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GROSSE POINTE WOODS — An Italian restaurant that’s been feeding decades of happy diners is closing its doors at the end of the month.
Ferlito’s Restaurant at 20745 Mack Ave. will be serving its final dine-in customers on Sunday, June 29. The restaurant isn’t open on Mondays.
“A lot of emotion went into it,” owner and chef Joshua Mowen said of the decision to close.
Mowen purchased Ferlito’s from the Ferlito family in 2015. Prior to taking over the eatery, Mowen started working there as a teenager — first as a dishwasher, then as a prep cook. He considered a career in engineering as he started college, but pivoted to the culinary arts, where he found his real passion.
“I grew up eating (here) too,” said Mowen, who grew up in the Harper Woods area and remembers dining at Ferlito’s before he ever worked there.
The decision to close came down to the cost of updating the building, which Mowen estimated is about 60 years old.
“As much love as we’ve put into this place, time has taken its toll,” Mowen wrote on the restaurant’s Facebook page. “The building that’s home to so many memories is showing its age in ways we simply can’t afford to keep up with. The repairs are too big, too constant, and too costly for us to carry any longer. Many tears, frustration and sleepless nights have been felt by this small building. It breaks our hearts, but we know the spirit of Ferlito’s has never just been in the walls or floors. It’s been in the people who filled the seats, the laughter, the celebrations, the staff who gave their all, some of them for the past 25 years. That’s something that no amount of wear and tear on an aging building can take away.”
Ferlito’s was originally called Carmen’s Restaurant when it opened in the Woods roughly 60 years ago. Owner Tony Ferlito sold it to his brother, Joe, and sister-in-law, Toni Ferlito, in 1980. When Joe Ferlito died in 1991, Toni’s youngest child, son Benny, stepped in to help his mom run the restaurant. In an interview with the Grosse Pointe Times in 2005, Benny Ferlito remembered his grandma preparing sauces and soups from scratch, while one of his aunts made the restaurant’s famous pies.
The Ferlito family recipes — including those for meat sauce and marinara sauce that date back more than 100 years — were adopted by Mowen when he took the reins, so that he could keep those traditions alive. The pies, however, haven’t been on the menu since the woman who made them retired, which was around the time Mowen acquired the restaurant.
Mowen — whose mother is of Sicilian heritage like the Ferlito family — grew up eating similar dishes at home, so making the Ferlito family favorites was a natural progression.
On her Instagram page, Sheryl Ferlito posted a picture of Mowen June 18 and wrote, “For the last decade, Josh did the family proud taking ownership of Ferlito’s Restaurant! Almost 50 years ago, Uncle Tony owned Carmen’s Restaurant. In 1980, Joe and Toni Ferlito bought Carmen’s and changed the name to Ferlito’s a few years later.”
Sheryl Ferlito is the daughter-in-law of Toni Ferlito, who died in 2021 at the age of 86.
Customers are saddened by the news about Ferlito’s.
“The food is wonderful,” said Karen Jiles, of Macomb Township.
Mike Ovorus, of Brighton, echoed that sentiment, saying the food “is excellent, top-notch.”
“We’ve been coming here almost 40 years,” Ovorus said.
He said he has family members who live on the West Coast who always stop at Ferlito’s whenever they’re in town.
“I remember riding my bike past here as a kid,” Ovorus said.
Many customers have similarly been enjoying meals at Ferlito’s for years.
While they won’t still have the experience of sitting down at a table or one of the restaurant’s cozy booths, the dishes diners have come to love over the years will still be available. On March 4, Mowen opened Ferlito’s Pizzeria at 22910 Harper Ave. in St. Clair Shores — at Nine Mile Road. The storefront offers carryout only. At press time, Mowen said they were selling pasta, pizza, ribs, chicken and ravioli, as well as desserts by local favorites like the Chocolate Bar Café. Mowen hopes to move equipment from the Grosse Pointe Woods location to the Shores soon so they’ll be able to offer a full menu.
Mowen said that after the pandemic, the demand for carryouts spiked by about 50%, and that’s a trend that has continued in the years since. Where he once had two waitstaff members during the week and three on weekends, that’s down to one during the week and two on weekends.
“At the end of the day, it comes down to (the fact that) the times have changed,” Mowen said of the trend toward people getting carryouts. “It’s unfortunate, because you lose that personal touch. You lose that hospitality that chefs love.”
Mowen plans to retain most of the kitchen staff — two of whom have been with the restaurant for more than 20 years — but said he is heartbroken that he doesn’t have work for his waitstaff, one of whom has been with Ferlito’s for about 25 years.
He said he’s going to miss the longtime customers he’s met and talked to along the way.
“I’ve got a lot of families I’ve seen grow up over the last 10 years,” said Mowen, a father himself to an 11-year-old and an 8-year-old.
That community connection extends to giving an estimated $30,000 worth of food and donations to local schools, churches, public safety departments, nonprofits and more. Mowen plans to continue supporting these entities in the future, with a focus on those in the Pointes and St. Clair Shores.
“I feel like the Grosse Pointe-St. Clair Shores community is a little woven (together),” Mowen said of the cities, which border each other and share a Lake St. Clair shoreline.
Mowen — who finally got a liquor license for Ferlito’s in 2019 from Grosse Pointe Woods officials, after years of attempts by the Ferlito family — will retain that license after the restaurant closes, but he can only transfer it to another location in the Woods, per an agreement he signed with the city. He said he’d like to open another sit-down restaurant in the future, if possible, but is looking for a newer building.
“I’m always going to keep my eyes and ears open,” Mowen said.
