Farmington Fuel Chronicles: Ruby Tuesday's Revenge (#9)

OCR is finally back! After an extended hiatus to focus on school and some personal issues, I'll now be posting new material every week, of which a lot will be backlogged.

I think it's a shame that so much modern development disregards existing buildings in favor of new construction. Nowadays, Krogers and former Kmarts are often demolished to make way for new stores the same size, and office buildings are built as others sit empty. Amid this wasteful trend of "tear it down and start over," it's refreshing to see the rare case of a building properly repurposed. Such is the case with the former Ruby Tuesday at 31066 W 12 Mile Road in Farmington Hills, Michigan. This Ruby Tuesday first opened in 1993, and closed in early 2020, just before the Covid-19 pandemic upended life in America.

Ruby Tuesday after closing, a clearer shot than I could find while operational
(Google Street View, November 2020)

My commute usually takes me through the busy intersection of 12 Mile and Orchard Lake Roads, and one day in the spring of 2021, I noticed a crew painting the building light gray. It turned out that a developer had purchased the Ruby Tuesday property, and was constructing a new Shell gas station on the site. While the fueling facilities were to be built from scratch, its convenience store would be housed in the existing Ruby Tuesday building.

This was pretty interesting... because years ago, there was an old Shell across the street on the intersection's northwest corner. 

(Google Street View, September 2011)

This was an older Shell, whose convenience store bore a distinctive older design shared by the Shell-turned-Valero (and later Sunoco) at 12 and Middlebelt. It was closed on-and-off for its later years before it was finally demolished in 2012, and a Burger King opened in its place.

Come summer's end, the new Shell opened in late August 2021. I decided to pay a visit when I was in the area a week or so after opening.

Remember when gas was this cheap? (September 2021)

The fueling facilities were nice, but nothing really to write home about. Twelve Gilbarco Veeder-Root Encore series pumps, typical of American fuel stations nowadays, dispensed fuel to motorists at a now-unfathomable $3.39 per gallon. 

The rear of Ruby Tuesday became the face of the new Corner Store convenience store, with an automatic door placed where the service entrance once stood.

It wouldn't be hard to confuse the address to the right of the doors, that of the office of the station's owner, for the station's address, posted above the door. (September 2021)

Inside it was... just a normal fuel station convenience store. Same spread of snacks, drinks, and tobacco at the same inflated prices. 

(September 2021)

Also inside was a Saroki's pizzeria, offering a menu of pizza, calzones, fried chicken, and sandwiches.

The convenience store only occupied half of the building - the rest was still vacant at the time of opening. The restaurant space was gutted for conversion to... something, but the doorways were still somewhat intact.

This sign advertising GrubHub certainly dates Ruby Tuesday's closing. (September 2021)

Viewing the side of the building shows the little hints of Ruby Tuesday left behind in the renovation - the diamonds above the awnings and the stylized columns. One of the side windows was cracked.

Two new price signs were installed, adorned with red LED displays and fake brick.

It's a sad state of affairs when the air machines at gas stations only take credit cards. (September 2021)

Come January, after a robbery at the corner's Marathon and some interesting developments at Mobil, signs started popping up advertising Princess Grill, a Mediterranean restaurant, as the building's eventual second tenant.

(January 2022)

Saroki's finally got full signage around the building on January 21st.

If anyone knows a deli looking for work, tell it Saroki's is hiring. (January 2022)

Fuel prices were up more than a dollar by the time Princess opened in May.

(May 2022)

Thanks for shopping Oakland County Retail!
The next post will continue the Farmington Fuel Chronicles with coverage of the recent expansion of BP in Farmington and Farmington Hills.