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CreativityTranscript
00:00Good morning, everyone. I am Tanika Griggs. I'm an attorney. I'm also the director
00:03of external affairs for the Michigan Black Business Alliance. Our mission is pretty much
00:08to help close the racial wealth gap, and that's through programs, policy, and opportunities. So
00:12we kind of present all of our members. With those things, we've really been focusing a lot on policy.
00:17So we actually have a policy podcast or a policy conversation that's happening tomorrow at our
00:24Hub 28 West Adams, where we're actually talking about the City of Detroit's Community Benefits
00:28Ordinance. As we all know, the Renaissance Center is up and going. So there's been a lot of
00:32conversation around that. So just kind of educating our business owners on the policy piece and the
00:37impact of the City of Detroit's ordinances. But today, we have the amazing Stephanie Burr here
00:44with us today. So I'll let her introduce herself. All right, Stephanie, please do. Good morning.
00:49I am the co-owner of Flood's Bar and Grill. Oh, girl. Yes. Which one is it now? Flood. Oh,
00:57Flood.
00:57Flood's Bar and Grill. Oh, yes. Flood's Bar and Grill. I'm a second-generation business owner,
01:03so co-owner of Flood's Bar and Grill, which you, most people know, downtown, and the Garden
01:08Theater, which is in Midtown. You. And the Block, which is a restaurant right next to the Garden
01:15Theater in Midtown. Get it, girl. Yes. Second generation. Correct. Is it from your mom's side
01:23or your dad's side? You know, I would say both. Most people probably know of my dad,
01:27but my mom has always been working behind the scenes. She laid the foundation. Say their names
01:32for us. Yes. Michael and Alita Bird. All right. Wow. Wow. And I just thought she was a model
01:39and she was going to come in and talk about a modeling school because she's so beautiful,
01:44y'all. If y'all can see what I see right now. Girl. Get it, girl. I'm so impressed with
01:50you.
01:50Thank you. Thank you. Yes. What do you like most about what you do?
01:55I love that I work with my family. So I do not do this alone. I do this with my
02:02sister,
02:02my younger sister, Christina Bird. We work every day together, hand in hand. She is the
02:08yin to my yang. So having a close bond with my sister, and it extends beyond my sister. We have
02:14cousins and many other family members that throughout the four, almost 40 years that Flood's has been
02:21around. Right. Um, they have participated in the business and that is, that is the best part of
02:27the business. Um, and giving back and giving and providing over 80 jobs, um, between all three
02:34businesses, we provide 80 to a hundred jobs. That's incredible. So yes, that's incredible.
02:40And I'm going to speak to, uh, Flood's, their longevity because they've been around. It's a
02:44historical club. Period. And consistently they are catering to an adult crowd, you know,
02:50adults. When people come in town, they're going to come through Flood's because it's just an,
02:55a Detroit tradition. Do you, you know who, um, always liked to go to Flood's when he would come
03:00here? Who? Mason, you're going to meet me at Flood's? Stevie wants to go play. He'd play it. He
03:07would go down there and play like any, in the last 10 years, he must've done it six times. He
03:15doesn't
03:15just go visit. He wants to go there and play because Keith, Keith and Leslie Ferguson was
03:21there. Keith was the, the keyboardist for the spinners, uh, the new spinners and the old
03:26spinners. Um, so that, that, that's their joint as well. So many artists, um, love playing
03:33there. It's a historical club. It is. How, how, how does a historical place like Flood's
03:40then, uh, integrate with the black business Alliance? The, the Alliance has been an invaluable
03:48resource for us. Um, I can't tell you how many problems they've helped me, helped us, helped us
03:57navigate through. And, um, specifically there've been hospitality programs because we've been in the
04:03business a long time, but it never hurts to learn something new and technology is changing rapidly.
04:08So I've learned many different, um, many different skill sets through the Alliance and their hospitality
04:15programs, but also they've helped with trademarking, something that we've never considered. But now you,
04:20once you spend more time with the Alliance, there are all these areas like, Oh, I need to, I need
04:25to
04:25evolve. The business needs to grow and evolve and we need to get a trademark and they've helped with
04:30that. So there are numerous programs that the Alliance has helped us with and continues to help us
04:36with. So I can't recommend them. I couldn't recommend them anymore. When, when they were
04:41creating the television show, Martin, there was an attorney who was walking down the street,
04:46who was like zippity do zippity do I day. And he was like, come on, let's go to flood. I'm
04:53like,
04:53no, no, no, no, no, no. I can't, I can't go. I can't go right now. These people are working.
04:57You're like, man, come on, man. We got to go get it. Long Island iced tea. And, um, and he
05:03spent a lot
05:03of time and they followed him to floods, uh, which was attorney Ray page. When you see the
05:10television show, Martin, that is Ray page. Tommy is Ray page. And it was floods that set it up
05:18because when he walked in, it was like cheers so that everybody knew each other. But most of the
05:24people that knew Ray page didn't know what he did. So that you got to kind of, you got to
05:30tell
05:31a little bit before the people that were creating Martin were following you in Detroit, right?
