The Death of Smugglers Run, Metro Detroit’s Best Dance Bar

Wyandotte — On any given summer weekend, you could stand in the middle of the dance floor of Smugglers Run in Wyandotte, feel a warm breeze coming off the Detroit River, and see the iconic high rises of the Renaissance Center in the distance.

It was one of the top summer venues in the state, with a Tiki bar in the middle of the outdoor patio surrounded by faux palm trees and a large dance floor few could match. Hemmed in by a marina and boat warehouses, Smugglers Run seemed like the only sign of life, outside of the occasional sailboat that drifted past down the river.

But everything changed on July 23, when the restaurant posted on Facebook that it was closing.

Now, Metro Detroit’s dad rock cover bands and their fans have lost one of the sweetest dance venues in the state.

There’s little that compares to a cover band playing the best dance songs from your youth, outdoors on a warm summer day. Summer outdoor dancing in Michigan has about a four-month window—June through September. The season unofficially ends the first night it’s too cold to wear cargo shorts.

For the past seven years, I’ve followed the cover band circuit at bars all over Metro Detroit: Wyandotte, Canton, Taylor, Livonia, Westland, Brownstown Township, Farmington, Garden City, Novi, Saline, Wayne, Ann Arbor, and Howell.

Smugglers Run was the king of what I call the “dad rock circuit.”

In the Metro Detroit area, there’s a dozen or more bands that share about 75% of the same DNA. 

Fifty Amp Fuse. Phoenix Theory. Cruizin’ Jupiter. Atomic Radio. Crossing Woodward. Powerplay Detroit. Some of the bands even swap members. All have local groupies who follow them from bar to bar.

The playlists seldom change and can span about six decades of music. Some play more Motown or Rolling Stones, others mix in some Lady Gaga and Ed Sheeran, but almost all will play dance bar anthems, “Shut Up and Dance” by Walk The Moon and “Mr. Brightside” by The Killers.

If it’s 9:31 p.m. on a Friday night in Farmington, it’s a good bet Fifty Amp Fuse is playing Earth, Wind & Fire’s “September.”

Over time, you bump into the same patrons, a little like taking the same subway commute.

What made Smugglers Run stand out over the rest?

The old real estate line: “Location. Location. Location.” Smugglers was right on the Detroit River. The closest thing to it is 80 miles away at the Beach Bar in Clark Lake near Jackson, which features many of the same bands, and the dance floor is across the street from the lake.

Smugglers was also reliable option during the summer. Finding an outdoor venue with a good band isn’t easy. Bands and bars don’t consistently promote on social media where they are playing. I’ve never found an online, one-stop clearinghouse of where and when local bands are playing in Metro Detroit. Finding what bands are playing at what bars can mean spending 20 minutes online googling. It’s much easier to have a dance bar you can trust to provide good entertainment.

Smugglers also had far more room on the dance floor than most Metro Detroit bars. Many bars can’t hold the number of fans who show up for a popular cover band. If Fifty Amp Fuse is playing at John Cowley & Sons in Farmington, you can’t raise your hands on the dance floor without bumping into another customer. At the Nuthouse Sports Grill in Lansing, the floor can get so crowded that intoxicated patrons bump into your table as they dance to 1980s cover band Starfarm. But at Smugglers, there was always room to bust a move to KC and the Sunshine Band’s “Get Down Tonight”—no matter which band was playing it.

On July 6, the city of Wyandotte shot off fireworks over the Detroit River. Smugglers patrons viewed from the dance floor. It would end up being a fitting tribute to the end of Smugglers Run.

In the six years Smugglers Run operated, customers noticed changes. In the last few years, the bar started charging customers a cover, usually between $5 and $10, depending on the gig. In the last couple years, security guards started patting down customers and using metal detectors.

The bar had two crowds: The early crowd, older customers in their 50s and 60s, looking for a place to dance to the songs of their youth, and the younger after-hours crowd, looking for a place to dance to a DJ.

Catering to that younger crowd sometimes led to trouble.

A Wyandotte police report shows that at 1 a.m. on May 5, a woman claimed to be assaulted at Smugglers Run, when her cousin approached her in front of the DJ booth and slapped her in the face. She showed police a social media post made by the suspect, where he admitted to slapping someone in the face at Smugglers.

That led some to believe that some of the customers had become more of a headache than the business was willing to entertain.

From September 2021 through July 2024, the police made 100 runs to Smugglers Run, according to data provided by the Wyandotte police. Most were calls from people who locked their keys in their cars, but nine were for assaults, though these had become less frequent in recent years.

Jim Beri, the director of the Allen Park Chamber of Commerce, said in a phone interview that he talked to Smugglers Run owner Kevin Travers a month after the bar closed. Beri said Travers told him it closed due to an economic downturn. Beri had also heard rumors that Smugglers Run was for sale.

With Smugglers gone, the summer alternatives next year will be far less attractive, because many of the bars have bands play indoors.

Come June, the search will begin to find the next great outdoor summer dance bar near Metro Detroit.

Tom Gantert is a contributing writer for Michigan Enjoyer.