Business Spotlight: New Saffron Restaurant to open on North Carson Street
Submitted by Brett Fisher on Fri, 04/06/2018 - 1:23pm
If you experience a sudden surge of happiness while driving along North Carson Street between Park and Corbett, the reason may lay just inside Saffron Restaurant, a new eatery in Carson City that's on the verge of opening.
Named after the prized Saffron flower, which produces a savory spice used in cooking, Saffron Restaurant will be a place from which happiness exudes, said co-owner Randy Letter.
"The main point about Saffron is that it makes you always happy," he said. "The spice helps with depression."
That's just one of its many features, Letter said. Saffron has also been used to aid in digestion and for pain relief.
"Saffron has a lot of benefits," he said. "Saffron is one of the world's most exotic spices."
And it is coming to Carson City at 1301 North Carson Street within the month, Letter said.
Saffron will be used in most offerings at the new restaurant, he said, featuring menu items often found in Turkey and the Middle East, including Persia.
"In our food, almost everything will be mixed up with Saffron," he said.
This includes a wide variety of meat and vegetarian Kebabs, appetizers, salads, sandwiches and even Saffron ice cream.
Herbal Saffron tea will be a featured item at the organic juice, tea and coffee bar located off the main dining room, Letter said.
Here patrons can expect fresh, natural fruits used for juices and smoothies, all-natural herbal teas, as well as coffee brewed in the ancient Turkish manner, he said.
This method involves grinding up into a powder the root from which Turkish coffee is harvested, and then prepared with a heater rather than in a machine.
Saffron will prepare some of its herbal teas the old-fashioned way, too.
"Our ginger tea is really good for stomach aches," Letter said. "It is prepared with organic ginger, which is sliced, put in the pan and boiled to get the juice from it.
Saffron will make its Parsley honey in much the same way: boiling the herb to get all the juice out of it, and then mix with honey.
Letter said all-natural or organic ingredients are important to him and his business partners, close friend Arsalan Tavakoli and his wife, Shima.
"We are made from nature," Letter said. "We are trying to make everything as natural as possible and offer very, very high quality foods."
Letter said he and his partners began work on the more than 2,000 square-foot building at the corner of Corbett and North Carson Street right after the lease was finalized in January.
He said he is hopeful for a soft opening in a couple of weeks, followed by a grand opening in May.
