YPSILANTI, MI -- It didn’t take Mike Kabat more than 30 seconds after he received a phone call to say yes to becoming Ypsilanti’s 4th of July Parade’s grand marshal.
Kabat was the owner of the former Haab’s Restaurant, located in downtown Ypsilanti for 47 years. Haab’s Restaurant, a family-dining establishment that served a loyal customer base was open for more than 87 years before its closing in March.
Related: ‘Our customers were family.’ Haab’s Restaurant closing after 87 years in Ypsilanti
Kabat will lead the parade at 11 a.m. Monday, July 4, from Oakwood and Cross streets to Depot Town at Rice Street. This is the first year Ypsilanti’s 4th of July Parade has taken place since the COVID-19 began in 2020.
For each 4th of July Parade, the grand marshal is chosen to be recognized as a “pillar in the community,” Erica Hampton, Ypsilanti parade director, said.
When trying to figure out this year’s grand marshal, Hampton said Kabat was picked after talking about the closure of Haab’s Restaurant.
“When we said his name everybody (thought) that was the best idea ever because he’s been such a sweet man over the years and he’s given back to the Ypsilanti community so much,” Hampton said.
Kabat remembers watching the parade when he came to the community and started operating Haab’s Restaurant. He said his children would make and sell snow cones and he would always take ice water to those who were walking in the parade.
“It is a wonderful honor (to be chosen as grand marshal). I’m not sure I’m due to being honored that way,” he said.
For many customers, the closure of Haab’s Restaurant came as a surprise.
Kabat said he had “a difficult but easy decision to make,” after discovering his son was dealing with health issues. He said he decided to close the restaurant because “family is more important than anything.”
Since the closure, Kabat has received many emails and calls highlighting the connections Haab’s has made within the community. He said he even received a request from one customer to purchase the painting that he and his wife sat under for not only their first date, but for their engagement as well.
Through Haab’s, Kabat also provided Ypsilanti a news source. His past experience as a news carrier for The Ann Arbor News prompted him to start monthly newsletters about 10 years ago.
“We would feature the activities that were going on in the Ypsilanti community showing how vibrant the Ypsilanti community could be and actually was,” Kabat said.
Haab’s Restaurant is only one way Kabat has contributed to his community. He also was founder of the downtown Ypsilanti merchants group known as the Central Business Community at the time and was chairman of the city’s Heritage Festival.
“Almost everything has been focused on what we could do to make the downtown community a more vibrant community than it was when we came here,” he said.
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