Roses Fine Food
10551 E. Jefferson Ave.
Detroit
May 28, 2026
It’s easy for a restaurant to close. It’s a lot harder for a restaurant to be reborn and transformed into something new after it closes, and embraced once again by adoring diners.
That’s exactly what Roses Fine Food has done, going from a beloved brunch spot to a shuttered restaurant looking for a new owner … to finding itself yet again as a diner dedicated to dinner – and still led by the same owner-chef Molly Mitchell.
Not many restaurants can survive that up and down, still be embraced by patrons and land a lauded 2026 restaurant of the year nod from the Detroit Free Press.
After my first meal here, however, it all makes sense. Bury me at Roses Fine Food, preferably on the new patio, surrounded by wild flowers and hearing the water fountain gently running in the background.
There’s something absolutely enchanting about this place, from the opium den-like decor of the interior of the diner itself with mounds of dripped candle wax on the counter, fruits and vegetables served up on lavish trays. The place has lots of natural light, and plants abound.
There’s no other restaurant that feels and looks like this in Detroit. And no other spots elevate Polish home cooking like this into something resembling fine dining but without the pretension.
Many of the recipes were influenced by Mitchell’s Polish grandparents and with ingredients sourced from farmers in Detroit and around the state.
On my first visit, I started with a crisp, fresh spring salad with asparagus, radish, lemon, poppyseed and arugula. Like a lot of the dishes here, it’s plated with sophistication but folksy and chunky in the best way (like a date is putting in maximum effort into plating their home cooking for you). Pair it with Polish-style marinated pickles for a perfect start.
From there, I fell in love with the burger, which I’m this close to crowning one of the best in the city. (I’ll need to eat it a few more times before I bring the sash out.) It’s served on thick, toasted, soft-yet-crunchy slices of sourdough from Lillian’s Loaves and slathered with bacon onion jam, dijon and Swiss. The burger is served medium rare and sourced from Marrow’s butcher shop.
I couldn’t resist getting their massive plate of pierogi after watching plates of it float onto the patio, covered in caramelized onion and bacon jam and served atop creme fraiche. Again, this is a heaping folksy plate that looks like home cooking and certainly tastes like it, too.
I truly can’t think of another spot in the city that delivers this much aura, feeling and design alongside award-winning food. Nothing looks like Roses Fine Food. Nothing tastes like it, either.
It’s no wonder this restaurant found a new chapter for itself. It’s absolutely delicious.
