Number of new restaurants roll into Cleveland, rock redevelopment of market

Nation's Restaurant News, July 21, 2003 by Carolyn Walkup

CLEVELAND -- Restaurateurs are finding opportunities in this aging Rust Belt city, which in the past several years has begun to acquire a modern shine.

Ongoing redevelopment of downtown and some city neighborhoods as well as the building of several major suburban retail projects is encouraging both chain and independent restaurant owners to locate here. Several said they chose that market because they believe Cleveland has too few restaurants compared with many other metropolitan areas.

"We are excited to be in Cleveland," said Rick Doody, chief executive of Columbus, Ohio-based Bravo! Development. The company is planning to open both a Bravo and a Brio Italian dinner-house in Cleveland's East Side suburbs. "We think it's an under-served market and seriously in need of good restaurants," he said.

"Cleveland has a tremendous amount of wealth, especially the East Side," said Doody, who has lived in the area off and on for 20 years. "One of my jobs is to find the best locations in America to go into, and I think Cleveland's East Side is one of them.

Cameron Mitchell, chief executive of Cameron Mitchell Restaurants, also based in Columbus, will be joining Doody as a neighbor in the East Side's new Legacy Village retail development with his Fish Market seafood restaurant.

"We expect to do quite well," said Mitchell, who will consider building a second restaurant in that market over time.

Cheesecake Factory, the 65-unit chain from Calabasas Hills, Calif., also will be debuting in the Cleveland market in Legacy Village this fall. Expanding into the Cleveland market was a logical progression for Cheesecake Factory, which has done extremely well in Columbus, said spokesman Howard Gordon.

While Doody, for one, said he is not a pioneer and therefore would not open a restaurant in downtown Cleveland at this time, several independent operators as well as the Los Angeles-based House of Blues are opening downtown. House of Blues expects to open a combination concert hall and restaurant in downtown's Gateway District in fall 2004, said spokesman Jack Gannon.

Admitting that Cleveland lacks both the population and the high-tourist trade common to most other markets House of Blues is in, Gannon said, "We think there is a strong-enough demand."

The company's concert arm already operates two summer outdoor venues in the market, so a House of Blues will extend the concert business year-round in the city that is home to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame & Museum. Gannon estimated that the restaurant would seat between 250 and 275 people, including seasonal outdoor seating, and the music hall would hold 1,000.

Two independent operators have opened restaurants since last fall within walking distance of the House of Blues site. They are Pickwick & Frolic, a combination restaurant/comedy club/cabaret, and Vivo, a contemporary Italian fine-dining restaurant owned by Chicagoan Dan Krasny, a Cleveland native.

"House of Blues will help this area tremendously," said Todd Stein, Vivo executive chef. Business has been up and down at Vivo since it opened in September 2002, but he blamed most of the down times on the Iraqi war and the record snowfall last winter.

Factors in the increase of restaurant business have been word-of-mouth, an important business asset in the Cleveland market; a location near the Gund Arena, home of the Cleveland Cavaliers; and Jacobs Field, home of the Cleveland Indians, Stein said. A lack of downtown residences is a disadvantage, he noted, but a considerable amount of multiunit residential development is under way and is expected to attract young professionals.

Vivo has 122 indoor and 30 outdoor seats and a dinner check average of $52. "We get a lot of private parties from pharmaceutical companies because of the Cleveland Clinic," Stein added.

Pickwick & Frolic owner Nick Kostis and private investors spent some $5.5 million to open the comedy club, cabaret and restaurant that serves "rustic American" food. Stand-up comedians who perform at the complex's Hilarities comedy club may be the primary draw, but many customers come in just for the restaurant.

Kostis chose the Gateway District instead of the suburbs because he wanted to create an urban destination. "We're not a tourist market," he said. "We're first and foremost a very good restaurant."

Business has been adequate at the 2-year-old Nick & Tony's in the Gateway District, owned by Chicago-based Restaurant Development Group, which plans to bring two other concepts to town. Partner Roger Greenfield would like to see more residential development downtown, however. "They are a little bit lacking there," he said.

"People used to go downtown to the Flats, but that's sort of died out," Greenfield noted. He was referring to an entertainment district that sprouted up on the banks of the Cuyahoga River some 15 years ago but since then has lost many restaurant tenants.

Tremont, a regentrifying urban neighborhood about 10 minutes from the Flats, continues to attract entrepreneurial restaurant owners who hope to capitalize on the area's restaurant-row reputation set by pioneers such as Lola Bistro, which has won both national and local acclaim since it opened eight years ago. Among the newest operators in Tremont are Fahrenheit, Theory and 806 Wine and Martini Bar.