Transforming Community: The Detroit Shipping Company's Journey Through Culture and Connection

What if the key to community transformation lies in shipping containers? Meet John, the visionary who turned a patchwork of metal boxes into the Detroit Shipping Company, a bustling hub of culture, art, and community in the heart of Detroit. Journey with us through John's inspiring story of resilience, moving from a nomadic childhood with a single mom to becoming the entrepreneurial force behind this unique space. Discover how John's values of connection over material wealth have shaped a place that is not just a business but a vital part of a thriving neighborhood with a shifting identity. 

This episode also serves up a smorgasbord of community events and ventures that celebrate the fusion of cultures through food and entertainment. From the festive energy of Noel Nights in Midtown to the delicious offerings at the Lansing Shuffle food hall, we explore the vibrant spirit of these community gatherings. We share the charming history of the New Dodge Lounge in Hamtramck and its legendary farewell message. As we wind back to the Detroit Shipping Company, feel the pulse of local art and music, highlighted by the sounds of the Whiskey Charmers, and look forward to future events like Detroit's First Fridays. 

https://linktr.ee/ManCaveHappyHour

www.ManCaveHappyHour.com

Jamie Flanagan @DJJamieDetroit

Matt Fox @fox_beazlefox

Merch www.WearingFunny.com

Chapters

• 0:02 Detroit Shipping Company
• 11:38 Event Updates and Hamtramck History
• 17:59 Detroit Shipping Company Highlights and Future

Transcript

Jamie Flanagan: 0:02

I said, hey, hey, welcome to the man Cave Happy.

August Gitschlag: 0:07

Hour. I said hey, hey, welcome to the man Cave Happy Hour.

Jamie Flanagan: 0:16

We're going to drink a fine whiskey and smoke a really fine cigar really fine cigar. It is time for Happy Hour, the man Cave Happy Hour whiskey, cigar, spirits and stories that go along with it. I'm Jamie Flanagan. That over here is August Gitschlag.

August Gitschlag: 0:34

Hey, I'm here. I'm actually here for the whole show this time. You made it, yeah, I made it.

Jamie Flanagan: 0:40

You guys weren't here so I just started without you. Well, you know you got to get while the getting's good. There was a man with some brilliant bourbon. He had good stuff Ready to go and I was like all right, game on, let's do some bourbon.

August Gitschlag: 0:50

I was crawling in my car and then I had to. Like you know, I drove to Hamtramck because I had nothing. But isn't tonight the Detroit tree letting no-transcript? I knew this was going to be such a heavily attended event. The parking was going to be like a S-show, shit show. I can swear on my own podcast.

Jamie Flanagan: 1:16

Yeah, sure.

August Gitschlag: 1:17

And yeah, so here I am. I made that's all that matters.

Jamie Flanagan: 1:21

And we are in the Detroit Shipping Company, inside the Detroit Podcasting Company, podcasting the man Cave Happy Hour with the owner of the Detroit Shipping Company, john. Welcome to man Cave.

Jon Hartzell: 1:33

Hey John, hey guys.

Jamie Flanagan: 1:35

I don't think we've had you on the man Cave before.

Jon Hartzell: 1:37

No, have you been on any of the podcasts in here prior? Prior? I went on almost every podcast.

Jamie Flanagan: 1:45

This isn't new for you, is what you're saying I hope not.

August Gitschlag: 1:48

Here's one for you, John. How did you do on Tranny Town?

Jamie Flanagan: 1:51

Oh, that was a popular one out here. John, tell me about your childhood.

Jon Hartzell: 1:56

My childhood Wonderful.

Jamie Flanagan: 1:57

Grew up with a single mom.

Jon Hartzell: 1:58

You grew up with a single mom.

Jamie Flanagan: 2:00

I grew up with a single mom. Oh, okay, hey.

Jon Hartzell: 2:06

I like it. Yeah, moved to a new town every year. Nice Just got evicted from a place and moved somewhere new. All right, interesting childhood to watch.

