Milford House, Banditos close amidst restaurant challenges

Table Of Content

• Milford House Bar and Grill Review
• Get the latest on where to shop, dine and play in Downtown Milford directly to your inbox!
• New food highlights the menu
• Interactive Maps
• House lawmakers seek to preserve funding for state's personal care assistant program
• Milford House restaurant is coming back under new ownership. And it's bringing live sharks

With future plans of restoring Milford House, the house will once again become the central “Hub” of the village. More information, including a full menu, can be found at milfordhousebarandgrill.com. Daniel Mora, a chef who's worked at restaurants in eastern Oakland County, brings his flare to the menu as the head chef of Milford House. The menu has plenty of Italian favorites still, albeit different recipes from the previous ownership. Today, customers can grab a meal, a drink or play some games, all under the same roof. It's become a gathering place for those who stop by, including people both young and old.

Milford House Bar and Grill Review

The main area of the restaurant is expected to be family-friendly, which could include some amusement activities in part of the restaurant with games such as bocce ball. The wine bar area could serve as a more "adults only" atmosphere farther in the future. Banditos, a small plates Mexican bar that opened in February, is also permanently closed, as well as The Scoop, which offered ice cream. Both were in Milford House's 10,000-square-foot building at the corner of Main and Commerce streets in downtown.

Get the latest on where to shop, dine and play in Downtown Milford directly to your inbox!

Line cooking is more demanding than fast food restaurants, where, he noted, employees can make $15 to $18 per hour. Milford House and Banditos offered more than that in pay, but couldn’t offer enough to attract workers and still maintain a profit in a business with ever-slimmer profit margins, particularly with inflation driving food prices higher. The new partners had converted the space at the front of the restaurant and brought in dozens of arcade games. Now, the games have been mostly removed, with the space barren as Horvath and a few helpers clear out the business.

Milford Fire Department Holds Open House, Demonstration - Patch

Milford Fire Department Holds Open House, Demonstration.

Posted: Tue, 16 Apr 2024 07:00:00 GMT [source]

New food highlights the menu

As a result of changing the guidelines, the 6,000 people made ineligible would be moved onto the HHA program, which could mean a loss of independence and potentially limit the types of services a caretaker could provide, like catheter care, Coffin said. Coffin said her agency services about 2,300 people in Central Massachusetts, and that cuts to the program would mean added strain on the state’s network of home health aides, who perform the responsibilities of a PCA and additional medical tasks. With food costs, labor costs, rent and insurance, the costs of running a restaurant are much higher than most people think, Horvath said. On Thursday, Horvath grimaced as he stood in Banditos' secluded lounge area, and then strolled to an adjacent dining area with a bar behind which several televisions were mounted. He then descended a few steps into a former patio area of Milford House that has prompted some of the issues leading to the closure. In an effort to provide a comprehensive guide we have included many restaurants in multiple cuisine and ambience categories.

It's just the most recent high-profile restaurant closure in the region the last 18 months. Also in Milford, longtime bar Hector & Jimmy's closed this past June after 36 years in business, citing issues with staffing as being the main driver of the closure. Many restaurants have cited the closure of dining rooms for extended periods of time since the pandemic began, as well as the difficulty many businesses currently face in hiring staff. Stewart said they are doing work in three phases on the property, with the first phase already underway. That work includes renovating the kitchen to get it up and running to offer some service as early as next month, Stewart said.

The second phase includes the renovation work and addition of more interior space that was being reviewed by the planning commission. The third phase will include work on the former wine bar, which Stewart said could return in a new format. Gov. Maura Healey’s January budget proposal targeted PCAs as it looked to close a $950 million MassHealth shortfall as a result of declining federal revenues. The House budget released earlier this month did not maintain PCA program funding from fiscal 2024. The program, which is run by MassHealth, gives funds to customers with disabilities to hire personal care attendants to help with daily tasks.

Interactive Maps

Built between 1864 and 1915, the house is famous for being one of the most technically advanced of its day. “We really need to look to be creative, to always be the beacon, and always be … forward thinking and not making short-term decisions based on a budget cycle that might be three years,” Coffin said. State Rep. Brian Murray, D-Milford, said the budget is “in good shape,” even with big unexpected expenses such as the emergency shelter system. He said stabilization funds that have been building up since COVID-19 will be used to fill out those expenses.

House lawmakers seek to preserve funding for state's personal care assistant program

This year the Gate Lodge successfully opened as part of the European Heritage Open Days on Saturday 8th September 2012. This event included guided, historical walking tours around the picturesque Victorian Gatelodge. While the restaurant isn't the same Milford House the community has known for decades, Phillips, Mora and the rest of the team hope to make adjustments and improvements in order to earn customers' loyalty. They hope keeping the name so many people know it by will help bring them back. Brittani Stanford recently came to the Milford House with some of her family, including her children.

Milford House restaurant is coming back under new ownership. And it's bringing live sharks

The restaurant will be under new ownership through an Ann Arbor limited liability corporation, and it appears it will operate under the Milford House name. Click here to find out how the iCare charity money raised is used to regenerate old buildings and encourage community involvement. Lisa Shaw, who oversees the games, said she's received great feedback from both grandparents and teens looking for something fun to do in town.

Prince said MassHealth has told Tri-Valley there would be other options for the approximately 200 people serviced by Tri-Valley and who would lose eligibility. For cancellations made more than14 days in advance of the first day of occupancy, there is a fee of $50 for bookings of five nights or fewer, and a fee of $100 for bookings of six nights or more. Go to the map where you can hover over each button to see the name of each cabin, if you click on any of them it will bring up some information and some pictures of each cabin. Milford House and Banditos were no exception, Horvath said, noting that in his past 27 days as general manager, he had talked to 20 line cook candidates on the phone, got 10 of them to come in for interviews, and had only one show up to work. Commissioner Karen Worrell said the shark tank will make the space a destination.

On one of the doors, a sign bearing logos for a restaurant of that name, as well as for Banditos, advertises “Now Hiring,” with positions including line cooks, dishwashers, busers and bartenders. The closures were caused by a multitude of problems, said Rob Horvath, who was brought in less than a month ago to manage Banditos in a late-stage effort to salvage the business. Signs on the door seen the afternoon of Aug. 5 indicate the restaurant is permanently closed. While there was plenty of discussion around the needed conditions required by the commission, Chairman John Heidt said he was happy to see activity returning to that part of downtown Milford in the coming months. "This whole amusement area, the area ... is for families," Stewart said. "The north side of the family (area) is going to be hopefully a higher end steak and wine bar."

With most of downtown's business fronts occupied, she expects it will be an attractive place for another business to locate. "There is very real shortage of labor in the market for restaurants for all different kinds of reasons." Ann Barnette, executive director of the Milford Downtown Development Authority, said she heard Aug. 3 the restaurant would permanently close. "We already have the tank that's been brought up. The fish are waiting for us in Key West, Florida," said John Stewart, a Milford-based architect working on the project. But the most unique feature will be a 20,000-gallon fish tank that is expected to hold several live sharks as a focal point inside the dining room of the restaurant. Milford House (also known as Manor House) is a B1 listed building of national importance and is the former seat of the Mc Crum family, one of Ireland’s premier linen manufacturing dynasties.