Hi, neighbo(u)rs: Detroit businesses look forward to return of Windsorites

During the pandemic, the lack ofCanadian customers at Detroit's famous Eastern Markethas been noticed and they've been missed.

"We missed our Windsorites, if that's the correct term," saidSam Morykwas, senior marketing manager of Eastern Market Partnership.

"I don't think people always understand how close the Eastern Market is to Windsorand how frequently people come over, especially to our Saturday market. And we've also seen a lot of people jumping in on social media with messages of, you know, 'can't wait till the border's back open' and 'we're excited to be there' and 'I can't wait to see my favourite vendors again."

But the wait is almost over for those reunions between vendors and customers, between sports fans and their teams, between families, friends and of course, neighbours andneighbors (depending on which side of the border you're on).

On Tuesday night, U.S. officials announced that the land border would reopen to fully vaccinated travellers from Canadasometime in early November.

It's the first time that non-essential visitors will be allowed to enter the country by land since March2020.

And for Bob DiMattia, owner of Mexicantown Restaurant located right by the Ambassador Bridge Detroit-side, that's meant far fewer customers than usual.

"It's been tough, we love our Canadian customers," he said.

"I still talk to some of my regular customers and kind of make the jokes like, 'oh I'll throw a couple bottles of margaritas in the river and hopefully it floats across and gets to you guys.'"

WATCH | Your favourite Detroit businesses miss you too:

Businesses, market in Detroit say they miss their Canadian neighbours

3 years ago

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From Mexicantown Restaurant to the Eastern Market, Detroiters are eager to have their Windsor customers back.

The restaurant also used to have Monday and Friday night promotions where customers could purchase their meals with Canadian money.

On those nights, DiMattia said it would often get "crazy."

"You'd have hour wait, sometimes up to two hour waits to get a table and we are a large restaurant ... we can seat close to over 200 at a time. It was a fun time, there's a lot of stories, you talk to many different people ... it's definitely a lot different now," he said.

'Definitely missed our neighbours'

Things being different was echoed by Katie Edmunds, retail operations manager for Detroit's Third Man Records store.

Earlier this week, the venue held its first in-store concertsince the pandemic hit, but a few audience members were missing.

"We had to refund several tickets because some people in Canada bought them and they weren't able to come and cross the border," saidEdmunds.

The store, which sells limited edition and hard-to-find items,also had several calls from Canadianswho were unable to make those purchases during the pandemic.

She said it's been an "odd vibe" for Windsorites and Detroit residents not to beable to socialize and do business together.

"We definitely missed our neighbours, I mean 100 per cent. And we missed going over there too," she said.