Detroit Free Press: Ilitch Business alum opens restaurant in Detroit's New Center
You'll soon be able to walk across Africa in one Detroit city block. Godwin Ihentuge's West African-Caribbean food truck and caterer YumVillage is getting a permanent home on the same block in New Center as Baobab Fare, an East African cafe run by Burundian refugees slated to debut before the end of the year. The 33-year-old native Detroiter is taking over the shuttered Atomic Chicken space, which failed to make a go of it in a little more than a year at the corner of Woodward and East Milwaukee. Ihentuge's long path to a brick-and-mortar space began while working nights in the kitchen while attending Wayne State University in pursuit of a business degree. But it was while working in marketing for corporate America that he took his first foray into the life of a food service entrepreneur and launched a vegan "fast food" catering service in the early days of Detroit's pop-up scene. “I think I really want to try changing the industry," he said. "I remember when I was in the kitchen while at Wayne State it was still cool to be in the kitchen. But now you can make more as a Lyft driver and bartending is more attractive. It would be cool to offer somebody to put their recipe on the menu and then give them a net off the profit.”
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