Joe Muer Jr., a longtime metro Detroit restaurateur noted for the legendary Joe Muer’s restaurant formerly on Detroit’s eastside, has died. He was 88.
One of the more iconic names within metro Detroit’s restaurant scene, Muer died peacefully in his sleep on August 11, according to an online obituary.
Muer was especially known for the eponymous Joe Muer’s seafood restaurant started by his grandfather, Joseph F. Muer, who in 1929 turned part of his cigar factory on Gratiot Avenue in Detroit into Joe Muer’s oyster bar.
The longtime restaurant on Gratiot, according to the obituary, was “noted across North America, written up in Japan Air Lines, the Wall Street Journal, Ford Times, AAA Tour Guide, Fortune Magazine, and surprisingly listed in Vincent Price’s Gourmet Dining Association.”
Iconic Detroit restaurateur Joe Muer, shown in 2011, was known for wearing bowties. He died Aug. 11 at age 88.
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Joe Muer’s, often cited as one of Detroit’s greatest restaurants, operated on Gratiot at Vernor for decades.
It was May of 1998 when Muer closed the legendary and iconic Detroit restaurant. Months later an auction took place, according to a Free Press story. Hundreds of people attended for a chance to bid on many restaurant memorabilia items including Joe Muer lobster bibs and matchbooks.
A 1993 Free Press profile story called Muer a “high-energy man with a unique stretch of interests: He is restaurateur, civic leader, philanthropist, friend, family man and sportsman.
Muer was well-known for always sporting a bow tie.
“I guess I wear them because my father wore them and my grandfather wore them. It’s tradition. I have 133 bow ties … I counted them the other day,” Muer, 49 at the time, said in a 1986 Free Press interview.
Film producer Keith Famie said Muer was “by far one of Detroits greatest restaurateur ambassadors that is partly responsible for our rich culinary heritage here in the Motorcity.”
“But Joe was far more than the dapper bow tie gentleman that would make all of those who dined at his restaurant feel like they were eating at his kitchen table at home. He was also a mentor and friend to all who found ourselves behind the kitchen door “ wrote Famie in an email to the Free Press.
Sailing was also a favorite of Muer’s, according to the 1986 Free Press profile, who participated in more than a dozen Mackinac races.
In 2011, Joe Vicari, well-known metro Detroit restaurateur and owner of the Joe Vicari Restaurant Group (formerly Andiamo Restaurant Group), bought the Joe Muer Seafood name, logo, recipes and other rights. Vicari, a friend of Muer, brought back Joe Muer’s Seafood Restaurant in 2011, opening a location inside Detroit’s Renaissance Center.
“Joe Muer the brand and the person is an iconic brand and iconic guy,” Vicari said.
The Joe Muer’s seafood restaurant on Gratiot Avenue in Detroit before it was closed and torn down.
When Vicari first got in partnership with Muer, part of the deal, he said, was that for the first five years Muer would come to the Joe Muer’s Seafood at Detroit’s Renaissance Center restaurant on weekends to greet and talk to people.
“The first two years it was like a rock star coming into the restaurant… people were just falling all over him and just had so many fond memories of the original Joe Muer’s,” Vicari said. “It was eye-opening to me that after so many years, people still appreciated the Joe Muer brand. People were just thrilled to see him.”
A Joe Muer Seafood in Bloomfield Hills opened in 2017 and, more recently, the restaurant group expanded the brand out-of-state in 2023, opening a Nashville, Tennessee location.
Owner Joe Muer Jr. and waiter Melvin Fields check an order before it leaves the kitchen at Joe Muer’s in 1988.
More recently, Muer is featured in the trailer of the under-production documentary film, Detroit: City of Chefs. The documentary, produced by film producer and chef, Keith Famie due out later this year, reflects on metro Detroit chefs, restaurant owners and operators who have impacted or played a major role Detroit’s culinary scene.
The Muer name has been part of Detroit and metro Detroit’s culinary lineage for decades
Muer’s brother Chuck Muer was also a prominent restaurateur who founded the C. A. Muer Restaurant Group, which was bought by Landry’s, a multi-brand hospitality company, in the early 2000s. Chuck Muer was lost at sea during a March 1993 storm along with his wife, Betty, and friends George and Lynn Drummey while sailing in the Bahamas.
According to his online obituary from Staffan-Mitchell Funeral Home in Chelsea, Joe Muer Jr. is survived by his wife of 53 years, Jane Sielaff Muer; his three children, Joseph W. Muer III, Molly Ann (Dennis) Baran, Hans Thomas (Victoria) Muer; grandchildren, Hans Dennis (Melissa) Baran, Christopher Joseph Baran, and Corbin Edward (Halle) Baran; great-granddaughter, Rollin Claire Baran; and great-grandson, Beau Edward Baran.
A private celebration of Muer’s life will take place at a later date, according to the obituary.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Famed Detroit restauranteur Joe Muer Jr. dies at 88
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Publish date : 2024-08-18 10:21:00
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