, they offer 13 hand dipped shakes including mint chocolate chip, nutty peanut butter and the classic root beer float.

 

5 Questions with Shimar Mitchell

1. What is your favorite burger? Shimar’s favorite burger, even though he hates to admit because they specialize in gourmet burgers, is the Steak burger because it is high quality and good tasting.

2. Best-selling burger? Surf and Turf which features garlic butter shrimp, lobster and smoked cheese.

3. How did you come up with the name? We were playing around with names and decided that this name truly paid homage to Detroit. We want to create stores in the Midwest particularly and then take our concept globally. We have a store opening in Garden City in a week and next we will take it to Ohio and the other great lake states.

4. Tip for aspiring chefs looking to turn into business owners? Stay passionate, work on your craft, stay hungry.

5. What did our GRDC employees have? Many of our employees have given the Burger Bar a try. They all gave the gourmet burgers two thumbs up and recommended the steak burger to first time customers. One of our employees had the sweet potato fries and fried green beans, which she said were wonderful. Another employee tried a strawberry milkshake and says it’s a must have!

The Great Lakes Burger Bar is located on 18200 W. McNichol’s Rd. Detroit, MI 48219. Feel free to call them at (313) 693-9916 or stop by between Monday and Thursday 11 am-10 pm and Friday and Saturdays 11am- 11pm. They are  closed on Sundays.

Take a peak of their gourmet burgers by stopping by their Facebook or Instagram page, but more importantly stop by and welcome them to Grandmont Rosedale!

by Gabrielle Simmons GRDC Intern