At approximately 7 p.m. on Feb. 22, M.C. ‘Wiches served up its last sub. After 10 years, the iconic, Detroit-themed craft sandwich shop in downtown Oxford has closed its doors. But the owner, Patrick Hingst, isn’t going anywhere. In a few weeks those doors at 40 N. Washington St. will quietly reopen as Woodchips BBQ Express.
If that name sounds familiar, it’s because it is a modernized version of Hingst’s Woodchips Barbecue restaurant in Lapeer.
“We’re upgrading it, modernizing it, tweaking the concept so it’s like nothing else out there. It’ll be a great fit, a better price point for the community, more broad appeal, especially blue collar. You can go high-end fancy with it or you can do straight meat type stuff, too. I think it will be a better fit for the area.”
It’s kind of like Chipotle, but for barbecue. Here’s what you do:
Pick one of six smoked proteins. Choose how you want it — in a sandwich, burrito, quesadilla, rice bowl, rice veggie bowl, mac and cheese bowl, or by itself. Then you can add toppings and sauces.
It is completely customizable and the possibilities are endless. It even accommodates dietary restrictions like vegetarian, gluten-free and keto.
‘Wiches felt the pinch of M-24 utility work “very heavily” the last few months. The ongoing construction projects impacted the decision to make the change “to some degree.”
“We were already battling a small sales decline and then that happened unexpectedly,” Hingst said. “We didn’t really have a heads up on it. It was only supposed to be a two or three week project, and now two months it’s still going on.
“Not going to lie, as business owners, we’re scared. Something like this requires the community to rally around local businesses. I don’t know if we’re going to see that kind of rally or not here, but we’re going to see a lot of businesses close. It’s already started.”
Still, Hingst is optimistic about this new venture. “I’ve always been excited to be here in Oxford. I love the community. When I got here I knew it felt right.”
For a while, ‘Wiches had a second location in Ferndale, but that closed last year. Hingst said it all just got too complicated.
“Something I never really see the media talk about – the labor market is a disaster right now, especially for us at the lower end of the scale,” Hingst said. Finding skilled employees is nearly impossible.
“Combine that with a labor-intensive, scratch-made menu, and everything started to become way too much work.”
Hingst opened the shop when he was 27 and didn’t have kids. “I could work 100 hours a week and that was fine.” But that’s no longer viable.
He already perfected Woodchips, one of highest rated-restaurants in Lapeer, “so we’re just moving away from the more deli focused stuff. But even then, ‘Wiches is already halfway to being a barbecue restaurant. Most of my meats are smoked as is. So there’s not a whole lot of change going on.”
Through its history, the shop has continually evolved. Some are scared ‘Wiches is going away, “but if you look at what we were when we first opened, we served bagels and breakfasts and pizzas and salads and soups and a full line of desserts, over the top trying to do too much, trying to please everybody. As we’ve evolved, we’ve just tried to focus the concept more and be amazing at a couple things.”
So Hingst sees this as just the next step in the evolution. “It’s really hard to be amazing at a bread-based concept. We’re surrounded by sandwiches shops.” People tried to compare ‘Wiches to Subway or Jimmy Johns, and wondered why it was so expensive. Not everyone understood “the love and passion” that went into the scratch-made breads.
“We’re super excited for this evolution, I think it’s like what we did when we came here, we tried to give Oxford something unique. We’re no longer that unique, unfortunately, so we’re going to switch and make ourselves unique again. I eat at restaurants all the time and I’ve never encountered anything like this concept.”
Although ‘Wiches is “going on mothballs for a while,” Hingst hopes to eventually resurrect it in Detroit.
“We want to bring it back to the city proper, do it the right way, and really blow it up once we find the right location and investment partner,” he said on Fox 2 Kitchen in January.
‘M.C.’ stands for Motor City, after all.