Olga's Fresh Opens Flagship Location on Big Beaver Road, Expanding Troy's Dining Corridor

At the former MOD Pizza storefront in Troy Marketplace, a 60-seat restaurant is making a new bet on the daily flow of workers, shoppers and diners along Big Beaver Road. Olga's Fresh opened July 16 at 770 E. Big Beaver Road, bringing a fast-casual, Mediterranean-inspired concept from the Olga's Kitchen brand—originally founded in Birmingham, Michigan, in 1970 by Olga Loizon—to one of the city's busiest commercial corridors. The restaurant fills a 2,500-square-foot space in the Troy Marketplace shopping center.

The restaurant is operated by TEAM Schostak Family Restaurants, which acquired the Olga's Kitchen brand out of bankruptcy in 2015 for approximately $11.25 million. The company marked the Troy opening with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 10 a.m., featuring promotional giveaways including free mini orange coolers with any purchase and wellness-themed activities from Welcome Home Yoga, a past recipient of an Olga Loizon Memorial Foundation grant.

For the people who drive Big Beaver every day—office workers looking for lunch, residents picking up dinner and shoppers watching storefronts turn over—the opening is more than another restaurant option. It is a visible investment in a former restaurant space, and an early test of whether the corridor is holding steady or gaining momentum toward the busier, mixed-use district city planners envision.

The bet on Troy is rooted in the corridor's built-in customer base. The city is home to more than 4,800 businesses and has a daytime office population of nearly 80,000 employees. The question, as with any new restaurant in a former restaurant space, is whether that population will produce steady traffic beyond the opening rush.

Troy is the first test for what the company hopes will become a larger rollout. TEAM Schostak Family Restaurants may add two more Olga's Fresh locations in metro Detroit over the next year. The company operates Olga's Kitchen as a proprietary, non-franchised brand, granting it significant autonomy over menu development, marketing and culinary operations. That gives the owner room to update a legacy brand—and puts the responsibility for making the new format work squarely on the company.

The opening also points to restaurant work in the area. TEAM Schostak Family Restaurants employs over 4,000 people across all its brands in Michigan, Ohio and Illinois. The Olga's Kitchen brand alone employs over 700 team members and was actively hiring kitchen team members, cooks and dishwashers at its Michigan locations as of July 2026.

The opening lands as Troy works to shift Big Beaver away from its dependence on office-hour traffic and large parking fields. Troy's Big Beaver Corridor Study aims to transform the area into a People Place with round-the-clock activity and nightlife, promoting a mix of land uses including new residences. Zoning ordinance changes and corridor guidelines now encourage development directly on the street, reducing underutilized parking lots and promoting walkability. An eight-story mixed-use building at 575 W. Big Beaver is under development, featuring 80 hotel rooms, 24 apartments and approximately 3,600 square feet of ground-floor retail likely for a café or small restaurant.

Olga's Fresh is banking on a familiar Michigan name, remade for quicker, more customizable meals, to compete for office lunches, carryout orders and dinner stops.

"Olga's Fresh is an exciting new chapter in the Olga's Kitchen story, designed to offer more choice and convenience for today's guest while staying true to the flavors and recipes that have made our brand a Michigan favorite for generations," Ryan Jones, Brand Vice President for Olga's Kitchen, said.

Inside, the restaurant uses a counter-service setup for build-your-own Mediterranean bowls, salads and sandwiches, with ingredients displayed in full view at the counter, similar to fast-casual chains like Cava or Chipotle. Signature items include the Roasted Vegetable and Garlic Hummus Bowl, Harissa Chicken Bowl and Harvest Salad featuring quinoa and edamame. Ingredients range from chickpea orzo, edamame and roasted peppers to jalapeños, corn, quinoa and the signature Olgasauce, a creamy, spicy dressing. The menu includes vegan bowl options and gluten-free bread for sandwiches, alongside existing Olga's Kitchen favorites. The concept was shaped by a customer survey of approximately 1,000 people. Ordering is available for dine-in, carryout, curbside and delivery.

Olga's Fresh will not determine on its own how quickly Big Beaver's broader vision takes hold. But it gives the corridor a concrete measure to watch: whether a recognizable Michigan brand can keep a former restaurant space active for the workers, shoppers and residents passing through long after the opening-day crowd is gone.