Jeremy Sasson seeks connection with community with his Heirloom Hospitality Group
Menu Talk with Pat and Bret is a collaboration between Restaurant Business senior menu editor Pat Cobe and Bret Thorn, senior food & beverage editor of Nation’s Restaurant News.
Menu Talk: The entrepreneur got his start in the Detroit suburbs and has since expanded to Nashville
June 23, 2026
Jeremy Sasson had never worked in a restaurant when he opened his first one, Townhouse Birmingham, in a Detroit suburb in 2011. But coming from a family of entrepreneurs who worked a lot and didn’t cook, he ate in restaurants all the time and fell in love with the experience. He liked being a guest, and he wanted to provide that sense of hospitality, connection, and community to others.
Now he runs Heirloom Hospitality Group, which operates six restaurants: Two Townhouse locations, an Italian-California concept called Mad Nice in Detroit, its sister brand Mad Nice Coffee, and the steakhouse concept Prime + Proper, which just opened Heirloom’s first restaurant outside of Michigan, in Nashville.
Next up, Heiress, a design-forward Italian restaurant in the Somerset Collection shopping center in Troy, Mich.
Sasson discussed his approach to restaurant management, what he loves about his job, and how Detroit has come into its own as a vibrant city and dynamic restaurant destination.
About the Author
Bret Thorn
Senior Food Editor, Nation's Restaurant News
Senior Food & Beverage Editor
Bret Thorn is senior food & beverage editor of Nation’s Restaurant News and Restaurant Hospitality.
Hi is responsible for spotting and reporting on F&B trends across the country for both publications.
He is the co-host of a podcast, Menu Talk with Pat and Bret, which features interviews with chefs, food & beverage authorities, and other experts in foodservice operations.
From 2005 to 2008 he also wrote the Kitchen Dish column for The New York Sun, covering restaurant openings and chefs’ career moves in New York City.
He joined Nation’s Restaurant News in 1999 after spending about five years in Thailand, where he wrote articles about business, banking and finance as well as restaurant reviews and food columns for Manager magazine and Asia Times newspaper. He joined Restaurant Hospitality’s staff in 2016 while retaining his position at NRN.
A magna cum laude graduate of Tufts University in Medford, Mass., with a bachelor’s degree in history, and a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Thorn also studied traditional French cooking at Le Cordon Bleu Ecole de Cuisine in Paris. He spent his junior year of college in China, studying Chinese language, history and culture for a semester each at Nanjing University and Beijing University. While in Beijing, he also worked for ABC News during the protests and ultimate crackdown in and around Tiananmen Square in 1989.
Thorn’s monthly column in Nation’s Restaurant News won the 2006 Jesse H. Neal National Business Journalism Award for best staff-written editorial or opinion column.
He served as president of the International Foodservice Editorial Council, or IFEC, in 2005.
Thorn wrote the entry on comfort food in the Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, 2nd edition, published in 2012. He also wrote a history of plated desserts for the Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets, published in 2015.
He was inducted into the Disciples d’Escoffier in 2014.
A Colorado native originally from Denver, Thorn lives in Brooklyn, N.Y.
Bret Thorn’s areas of expertise include food and beverage trends in restaurants, French cuisine, the cuisines of Asia in general and Thailand in particular, restaurant operations and service trends.
Bret Thorn’s Experience:
Nation’s Restaurant News, food & beverage editor, 1999-Present
New York Sun, columnist, 2005-2008
Asia Times, sub editor, 1995-1997
Manager magazine, senior editor and restaurant critic, 1992-1997
ABC News, runner, May-July, 1989
Education:
Tufts University, BA in history, 1990
Peking University, studied Chinese language, spring, 1989
Nanjing University, studied Chinese language and culture, fall, 1988
Le Cordon Bleu Ecole de Cuisine, Cértificat Elémentaire, 1986
Email: [email protected]
Social Media:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bret-thorn-468b663/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bret.thorn.52
Twitter: @foodwriterdiary
Instagram: @foodwriterdiary
TikTok: @foodwriterdiary
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