by
Alan Stamm
"It's kind of custom to our culture," says the owner of Armando's, site of these first lantern-style dining chalets. (Photo: Southwest Detroit Business Association)
These stylish workarounds for dining in a time of Covid are likely to outlast the pandemic, and not just because prices start at $6,000 each. They're also cozy, romantic and culturally apt for Southwest Detroit, the first area getting locally made restaurant "luminarias."
The steel huts with plexiglass windows and roofs are 12-foot-tall versions of paper lanterns that line walkways, churches, and homes around Christmas in Mexican culture. Fifteen are being erected outside eateries in Mexicantown and nearby, thanks to a $50,000 grant from the Hudson Webber Foundation.