05:35You got to say that part. So then when you, while they were following you, you saw Ray and Ray
05:40was like,
05:43I don't know what he does. So that's how that works. They sent a photographer with them and they
05:48just snapped a bunch of pictures and that kind of thing. The hidden jewel of floods was
05:54always, always this. Every club has a mystique. Floods was, it was, it was like the place to go,
06:01but the food was always on the chain, right? But it was never talked about like publicized,
06:11but everybody knew that the food, right? I don't even know how they kept chicken wings. I don't know
06:18how big it was. But talk, talk about when you mentioned hospitality, talk about the legacy of
06:29the food there. Absolutely. We still have some of those same recipes and we make most of 90% of
06:37our
06:37food is made from scratch. There is someone right now at Floods, cutting up some yams and making
06:42macaroni for service tomorrow night. So this is by hand. We really pride ourselves on our food. First,
06:49people think of us as a club and a bar, but we serve some of the best soul food in
06:54town. Say it.
06:54Yes. It has been, it has been very important for us to continue that tradition of soul food,
07:02downtown Detroit, one of the oldest black bars in downtown Detroit. And even though me and my sister,
07:07we've taken over, we're going to continue to stick to our roots, which is great soul food. And in fact,
07:14we just launched, although we're known for soul food, we had so much demand to bring a sandwich
07:18back. We haven't had a sandwich in years. So now we have, we just brought back a sandwich,
07:23which is a burger. So we have a burger and beer special, which is going gangbusters. So of course,
07:27a bar, you need a, you need a great burger. So now we have a great burger to go with
07:31those chicken
07:31wings. Yeah. Which we can barely keep in stock. You and your sister now have, have been at the
07:38helm. How long? You know, that's debatable depending on when you talk to my dad, Mike
07:41Byrd, who is mostly retired now, but, um, we really took over at the start of COVID. Um,
07:47I would say 2020, um, our parents needed to just have a seat. That's right. And I'm glad we've been
07:54able to do that for them. So was I dreaming when I heard you say garden? No, absolutely not.
08:02Absolutely not. The garden theater. Yes. Oh my word. Yeah. Okay. Um, yeah. Excellence. I mean,
08:09you guys are working in excellence. This is like one of the fake, when somebody says they're doing
08:13an event at garden theater, I'm not like where, who, what, uh, I'm like, I'm there because again,
08:19the staff there, the look, the, the, the surroundings, the atmosphere is just always top
08:26notch. So again, I hit my bell. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. So go ahead, baby. Talk
08:30about that. Yes. Hiring. How difficult is that for you? Finding good people that people view job
08:40different today than they did 10 years ago. Yes, they do. They absolutely do. Um, it's a challenge.
08:45It is a challenge, but when you find the right staff, you've been blessed enough to hold on to
08:51that staff. What's one key thing you look for when you, when you hire someone? Um, I look for someone
08:57who has discipline. There you go. Right. In other areas of their life. If you can talk, talk to me
09:02and tell me a little bit about how disciplined you are in other areas, I think you can apply that
09:06to
09:06work and showing up to work and being present. Um, and you mentioned another business, Mace. I mean,
09:13I know we only got to see, you know, what was it? There are many, the block. Yeah,
09:16the block. Well, the block is new ish, newer than floods. I mean, the block we've been around
09:23for 10 years. Um, and we are a small restaurant, but, um, we are known for our, our brunch. We
09:29have
09:29a DJ brunch, boozy brunch on the weekends and we are packed. Um, we have an excellent six dollar
09:34happy hour. Um, so yes, the block. And it really took off after the pandemic, didn't it? Correct.
09:41Yes, we did. The block is right next to the garden theater. So we're just, that's what I thought.
09:45Okay. Okay. Okay. Yeah. And we work together. We're the same business essentially. So, um,
09:50sometimes the block does catering for the garden theater and sometimes we're, we do events together.
09:54We're able to slide that barn door open and have larger scale events for the block, but the block,
09:59we can do private events, um, semi-private events. We can do it all. We can do it all. Girl,
10:05you just, you don't know how you made my day to day. I'm so proud. Yes. Yes. Go ahead. Yes.
10:12Attorney. Uh, yeah. Give me your closing thoughts. Well, I do want to thank Stephanie. She is also,
10:18we have, um, something called black business champion. So those are actual individuals who
10:22give back and invest in the work that we're doing. So shout out to Stephanie for being a black business
10:27champion. If you are interested in being a black business champion, please check out our website,
10:31uh, blackbizalliance.com. And there's an option to donate on there. You can be, uh, uh, annual
10:36donor, uh, monthly donor, whatever that looks like, but make sure you're supporting the black business
10:40alliance. I do want to say also that we are having our biggest fundraising event of the year,
10:45which is December 16th at the garden theater. All right. It's our annual black part annual black
10:50party. And the theme this year is super fly. So make sure you get your outfits together and come out
10:55and
10:56support us. That's my home. Yes. You know, where I come from is, is the creation of super
11:01fly. So you need to come on. That's cool. See how they think out the box mommy. I'm sorry. I'm
11:07just
11:07so proud. Go ahead. Go ahead. Ryan O'Neal lived one block over. Really? We went to theater class on
11:14Saturday mornings. We had, uh, historical teachers at that time. We didn't, we knew who they were, but
11:21we didn't know who they were. Aussie Davis and Ruby Dee were our teachers. Uh, the guys who created
11:28super fly went to a high school in Cleveland. It'll be a lot of fun. And there are some Detroiters
11:33that
11:34are involved as well. So that's going to be fun together. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That'll, that'll be a
11:39lot of fun. Stephanie, thank you for coming in and sharing the block garden theater. And of course,
11:45the historical floods, nightclub for sure. I'll give us your closing thoughts. Oh, thank you for having me.
11:52I'm excited to be here and yes, come visit us floods. We're open six days a week. The block,
11:57we're open five days a week in the garden theater. Check us out the garden,
12:00Detroit.com for your special events. Ladies. Thank you for the black business alliance.
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