Drive down Saginaw Street this month and the block tells two different stories depending on which building you're looking at. Crossbow Inn sits dark, its medieval-themed dining room closed since spring. A few doors down, Ziggy's Ice Cream is scooping cones like nothing happened, even though half the neighborhood swears it was supposed to be gone by now. Up at the corner of Saginaw and Grand Blanc Road, the old Big Boy is wrapped in construction fencing, clearly becoming something else. And out on Holly Road, a sign has gone up outside the shuttered Da Edoardo with no menu, no hours, and no explanation attached to it yet.
If you've tried to piece together what's actually happening to dining in Grand Blanc this year, you've probably ended up more confused than when you started. That's not you missing something. It's because two completely separate stories have been running at the same time, and most coverage has treated them as one continuous saga of downtown redevelopment. They aren't. One of those stories collapsed in May over a private dispute that had nothing to do with the neighborhood, the market, or anyone's dining habits. The other has been chugging along on its own schedule the entire time, untouched by any of it.
The $23 Million Project That a Divorce Killed
Here's the part most people missed. Downtown Grand Blanc was supposed to get a three-story, roughly 47,000-square-foot mixed-use building called La Piazza, built by developer Chuck Sekrenes across from the Crossbow Inn's original location. The plan was ambitious even by downtown Grand Blanc standards: new homes for both Crossbow Inn and Ziggy's Ice Cream, residential units above them, retail space, and enough parking for the outdoor seating both restaurants had wanted for years. The price tag was $23 million. Ground was supposed to break in September 2026, with an opening targeted for March 2027.
Then, at the end of May 2026, Sekrenes announced the whole thing was off. Not paused. Off.
The reason wasn't financing, permitting, or a change of heart about downtown Grand Blanc. It was a divorce. Ziggy's is co-owned by a couple who split up within the past year, and the two sides couldn't agree on what their portion of the La Piazza property was worth. Sekrenes said the Ziggy's owners wanted $2 million for their piece of the deal, which was more than $1 million above what he was willing to pay. Negotiations went back and forth and never closed the gap. Without that property, the math on a 47,000-square-foot building stopped working, and Sekrenes pulled the plug.
That number is worth sitting with for a second. A single family dispute over a roughly $1 million valuation gap ended a $23 million downtown project. It's a reminder that even the most visible, most-discussed local development can hinge on something as ordinary and as private as a couple splitting up their assets. Nothing about downtown Grand Blanc's appeal to residents or businesses changed between April and May. The deal died because two people couldn't agree on a number that had nothing to do with market conditions.
So What Happens to Crossbow Inn Now?
This is where the story gets messy for anyone who actually misses Crossbow Inn. The restaurant closed its original Saginaw Street location on April 30, 2026, expecting the move to be temporary. Longtime staff, including a server who had worked there for 30 years, talked openly about looking forward to windows, real parking, and outdoor seating in the new building. None of that exists anymore, at least not in the form they were promised.
Sekrenes still owns the Crossbow property outright, since that half of the deal was never in dispute. He's said he plans to build some version of a mixed-use project there regardless, just at a fraction of the original scale, something closer to 12,000 square feet rather than 47,000. There's no confirmed timeline for that smaller build, and no confirmed date for when or if Crossbow Inn reopens inside it. For now, the honest answer is that Crossbow Inn is closed with no announced return date, sitting in the gap between a canceled mega-project and whatever comes next on a lot the developer already owns.
Ziggy's Never Actually Left
Meanwhile, the ice cream side of this story took its own strange turn. Back in September 2025, Ziggy's announced it wouldn't be opening for the 2026 season at all, which read at the time like a quiet ending for a Grand Blanc staple. Then social media rumors started circulating in March that it might open after all. On April 16, 2026, Ziggy's confirmed it would open for the season the very next day.
So while its planned move into La Piazza is now dead along with the rest of the project, Ziggy's itself never actually closed for good. It's open right now, on South Saginaw Street, serving the same lineup it always has. If you assumed Ziggy's was gone because you heard the September 2025 announcement and never caught the reversal, you're not alone. That's the exact kind of half-story that's made this whole year confusing to follow.
The Completely Separate Story: Anna's House
Here's the part that has nothing to do with any of the above. Anna's House, the West Michigan breakfast and brunch chain known for its gluten-free pancakes and scratch-made menu, is opening its 14th location in the old Big Boy building at Saginaw Street and Grand Blanc Road. This deal has been in motion independently of La Piazza the entire time. Anna's House purchased the longtime Big Boy building from owner Victor Khzouz, and CEO Josh Beckett has talked about restoring and preserving elements of the space's character rather than gutting it entirely.
The opening date has moved around a bit, which is normal for any construction project. Early announcements pointed to summer 2026. By June, demolition and site prep were visibly underway, with Beckett noting the community response had been strong. The most recent word puts the opening at late October 2026, with the restaurant planning to run daily from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. and add an alcohol menu alongside its usual breakfast and lunch lineup, including a separate allergy-friendly kitchen for guests managing food sensitivities.
None of this has anything to do with the La Piazza collapse. It's a straightforward franchise expansion that happens to be landing in the same three-block stretch of downtown, which is exactly why it's easy to mentally lump it in with the Crossbow and Ziggy's saga. It shouldn't be. This one's on track.
The Two Loose Threads: Duke's and Irene's
Two more names round out the current picture. Out on Holly Road, a sign went up last fall outside the former Da Edoardo, the Italian restaurant that closed in June 2025 after 25 years in business, hinting at a new steak and seafood concept called Duke's. No official opening date, social media presence, or menu has surfaced since. It's a name to watch, not a place to plan a dinner around this month.
And if you want proof that not everything downtown is in flux, Irene's Craft Kitchen & Biergarten on Reid Road is already open and running, serving a German-inspired menu alongside TopGolf Swing Suite simulators for anyone who wants a round of virtual golf with their beer.
Reading the Rest of This Year
If you live near Saginaw Street, here's the short version worth keeping straight. Crossbow Inn is closed with no confirmed reopening plan, sitting on a lot its owner still intends to develop, just smaller than originally announced. Ziggy's is open right now despite an announcement a year ago that said otherwise. Anna's House is under construction and on track for a late October debut. Duke's has a sign but no real timeline yet. Irene's has been open the whole time.
The bigger lesson isn't really about restaurants. It's that downtown redevelopment stories, even in a town this size, are rarely one clean narrative. They're several smaller stories moving at different speeds, some of which depend on things as unpredictable as a couple's divorce settlement rather than anything happening in the market itself. The next time you hear that something big is coming to downtown Grand Blanc, it's worth asking which of these threads it's actually attached to before you start planning around it.
For residents watching how these kinds of shifts ripple through a neighborhood, whether it's a new restaurant corridor or a stalled development lot, that same instinct to look past the headline and into the specifics is exactly how you should approach your own home's value too. If you're curious what's actually happening with home prices in your part of Grand Blanc this year, the team at Glover Agency can walk you through it. See Your Market Value whenever you're ready to talk.
