TRAVERSE CITY — A Detroit Chef who starred in Bravo’s Top Chef is leaving the big city and bringing her culinary skills here to northern Michigan.
Sarah Welch, Owner of Marrow in Detroit, decided to resign from her restaurant and start a new in Traverse City. Welch and her husband will be opening their restaurant on Front Street where the Pure Essence Salon was located in Downtown Traverse City. The focus of the restaurant will be on seafood, including caviar and oysters, but making it affordable. Welch plans to host classes on how to shuck oysters to bring a new experience to Traverse City
“I kind of feel like the relationship with traverse city will be that it’s like we know what we want to be, but we also want to be what Traverse City wants us to be, too,” says Sarah Welch, Co-owner, “So if we come up there and, you know, we try to do what we’re doing and that’s not what traverse city wants, then I think we’ve pivoted through Covid a million times like, well, we’ll figure out how to be a good partner to the community up there.”
The restaurant doesn’t have a name yet, but it will be released in May. Welch is hoping to open the restaurant in February of 2026.