Dearborn’s newest Mexican restaurant is now open for business.

Frida Mexican Cuisine, 22053 Michigan Ave. in downtown West Dearborn, officially opened its doors today. We first wrote about the business coming to Dearborn back in April.

Owner Ricardo Gutierrez tells DeepsaidWhat.com that Thursday’s opening is part of a soft ramp-up to the restaurant’s grand opening in a couple of weeks.

Frida will serve breakfast, lunch and dinner. Breakfast is served all-day beginning at 8 a.m. Hours are Sunday through Thursday, 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. and on Friday and Saturday until 2 a.m., to catch Dearborn’s bar crowd. Gutierrez says his restaurant will have a full bar in December.

Those who visit the restaurant for lunch in September will receive complimentary soft drinks, Gutierrez says.

Dearborn's newest Mexican restaurant, Frida, serves up a tasty selection of food.

Frida’s menu will offer a tasty selection of traditional Mexican food to the more popular Mexican mainstays. There also is a more contemporary food selection on the menu from salmon to fish tacos.

Gutierrez says he chose Dearborn as the place to open his first restaurant because he was familiar with the area, as he earned his MBA at the University of Michigan-Dearborn.

“I wanted to bring Southwest Mexican food closer to Dearborn,” said Gutierrez, who opened the restaurant with this mother, Laurdes. “I am doing this concept with my mother . . . So you can count on good homemade cooking.”

Gutierrez is no stranger to good Mexican food. He served as a general manager and administrator at a Mexican restaurant in southwest Detroit and also worked at the Hyatt Regency in Cancun, Mexico, as part of his food and beverage undergraduate study.

Gutierrez says he named the restaurant Frida’s after the famous Mexican painter, Frida Kahlo, who was married to another famous Mexican artist with ties to Detroit, Diego Rivera.

“Frida Kahlo has some very couple famous paintings about Detroit and its Mexican culture,” Gutierrez said. “She has roots. We have five replicas of her art work in our restaurant.”

We wish Gutierrez and his new restaurant the best of luck in Dearborn. Hopefully they too will establish deep roots in our city.

After years of delays, it finally appears that three vacant buildings in downtown West Dearborn could soon be demolished by year’s end.

The former Brothers Tuxedo building at Michigan and Howard is one of three buildings city council approved to be demolished.

Dearborn City Council on Tuesday night approved (yet again) the demolition of the three biggest eyesores on Michigan Avenue: the Bally Total Fitness (previously a Vic Tanny); Brothers Tuxedo (gutted years ago and rotting since) and the remaining half of the building that was once Guilano’s restaurant.

Regular readers of this site will recall that the removal of these three buildings — all on the north side of Michigan Avenue between Military and Howard streets — were a key part of the Dearborn Village Partners (DVP) corporation’s planned development on Michigan, which at one time included a movie theater and condo/apartment living. In fact, those very plans for the development were submitted to the State of Michigan in order to obtain Brownfield tax credits.

A birdseye view of an early rendering of the DVP project that was once proposed on Michigan between Military and Howard.

With the economy still struggling, it is doubtful the scope and magnitude of the original development will ever see the light of day. The good news, however, is that a new plan for the property must be submitted to both the city and state if DVP still hopes to secure those tax credits.

It isn’t quite clear who will pay for demolition of the three buildings. At one point, it was going to be the city of Dearborn. The city would then hold a lien on the property until it recouped its cleanup costs. It now appears DVP will be paying to have the buildings razed.

The Well bar in Dearborn.

The owners of The Well bar, which opened in Dearborn’s West Village Commons in September 2009, held their first ever golf outing for charity and raised about $3,500, all of which is being donated to the Make a Wish Foundation

“We decided to have the event to raise some money for a charity,” said Dale W. Gehringer Jr., one of the owners of The Well. “We looked at a few and we selected the Make A Wish Foundation. We just really wanted everyone to have a great time for a good cause.”

Gehringer said 88 people attended the outing, which was held at the Inkster Valley Golf Club Aug. 20.

Of course an outing like this takes the help of many sponsors to be successful. Gehringer says The Well wants to thank all who participated and/or donated, including many Dearborn restaurants and bars who donated gift cards. Even Chris Chelios donated a few autographed items for auction and some Thomas Holdstrom items, as well.

“We had many sponsors for this event that donated either Hole Sponsorships or gifts that we raffled away after the outing,” Gehringer said. “We plan on having an annual outing every year.”

U.S. Congressman John D. Dingell’s office issued this release today:

U.S. Congressman John D. Dingell (D-MI15) on Friday commended the Federal Railroad Administration for obligating $28.2 million in investment funding to the Michigan Department of Transportation for the building of a new Dearborn train station. This funding will allow the City of Dearborn to consolidate its two passenger rail stations into a intermodal station in the west section of downtown Dearborn.

“This is such an exciting day for the City of Dearborn and The Henry Ford, said Dingell. “Improving passenger rail service is something I have long supported, and I look forward to helping this project succeed. Modernizing rail travel will help attract small business development, increase job growth, and enhance the livelihood of communities and business, by helping to expedite the time and efficiency of people and goods getting from point A to point B. The City of Dearborn and its economy will reap the benefits of this investment for many years.”

