Detroit’s Checker Bar reopens after 2025 fire prompts year-long closure

DETROIT – After more than a year closed, a popular downtown Detroit bar is reopening.

Checker Bar shut down in January 2025 after a fire broke out in the basement.

No one was injured.

The bar announced on social media that it will finally reopen at 11 a.m., Wednesday, March 4.

“Detroit doesn’t quit,” the post read, “And neither do we.”