After Nearly a Decade as a Pop-Up, Founder Chef Ameneh Marhaba establishes a permanent home on Detroit’s East Side

Liberian cuisine now has a permanent home on Detroit’s East Side. On March 5, Little Liberia officially celebrates the public opening of its brick-and-mortar restaurant along the E. Warren Corridor…

What: Michigan’s first Liberian brick and mortar restaurant
Where: Detroit’s East English Village
Slated to Open: TBA

Today we’d like to introduce you to Ameneh Marhaba.

Hi Ameneh, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My journey with Little Liberia is deeply personal, it’s rooted in survival, heritage, and a passion for food that started in my mother’s kitchen. I was born and raised in Liberia, my mother’s homeland, and also spent time in Tripoli, Lebanon, where my father is from. Growing up, my mother didn’t have much, but what she did have was an incredible gift for cooking. Food was our survival, our currency, and our way of building community. I learned early on that cooking wasn’t just about nourishment, it was about resilience and connection.

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Restaurateur Ameneh Marhaba has fire in her belly — and it’s not just her “Hot Keyeh Sauce.”

Fueled by the legacy of a courageous father and guidance of a resilient mother, Marhaba has transformed a lifetime of cooking for survival into a  career slated to hit a major milestone in 2024 with the opening of her first permanent Little Liberia location. 

Marhaba’s rising star traces back to humble origins many aspiring chef-owners will recognize, leaning on imagination and grit to gain traction through pop-up operations.

The popular African fusion pop-up eatery Little Liberia recently announced plans to open a brick and mortar location next year.

Owned and operated by Ameneh Marhaba, Little Liberia offers a variety of Liberian beverages and multicultural cuisines influenced by African, Caribbean, and antebellum-south African American culture. Born and raised in Liberia, she spent most of her life there with her siblings and mother, who taught her how to cook as a young girl as a means to survive.

Little Liberia is an Afro-fusion pop-up restaurant owned and founded by Ameneh Marhaba. She is looking to find a permanent space to introduce Liberia’s rich multicultural cuisines to the people of Metro Detroit.

Thursday night in TechTown, chef and entrepreneur Ameneh Marhaba was named the winner of $100,000 in the weeks-long Hatch Detroit contest. In an emotional, passionate pitch to a panel of judges

Little Liberia, an Afro-fusion pop-up restaurant in metro Detroit, is getting a $100,000 grand prize from Comerica Bank in the 2022 Comerica Hatch Detroit Contest. The money will be used to open a brick-and-mortar

Little Liberia was announced as the winner in front of a live audience at the contest’s Hatch Off event that took place Thursday, July 21 at the Wayne State University Industry Innovation Center in Detroit.

Ameneh Marhaba lost her job around the same time she began serving the community through her pop-up, Kitchen Ramaj, which has since rebranded to Little Liberia. “At the time, I couldn’t work anywhere legally

Little Liberia on Live in The D