ADRIAN — A place to sit with friends, have a conversation, and enjoy a good meal. That’s what Lana Asani wants people to find when they step inside Lana’s Kitchen, a new restaurant in downtown Adrian.
Asani and her husband, Kevni, opened the restaurant at the end of May. They serve breakfast, lunch and brunch six days a week at 125 E. Maumee St., the former home of the Governor Croswell Tea Room.
Lana’s Kitchen represents a longtime dream for the couple, who live in Clinton.
Asani said her husband’s family used to own a pancake house on Zeeb Road in Ann Arbor. After that restaurant closed because of the COVID-19 pandemic, she said, “it was our dream to have our own place.”
They found the East Maumee Street location while looking at properties online and were immediately drawn to it.
“It was so beautiful, and we just decided to go ahead and see it,” Asani said. “We came in here and we loved everything about it.”
The location is another plus, she added, because they enjoy spending time in downtowns.
The Asanis are both Albanian by heritage, but he was born and raised in Michigan and she in Kosovo. They met while spending summers in Macedonia with their families. She moved to the United States 12 years ago, and they’ve lived in Clinton for the past eight years.
Asani noted that both her and her husband’s families have a history in the restaurant business. Her sister, who is a pastry chef, runs a shop in Kosovo where their mother and two other sisters also work.
“When I go back there, I help them, I try to learn new things from them,” she said.
Lana’s Kitchen is open from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday, a schedule that allows them to balance the work of owning a restaurant with spending time with their 8-year-old son.
“The community’s been very supportive,” Asani said. “Everybody’s been coming in and checking us out. We’ve had very good feedback and very good reviews. Everybody’s enjoying the food.”
The most popular breakfast items include waffles, biscuits and gravy, and corned beef hash. The menu also includes eggs, omelettes, and breakfast burritos, as well as sandwiches, salads, and a soup of the day. A recent addition is eggs benedict, available Tuesday though Friday.
The kitchen has no grill or deep fryer; everything is pan-cooked or baked.
In addition to serving good food, Asani intends to make the restaurant a comfortable, relaxed place where friends can get together and enjoy a good conversation.
“I want them to feel like they can sit here with their friends, chat, have fun, enjoy the food,” she said.
Lana’s Kitchen
125 E. Maumee St., Adrian
Phone: 517-438-8026
Hours: Tuesday through Sunday, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.
