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The dining room at Savant has dark wavy patterned upholstered banquettes, leather couches, and art on the walls.

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Inside Midtown’s New French-Style Restaurant and Fanciful Cocktail Den

Take a peek inside Savant

by Brenna Houck
Photography by Michelle Gerard
Brenna Houck is a Cities Manager for the Eater network. She previously edited Eater Detroit and reported for Eater. You can follow her on the internet at @brennahouck.

French-influenced restaurant and cocktail bar Savant opened in Detroit on Monday, September 24. The 99-seat addition to Cass Corridor arrived in over-the-top fashion with edible gold leaf garnished “caviar bumps” and champagne shooters. A project of two former Apparatus Room staffers, chef Jordan Whitmore and bartender Rebecca Wurster, Savant aiming to bring a bit of fanciful drinking and upscale French-American food to West Forest Avenue.

The menu features dishes such as foie gras éclairs, burgers, croque monsieur, and croissant biscuits and gravy. Wurster has also brought a bit of molecular gastronomy to the cocktail menu. Customers can choose from drinks like a clarified bloody mary garnished with horseradish foam, a gin and Benedictine drink called In the Snap with gel pearls known as “cocktail caviar,” and an infused fruit cocktail called Center of the Universe that’s prepared using a showy infuser and dry ice.

The restaurant’s address has housed Bolero Latin Cuisine and Mid City Grill over the past four years. Since Bolero vacated the space this spring, the building has undergone some aesthetic changes. Outside, the restaurant features new awnings and signage and inside booths and banquettes feature updated dark upholstery. Savan’ts team also punched a hole through a wall that previously separated the bar from the kitchen and surrounded it black subway tile. Savant’s dining room is also decked out in work from local artists including Lisa Spindler, Niagra, Ron Zakrin, and Armageddon Beachparty. Patrons can also sit outdoors in a small outdoor patio area.

Savant plans to host regular DJ nights and will open the space for pop-ups on Mondays. The restaurant is currently open for dinner only, but the owners intend to expand into lunch hours soon. Photographer Michelle Gerard visited Savant this week to check out the completed space and a few of the drinks. Take a tour of the restaurant below.

The exterior of Savant has a silver sign and matching silver awnings on a tan colored building.
Small glass vases with orange flowers and baby’s breath sit on the tables around the perimeter of Savant’s dining room.
The bar area at Savant has wooden bar stools and four-top tables running along a white stone-covered wall that leads to the dining room.
Glass pendant lights hang over the bar at Savant looking into a window into the kitchen that’s surrounded by black subway tile.
Two black and white photos of downtown Detroit under construction hang above two booths with black upholstery lit by silver pendant lights.
Orange and green melon balls sit in a glass infuser setup with a glass container at the top feeding into a coffee-pot like container with a handle. The melon is consumed in a swirling cloud of dry ice vapor and two tumblers with ice cubes sit to the side.
The Center of the Universe cocktail is made with honeydew melon and cantaloupe with Campari-passionfruit-lemon cubes, falernum, orgeat, cachaça, and Smith & Cross rum.
A woman’s hand pours yellow liquid from a glass coffee pot through a small strainer and into a tumbler with a large ice cube. Wisps of smoke from dry ice swirl around the glass.
The Center of the Universe is a riff on a tiki cocktail called the Center of the Galaxy.
Brown liquid sits in a round glass container shaped like a globe with continents and a ship etched on it.
The Shot Heard Around the World is a hickory smoked Old Fashioned with Woodford Reserve bourbon, blackstrap rum, demerara sugar, Angostura bitters, and orange bitters.

Savant is located at 51 W. Forest Ave.; open 5 p.m. to midnight Tuesday through Thursday, 5 p.m. to 1 a.m. Friday and Saturday, and 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. on Sunday (bar opens daily at 4:30).

• A French Diner Will Bring Dollar Oysters and ‘Caviar Bumps’ to Midtown [ED]
• Latin American Restaurant Makes Way for Savant in Midtown [ED]
• All Savant Coverage [ED]
• All Openings Coverage [ED]

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Savant

51 West Forest Avenue, , MI 48201 (313) 285-9294 Visit Website
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