Founders of a popular Triangle Indian restaurant open new bakery in downtown Raleigh
More than a decade after opening Cilantro Indian Cafe in Cary, the restaurant’s owners are launching a new concept specializing in desserts.
The bakery, Ammi’s, will open Sunday, March 23, in downtown Raleigh. It will fill the space that formerly housed Mon Macaron at the mixed-use development Seaboard Station, which includes a Hyatt House hotel, restaurants, retail and apartments.
Rumie Rahman and her husband, Mustafa Ansari, who own Cilantro and Ammi’s, told The News & Observer in a phone interview that their son used to attend William Peace University, so they were familiar with the downtown Raleigh spot.
When they saw that the former Mon Macaron space was mostly ready for a new tenant, with the hood and other kitchen equipment still in good shape, they decided to open their bakery there.
It has been a pretty quick turnaround for the space at 111 Seaboard Station Drive. Mon Macaron, along with its neighbor Tacos Mama Chava, closed last summer, The News & Observer previously reported.
Renovation work on the former Mon Macaron space has just included cosmetic changes, Rahman said.
The name “ammi” means mother, and the bakery is named in honor of the founders’ mothers, whose love of sweets inspired a similar appreciation for desserts in the restaurant owners.
At Seaboard Station, the bakery will join the dessert shop The Yard Milkshake Bar, known for its menu of over-the-top ice cream treats.
What food and drinks are available at Ammi’s?
Open from 7:30 a.m.- 7 p.m. daily (closed Mondays), Ammi’s will serve the homemade desserts popular at Cilantro. A few highlights are the cardamom pistachio cheesecake, peanut butter mousse cake, gulab jamun cake and rasmalai cake.
Gulab jamun is an Indian dessert made of deep-fried milk solids that are soaked in sugar water. Those sweets are then layered with cream cheese mousse to make a cake.
Rasmalai cake is made of a curdled milk similar to cottage cheese, then shaped into flat, round pieces and cooked in sugar water. Ammi’s soaks those in a cold, thick milk mixture and layers them with cardamom cream.
The bakery will also serve tea (including masala, cardamom and ginger teas) and coffee, as well as a handful of savory offerings: lentil soup, samosa chaat, chicken samosa chaat and chicken and steak samosas.
There’s seating for up to 22 in the 1,000-square-foot bakery with a “modern and yet cozy” atmosphere, Rahman said.
What else is coming to Seaboard Station?
- Boatman Spirits Co. — a distillery, craft cocktail bar and Mediterranean restaurant — will occupy 7,000 square feet at Seaboard Station. Owned by Zachary Thomas, Aaron Lambert, Geremy Prichard and George Ghneim, it will be the largest business so far to open in the downtown Raleigh development, and it’s expected to start serving customers in May, The N&O previously reported.
- French-Asian bakery cafe Tous les Jours is slated to open its second location in the Triangle this spring.
- The Triangle debut of Pins Mechanical Co., an entertainment concept featuring duckpin bowling, pinball, arcade games and pingpong and serving cocktails, beer, mocktails and drinks for kids, is expected this year.
This story was originally published March 20, 2025 at 3:22 PM with the headline "Founders of a popular Triangle Indian restaurant open new bakery in downtown Raleigh."
