The owners of beloved coffee house and bookstore Kitab Cafe opened the doors to a new grocery and cafe Friday in the Corktown neighborhood.
With its late hours and fresh affordable foods, Rosette Market + Cafe seeks to increase access to food in Detroit and will provide approximately 15 jobs.
“It was really driven by the lack of grocery stores in Detroit,” said Ahmed Alwhysee, who partnered with Hadwan Hadwan to open the store. It’s one of several grocery stores to open in the last year to address Detroit’s longstanding challenges of accessing affordable healthy foods in a city where one-third of residents don’t have cars. In Oct. 2023 Neighborhood Grocery opened in Jefferson Chalmers, and this year the Detroit People’s Food Co-op opened in the North End.
Rosette is the third cafe location the owners have opened in less than two years: Kitab Cafe and Bookstore opened in Hamtramck in Jan. 2023, followed by their second location in Midtown Detroit in the former Avalon location in February of this year. Alwhysee opened them alongside his wife Asma Almulaiki.
“A big part of what we’re trying to do is be a community space where people have access to it after work,” Alwhysee said of Rosette, which will be open from 6:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. It has all the same items as a conventional grocery store, from produce to canned goods to ice cream and toiletries. It has a seating area for 14 people with tables and plenty of outlets, while the cafe will be stocked daily with fresh bread and pastries from Zingerman’s Bakehouse based in Ann Arbor. Fresh sourdough and baguettes will also be sliced on demand for purchase.
Located at the bottom of the Perennial Corktown apartment building at 1611 Michigan Ave., the location will provide easy access to the building’s residents.
The grocery store is stocked with a mix of recognizable national brands alongside local brands like R. Hirt cheese, Germack snack mix and Aunt Nee’s tortilla chips.
“Just so that we could get everything,” Alwhysee said, adding that they want feedback if people don’t see something they want in stock.
“My biggest thing is we’re filling a void,” said Hadwan. “There’s a huge void in this area. We’re lifetime Detroiters here, I’m very passionate about this, so it feels good to actually contribute in a positive way.”