Mudgie's Deli damaged in early morning fire, inspectors investigating cause

Frank Witsil, Detroit Free Press
·2 min read
As seen from the back of the restaurant, a fire damaged part of Mudgie's Deli and Bar at the corner of Brooklyn and Porter Streets in Corktown on Thursday, March 10, 2022. The damage was not visible from the front side of the building.
As seen from the back of the restaurant, a fire damaged part of Mudgie's Deli and Bar at the corner of Brooklyn and Porter Streets in Corktown on Thursday, March 10, 2022. The damage was not visible from the front side of the building.

Detroit fire inspectors are looking into what caused an early morning blaze at the beloved Detroit eatery Mudgie's Deli and Wine Shop on Thursday.

The call came in at about 4:40 a.m., and firefighters didn't leave the area until about 6 a.m., an indication there was likely "a lot of damage" inside, Deputy Fire Commissioner Dave Fornell said.

He added it was too early to know much about what happened, although there were no indications of arson or foul play. It might have been caused by a stove, or wiring or something else — but that's what investigators were hoping to determine.

WDIV-TV (Channel 4) captured a few moments of early morning video of Mudgie's. It showed firefighters, police and a fire truck at the deli. A water-filled hose was attached to a hydrant.

By about 8 a.m. little damage was visible to the eatery from the outside front, but there appeared to be charring from the back.

A fire damaged part of Mudgie's Deli and Bar at the corner of Brooklyn and Porter Streets in Corktown on Thursday, March 10, 2022. The damage was not visible from the front side of the building.
A fire damaged part of Mudgie's Deli and Bar at the corner of Brooklyn and Porter Streets in Corktown on Thursday, March 10, 2022. The damage was not visible from the front side of the building.

Fornell said he had not been to the deli yet, but planned to check it later.

The Free Press left email messages with the shop managers.

Last month, the Detroit sandwich spot and wine shop was named the 2022 Restaurant of the Year Classic.

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Free Press dining and restaurant critic Lyndsay Green said the casual food eatery "looks about as dressed down as a churchgoer in flip-flops" but "has stood shoulder-to-shoulder with its white-tablecloth contemporaries."

Green described the sandwiches at Mudgie’s as artisanal.

Greg Mudge, the deli’s patriarch, died suddenly at age 46 of heart disease in early September. He started it in 2008.

Greg Mudge at his restaurant Mudgie's Deli and Wine Shop on Jan. 16, 2020.
Greg Mudge at his restaurant Mudgie's Deli and Wine Shop on Jan. 16, 2020.

Before the eatery became Mudgie’s, it was Eph McNally’s, another popular sandwich spot that opened in 1996 and was named after Ephram McNally, the grandfather of the building’s owner.

Before that, it was another deli, owned and operated by the McNally family beginning in the early ’80s. In the ’50s, it was a corned beef grocer owned by an immigrant, Tony Saliba.

Mudgie's Deli also made the prestigious James Beard Awards list as a semifinalist for 2022 for outstanding hospitality. Mudge posthumously earned the Sylvia Rector Lifetime Achievement Award for Hospitality.

Rector was a longtime Free Press restaurant critic who died in 2016 at 66.

Free Press restaurant critic Lyndsay C. Green contributed. Contact Frank Witsil: 313-222-5022 or fwitsil@freepress.com.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Mudgie's Deli in Detroit's Corktown damaged in fire