Jamie Flanagan: 2:14

So but yeah, we're down here at the Detroit Shipping Company. You are an entrepreneur beyond entrepreneur and opening things and doing things and visions that come to reality, that that we're trying to do. Yeah, From the when did you get the wacky idea for the Detroit shipping company to when it opened the doors and poured his first pint. How long did that take?

Jon Hartzell: 2:34

I think, most wacky ideas.

Jon Hartzell: 2:35

You don't know what the idea you have, so it's always hard to find that, that that first flicker of light. But maybe you like start trickling through a really shitty film where the guy tries to explain it by kicking through too much stuff really quickly. So like in your brain and that kick through, you're like, hey, when I was 12, as I joked about having a single mom and growing up in new place, everywhere it was re. It's a real story and sorry about that. It's a real story.

Jon Hartzell: 3:05

But you quickly learn when you see all your goods as a child being thrown in a dumpster that there's no value to thing but relationship that continues, because that's all that stays with you is relationships around you. And so at some point, going through that life and history, you want to create something substantial to the world around that people can say that person did that right, right, and so, like some, some legacy and longevity. So somewhere in that flicker of light of saying when the start of something is good, luck trying to figure out the real maturation of that, because you start forming it so much further ahead of the moment you think you formed it.

August Gitschlag: 3:38

John, you didn't know, none of us are licensed. We cannot actually help.

Jamie Flanagan: 3:44

That's about the shipping company.

August Gitschlag: 3:45

We're gonna put this together, but I get it, but I get it and I love the the that there is more than just hey, I want to make money, so there's a spot and I saw something on the internet and I did it. Yeah, that there's more to it than that and that's amazing yeah, community, and that that's the word.

Jamie Flanagan: 4:03

It's, it's community, it and that's the. That's the important thing is, uh, building community and having community that's uh, and this place really is uh, uh, just a foothold in this community because you guys are where the detroit shipping company is is a, it's a little bit of a, a lost boys. It's kind of like mid ground. Oh, you're too North to be this, you're too South to be that.

August Gitschlag: 4:28

Yeah, but you're so important to this community.

Jamie Flanagan: 4:30

There's so many people in this community.

Jon Hartzell: 4:31

What is this neighborhood called Detroit?

August Gitschlag: 4:33

gives a neighborhood name to everything.

Jon Hartzell: 4:34

Yeah, depends who you're asking, right? So Sue the matriarch of all Midtown for 30 years, wonderful, wonderful person. I'd be damned if you don't call that Midtown. I worked too hard for that to not be Midtown? Okay, older locals would call it Cass Quarter.

August Gitschlag: 4:52

Cass Quarter right.

Jon Hartzell: 4:54

Olympia called it North Cass Park for a short period of time oh there's a third iteration of trying to solve what it is. We'll let it define around us. It was.

August Gitschlag: 5:04

GSC town. You're not Midtown, you're not Cass Quarter. That's Old Miami area, that's down there. They change neighborhoods in Detroit by literally an intersection, that's right, by what they call a neighborhood of houses. This business district is different. It's a different area. I call it Masonic, whatever you want to call it.

Jon Hartzell: 5:25

That would be more intuitive. Call district is different, it's a different area. I call it masonic. Whatever you want to call, you know more, more into call it temple. Yeah, you know whatever, but when we temple bar, yeah, yeah, when we bought, we were three blocks in every direction, dark. There's no lights on nothing except for the peterborough next door peterborough, which is my good buddy chuck.

August Gitschlag: 5:38

I've known chuck since the old lush days.

Jon Hartzell: 5:39

Great guy, great guy and uh, that was it though. So like weren't sure, were we 15 years ahead in the future? Were we five years? We didn't know how quickly things would curl over Grow to you, then you don't know.

