Tony Hawk is opening a restaurant in Detroit, and the location says everything about how he sees this city. The skateboarding legend is partnering with Detroit chef George Azar on A Toda Madre, slated to open in early 2027 at The Shepherd, the former church turned arts campus in East Village. The terrace will look out over a skatepark Hawk himself helped bring to life. Crain’s Detroit Business reported the news Friday after the partners announced it on social media.
Here is what we know, who is behind it, and why this is less a celebrity restaurant than a homecoming. For more openings, see our Food + Drinks coverage.
What We Know About A Toda Madre
The details are early but concrete. A Toda Madre comes from Hawk, Azar, and a team of Detroit hospitality leaders, and the partners describe it as a place that blends food, art, music, and culture into a destination built to bring people together. Detroit-based McIntosh Poris Architects is designing the space with indoor and outdoor rooms, including that terrace above The Shepherd’s skatepark. Early reports describe a Mexican concept, which fits the name. A Toda Madre is Mexican slang for something at its absolute best.
The opening is targeted for early 2027. Menus, hours, and the rest will come later, and we will update this story as they land.
The Chef: George Azar Is Detroit Royalty
The partner doing the cooking is the real tell that this project is serious. George Azar is the chef and owner of Flowers of Vietnam, the Southwest Detroit restaurant that started in 2015 as a weekend pop-up inside a former Coney Island and became a national sensation, landing on GQ’s best new restaurants list in 2017. Azar, a Detroiter and son of Palestinian immigrants, cooked his way through some of the best kitchens in the world before coming home, including Chicago’s Alinea and Noma in Copenhagen.
In short, this is not a licensing deal with a famous name slapped on the door. It pairs one of Detroit’s most respected chefs with a partner who has spent a decade investing in the city.
Hawk’s Detroit Story Runs Deeper Than You Think
Hawk is not parachuting in. He and his family bought a building in the Woodbridge neighborhood back in 2016, a base for visits to his wife’s Metro Detroit family, and he has spent the decade since becoming one of Detroit skateboarding’s biggest backers. Through The Skatepark Project, the nonprofit he co-founded in 2002, Hawk has helped fund and develop public skateparks across the country, including Chandler Park Skatepark, the downtown Wayfinding project, and the It Takes a Village Skatepark at The Shepherd, the very park his new restaurant will overlook. In all, the organization has supported roughly 25 skatepark projects across Michigan.
A Toda Madre is his second restaurant. The first, Chick and Hawk, is a skate-themed fast-casual spot that opened late last year in Encinitas, California. The Detroit project is a different swing entirely, and a bigger one.
Why The Shepherd Is the Perfect Landing Spot
The setting ties the whole story together. The Shepherd is a Romanesque former church, built in the early 1910s, that Library Street Collective founders Anthony and JJ Curis transformed into the anchor of Little Village, a multi-block arts campus in East Village that opened in 2024. The campus already holds galleries, the Charles McGee Legacy Park, a bed and breakfast, and the skatepark created with artist McArthur Binion and Hawk. Adding a destination restaurant from a hometown chef completes the picture: art, skating, and now food, all on one east-side campus.
For Detroit, the signal matters as much as the menu. A globally famous figure who could open a restaurant anywhere chose an east-side neighborhood campus, with a Detroit chef, a Detroit architect, and a decade of local roots behind it. That is the kind of bet the city’s food scene keeps earning. Follow RAW for updates as the opening approaches.
A Toda Madre FAQ
Is Tony Hawk really opening a restaurant in Detroit?
Yes. A Toda Madre, with chef George Azar, is slated for early 2027 at The Shepherd in East Village.
What kind of restaurant will it be?
The partners describe a blend of food, art, music, and culture, with indoor and outdoor spaces and a skatepark-view terrace. Early reports describe a Mexican concept.
Who is George Azar?
The chef and owner of Flowers of Vietnam in Southwest Detroit, a GQ best-new-restaurant honoree who trained at kitchens including Alinea and Noma.
Why The Shepherd?
Hawk helped create the skatepark there, and his family bought a home in Detroit’s Woodbridge neighborhood in 2016.