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The Arabic flavors of Cafe Suliman are set to join Capitol Hill’s Melrose Market with natural wine purveyor Cantina Sauvage joining up to return to the space that started their partnership together.

Ahmed Suliman and Marc Papineau have a history on Melrose, both working together at Bar Ferdinand and Sitka and Spruce which grew in the market before fading into Capitol Hill food and drink history. The new cafe, marketplace, and bar will open in the same location where Bar Ferdinand was created.

“This place is probably the third or fourth that I looked at and I felt I was just following my heart — really that is what this place is,” Papineau said.

The space Papineau and Suliman are moving into is a partnership between their respective businesses. Cantina Sauvage, Papineau’s business, will act as the wine bar while Suliman’s business, Cafe Suliman, will be the restaurant and market — joint ventures in the same space.

Suliman is curating the menu for the space based on his childhood growing up in the United Arab Emirates. Shaped by pop-ups across Seattle, Cafe Suliman is an homage to his Middle Eastern culture.

“A lot of those recipes are based on the foods I grew up with and also my late mother,” Suliman said. “It’s a space that I really wanted to share with her as a tribute.”

Suliman said that the restaurant is going to resemble a casual Arabic eatery with “ever so changing delicious Levantine food.” The cafe will have a market space with pantry items, “wine and spices, oils, vinegars, bread, sauce, jam, honey, flowers, fruits, vegetables, tasty sandwiches and more.”

Papineau will pour wine that is Arabic to pair with Suliman’s cooking while continuing his focus on natural wines from his roots. Their drink menu will be expanded to include Turkish Coffee and other non-alcoholic drinks as well.

“Everything that we pour, everything we make, we will have procured ourselves or we will have made ourselves,” Papineau said.

With his focus on curating the wine for the space, Papineau is passionate about where he sources his wine, he believes in letting it speak for the producer.

“I really like working with family producers, folks who actually make their living — it’s their livelihood,” Papineau said. “They’re super passionate about what they do, they’re artists, you know, and that, to me, that line is an art and it’s an art form.”

Suliman credits Papineau as one of the first people to spread the gospel of natural wine around Seattle.

Papineau’s Bar Ferdinand was born in Melrose Market and expanded to Chophouse Row until its closure in 2017. After Bar Ferdinand, Papineau wanted to do events in places that were not restaurants, hosting wine tastings in apartments, people’s backyards, and even at florist shops — more intimate settings. In returning to the old Bar Ferdinand space he hopes to bring back the same personal aspect of his wine tastings.

“We will be working with people to figure out what they like,” Papineau said. “We want them to tell us what they’re interested in and if it’s something we don’t have, we’ll figure out how to get them what they’re looking for.”

For Cafe Suliman, the Melrose Market project will make a home for the concept that has grown through pop-ups and months of planning to open a restaurant in the International District. For now, its home is on Capitol Hill and Melrose Ave where there will be a small cluster of Middle Eastern flavors. Mamnoon shares the busy stretch and has been part of the neighborhood since 2012.

For  Suliman and Papineau, the addition of Cantina Sauvage and Cafe Suliman to Melrose Market is both a homecoming and a new path — a chance to foster community amongst friends and family, open to all ages.

“I expect people to walk in and know half the people already in there and it becomes one big table,” Suliman said.

The Melrose Market is located at 1527 Melrose Ave. Papineau and Suliman hope to open the new project in November. Learn more at cafesuliman.com.

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