August Gitschlag: 5:50

But you're also surrounded by those illish properties and those Olympia properties. You never know what promises are going to happen. That's right, and I worked on some of those deals in economic development. You never know. Hopefully with the standard in the in the ross companies, it's actually going to happen now. But god, those.

Jamie Flanagan: 6:10

That's crazy, because you probably expected things to have been shooting up, so let me ask the question years ago, right after you bought this place, this actual location.

August Gitschlag: 6:14

What was it about this location that made you want to do this?

Jon Hartzell: 6:19

so our. Originally, when I decided I was going to do something in detroit, it wasn't necessarily a food hall, I just wanted to invest in the city of Detroit. I had an office in Birmingham. My business was on the freeways across Michigan, ohio, indiana. I was working at a company that would remodel and reface corporate restaurants.

Jamie Flanagan: 6:39

PF.

Jon Hartzell: 6:39

Chang's, Chili's Red Lobster, Tim Hortons. There was no soul in that work, though, and I really didn't like it.

Jamie Flanagan: 6:45

And I lived in.

Jon Hartzell: 6:45

Beverly Hills and I worked in Birmingham and, through a lot of discussions and people, I wasn't. I was just as much of a problem as anyone else. I wasn't investing in the downtown area, right, and my aunt had a son in Japan and Seattle and so I have to travel the world to see my kids because we didn't have a strong, vibrant downtown so they left the area that we talked about earlier. I have four boys and I was like, oh, that sounds like a terrible feature. And so I convinced about six friends at a table drinking whiskey down in New Orleans at a bachelor party that there was an architect and there was a marketing guy and a finance guy and a contractor. I said let's do something in the city of Detroit just to give back. Give me your money, give me your skill, give me your time, give me something. And so I started splunkering through town, all the neighborhoods, climbing through building windows, figuring out what kind of assets were everywhere, who's renting, who's buying, who's?

August Gitschlag: 7:37

moving where, and this is about what year?

Jon Hartzell: 7:39

2015. Okay, yeah, yeah, maybe 14-ish that range, gotcha, you were 12 then right, I was 12.

Jamie Flanagan: 7:46

Yeah, okay, just want to make sure.

Jon Hartzell: 7:48

So originally landed in Corktown between Detroit Athletic Company and Corktown Tavern. There's a vacant lot right there, okay, and it was listed on like a paper listing on the pole it was like $300,000. It content on the poll it was like three hundred thousand dollars. It was ten thousand square feet and loved it. Um, negotiated with the owner for a good six to eight weeks. We already, by the time we don't then negotiate, design the whole thing. It's gonna be 10 containers open air, two stories it. We loved it, just loved everything about it. And then week nine, she's like I'm going on a cruise but I don't know if I want to sell this to you anymore. I might sell it to my nephew, like what?

Jon Hartzell: 8:23

And then she came back and she decided to sell it to her nephew.

August Gitschlag: 8:25

I was like okay, so do you know what her nephew did? What is on that space now?

Jon Hartzell: 8:30

It is vacant land.

August Gitschlag: 8:33

Parking lot.

Jon Hartzell: 8:45

So I freaked out and, um, I, I, I, there was a what's the parking lot now as well? Just, uh, south, I think that's the direction towards the river, from uh to james, to underneath uh by roosevelt park, underneath the train. That space yeah, the parking lot is there was vacant land. Then I I sent an application to the city saying, hey, I'd love to put a shipping container place here in the the shipyard pitch. Three weeks later I get this call back saying unfortunately it's tied up with another development coming which was a parking lot. Um, but you know why?

Jon Hartzell: 9:07

we got this place. Well then, it wasn't even that. It was even dumber. It was like hey, even dumber why don't you send me some more applications? Just why don't you come to your office and just we'll go through database? No, it's an application. So I spent friday to sunday I think I sent 80 applications, like I'm gonna show this a-hole yeah, instead of saying how about.

