Some Detroit businesses are places you visit. Others become part of how a neighborhood remembers itself.
Chita’s Nefertiti Bar & Grill belongs to the second group.
For more than three decades, the Black-owned establishment has offered Detroiters a place to eat, listen to music, celebrate and see familiar faces. Now operating from a newly renovated space on West Grand River Avenue, Chita’s is carrying that history into a new chapter without abandoning what made the business matter in the first place.
This is not simply the story of a bar moving next door. It is the story of a Detroit family keeping something alive.
Chita’s Nefertiti was founded in 1994 by Conchita Leigh on Detroit’s northwest side. Named for the woman behind it, the neighborhood bar developed a loyal following around a straightforward promise: good food, strong drinks, good music and a room where people felt welcome.
That combination turned Chita’s into more than a nightlife destination. It became a gathering place and, for many regulars, a home away from home.
But longevity is rarely accidental, especially for a small, Black-owned hospitality business. It requires someone to recognize when a beloved institution needs to change in order to survive.
That responsibility eventually fell to Leigh’s granddaughter, Domonique Bowen.
Bowen took control of the business in 2013 after watching her grandmother encounter financial difficulties. She invested $10,000 of her own money and began modernizing an operation that had previously functioned largely in cash. She introduced credit-card processing, established formal payroll and applied the business-management education she had earned to the family institution she wanted to protect.
Bowen reportedly went without paying herself for the first five years.
Her work offers a clear lesson about family businesses: honoring the founder does not mean preserving every old way of operating. Sometimes protecting a legacy requires rebuilding the systems beneath it.
The result is a business that has remained recognizable to its longtime patrons while continuing to grow. Chita’s is still known for music, DJs, cocktails and a food menu built for a proper night out. Current offerings include steak bites, wings, catfish, salmon, turkey chops, Alfredo potatoes and the lamb chops that have become one of the restaurant’s signatures.
Its expanded space gives that experience more room.
Chita’s celebrated the move in March with a ribbon cutting and grand-opening event. The remodeled location reflects a larger ambition for the business, with space for live entertainment, local DJs, private gatherings and an expanded dining experience.
Still, the most meaningful expansion may be generational.
Detroit has no shortage of stories about Black businesses that helped anchor a neighborhood but disappeared when the founder retired, died or could no longer carry the operation alone. Chita’s offers another possibility: a younger family member recognizing the value of what already exists, then putting in the work required to move it forward.
Bowen did not inherit a finished success story. She stepped into a business during a difficult period and helped make its next chapter possible.
That distinction matters.
Chita’s Nefertiti has survived changing nightlife habits, economic pressure and the everyday volatility of the restaurant business. Its continued presence demonstrates what can happen when community loyalty is met with capable stewardship.
The new location gives Detroiters a reason to walk through the doors again. The deeper reason to support Chita’s is everything it took for those doors to remain open.
Visit Chita’s Nefertiti
Address: 15942 W. Grand River Ave., Detroit
Website: chitasnefertiti.com
Instagram: @chitas_nefertiti
Phone: 313-646-9753
Editor’s note: The submitted announcement listed 15936 Grand River Ave. The business’s current website and ordering platform list its address as 15942 W. Grand River Ave.
