Chris Timmann, who owned the restaurant from 1993 to 2007, returns as director of operations, and Ray Johnston, whose family has owned the building at 629 East University since 1966, is the new owner.

Timmann said he was thrilled to be back at the restaurant after seeing it fall into disrepair under the previous owners.

"It was like my baby. I got depressed just looking at it," he said. "We've given it a good cleaning and have new equipment."

But, he assured fans, "It will be the same food."

Johnston said he had wanted to try running a restaurant since he was a teenager, when a falafel place was in the space.

"I had always told my dad, 'I'd like to run a little funky college fast-food place,'" Johnston said.

The Johnston family has owned the Aprill Agency insurance firm since 1949, and Ray Johnston works at the company.

Some of the kinks still need to be worked out at Ray's Red Hots, including putting up a larger, more readable menu and larger banners on the exterior, but Timmann and Johnston said business has already been good since the reopening last week. That's despite not doing any advertising, they said.

"I see all my old customers coming back," Timmann said. "Word is out on Facebook."

Timmann and Johnston take over from Troy Slade, a New York City-based University of Michigan graduate who Johnston and Timmann said stopped paying rent. Slade, who could not be reached for comment, had said he wanted a long-term lease, which Johnston confirmed.

"We made a business decision as landlords: We chose not to extend the lease based on what we saw in a slow down in business ... and their ability to pay," Johnston said.

The sides are involved in a lawsuit over the name of the restaurant. When the dispute over a long-term lease happened, Slade said he hoped to open in a different location.

Johnston declined to comment on the lawsuit, but Timmann said the location and tradition of the East University site make the name irrelevant.

"It doesn't really matter," he said.

Johnston said he's also considering new locations, as well as a catering service, and possibly delivery. He's planning to keep the restaurant open until 3 a.m. from Thursday through Saturday, too. Johnston also said he's using a new vendor for the hot dogs, Red Hot Chicago rather than Vienna Beef.

Slade's tenure as owner overlapped with the construction of the Zaragon Place student housing high-rise next door, where the Anberay Apartments used to be.

Red Hot Lovers was originally opened in 1983 by Tom Blackburn and Alan Cantor. In a November 1984 article on the restaurant in the Ann Arbor News, reviewer Constance Crump gave the food a 9 out of 10 ranking, the service a 9, and the atmosphere a 7.

"The ambiance is not appropriate for a romantic lunch," Crump wrote.

In its heyday, the lunchtime lines regularly stretched outside and down the block, a situation Timmann and Johnston clearly want to recreate.

"It feels good to be back," Timmann said.

(Photo: Owner Ray Johnston, left, and director of operations Chris Timmann stand behind the counter at Ray's Red Hots on East University. | Photo by Dan Meisler | )
Freelance reporter Dan Meisler can be reached at danmeisler@gmail.com.