Out with the old, in with the new

 

It didn’t take very long to reduce the former Burning Oak Smokehouse building to a heap of rubble. Photos by C.J. Carnacchio.
It didn’t take very long to reduce the former Burning Oak Smokehouse building to a heap of rubble. Photos by C.J. Carnacchio.

A local landmark vanished from the Oxford landscape Monday as the building located at 595 N. Lapeer Rd. was quickly reduced to a pile of rubble. Originally built as the Long Branch Saloon, it opened in July 1980. It was eventually sold to Mr. B’s Restaurant Group and reopened in 1997 as Mr. B’s Oxford Roadhouse.

In April 2000, the building became Kalloway’s Restaurant and Pub. That closed in December 2008. The building sat vacant until it was sold in November 2009 and re-opened as Chardonnay. In 2013, Chardonnay was transformed into the Burning Oak Smokehouse, a BBQ joint that closed last year.

The 2.72-acre site that the two-story restaurant building once occupied is now owned by PELJ Properties.

Plans are to build an 11,000-square-foot strip mall on the site.

The southern end will contain a new Leo’s Coney Island. The rest will be occupied by four other tenants.

The new owners plan to seek special use approval from the township to allow the northernmost space to operate a drive-through.

 

 

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