06/20/2026
Celebrating 19 years with a note from Sava herself 🎈
"For the 19th anniversary of Sava's, I want to tell y’all a little story.
A lot of people ask how I ended up in Ann Arbor, and the answer usually surprises them.
At the time, I was living and running a restaurant in Hazel Park long before it was cool. The restaurant was a truck stop diner where our best seller was an all you can eat $7.99 Fish and Chips special on Fridays. I had a girlfriend who went to UM who always told me how vibrant Ann Arbor was. Having never been here before, I opened a paper map (this was before smartphones) and drove to Ann Arbor in search of a location so undesirable that I could convince a landlord to take a chance on me with a short term lease.
The year was 2007, and the economic crash had left plenty of restaurants vacant.
That afternoon, I found an old Pita Pit that had reportedly been empty for a year, and was a revolving door of failed concepts long before that. I remember thinking, “Oh that’s perfect!”
I spent the rest of the day tracking down the landlord. After much convincing, she agreed to lease me the space on a month-to-month lease. I’m pretty sure she immediately started counting down the days until I became the next name on her list of failed tenants.
Two years later, she covertly sold her building to CVS and my lease was terminated.
Days after receiving the devastating news, a restaurant directly across the street unexpectedly shut its doors. After much convincing, I was awarded the lease and moved Sava’s into the beautiful space we call home today.
The lesson here is humility, creativity, betting on yourself, and hell yes - a whole lot of hard work.
It wasn’t always pretty. It’s never been easy. But I am blessed with a team and a community that inspire and enable me to live my American Dream right here in Ann Arbor every single day.
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!"
🤍 Sava
