In Detroit, a Bet That Healthy Restaurants Can Help the City

For years, a coalition of groups has supported food businesses, seeing them as critical to the city’s continuing recovery. The pandemic has put its accomplishments to the test.

DETROIT — April Anderson built Good Cakes and Bakes, her bakery on this city’s west side, by attracting customers to linger over cupcakes and cookies inside a 70-seat storefront on Livernois Avenue.

“It worked for us,” she said, “until we had to close the doors on March 17, 2020.”

But when it came to facing the difficult new reality the pandemic imposed on restaurants, Ms. Anderson held an edge: the experience with hardship that she and other Detroiters share.