Craft cocktail bar Castlia at Sfumato is closing its doors at the end of the year, its ownership recently announced on social media.
The bar has operated out of a garden level space in Midtown since 2018 and was known for pairing its cocktails with fragrances by Sfumato, a perfumery that also operated out of the building.
The ownership says it is not closing due to any emergency or crisis. “Rather, after a marvelous run of 8 years, we are choosing to go out on top,” they say.
The bar will continue serving through the end of the year and has even worked up a special “Afterlife Menu” to ring the occasion.
Sfumato Fragrances and Castalia Cocktails are both located at 3980 Second Ave., Detroit.
The full social media announcement can be found below:
Bittersweetly, the current chapter of Castalia will come to a close on New Year’s eve. We will be operating normally until the end of the year, at which point a new chapter will begin with a change in ownership and direction. Discussions about the next chapters are underway, and we’ll share more when the time is appropriate, but for now we want to give reverence to the time we’ve had together and enjoy a few moments more. We’d love for you to come check out our final menu in this incarnation, the Afterlife Menu, as we contemplate what’s on the other side.
To be clear, we’re not out of money, we’re not out of ideas, we don’t have issues with our landlord, and our neighborhood is great. Rather, after a marvelous run of 8 years, we are choosing to go out on top. The team is crafting better drinks than ever before, we’ve received national and international press and awards, we keep on innovating, but the same structures we built to climb higher now constrain us. The questions that needed to be addressed when Castalia was born have been answered, and it’s time to make space for new questions. Like the scents upon which our drinks are based, beauty arises from ephemerality, and there is a point where the experience must cease to exist.
We want to express nothing but profound gratitude to everyone who has graced Castalia with their presence, and invite everyone to come and bid farewell.
“A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory” – Leonard Nimoy
Castalia co-founder Kevin Peterson discussed the move in a recent podcast by Daily Detroit.