Business & Tech
Update: Dueling Piano Bar Opens in Royal Oak
526 Main, a dueling piano bar, will have the Mexican restaurant Tequila Blue on the second floor. The two businesses are aimed at the 30+ crowd.
Updated: The dueling piano bar 526 Main opened its doors Thursday night, with its owner hoping to add a new note to Royal Oak's nightlife with an entertainment bar catering to a 30-plus crowd.
Thursday's opening featured the first night of dueling piano players, starting at 8 p.m., and restaurant manager Josh Baker said there is plenty of champagne on hand as well to mark the occasion.
The bar occupies a space on the northwest corner of Sixth and Main, and will house a dueling piano bar called 526 Main on its first floor, along with Tequila Blue, an upscale Mexican restaurant and tequila bar, upstairs.
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526 Main will feature a standard American menu, including chicken dishes, filet mignon and hamburgers, with entrees ranging from $10 to $30. Musicians will be booked through Dueling Pianos International and will play Wednesday through Saturday from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m.
Tequila Blue, which will open early next week, will feature authentic Mexican cuisine, made by the former chef of Detroit’s Agave Restaurant. With 10 signature dishes, including Mexican steaks, shrimp dishes and groupers, the prices range also range from $10 to $30. After 10 p.m. on the weekends, the restaurant will turn into a nightclub-atmosphere with more than 50 different types of tequilas being poured each night.
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The two businesses for liquor license transfers in December after a delay as owners worked to by . St. Paul's had submitted paperwork against the businesses, which were proposed for the long-empty corner of the Barnes & Noble building on Main Street.
Owner Tony Kasab, no stranger to the Royal Oak scene, owns of just down the street. Kasab, along with his partners Jim Harvey and Jerry Jung, recognized the need for a location that would appeal to older age groups, rather than just the standard college crowd.
“Everything in Royal Oak is geared toward 21-year-olds; they have a lot of restaurants here but not really any entertainment for anyone that isn’t in their early 20s,” Kasab said. "Our goal is to bring in an older crowd and bring something new and fresh to the area that no one else has."
