Pete's Place Broadway Café

Molly Abraham, Detroit News Restaurant Critic: Peter Mel thought he would never get back in the restaurant business as an owner until a "for sale" sign on a defunct Coney Island kept catching his eye at 1225 Woodward Heights in Ferndale as he drove past to his job as a sandwich shop manager. So Mel says he gave in, bought the place, gutted it and brought back touches of his '80's enterprises, Backstage Deli, Footlights bar and Salute. The theatrical theme of those spots is very much part of Pete's Place, the 50-seat cafe where the veteran restaurateur serves breakfast all day as well as lunch and dinner every day from a menu includingan array of sandwiches and salads and full-scale dinner entrees of sauteed salmon, lemon chicken piccata and fish and chips.