Longtime Sportsmen's Den restaurant in Riverview sold, new owner plans remodel

A family-owned restaurant that has served the Downriver community of Riverview for decades has been closed and sold to new owners.

The Sportsmen’s Den, operated by the Orlando family for more than four decades, is being sold to local restaurateur Jeremy Syrocki, who owns numerous Downriver restaurants, including Truago, the newly opened Mamacitas, Rocky’s Roadhouse in Trenton, Major Biddle’s in Wyandotte and Lloyds on Grosse Ile. Syrocki's restaurants employ about 200 people.

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Oct. 6 was the last day for the Sportsmen's Den and its Friday-night live entertainment.

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Commonly referred to as “the Den,” the restaurant was opened in May 1979 by Joe Orlando and the late Richard Oliver. Several years later, Orlando’s late brother, Jim, and sister, Lena Susin, joined the business.

After 44 years in business, Joe Orlando said he has “had a great run” and will miss the customers.

“In all the years we’ve been open, we have had the greatest customers,” Orlando said. “I had a saying that our customers were guests of the Sportsmen’s Den and we treated them as family. We also had a great staff and many longtime employees. “

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The restaurant is next door to the city-owned and -operated 27-hole Riverview Highlands golf course. In 2000, the family built the Wedding Chapel on the Green and, about six months later, the 400-person capacity Orlando Familia Banquet Center. (Full disclosure, my husband and I were the first couple married at the chapel 23 years ago and had a reception at the Sportsmen’s Den.)

The restaurant was known for its menu of Italian fare and bar food as well as its Easter, Mother’s Day, and Thanksgiving buffets that drew more than 500 reservations.

Before the pandemic, the restaurant was known for its all-you-can-eat Friday night fish fry.

On Friday nights during Lent, there was often a line of customers waiting for tables. For more than 25 years, there was live music by Danny Wild and the Tender Years band and dancing on Friday and Saturday nights.

The Sportsmen's Den scaled back its days of operation to Wednesday-Friday after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Of selling the business to Syrocki, Orlando said he couldn’t have gotten a better person to take over the restaurant.

“He’s been a success wherever he’s been Downriver, and I know he will be very successful,” Orlando said. “ I will be honored to come in after he opens and be a guest of his.”

The restaurant will undergo some renovations and a menu revamp, Syrocki said, with plans to reopen by December.

"The restaurant is going to be casual and my style of food but something different from Major Biddle’s and Truago," Syrocki said. "I am thinking about a good artisan pizza menu and standard bar food.”

The restaurant’s name will change and is not yet finalized.

Syrocki’s brother and sister-in-law, Jeff and Christine Syrocki, will be the operating partners of the restaurant. They also operate Major Biddle’s.

Syrocki has plans to remodel the Chapel on the Green and provide a big outdoor wedding area that can seat up to 400.

One | Nine Weddings and Events Center is the new name for the banquet facility. Syrocki said the plan is to update and change where Orlando left off.

"The banquet hall will be the draw with a wedding venue and events," Syrocki said. “This is big for me. This is what I‘ve been trying to get into. I know the event business as well as I know the restaurant business.”

While they already have events booked and are actively booking events, Syrocki said none of the planned and future events will be disrupted by remodel work as it will take place in between events.

"One of the things — a good twist — is banquets died during the pandemic and are now rebounding," Syrocki said. Maybe it's another sign that everything is getting back to normal.

Contact Detroit Free Press food and restaurant writer Susan Selasky and send food and restaurant news and tips to: sselasky@freepress.com. Follow @SusanMariecooks on Twitter. Subscribe to the Free Press.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Downriver restaurant popular for fish and chips, live music closes