Sava’s

EXPERIENCE

Sava’s makes Sunday brunch part of its life on State Street, with a rotating buffet in a restaurant that has grown up alongside Ann Arbor’s university community. Students, professors, local regulars and visitors all belong to its story. The buffet offers a particularly easy reason to meet here: a proper sit-down gathering, with breakfast and the sweeter end of brunch sharing the meal.

The restaurant began in 2007 as a small cafe across the street. Founder Sava’s original 23-seat venture moved into its present address in 2009, taking over the former Zanzibar space. The scale changed considerably, but State Street remained home. That history gives the place a useful local identity: it is an Ann Arbor restaurant with roots in a modest neighborhood cafe, now making room for a much larger gathering.

The current two-story setting reopened after a remodel in 2021. Tall windows bring daylight into the dining room, with warm-colored banquettes and tables arranged along them. The room gives brunch some polish while keeping the company at the table central to the outing. It suits the visiting family as naturally as friends arranging a Sunday catch-up, particularly when the meal is part of a day around campus.

Sunday is the regular buffet day. University of Michigan home-football weekends bring an additional Saturday buffet, tying that service to the campus calendar. Other Saturdays shouldn’t be assumed to follow the same arrangement. For the ordinary Sunday outing, the attraction is simpler: a long-established State Street gathering place and a brunch selection that changes from week to week.