James Beard Award Semi-Finalist for Best New Restaurant
Eater Detroit Restaurant of the Year
Detroit Free Press Top 3 Best Restaurants
Hour Detroit Top 10 Best New Restaurants
Local 4 ClickOnDetroit Best Ethnic Restaurant
summer fundraiser for saffron community kitchen
Many community members have been asking for how you can support our Saffron Community Kitchen initiative. We heard you and are so grateful for you! Now’s the time: we are asking for your support in raising $18,000 for SCK to continue our mission to feed our neighbors on the eastside and beyond. Each donation - no matter how small - counts, so please donate what you can.
As you may know, Chef Omar Anani is a two-time James Beard finalist for Best Chef - Great Lakes. What you may not know is that he’s a member of the Chef Corps through World Central Kitchen, supporting meal relief in the Dominican Republic, Ukraine, and Turkiye/Syria in the last several months. Locally, Chef Omar launched the Saffron Community Kitchen initiative out of the restaurant during the pandemic. Since 2020, we have served over 110,000 meals through SCK.
This summer, we are signed up to provide 935 free meals to Detroit youth in July and August and we are expecting additional requests. We are also working to open a robust community fridge setup housed at the restaurant so that folks can grab something out of the fridge whenever they need, with privacy, without having to come in during restaurant hours to ask for a meal.
Join us in supporting meal relief in Detroit by donating through LaunchGood! Your donations will go directly to the Saffron Community Kitchen initiative founded by Chef Omar Anani at the award-winning restaurant Saffron De Twah.
limited service: august 25, 2023 to march 15, 2024
Hospitality, sustainability, community, and excellence - these are the core values at Saffron De Twah. Chef Omar has modeled this through his award-winning menu, down to earth service, and Saffron Community Kitchen initiative.
Now, Chef Omar needs to take some personal time to focus on his physical well-being, mental health, family, and strengthening Saffron De Twah and the Saffron Community Kitchen. Starting at the end of August, Chef Omar will be taking a 6 month sabbatical to focus on personal projects, wellness, and community service.
During Chef Omar’s sabbatical, we’ll still be continuing the following:
[x] limited caterings for special events, including weddings, birthdays, corporate retreats, anniversaries, parties, etc. - submit a request on the website at saffrondetwah.com/catering
[x] providing meals for the Saffron Community Kitchen initiative on site and utilizing our fundraiser donations to design and open the new Community Fridge on site - donate at launchgood.com/sck2023
[x] hosting ticketed events and pop-ups at the restaurant while we are closed to the public for walk-ins. Stay tuned via the newsletter for those announcements.
The restaurant will be closed for walk-ins from Friday, August 25, 2023 to Friday, March 15, 2024. After much thought, we’ve decided to support staff in finding new culinary placements at this time so that they are not struggling to run the restaurant in Chef’s absence and so that our guests do not have to experience a dip in our service standards while Chef is not on site. Hospitality to us means valuing people over profits and we wanted to do right by our small but mighty team.
During this time, Chef Omar will still be working with volunteers and others on building/site upgrades, responding to emails and other requests, participating in meal relief opportunities, traveling to taste new food in South Asia and the Middle East, and working with culinary leaders here in Detroit and elsewhere to talk more about the importance of mental health and well-being for chefs and food service workers.
Stay tuned for news about our upcoming pop-ups and other specials. Make sure to sign up for the newsletter and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.
INTRODUCING LOYALTEA SUBSCRIPTIONS
Our leading core value has always been community. Traditionally, tea houses are community gathering spaces. We are excited to offer a membership based tea subscription focused on bringing community together at Saffron De Twah.
There’s something truly special about eating at Saffron De Twah, Eater Detroit’s Restaurant of the Year for 2019. Chef Omar Anani … aims to offer high-quality, affordable food to the surrounding community and he’s made significant strides towards his goal. The modest restaurant features a walk-up counter where customers can choose from a variety of dishes from succulent lamb tagine to vegan cauliflower shawarma batbout served in light, flavorful pockets of pita bread. - Brenna Houck, Detroit’s 2019 Eater Awards Winners
Saffron De Twah has established itself as a leader in the local food scene since it opened just a year ago, pioneering culinary territory new to metro Detroit. … Saffron De Twah focuses on modern Moroccan dishes such as Cauliflower Shawarma Batbout — soft Moroccan pita bread stuffed with veggies and green tahini — and Lamb Tagine with couscous, seasonal vegetables, and tzatziki. - Emma Klug, Page Gardner, Ashley Winn, Lyndsay Green, Matthew Hanna, Hour Detroit’s 10 Best New Restaurants in Metro Detroit
In an era of multi-million-dollar restaurant build-outs and big PR budgets, it’s refreshing to go somewhere that’s just this innately good and novel, that’s anchored by the bonds of family, built out of love and developed through one-on-one interactions with the community. Again: We need more restaurants like Saffron De Twah. - Mark Kurlyandchik, Detroit Free Press, Best New Restaurant No. 3: Saffron De Twah, Detroit
7636 Gratiot Ave Detroit, MI 48213
(586) 359-6138
M — 11am - 8pm
T — Closed
W — Closed
TH — Closed
F — 11am - 9pm
SAT — 12pm - 9pm
SUN — 11am - 8pm
