The chef and owner of Detroit’s Saffron De Twah is bringing a second restaurant to Detroit’s east side with housing for its workers.
Owner and Food Network “Chopped” winner Omar Anani told BridgeDetroit the new location on E. Warren will feature two restaurants and top-floor subsidized apartments for the restaurant workers. Final details are still being worked out, but Anani anticipates an opening in early 2025.
“It’s about creating community – it’s one of my big core values,” Anani said.
The new brick-and-mortar will add to the food endeavors Anani already operates: The Moroccan bistro Saffron De Twah on Gratiot, Palestinian food pop-up Shaebi and The Twisted Mitten food truck. The purchase of the new building comes alongside a revamp at Saffron De Twah to offer an accessible community-style menu as well as a separate fine-dining menu with reserved seating.
Details are all “preliminary” for the new restaurant at 16620 E. Warren, which he purchased from the city of Detroit for $150,000. Anani said he is crafting with input from the community about what neighbors want it to look like. One option Anani said he’s considering is a vegetarian falafel shop, drawing on his Palestinian heritage.
“I really want to do Palestinian food,” said Anani, a two-time finalist of the acclaimed national James Beard Awards for excellence in the culinary industry. “I don’t want to do a pizza or a burger spot, there’s enough of those.”
Another focus for Anani with the new restaurant is bolstering benefits for his staff. Anani already provides his restaurant workers with health care benefits, shared tips and paid time off. In the new location, he will be reserving the top floor for subsidized apartments for his workers.
“One of the biggest problems in the industry is people don’t make enough money to live well. If I pay their rent for them and they have a place to live now they don’t have to worry about the horrible infrastructure of public transportation in Detroit,” he said. “All they gotta do is come downstairs…and they’ll actually have disposable income to be able to live a decent life.”
Streamlining Saffron
Saffron De Twah, which opened in 2019 and has gone through many changes over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, is also getting an overhaul.
The restaurant will soon have a section of its patio designated for a smaller, more streamlined menu that is “very affordable,” with shorter wait times while the other half will be reservation-only for fine dining, an idea Anani said he’s adopting from other restaurants across the country.
“I’ll be bringing in a lot of guest chefs from out of town to do dinners,” added Anani, who travels to cook in other cities, like a recent pop-up in New Orleans. “I get to cook with my friends in my own place and it’s gonna be freaking awesome when I don’t have the bandwidth and there’s no reservations open.”
In August 2023, Anani began a six-month sabbatical from the restaurant, citing the toll of the food industry on a person’s mental, physical and emotional health. The new format of Saffron De Twah will allow for more flexibility, he said.
Another change Anani is especially excited for at Saffron De Twah is the addition of a new menu item.
The dish – layered, flaky crust with pizza toppings folded on the inside – is made from dough called feteer, msemen, or one of many other different names. It is whipped until paper thin, and folded with butter. On his recent travels abroad, Anani said he’s seen people turning the pastry into street food.
“They’re taking toppings that you would routinely see on pizza and putting them in the center of this thing and then folding them up and baking them,” he said, like merguez sausage or cheese and pepperoni.
Anani is calling it “bitza” because there is no letter “p” in the Arabic alphabet. It works great for brunch too, Anani said, and he plans to offer sweet versions stuffed or plain, with dips.
In the meantime, Anani is preparing for a dinner and conversation he’ll be co-hosting May 26 at Mash Detroit Small Business Hub through Hospitality for Humanity, an organization he co-founded in October to break down barriers through food and take action for Gaza.
“We feel so helpless because there’s really nothing we can do for our own people and I’ve lost a ton of family members,” said Anani. “It’s really tough.”
The dinner will feature chefs Reem Assil from California and Marcelle Afram from D.C. Proceeds will go to Seeds of Hope. Tickets are available online, on a sliding scale from $30 to $85.
Looking forward to this new restaurant coming to the East English Village area.