Nonprofit To Open Cafe, Culinary Training Center This Month

SILVER SPRING, MD — The nonprofit Emma's Torch will be opening its new location this month in Silver Spring, complete with a ribbon-cutting ceremony.

Located at 1200 East-West Highway, the new 4,500-square-foot facility will house both a cafe and a culinary training center.

Organizers will hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony on June 11 at 10 a.m., with doors opening to the public on June 12.

The base will serve as the nonprofit's new regional flagship after the decision was made in 2025 to shutter the former Brookland location.

Just blocks from the Silver Spring Metro and MARC train stations, officials say the new space is more than four times the size of the former site. The Silver Spring branch includes seating for over 185 students and space for private and community-geared events.

Founded by Kerry Brodie in New York, Emma's Torch was launched in 2016 as a means to empower refugees, asylum seekers and survivors of human trafficking by achieving financial independence through culinary training.

The new Silver Spring location "allows Emma’s Torch to reach its prospective students where they are; hundreds of refugees and asylum seekers from Afghanistan, Syria, Ukraine, the Congo and beyond arrive in the diverse community annually."

The design of the facility makes it so guests will be able to peer into the classroom spaces, as students witness how their dishes are being received by customers.

The cafe will be open Tuesday through Sunday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., offering customers a variety of breakfast and lunch dishes such as house-made chai, cortado, smoked cheddar broccoli tarts, egg and cheese biscuits, and brown butter pancakes, among other goods.

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