[NEWS BITES] Zazio's, Zumba Mexican Grille closing in Birmingham; more

Looks like it's a bad week for places whose names start with the letter "Z" in Birmingham.

In a blink-and-you-missed-it post on Facebook this past Saturday, Zumba Mexican Grille in Birmingham announced they were closing at the end of the year (last year, that is, as in a few days ago). This location's Facebook page seems to have since been scrubbed from existence.

Zazio's will also be closing at the end of this month. Crain's reports that the very large and very expensive (as in they dumped a lot of money into it, but yeah, also in the other sense too) simply wasn't getting enough customers to support its financial goal of $4 million in revenue per year. Probably also too many people were having seizures because of all the clashing neon colors and swirling patterns. So, one too many investment bankers who were hippies in a former life having acid flashbacks and not spending enough money on mediocre Italian food later and they're closing effective January 31. (They will remain open as a pizza and beer bar in the meantime.) No plans for the space have been announced but Greenleaf Hospitality Group will no longer be operating anything in that space themselves.

There's a joke in here about "if you can't run a successful mediocre restaurant in Birmingham you're doing it wrong" in here, but it's almost too easy.

In cheerier (or at least beerier) news, the Chelsea Alehouse opens today! (H/T All the Brews Fit to Pint.) The first microbrewery in Michigan was actually located in Chelsea in 1982 (it didn't last long), so the Alehouse -- which will be Chelsea's only currently-operating microbrewery -- is somewhat of an historical achievement. Or maybe us beer people are just sentimental like that.