Otus Supply announces abrupt closure after six years in Ferndale

FERNDALE — A popular Ferndale restaurant and music venue has shut its doors permanently.

Otus Supply, located at 345 E. Nine Mile Road, announced in a Facebook post Feb. 27 that it would be closing for good effective immediately.

“We will be closing our doors to our wonderful, beautiful establishment,” the post states. “We thank each and every one of you for the years of patronage. From the togetherness, great food, cocktails and live music, we’ve been able to supply to all of you we are so very thankful. To our amazing staff, we’ve been able to build out of COVID-19, we sincerely apologize and wish you nothing but the best in your futures. No one knows what the future holds, but this is goodbye for now.”

The restaurant, opened in December 2016 by Scott Myrick and Thom Bloom, offered a diverse food and cocktail menu for patrons to experience.

It also had a music space known as The Parliament Room, described by the establishment’s website as a “pulsating heartbeat in the national music scene while becoming the first home for Jam, Jamtronica, Americana, Bluegrass, Funk, Folk and New Orleans Brass in the Greater Detroit Area.”

A number of musicians who performed in The Parliament Room commented on Otus Supply’s closure on its Facebook post.

“Otus Supply will always be a special place in my (heart) for me,” said Ali McManus. “My release party was one of the best packed Magical Unbreakable nights of my life! … Thank you all and best of luck (with) what comes next!”

“So sorry to hear of this,” Joshua Meyer said. “Played there several times including just earlier this month and have always appreciated and been grateful for the Otus teams professionalism and hospitality — on behalf of Leaving Lifted, a big thank you to the entire crew at Otus for everything and all the very best for the future. Hoping it’s just a goodbye for now, not forever.”

Though the Downtown Development Authority doesn’t get involved with closures of this nature, Executive Director Lena Stevens knows decisions like this are tough ones for businesses to make.

“It’s difficult any time we lose a business,” she said. “We know they’re incredibly hard decisions that are made by business owners when they go through these processes. So, you know, we empathize a lot with that. Certainly the loss of an entertainment venue is something to be noticed. You know, we always want to keep a nice mix in downtown for entertainment, retail, restaurant. So losing a music venue like this absolutely is something notable for us.”

Attempts to reach a representative from Otus Supply were unsuccessful at press time.