Greg Mudge was just a guy who spun techno records, and then he became a guy who made sandwiches. This stuff about putting his name on a street sign, over by Mudgie’s Deli & Wine Shop in Corktown?
“It’s something Greg would have teased himself about,” said his friend Justin Ivey. But Mudge died four years ago, so he doesn’t get a say — and his buddies, his widow, his mom and a few fellow business owners are trying to make it happen.
“Secondary street signs,” the city of Detroit calls them. They’re the blue signs with someone’s name on them, like John Conyers Jr. or influential hip hop producer J Dilla, that usually hang above the actual green signs that tell you where you are.
They are a distinct honor, bestowed annually since 2019 by the Detroit City Council and paid for by the chosen candidates’ supporters, so let’s not hear any whining about the cost.
As for whining about who’s selected and who isn’t, that can commence next week.
The council’s Planning and Economic Development Standing Committee will hold a public hearing at 10 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 23, to anoint its five selections from the largest field of nominees ever. Then the council will convene Tuesday to do whatever it feels like, regardless of what the committee recommends.
Supporters of particular candidates often attend the meetings, and you can tell the panelists I said it was OK to do the wave, right before they throw you out.
I should note at this point that the Free Press has a favorite son among the 23 potential honorees, 10 more than there were in 2024.
Tony Spina, the late chief photographer who spent 44 years here becoming a legend and a Michigan Journalism Hall of Famer, is in the running to have his name mounted at Lafayette Boulevard and Cass Avenue, near the old Free Press building.
I’m pulling for him, and I probably should have mentioned him first. But Tony never served me a lobster roll.
Making strides in Corktown
If you’ve ever partaken in July’s lobster roll week at Mudgie’s — which ultimately became lobster month — that might be enough to earn Mudge your support.
He was also a difference-maker in Corktown back before people were complaining about being priced out of it.
Mudge didn’t invent the concept of a bright, fresh, noisy deli at the corner of Porter and Brooklyn streets. That was Eph McNally’s, where he was a waiter before the owners relocated to Woodward Avenue in 2008.
At that point, Mudge had started nursing school, perhaps not the most predictable career move for someone who had bonded with Ivey when they were club DJs.
Sipping beers at 3 a.m. on Mudge’s Trumbull Avenue patio after they had both finished shows, Mudge mentioned that he was considering picking up the McNally’s lease.
He’d had multiple restaurant stops, beginning with washing dishes at age 14 in the diner where his divorced mom worked her second job. But he’d never been any sort of manager.
“I was like, ‘Are you crazy?'” said Ivey, 54, who grew up to be a design director. “You have to do it.”
So he did. He expanded, gained a liquor license, earned a national reputation, adopted the park across the street, quietly carried leftovers to Mariners Inn, and became one of the faces of Corktown.
Then he died, at 46, in September 2021. Hypertensive cardiovascular disease, the coroner’s office said. He and his wife, Liza Pulgini, had just been to a wedding and were getting ready to go camping.
She took over the restaurant. His name stayed on the facade, and now it might be on a street sign.
Ministers, musicians and more
The secondary street sign process starts with $675 and an application, findable at detroitmi.gov.
There’s a petition involved, and some official documents, along with a few requirements accompanied by a smattering of exceptions.
The idea is to salute people who’ve made a positive impact on Detroit, lived here or been buried here at least 10 years, and have been deceased five years or more. That last condition has some workarounds, which is why Mudge has been under consideration since 2022 and Wayne County Community College District Chancellor Curtis Ivery was honored in 2023 even though he’s very much alive.
Nominees remain in the mix for five years. It helps to have a backer on city council, and Team Mudge credits Gabriela Santiago-Romero of District 6, which includes Corktown, for helping smooth the path.
Of the 23 people in the 2025 hopper, Mudge is one of eight holdovers, a cluster that also includes the late poet and activist John Sinclair and blues legend John Lee Hooker.
Also on the roster are actor and producer Ernest Harden Jr., known for “White Men Can’t Jump”; charter school founder and former basketball star Jalen Rose, who can jump; funk musician George Clinton and maximally smooth musician Kim (Kem) Owens; one imam and at least four ministers; and radio legend Martha Jean (The Queen) Steinberg, I betcha.
The name that leaps off the list is Viola Liuzzo, the civil rights martyr shot to death by Klansmen in Alabama in 1965. Her name belongs on a freeway or a bridge, but a street sign is a nice start.
Sandy Pressley, 73, of Warren, conceded that “there’s quite a lot of competition” on the roster.
Her focus, though, is on her son, Greg Mudge.
The Great Recession was still picking up speed when he told her he wanted to open a restaurant.
“Are you out of your mind?” she said. “This economy sucks.”
As kids will do, he ignored her.
“That’s just who he was,” she said, someone whose average speed was a sprint.
“He didn’t do it for recognition,” she said, but years after his last rave review, there might be some more of that coming.
Reach Neal Rubin at NARubin@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: 4 years gone, founder of still-thriving restaurant might wind up on Detroit street sign
Reporting by Neal Rubin, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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