HopCat will have a midsummer unveiling for the newest link in its chain of craft beer destinations.
Officials from parent company BarFly Ventures announced this week that they are looking to hire more than 100 workers to staff the HopCat at 17800 Haggerty Road in Livonia, which is in the midst of a full-tilt renovation.
BarFly’s Area Director Joe Raimi has sat outside the restaurant with its General Manager Dave Summers doing in-person interviews this week. They will remain fixtures there on the lookout for applicants over the next five weeks, camped out between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10 a.m. to noon on Saturdays. The last day of hiring is July 7 and the new beer pub is scheduled for a July 24 grand opening, according to Raimi.
“We’re really excited to be able to open in this area,” he told What Now Detroit. “The Livonia community has been super welcoming. The number of applicants that we’ve had thus far has been incredible. So the community and the local area has been very warm and welcoming.”
The new restaurant is poised to become HopCat’s 11th location and its ninth in Michigan. The Grand Rapids-based chain — known for its Cosmik fries, burgers and signature craft beers — also has a presence in Nebraska and Indianapolis.
Raimi indicated the Livonia location’s already seen a higher volume of applicants than any past HopCat on the cusp swinging its doors open. He only expects that flow to increase in the weeks leading up to its debut.
“We’ve been busy,” he said. “Our Michigan community has always backed us for as long as we can remember and this is no exception.”
The new beer garden will blossom in the former Claddagh Irish Pub, a longtime anchor of the College Park mixed-use development north of Six Mile Road on Livonia’s western border with Northville Township.
HopCat’s doing a full interior and exterior overhaul of the 9,480 square-foot building. According to site plans approved by Livonia city officials in March, the brewhouse will have 243 interior seats and 72 more on a pair of outdoor patios.
The building will feature two garage doors that’ll remain fully open during business hours as part of a spacious dining space décor the developers are crafting, one replete with bars and 60 brew taps.
BarFly founded HopCat in 2008, but the chain’s ownership changed hands four months into the pandemic, when the restaurant group filed for bankruptcy. BarFly sold its assets to Congruent Investment Partners and Main Street Capital for $17.5 million. Congruent, a Dallas based private equity firm, leveraged that acquisition deal to take a controlling stake in HopCat.
