Carryout döner from Balkan House in Hamtramck. | Brenna Houck
The restaurant has seen its business decline by roughly 40 percent
Duma Ekic was looking forward to celebrating her breakout hit restaurant Balkan House’s one-year anniversary in Hamtramck by giving away free döner kebab, but all that came to a halt with Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s executive order stopping dine-in service, put into effect due to the novel coronavirus.
A few days shy of the March 27 anniversary, Ekic temporarily closed her Ferndale location for three weeks to cut costs and reduced her 20-person staff’s hours and shifts to keep them on payroll and avoid layoffs. Nearly two months later, both restaurants are now open for carryout and delivery service, but business remains unpredictable. On a recent Friday, speaking with Eater, Ekic noted that her previous day’s business was uncharacteristically slow in Ferndale, while in contrast, “today, I had an amazing lunch crowd.” Between both locations, Ekic estimates she’s lost about 40 percent of her business year-over-year.
Balkan House has become a mainstay since opening only a year ago in Hamtramck. Ekic was born in Bosnia and immigrated to Germany at 12 years old with her family during the Bosnian War. She lived and attended school there for seven years before moving to the United States in 1999. After working in the restaurant business for several years for a successful Albanian family, she says she found an opportunity to purchase a restaurant that sat on what’s now Balkan House’s Hamtramck location; it had been owned by various Bosnian families for 25 years.
Balkan House is known for Eastern European dishes, specifically the döner kebab, made with Ekic’s recipe for lepinja bread and stuffed with shaved lamb or chicken, purple cabbage, and a special döner sauce. When Balkan House first opened, Ekic searched for a recipe to purchase by emailing businesses in Germany, where döner shops don every corner. Around the time of her opening, she finally received a response from a Turkish man in Berlin, who had retired after running three successful businesses. The recipe was written in Arabic, which Ekic had to translate to use. Ekic recalls the man’s message to her: “He said, ‘Good luck. I wish you all the best. Now, it’s on you to make it or not.’”
The man didn’t take a payment for his recipe, but his help paid off. Balkan House received rave reviews from local media and was featured in a New York Times’ roadtrip series. In December, it was spotlighted for serving one of Detroit’s best sandwiches of 2019. In February, the Detroit Free Press named Balkan House number eight on its Best New Restaurants list. Ekic rode that wave of success through the year and opened a second location last October in Ferndale, to the delight of suburban fans. The restaurant also clearly spurred a mini-trend: Over the winter, the owner of Two James Distillery announced plans for an unrelated döner kebab restaurant in Corktown.
“I love meeting people. I am an immigrant child,” Ekic says. She is proud of the community she’s built through her restaurants; her customers sometimes travel hours to eat her Eastern European food. “It makes me happy that I meet all different kinds of people, and we just become one big family.... my customers are so loyal,” she says.
During the week of March 10, when Michigan’s first COVID-19 cases were identified, Balkan House continued business at both restaurants with extra precautions like wiping down tables, menus, and condiments between customers. Then, as the executive order closing dining rooms was announced, Ekic changed to all carryout and delivery orders and began allowing only two to three customers inside at a time. Now that both restaurants are reopened for carryout and delivery, she’s placed duct tape on the floor at the Hamtramck restaurant indicating where customers must stand to maintain six feet of social distance. Ekic says that no more than one or two customers enter the restaurant in Hamtramck, and they wear gloves and masks. She’s been closely monitoring her staff as well. “We try to make sure everyone is healthy. If anybody feels sick they stay home for 14 days before returning to work,” she says.
Balkan House has been trying to offer its services in other ways as well, including helping feed frontline workers by taking part in the Detroit Free Press’s “Rescue Detroit Restaurants/Feed Healthcare Heroes.” The campaign has raised $100,000 to feed 5,000 health care workers. “I know it’s going to pass over,” she says of the virus.
Balkan House, which serves halal food, is facing a very different Ramadan as well. It was popular during the Muslim holy month last year and would pack the house daily during evening hours when Muslims break the fast. Ekic would pass out special iftar food on the house, and customers would come to enjoy tea and baklava after prayer. “We catered a lot to the mosques during Ramadan [such as the Bosnian Islamic Center],” she says. But this year, the mosques are closed. Orders are, however, still picking up due to Ramadan, Ekic says, prompting the restaurant to extend hours in Hamtramck.
Ekic is hopeful her business will weather the downturn from novel coronavirus, due to loyal customers and community support. “We wouldn’t be able to do anything with them,” she says. Customers recently showed their support for Balkan House during small business Tuesday; they included a few firefighters who order from a different restaurant each Tuesday in town. She does the same.
“Everyone is trying to get together and order,” she say. “People have to eat. They get tired of the same food at home. Sometimes after you wash the dishes, the time spent cooking costs the same [as placing] an order.”
Balkan House is open in Hamtramck from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. on weekdays and from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Sundays during Ramadan. The Ferndale location is open from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. on weekdays and from noon to 6 p.m. on Sundays.
Eater is tracking the impact of the novel coronavirus on the local food industry. Have a story to share? Reach out at detroit@eater.com.
• The Sandwiches That Made Detroit Swoon in 2019 [ED]
• How Coronavirus Is Impacting the Detroit Food and Beverage Industry [ED]
• Gov. Whitmer Reissues Michigan Executive Order Closing Restaurants and Bars for Dine-In Service [ED]
• All Coronavirus Coverage [E]
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