About Us

garden: noun gar-den/ gar d n 1. A plot of ground where herbs, fruits, flowers or vegetables are cultivated. 2. A rich well-cultivated region. Here at “The Garden Restaurant” we are proud and happy to be a part of the garden that is the Scranton community. In our restaurant the downtown community, the arts community, the Middle Eastern community and the restaurant community meet and grow.

Co-owners, Jo Marie Yamin Ali and Akram Ali have cultivated their garden over the years. Jo Marie has honed her skills through a variety of business’ in Scranton. As the owner of a pastry shop on the courthouse square, she distributed her pastry to the “Joe’s Coffee” franchise in NYC. She then pioneered the 1st street cart in the downtown, feeding the hungry bar hoppers and becoming a beloved player in the night time scene.

Meanwhile, Akram was living and working in Chicago as a Middle Eastern chef and specialty butcher for 15 years. After marrying they opened a restaurant in West Pittston. “The Garden Cafe” began as a four table restaurant and grew to a 40 seat restaurant over the past 3 years. It’s success was founded on their mission to treat everyone like family and to cook for them with love.

At “The Garden” are recipes are multi-generational,past down from our foremothers to us. Our ingredients are fresh and healthy, organic and grass-fed meats, locally sourced seasonal vegetables that are never processed. We are happy to be back home and hope our garden adds to the “rich and well cultivated region” that is Scranton. We hope you feel at home here. Sahteen (Enjoy your meal!)