CHELSEA, MI — Plans for a highly-anticipated music venue and bistro restaurant backed by Emmy-winning actor Jeff Daniels are taking shape.
Since live music is at the heart of JD’s Stage Bistro, designing a quality listening room with a stage for solo performers and small ensembles has been key.
As interior construction continues at 117 ½ S. Main Street, below Chelsea Bakery, more details are emerging from behind the scenes at the new venue.
No opening date has been announced, but it is expected to open this spring.
“Great venues don’t happen by accident,” Daniels, who lives in Chelsea, said in a statement.
“When everything works the way it should, the audience doesn’t notice the technical side at all. They just feel connected, to the music, to the artist, to each other,” he said.
“Unseen work” on the venue includes “the technical precision, thoughtful design, and artist-first planning required to create a space where live music feels effortless, intimate, and unforgettable,” according to a release from JD’s Stage Bistro.
The 136-seat listening room will feature a 180-square-foot stage — 15 feet deep by 20 feet wide — and maintain “an intimate scale,” they said. The space is “explicitly designed for attentive audiences and sound-forward shows.”
They promise “state-of-the-art” acoustics and a dedicated lighting console to customize performance to the artists on stage.
“Sound reinforcement is calibrated to the room, not overpowering or distant, so vocals, instruments, and subtle musical moments are delivered with clarity and warmth,” according to JD’s Stage Bistro.
The listening room will also feature an audio-streaming display and integrated camera system, with built-in live-streaming capabilities.
The new venue is partially a family affair for the Daniels family. Amanda Daniels, Jeff Daniels’ daughter-in-law, is the manager and talent buyer and will curate live artists. His son Ben Daniels is the production manager and will oversee technical elements of performances, like sound and lighting, stage flow and streaming.
Jeff, Ben and Amanda Daniels are also all musicians themselves.
“Together, their work allows artists to step on stage with confidence and audiences to settle into performances that feel effortless, personal, and fully immersive,” according to JD’s Stage Bistro.
The venue will also feature a restaurant for about 100 guests.
A 60-person newsroom-themed private events space for gatherings such as rehearsal dinners, office parties and community events, will pay homage to television drama “The Newsroom,” which Daniels starred in. He won a Primetime Emmy Award in 2013 for his performance.
A “vinyl lounge” will seat 30 people for events.
It will also feature a brick-vaulted ceiling, wine cellar, wood-fired oven pizza bar, martini door and 1920s chandelier, among other features.
Executive chef Nate Wegryn was hired in October 2025 to help plan the menu.
Menu items will include wood-fired pizzas, house-made pasta, steak, vegetables and seafood, along with vintage cocktails. Seafood will be sourced from Motor City Seafood Company and Fortune Fish & Gourmet, and Wegryn also hopes to work with Agricole Farm Stop in Chelsea to source produce, he previously said.
Wegryn joined the team after helping to open Echelon Kitchen and Bar in downtown Ann Arbor, where he worked as the executive sous chef, last February. He was also part of the team that launched The Dixboro Project in 2021 and previously worked at Zingerman’s Bakehouse and Westside Barbecue.
Amanda Daniels previously said the restaurant menu will highlight local flavors from Michigan and the Midwest. It will also incorporate a few of Jeff Daniels’ great-grandmother’s old recipes.
The venue has been envisioned for 20 years, Chelsea-based Tannin Property Group previously announced.
The group, owned by Sandra and Aaron Vermeulen, Nathaniel Stanton and Roy Farmer, approached Daniels with the idea and brought him on as a partner.
It is not Daniels’ first foray into expanding arts and entertainment in his hometown. In 1991, he founded the Purple Rose Theatre Co., located just a few properties away from JD’s Stage Bistro at 137 Park St.
Additional announcements about JD’s Stage Bistro’s programming and the upcoming opening are expected in the coming months.
Want more Ann Arbor-area news? Bookmark the local Ann Arbor news page.