Jon Hartzell: 9:25

I go to your office, you go on your gis, you show me what I can and can't work with right which actually burnt me in the ass because, because, uh, for the next six months I got phone calls from random people in departments hey, uh, do you want this land? Still, no, I'm working with your company. Who's my company?

Jamie Flanagan: 9:40

detroit a-hole hello. Left hand say hello to right hand so

Jon Hartzell: 9:45

anyways, when I was doing all this splunkering, I thought midtown was out of my price range because every building was way overpriced. But I hadn't been. All the roxbury was running through it, going nuts with that, and I hadn't been looking at land, yeah and uh, people kept saying you need to talk to sue mosey and as a new person in town, you don't know anyone who's whatever.

Jon Hartzell: 10:05

And on my social feed, this vignette popped up and it was a cartoon character of Dan Gilbert. Then it was him talking. The next cartoon was Sue, then her, Then the next one was the mayor. So I was like, ooh, that's the pecking order, she's someone. So I took a phone call with her and said I'd like to bring this to town and if you've ever been on a great, greatest car ride you'll ever be on, she'll drive you block for block and she'll tell you who owns what, how much they're investing, who's an a-hole who's real, who's speculating.

August Gitschlag: 10:37

I know that feeling. I did it with you. Were driving, weren't you? No, I was driving. And they're saying this is who owns this and this is what you can do here. This is who owns this. This is how this is zoned, but she had all of this to work with.

Jon Hartzell: 10:50

I just had a tiny little hamster hammock to work with. Yeah, so she pointed two sites out. Water Department owns a little parcel over here off MLK, between 2nd and Woodward, which I can tell you a story about that later.

August Gitschlag: 11:04

What Chris Rock say about any town that has MLK Boulevard. It's the worst neighborhood in town dog Shit's going down on MLK Boulevard.

Jamie Flanagan: 11:15

I like it, so we're here and there's always something fun going on. Tonight is Whiskey in the Winter. It's hardly winter, it's just so we're here and it's it's. There's always something fun going on. Tonight is whiskey in the winter and we're uh, we're it's hardly winter it's just finally gotten cold I know the second cold day of the year. I'm go, I'm cool.

August Gitschlag: 11:29

So the fourth quarter of that football game reminded me what winter looks like last night but that blizzard and the uh, the cleveland

Jamie Flanagan: 11:34

pittsburgh game was fun, but uh, that was great. All kinds of great stuff going on, it's. Uh tell us we have coming up what's going on in John?

August Gitschlag: 11:39

you've got to tell us what you have coming up. What's going on in this space?

Jon Hartzell: 11:44

Well, Noel Nights is coming up.

August Gitschlag: 11:45

Yes, okay, which?

Jon Hartzell: 11:46

Midtown lights up for the whole community. It's a great night.

Jamie Flanagan: 11:52

It's the after party for Funky Friday.

August Gitschlag: 11:55

That's your little DJ night yeah.

Jamie Flanagan: 11:57

You've got to put it in there. So Noel Nights is kind of the after party for Funky Friday.

August Gitschlag: 12:00

Yes, wonderful, you got to put it in there. So Noel night's kind of the after party, noel night is a can I've done many a Noel night, so it's wonderful.

Jamie Flanagan: 12:03

Oh my God, that's it. The city blows up for that. Yeah, love it, it's a good way.

Jon Hartzell: 12:08

That's a big event and, just generally, we're constantly open. We're constantly opening new restaurants Taquitos.

August Gitschlag: 12:16

AF, which is a new vendor coming in.

Jon Hartzell: 12:17

I own a food hall in Lansing and they're my Lansing local connection.

August Gitschlag: 12:22

What's the name of it? Talk about it. You're here, you're on it. Is it a container system as well? It's not just downtown Detroit that listens to our podcast Lansing Shuffle is in the former farmer's market on the river. Great space. I've been there.

