The Jagged Fork opened in January in Marnee Thai’s former space on the ground floor of the 414 S. Main high-rise after an eight-month renovation, offering breakfast, brunch, and lunch.

“I’ve had my eye on Ann Arbor,” says Mike Kemsley, one of four business partners who’ve launched four other Jagged Fork locations in the Detroit suburbs in the past five years. After considering Cafe Felix’s former spot, he got a call that Marnee Thai’s owners were looking to close after thirteen years in business. The partners bought some of the restaurant’s assets and took over its lease.

“Everything is new,” Kemsley says, of the light, airy “urban-city” interior he designed himself. He calls it a “California-meets-New York vibe.” Booths, two-tops and seating for a half-dozen at the bar (the liquor license is expected soon) accommodate about seventy-five customers. Kemsley says U-M employees who frequent the other Jagged Fork locations, as well as downtown businesspeople, have provided word-of-mouth advertising. “We were on a forty-minute wait last weekend.”

Kemsley says the restaurant is known for its huge portions and its stuffed French toast, breakfast burgers, salads, sandwiches, crepes, and egg dishes. “Everything is made from scratch,” he says, including “our tamales, our cream cheese, and all of our sauces.”

Kemsley met two of his business partners, brothers Stavros and Francesco Adamopoulos, when he was a third grader in Livonia, and they became lifelong friends. The Adamopouloses grew up in the restaurant business–their parents owned Hercules Family Restaurant in Farmington Hills. Another partner, Tom Teknos, runs the Hudson Cafe in downtown Detroit.

With a vacancy next door, Kemsley is already thinking about expansion and possible dinner options. There’s reason for his optimism: in January, a ten-story high-rise was approved for development across the street, at Main and William.

Business “is good now,” Kemsley says, “and we hope it’s great in the next one to two years.”

The Jagged Fork, 414 S. Main, daily 7 a.m.-3 p.m., (734) 929-2402, thejaggedfork.com