Jerusalem Garden started with one man, a handful of family recipes, and ten thousand dollars.
He brought recipes that were new to Ann Arbor at the time: hummus, falafel, kabobs, and slow, old-world cooking.
Downtown workers, students, neighbors, and families all found a seat at the table — a place without pretense, where everyone was welcome and belonged.
In the summer of 1987, Ribhi Ramlawi, a Palestinian immigrant and a father of eight, was laid off after years of working as a butcher.
He took his severance, leased a tiny space next to the Ann Arbor District Library, and opened a small Middle Eastern restaurant with about ten seats. Everything was made from scratch. He built it to feed his family and serve his community — and he did both.
When Ribhi passed away in 1993, his son Ali was just eighteen. He stepped in to carry on his father's legacy, and he has been doing it ever since.
Ali still makes the hummus from his father's original recipe, by hand, the same way it was made on the very first day. He runs the kitchen and operations with the belief his father started with: fresh ingredients, made from scratch, real value, and quality you can count on every single visit.
The recipes have not changed. The care has not changed. What has grown is the room to share it. After nearly three decades on Fifth Avenue, Jerusalem Garden moved around the corner to a larger home on Liberty Street in 2015, growing from a small shop of about one thousand square feet into a bright five thousand square foot restaurant, with space for more guests and a growing catering business.
As it grew, it became a go-to for the University of Michigan community — the students who study over our hummus and the faculty and departments who count on us to cater their events.
Nearly 40 years in, the food is still made the old way, by hand, every day. It is still quick, still affordable, and still the reason Ann Arbor keeps coming back.
For nearly four decades it has been part of the heart of Ann Arbor.
That bond runs deep. Some of the students who grew up eating here came back to work here, and for nearly four decades the restaurant has shown up for its neighbors far beyond the dining room.
With a 4.5-star rating across more than 1,700 Google reviews, the kindest thing people say is not about any single dish. It is that walking through the door feels like being welcomed by family.
That is exactly what Ribhi built, and exactly what we work to keep alive.
Order your favorites for pickup today or plan catering for your next event.