Jon Hartzell: 12:36

In downtown Lansing, right by the convention center and Lugnet Stadium, nice, we have seven food vendors there. We actually it's lansing shuffle, so we built the whole pavilion with ground shuffleboard.

Jamie Flanagan: 12:46

Yeah, I love it. Okay, I love the niche. Yeah, oh yeah, yeah.

Jon Hartzell: 12:48

So 15 years ago I was down in orlando for a trade show and the group I brought down ages from like 60 sidewalks in florida are made of shuffle from 65 to 20 was our group and we were going down like a little clubhouse in the condo space to just grab a drink and then go out to the bars.

Jon Hartzell: 13:07

But they had a few shuffleboard courts and a blending machine and four hours later, I mean shirts are off and we're just drinking margaritas and shuffling. It was awesome. I was like I got to build this Good, good, good, that's great, love it.

Jon Hartzell: 13:20

So anyways, taquitos AF. They're my Lansing local group there. It's great. Two Hispanic families. It's interesting. We always think America's a melting pot, but the world's a melting pot and cuisine and regional, even in other countries. Oh, you're eating French food? Yeah, but which region of France are you eating? The same thing for Mexico. So taquitos AF is awesome. It's a family from East coast to West coast and they they combined and like, and part of the food is kind of playful, like one coast I don't recall which coast, but one coast of Mexico will eat cactus, the other won't. So I was doing a food tasting with them and the guy flew his grandma in, which was awesome, and they brought out the salsa with cactus in it.

August Gitschlag: 14:02

Cactus eater. Exactly, they're either Amish or not Amish.

Jon Hartzell: 14:06

What is this and the other guy's like don't eat that I love it. Great family. I love that they come to Detroit and the actual operators are all from Lansing and their best friend had moved to Colorado. They just moved him back.

August Gitschlag: 14:25

And he's gonna be operating that space, so I'm super excited to get that. So we have lansing shuffle, we have noel knight. What do you have going on in hamtramck? You know it's near and dear to my heart, love it. All of our listeners know I'm a hamtramck junkie. It's my spot, I love it. I own new dodge lounge a new dog.

Jon Hartzell: 14:33

I have a history in that place, like 25 years.

August Gitschlag: 14:36

Quite the history in there. Great people I know know Kathy very, very well.

Jon Hartzell: 14:41

I've been offered to do a lot of things in my life. I stayed in Kathy.

August Gitschlag: 14:45

Gordon's condo in Cancun in 1998.

Jon Hartzell: 14:49

She was only 80 then.

August Gitschlag: 14:51

Yes, she was only 80 then.

Jamie Flanagan: 14:54

Yes, just a mere sprite.

August Gitschlag: 14:55

That's how long I've known.

Jon Hartzell: 14:57

Kathy Gordon, love it, love it. So anyways, she was closing down, she couldn't buy. Find a buyer um the man, uh, john, who owns amici I know, mr grassy yeah, was gonna take it down, and then, uh, he actually owns some rental properties randomly.

August Gitschlag: 15:13

I keep smashing your things but I look better when I keep moving on the camera.

Jon Hartzell: 15:16

He owns rental properties in hamtramck and and john's a good man. The girl who does all my programming lives in one of them and they were talking he's like I need an operator.

August Gitschlag: 15:24

What's it called A disco? Disco walls, disco walls that's the place.

Jon Hartzell: 15:28

Yes, yeah, and, and so she's like we should call it John Hartzell. And so he called me and he's like, hey, when partner from you or I'll buy it. So, uh, he hung up and calling back goes I want you to buy it, I just want a good person to own it oh nice, which is great.

August Gitschlag: 15:44

My favorite part of the space now is where she wrote what she wrote. Good luck bitch. Good luck, bitch, and like, mark her on the wall and you guys left that there with a frame around it or whatever it's so good, I love that.

Jon Hartzell: 15:57

I wish it was her, it was us, because it would be great if I was her.

August Gitschlag: 16:01

I thought she had written it on the way out.

