Two brothers, a truck stop, and a bet on Fort Street

The family

The Nassar family had operated a diesel truck stop on Fort Street since 1985, just off I‑75 and a mile south of the Ambassador Bridge.

Fort Street was a working corridor of trucking, manufacturing, trades and families, with people moving through the city all day long.

Mike was born in Beirut and came to the U.S. as a teenager. He learned to cook from his mother, including dishes like batata harra, the Lebanese staple of potatoes, garlic, cilantro and heat.

Mike brought the food and the standard behind it. Ahmad built the brand and the business around the food. The truck stop gave them a place to start.

The bet

By 2013, the family truck stop was struggling and facing an uncertain future. Rather than walk away from it, Mike and Ahmad put a food trailer in the parking lot and started making sandwiches for the truck drivers already passing through Fort Street.

Detroit 75 was never a name created for a restaurant. Truck drivers already used “Detroit 75” over CB radio to identify the family’s stop near I‑75. When the kitchen opened in 2014, the brothers carried the name forward and added one word. Kitchen.

The restaurant was new. The identity of the place wasn’t.

First, truck drivers came for the sandwiches. Then locals started finding the truck stop too. Eventually, people were showing up straight from the airport with luggage in hand.

Detroit 75 started by feeding the people passing through Fort Street. Eventually, people started passing through Fort Street because of Detroit 75.

No outside funding. No shortcut to growth. The food had to be worth the trip.

What we built it on

Mike’s mother’s batata harra became the Garlic Cilantro Fries, served from day one with house-made Roasted Jalapeño Ketchup. Regular ketchup was never going to be enough.

That same approach shaped the Detroit-style cheesesteak. Swiss and provolone on a toasted and pressed sesame roll built to hold up, finished with house-made sweet pickled jalapeños and vinaigrette to cut the richness. It is the most-ordered sandwich on the menu.

It is what happens when a Lebanese kitchen and a Detroit truck stop end up in the same building.

If the food isn’t good enough to make someone go out of their way for it, it isn’t good enough. Potatoes are still hand-cut. Sauces and pickles are made from scratch. Anything that misses the mark does not go out.

The same thinking applies to the people doing the work. Fort Street has never opened on a weekend, even when it meant leaving revenue on the table. Today, staff are scheduled around consecutive days off, eat for free, earn a livable wage, and average tenure is more than five years. Some have been here since day one.

Restaurant work does not have to mean giving the rest of your life to the restaurant.

Beyond Southwest Detroit

For nearly a decade, Detroit 75 existed in one unlikely place on Fort Street. In 2023, the brothers took Detroit 75 to a pop-up inside a vacant Sears Auto Center in Troy to see if people would follow.

1,700 people showed up on opening day.

The test led to the first permanent restaurant outside Southwest Detroit in Madison Heights, another working corridor surrounded by manufacturing, trades and people looking for a neighborhood place to eat. Fort Street proved the idea. Madison Heights proved it could grow without becoming generic.

In 2024, a business that started by feeding people passing through Detroit helped feed the city during one of its biggest events, serving more than 15,000 meals during the NFL Draft.

Detroit 75 today

Fort Street is still the original, in the same truck stop lot where it all began.

Today, people bring visiting family and friends to Fort Street. Some walk or bike across the Gordie Howe Bridge from Canada and head straight to the patio.

And if it is someone’s first time, the sandwich recommendation might change. The Garlic Cilantro Fries and Strawberry Lemonade usually don’t.

Detroit 75 now includes two restaurants, catering, and a media platform generating more than 40 million views every month. The counter got bigger. What started as conversations through a food-trailer window became conversations with people around the world.

A lot has changed since that first trailer. The mentality has not.

Make great food.Treat people right.Build something that lasts.