Rose's Fine Food, the East Side diner that closed in 2023 after nearly a decade in business and came roaring back as a dinner-only Polish-inspired spot, is about to host the biggest night of its comeback story. The restaurant will close out the 2026 Top 10 Takeover dinner series on September 1, with two seatings at 5 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., inside its dining room at 10551 E. Jefferson Ave.
Tickets cost $53 per person and cover tax, gratuity, and a $3 donation to Keep Growing Detroit, according to the Detroit Free Press. Detroit Free Press subscribers get early access starting at noon today and should check their email for a ticket-sale link, while tickets open to the general public at noon Friday. The Free Press notes that Chevy Detroit is also giving away two tickets to one winner per dinner event, with entries accepted at chevydetroit.com/top10.
A Menu Rooted In Molly Mitchell's Polish Heritage
Chef-owner Molly Mitchell built the dinner menu around her Polish heritage, and the spread reflects it. Diners can expect Polish nachos with potato chips, smoked white fish, trout roe, beet, and creme fraiche, alongside mizeria with creme fraiche and herbs and a kluski dumpling dish with braised greens, herb sauce, and toasted pumpkin seeds, per the same account. There's also a Rose's slider built on sourdough with marrow dry-aged beef, gruyere, bacon jam, dijon, pickled onion, and cabbage slaw, finished with a dark chocolate mousse topped with rose whipped cream, tart cherry, and poppy seeds.
A vegetarian menu swaps in its own versions of those same dishes: Polish nachos with potato chips, beet, and creme fraiche; a mushroom-and-gruyere Rose's slider with pickled red onion, dijon, and cabbage slaw; a vegan and gluten-free kluski dumpling; and a gluten-free version of the dark chocolate mousse. The Top 10 Takeover format typically unfolds as private events, offering what the dining series describes as exclusive personal interactions at participating establishments.
From A 2023 Closure To 2026 Restaurant Of The Year
Rose's opened in 2014 as a retro-style, from-scratch breakfast diner on Detroit's East Side, founded by cousins Molly Mitchell and Lucy Carnaghi, according to the Detroit Metro Times. In early 2023, Mitchell briefly listed the restaurant for sale, citing mental health stress, before deciding to keep it and instead launch Rose's Kitchen Garden School, a youth culinary apprenticeship program, the Metro Times later reported. The restaurant closed in 2023 after nearly a decade in business, then reopened in summer 2025 with dinner-only hours, a refreshed interior, and the shift toward Mitchell's Polish-inspired dishes.
That reinvention paid off: Detroit Free Press dining critic Lyndsay C. Green named Rose's Fine Food the 2026 Detroit Free Press Restaurant of the Year in February, according to Kiss FM Detroit. Green, who curates the newspaper's annual best new restaurants list, was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in criticism in 2023 and a James Beard Award nominee for local voice in 2024, per the Pulitzer Prizes. The honor places Rose's alongside past winners like French bistro Bar Pigalle in 2023, sustainable sushi spot Sozai in 2022, and downtown's The Apparatus Room in 2018, as noted by Detroit PBS.
A 12-Year Tradition Feeding Detroit's Urban Farms
The Rose's dinner caps a 2026 Top 10 Takeover series spanning 12 participating restaurants across Metro Detroit from March through September, a run that included stops at Bar Gabi, Tacos Wuey, Detroit Jollof, and Clawson Steakhouse, according to Metro Detroit Chevy Dealers. Detroit Free Press and Chevy Detroit have run the dining series for 12 years, using it to raise money for regional organizations fighting food insecurity.
This year's beneficiary, Keep Growing Detroit, was established in 2013 and operates a 1.38-acre central farm in Detroit's Eastern Market District, according to the organization's own materials. Its Garden Resource Program supplies seeds, vegetable transplants, soil testing, and education to more than 1,500 urban farms, community gardens, and family plots across Detroit, Hamtramck, and Highland Park, per Wikipedia's summary of the program. That work carries added weight in a city where roughly 70% of households experience food insecurity and about 30,000 residents lack direct access to a full-service supermarket, according to Buddhist Global Relief.
For now, the immediate task for hungry Detroiters is simpler: get a ticket. Free Press subscribers can look for their early-access link today at noon, and the general public can start buying seats for the Sept. 1 dinner at Rose's Fine Food beginning at noon Friday.