Jon Hartzell: 16:03

We get inquired for weddings at Shipco all the time, and so we always pitch them that we'll do a shot called Good Luck Bitch for you, and then we open that place. I just love the idea.

August Gitschlag: 16:12

So that's the myth buster right there.

Jon Hartzell: 16:13

Because in the hand ceramic lore she wrote Good Luck Bitch.

August Gitschlag: 16:17

As she walked out the door the last time. They should keep that lore.

Jon Hartzell: 16:20

I don't want to steal that. That's what the lore was.

August Gitschlag: 16:22

Kathy wrote that in a marker and then you guys sprayed it over it to put it there oh, I love that and then immortalized it on the way out.

Jamie Flanagan: 16:28

I don't want to ruin that. I'll keep that. We'll edit that out and put it.

Jon Hartzell: 16:33

That's a myth. So actually, yeah, we did an event. It was just kind of steady. The biggest thing I ever had was a $2,000 night, nothing special. I don't recall whose charity. It was Really good family. They were doing a charity for one of the brothers who had cancer.

August Gitschlag: 16:50

That's the Lily's family. That's Lily's family, the people that used to own Lily's Mike Kowalski.

Jon Hartzell: 16:56

They brought out Polish Muslims and all that. We sent all our staff there, which is all three people We've and all that, and so we sent all our staff there, which is all three people.

Jamie Flanagan: 17:04

Because we've never needed more than that. Probably needed 15 people.

Jon Hartzell: 17:04

They bought out all the beer. My brother is calling me. He's running to the store. I drove up with several cases of beer. Nothing you could do was solved. They were just blowing it up. But I think the whole crowd believed that that was Kathy's.

August Gitschlag: 17:18

Yes, they all believe it's Kathy. Everyone believes it's Kathy.

Jon Hartzell: 17:20

Yes, they all believe it's.

August Gitschlag: 17:21

Kathy Everyone believes it's Kathy my favorite story about the old lilies. And now we'll. There's a day that Bruce Springsteen walked in there. This is the place where Iggy Pop and David Bowie hung out back in the 70s.

Jon Hartzell: 17:31

David Bowie went through his.

August Gitschlag: 17:32

Ypsilanti phase. He wrote Gene Genie and they would go to Lily's in Hamtramck and they brought this guy named Bruce Springsteen. He goes. No, you look like trouble. Wouldn't let him in, bruce Springsteen in like 1977.

Jamie Flanagan: 17:48

Yeah, he did look like trouble. He had them baggy pants and the floppy hat. Oh man, he needed to go.

Jon Hartzell: 17:56

I feel bad. I ruined a good lore.

Jamie Flanagan: 17:59

But the Detroit Shipping Company is on all the socials and just google. Detroit shipping company yeah, there's there's art here, there's music there, there's food, local art it's local musicians community and it that.

August Gitschlag: 18:12

That is it, john. You can pick some of that music up in the background right now yeah, yep, it's.

Jamie Flanagan: 18:15

Uh. Whiskey charmers are good stuff. They were on uh I'm a podcast whore.

August Gitschlag: 18:19

One of my other podcasts I've done. They've been guests, so yes, so, yeah, it's uh.

Jamie Flanagan: 18:24

John, thanks for doing what you do in uh, in the city and and here in the shipping company and and allowing us to do. You know, can't wait to see you first fridays honestly, I cannot wait to see what you do next in the city of detroit, but yeah, in flames so uh, but uh yeah so thanks, thanks for being in the man cave and thanks for throwing a hell of a party and we're going to talk tequila in a minute.

August Gitschlag: 18:44

Well, hang on, hang on hang on. Are we doing separate episodes here? Yeah, yeah, yeah, All right, then you know what You're Jamie Flanagan.

Jamie Flanagan: 18:50

Oh that's Matt Fox, that's August Gitschleg and this is Man Cave Happy Hour. We'll see you again soon.