Saffron chef and co-owner Sameh Wadi announced the news of the restaurant’s upcoming closure on his personal Facebook page (via City Pages). The modern Middle Eastern eatery will serve its last meal on Dec. 3, and it will leave a hole in the marketplace with its departure — there’s nothing else like it in the state. Saffron fused classic Middle Eastern fare with sophisticated modern plating and imaginative reinvention, and helped change the way Minnesotans view food from the Mediterranean region. Wadi’s popular World Street Kitchen and Milkjam Creamery continue to boom, and we wouldn’t be shocked to see the former open another location in the near future.
We reviewed Saffron positively in 2011, wrote about Wadi’s Spice Trail spice blends, interviewed Wadi about World Street Kitchen, and talked with the chef about his book, The New Mediterranean Table.