Ahmed Suliman
Cafe Suliman | Seattle, WA
December 2025
Although he had worked in restaurants before, it wasn’t until Ahmed Suliman joined the team at Seattle’s Sitka and Spruce in 2010 that he finally caught the hospitality bug. He spent six years at Chef Matt Dillon’s farm-to-table restaurant, tackling the basics of food, beverage, and service while working in front of house roles and picking up the occasional prep or lunch shift in the kitchen. Then, Suliman left to serve at Bar Ferdinand and work for a local wine importer, fostering a newfound passion while learning about grape farming practices and the intricacies of the production process. In 2018, he joined the opening team of Homer in Beacon Hill, where he managed the front of house, trained staff, and built the beverage program. When the pandemic hit, Suliman left and started working at The Corson Building. There, he shifted his focus to the kitchen, learning about new techniques and ingredients, and how to manage the back of house, while cooking under Chef Emily Crawford.
Ready to start a project of his own, Suliman began popping up around Seattle, fine tuning his concept before landing a space at Melrose Market, just steps away from the former location of Sitka and Spruce. He opened Cafe Suliman in November 2023 alongside Marc Papineau, who runs his own wine bar and bottle shop, Cantina Sauvage, in the space above the restaurant. To accompany Papineau’s natural-focused wine program, Suliman—who was born and raised in Abu Dhabi by Sudanese parents—has created a menu that is proudly and undeniably Arab with progressive riffs on traditional dishes from the region like his roasted cauliflower with apricot amba, caramelized shallot labneh, Aleppo chile oil, sesame crumble, and sorrel.
In the small yet flexible space, Suliman and his team have done soup kitchens for the homeless shelter, welcomed burgeoning pop-ups, hosted monthly markets for local artists, and collaborated with chefs from all over the city. Along with the restaurant, Suliman is opening a cocktail bar called Shibshib in Seattle’s International District, hoping to highlight Arab culture and ingredients even more, engage with the local community, and bring a bit of nightlife back to the neighborhood.
