Robb Jones has imposter syndrome. You’re not going to believe this when you finally get to taste the incredible house martini at the new Saffron in Northeast Minneapolis, set to open any day now. You probably won’t believe this when you consider that Jones is one of the most significant bar and cocktail minds in the last two decades of Minneapolis.
“I always have this idea like nobody really cares about what I’m doing,” he told me in between staff training sessions.
Robb helped pave the way to quality craft cocktails as part of top notch restaurants in this town, using his background as a savory cook to infuse unique flavors at the bar. He worked at Bradstreet Crafthouse, he opened Spoon and Stable with Gavin Kaysen, created the first craft cocktail dive bar at Meteor, as well as launched the bar programs at Diane’s Place, Stargazer by Travail, among other spots.
But it was the gig at the OG Saffron in the Warehouse District, nearly 15 years ago, that’s stuck with him. The place where he felt he got full creative freedom and also the place where he met his wife, Sandy Meulners.
“Saffron, the original iteration, was very important to me,” he explained. Chef/owner Sameh Wadi “was a huge supporter of mine. He was the first chef and first owner that I had worked with to take what was happening with cocktails seriously and understand that they’re going to be an important part of the future of restaurants.”
Robb remembers sitting in the spice room at the original Saffron with Sameh talking about all these flavors that were exotic and unfamiliar to him, even as a chef. “It was a formative experience for me,” he said. “And I don’t think it was something that people necessarily were ready to appreciate.”
It’s hard to imagine today, considering Saffron is opening in a part of town where Diane Moua is telling her story at Diane’s Place, Yia Vang at Vinai, Gustavo Romero at Oro by Nixta, and Jeff Watson is telling his at Minari. The world has changed, our diners today get it, said Jones.
“It’s evolved so much, and people are ready for Sameh’s flavors. We get to be a part of this corner, it’s so f*ing awesome and it makes so much sense,” he said. “I’m obsessed with all of the food that these people are doing, and I have been for so long.”
Jones is now only focused on Meteor Bar and Saffron, where Sameh and Saed Wadi have brought him in as a partner. He’s not only responsible for the cocktails, he’s also in charge of a wine program for the first time in his career, a wine program which will be 80% from the Middle East including some bottles from Palestine.
“It’s very, very much inspired by the food and ingredients. Sameh and I had a talk about naming cocktails, and I was struggling, and he’s like ‘You’re inspired by this ingredient? Why don’t we just call it that? And use the actual Arabic word for it?’” That’s what they’re doing.
There’s a focus on martinis—three martinis will be on the menu at all times. There’s a fruit-forward martini using real fruit distillate made in-house; there’s an herbal martini inspired by a Bijou cocktail (gin, sweet vermouth, and Green Chartereuse); and the house martini, which is a straight-up banger.
“It’s savory and unctuous and beautiful and if it was up to me this is all people would drink when they come here,” said Jones.
It’s a blend of gins—one juniper-forward, one tomato-forward, some vodka to even things out, a blend of vermouth and sherry, and then the true connection to Saffron. “We’re olive-oil washing the vodka with a Palestinian olive oil, whenever we can get it. We’re doing a fat wash to kind of get some of those cool acids and that umami kind of flavor from that olive oil, too,” he explained. That’s obsession.
“It’s techniquey, it’s culinary, and all of the cocktails are going to have some strong culinary element, which is fun. And spice element,” said Jones. Spice doesn’t mean spicy, but Sameh Wadi is the most talented conductor of flavors using spices I’ve ever met, and having that infused in the cocktail program is a no-brainer.
Talking to Jones about getting to this point, on the precipice of opening Saffron, I went back to his comment about imposter syndrome, because it just doesn’t make sense.
“I still kind of live by the ethos, you’re only as good as your next cocktail, you’re only as good as your next thing,” he said. “I just have an issue with self-promotion, but I think it’s time to kind of get away from that, because I really do want this. I want this to work,” he said, the passion growing in his voice.
“I think this is the most important thing that I’ve put together, and it’s the most meaningful. I met Sandy at Saffron, it was such an important part of all I’ve done. I want people to understand what I’m trying to do here, and I’m working on the imposter syndrome,” he said.
“I’m becoming a fan of myself, kind of slowly,” he laughed.
He’s alone on that one: I’ve been a Robb Jones fan since he made me a life-changing daiquiri at the bar at Saffron in 2011. And I can’t wait to sit at his bar in Northeast Minneapolis and have a life-changing martini. Or three.