“This project is part of a larger strategy to increase the number of potential customers coming to Dearborn every day. Increasing the customer base sustains existing businesses and attracts new activity and investment,” said Dearborn Mayor John B. O’Reilly, Jr. “I have to personally thank our Congressional representatives, particularly Congressman John Dingell and Senator Debbie Stabenow, for their support and intervention to keep this project on track and create new employment opportunities in our area. This project would not have been possible without active participation from The Henry Ford, led by Patricia Mooradian, the State of Michigan Department of Transportation and the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments. With their ongoing help, Dearborn will be a vital stop on a growing and prospering transportation corridor.”

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The building that once housed Kroger in East Dearborn will soon have a new tenant that will offer retail and some groceries, Dearborn Mayor John B. O’Reilly, Jr., says.

Not all of the 56,000 sq. ft. building will be used, at least not initially. At a Council meeting this week, O’Reilly said about 40,000 sq. ft. will be used as retail/grocery and the remaining space would be set aside for future use.

City officials aren’t yet naming the tenant moving into the new building but we have heard the new occupant is connected to the Cash & Carry chain store at 6661 Chase Road. It appears the former Kroger building is a better location for the Cash & Carry than the Chase Road building.

The new store could open for business in about one month, O’Reilly says.

Iversen's is opening a second location in West Dearborn, just off of Michigan and Military.

Some good news for those with a sweet tooth. Iversen’s , one of Dearborn’s best-known bakeries for cakes and cookies, is opening a second location in West Dearborn on Michigan Avenue called Iversen’s Express.

In the strip mall owned by Norm Newman (yes, you read that right), Iversen’s – a family owned Dearborn business for 50 years – plans to open in September. We haven’t had a chance yet to talk to the owners of Iversen’s but we did hear the Outer Drive location (22041 Outer Drive) will still do most of, if not all, of the heavy baking on a daily basis.

With the Biggby Coffee shop just two doors down, we can’t think of a better combination . . .

Family Dollar will soon open a store in West Dearborn.

Dearborn’s ACO Hardware and LaPita restaurant will soon have a new retail neighbor on Newman Street.

While we can debate whether it’s the right kind of retail for West Dearborn, the addition of a Family Dollar store to fill a long-vacant building (not owned by Norm Newman who has his share of vacant buildings in our town), might help ACO and other businesses in this particular strip mall.

The owners of Family Dollar have been talking about moving into the former fabric store for about two years, according to one city official. We mentioned two months ago it was coming here.

Now, it appears the owners are a bit more serious having installed a Family Dollar sign on the building. Along Michigan Avenue, a new fixture has been installed to hold another sign for Family Dollar.

Inside the vacant building  there isn’t much going on just yet.  But it probably won’t be long. Installing shelving to stock rows and rows of made in China products shouldn’t take long . . .

Two years after a fire closed the Italian restaurant, the popular eatery has now reopened on Michigan Avenue in the building that once housed Kasey’s Salad Bar

Hassan Aoun, the chef from the original Ciao who opened the iburger lounge in the West Village Commons, is the man behind the new Ciao, Part II.

We haven’t had the opportunity to visit the new Ciao but would be anxious to hear from others here who have. Hopefully, the second time around for Ciao will be even better than the first . . .

In other restaurant news, Dearborn’s La Pita on Newman Street has opened a new restaurant in Ann Arbor. This is the second restaurant for La Pita near a university campus. The first was near the campus of Wayne State University in Detroit, which has proven to be quiet successful.

We wish them the best of luck in Ann Arbor.

What do the cities of Rochester Hills, Novi, Canton, Woodhaven, Birch Run and now Royal Oak have in common? An Emagine megaplex movie theater in each of their downtowns.

Dearborn was supposed to get one as part of a major development project on Michigan Avenue but years after it first was pitched to City Hall still nothing has materialized.

Instead, Dearborn is left watching on the sidelines as Royal Oak becomes the sixth city to open its doors to an Emagine megaplex, which will celebrate its grand opening on Monday, May 16.

We wrote about plans for the Emagine many times HERE on these pages, as did the Dearborn Press & Guide.

Economic & Community Development Director Barry Murray said in 2010 that an Emagine Theatre was being discussed as having potential to be located on the former Vic Tanny/Bally’s site, adjacent to the Oakwood Muirhead building.

Then the proposed plan for Dearborn called for a bowling alley (the new facility in Royal Oak has 16 lanes) on the lower level and a multiplex movie theater above (Royal Oak has 10 screens). The private investment for this facility was then estimated to be $12 million to $15 million, roughly the same investment in Royal Oak.

Hakim Fakhoury, a developer in Dearborn, earlier said the theater was to be part of a larger building plan he proposed along Michigan Avenue. The theater was one reason, he said, the Fatburger chain was supposedly considering opening a location in the building at Michigan and Military.

A vinyl sign that hung outside the building saying Fatburger was “coming soon” has long since been removed.

A Emagine megaplex would be a terrific addition to downtown West Dearborn. We’re hopeful it still could happen . . .

Royal Realties, LLC, a group of overseas investors, now owns Dearborn's Hyatt Hotel.

It appears the $12.5 million sale of the Hyatt Hotel in Dearborn is finally official. We reported it had been sold back in August on these pages didn’t have the name of the buyer (see earlier story, HERE.)

In a press release issued Friday, HREC Investment Advisors says the purchaser was Royal Realties, LLC, a group of overseas investors.

The sale of the 772 room hotel was handled by Mike Cahill, CEO and founder of HREC.  As the court appointed hotel receiver, Capital Hotel Management was the named seller of the asset acting on behalf of the special servicer.