Local Eastern European restaurant Sudova will host a special one-night-only collaboration dinner with Houndstooth, the acclaimed modern American eatery in western Michigan.
The Sept. 23 event is a full-circle moment for Sudova owner Sarah Dworak, as Houndstooth’s co-owner Cheyenne Galbraith is a mentor figure to her and “gave me the confidence to open up Sudova.”
“We were having brunch one day and I said, ‘you know, Cheyenne, I mean, Wodka Bar is one thing, but I could never really do what you do, and she said, ‘Sarah, you’re already doing it. You figured out how to turn it from a bar into a restaurant. You figured out how to get through COVID. You’re already doing the work,'” she said. “So she really gave me confidence because she saw what I was doing, and she thought it was good, but she’s an actual trained chef, culinary school, all this stuff, right?”
Earlier this year, Dworak was named a James Beard finalist, marking her as one of the best chefs in the region and the country. Despite not possessing any formal culinary training, her exceptional food has diners across America taking note.
“I just wanted to share the food I grew up eating. When I cook, it smells like my grandma’s house on Christmas and Easter. I’m not a trained chef at all. I didn’t go to culinary school. I’ve got no special knife skills. I just know very specifically about how to make Eastern European food,” she told CityBeat back in May.
Dworak met her future mentor on a vacation trip to Michigan in 2021, as a friend back home in Cincinnati told her she really should check out the city of Benton Harbor — more specifically, they said, she needed to try out the food at Houndstooth. At the restaurant, she ordered a dish of sunflowers & burrata, and struck up a conversation with Galbraith about it.
“We started talking, and I mentioned I also had a restaurant, so we became friends through that … and I loved the area so much. I kept going back to Benson Harbor, and kept taking everyone I know to Houndstooth, and we kept in touch,” she said. “We like to go out to dinner a lot and just order the truffles, order the champagne, get real bougie with it. So that’s a main inspiration for this dinner, it’s all things we like to share together. But we’re really going to highlight Houndstooth.”
A majority of items at the dinner will be dishes pulled straight from Houndstooth’s eclectic American menu with a new Eastern European twist.
For example, the sunflowers & burrata dish that sparked their friendship will be an early course, as will a Japanese milk bread with black garlic paste and chives. Dworak will present her own take on Houndstooth’s slow steak, which is one of the restaurant’s calling cards. And the two will also present a panna cotta for dessert, which has been on the Michigan restaurant’s menu since it opened back in 2019.
In addition, Dworak and Galbraith are collaborating with local wine bar Hart & Cru for a special tasting event during the dinner. Owner Kevin Hart and sommelier Brittany Marsh will be on-hand to discuss the wine pairings with each guest, most of which are Eastern European wines to match the restaurant’s theme. Throughout the evening, the two chefs will share stories of their friendship and their food — like their recent trip to the James Beard Awards, where Dworak had Galbraith join her on the red carpet as her special guest.
“Ever since Sudova opened, we’ve been talking about doing a collaborative dinner. You know, she saw me. She was the one who instilled confidence in me and told me that I was doing the work. And it’s so funny, when we get on the phone, we’ll talk for hours about all the stuff happening at our restaurants,” she said. “I’ll ask her, ‘how do you do this at your restaurant? How would you deal with this?’ And she’s just always there for me. Even if it’s, like, 11 o’clock, she’ll say ‘Yeah, call me.’ She always takes the time to listen and provide guidance.”
More than anything, Dworak is excited to show off her friend’s food while having fun.
“The west coast of Michigan is so beautiful. There’s long, wide, sandy beaches. And the lake, it’s like the ocean without jellyfish and sharks. I’m excited for people to get a sense of the type of food Cheyenne cooks, which uses a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables from Michigan. Hopefully it’ll inspire people to travel up there,” she said. “Sudova is a lot of hard work, but it’s also a ton of fun, and I’m just really looking forward to having fun cooking, laughing, drinking wine and telling stories with my friend.”
Tickets for Sudova’s “Dinner with Friends” on Sept. 23 in partnership with Houndstooth are available now by clicking here. If tickets are sold out, reach out to the Sudova team online to be added to the waiting list. For more information on Sudova, visit the official website.
