Mojo, Lola, Flying Fig help write Cleveland's urban-renewal menu

Nation's Restaurant News, Nov 22, 1999 by Carolyn Walkup

CLEVELAND -- Operators of new independent restaurants in this sometimes-maligned city are enjoying strong receptions and drawing customers to newly revitalized urban neighborhoods.

As the city reclaims and gentrifies its formerly neglected downtown and adjacent areas, restaurant owners now are seizing opportunities to attract diners who are seeking something other than tried-and-true foodservice formulas.

"Cleveland is a great test market," said Michael Herschman, chef-owner of Mojo, in the regentrified Tremont district, near downtown.

People in Cleveland "will try things if you walk them through it; they are really good diners," said Herschman, who explained that he moved from his former Cena Copa restaurant to Tremont because he was looking for a broader audience for his food. He is able to tap that larger market in part because the 70-seat Mojo is across the street from Lola Bistro, a neighborhood pioneer that has made a big splash since opening two years ago.

Launched last August, Mojo specializes in small plates of international flavors, tapas style. The concept proved a bit too adventurous for the market, however, Herschman said, so he added six "big plates" or traditionally sized entrees.

Some of the small plates are tempura tiger shrimp with peanut sauce; spicy sesame plantain fritters with lemon creme fraiche and slow-roasted baby-back ribs with mango barbecue sauce and slaw.

To help create a hipper image than the one often associated with white-tablecloth restaurants, Herschman accented his tables with black tablecloths and napkins. "The servers wear black T-shirts and jeans," he explained. "We are very informal where restaurants are getting more formal, but we are not sacrificing quality."

Checks are averaging about $30 although diners easily can spend as little as $12 or $15 without leaving hungry. "The price point lets them come infrequently," Herschman said.

Attracting customers from multiethnic, multiclass Tremont as well as from the suburbs, Mojo is meeting Herschman's unspecified financial projections, he said. He also has opened Mojo Risin' next door, which sells house-baked breads, pastries, takeout lunches and boutique wines.

Karen Small, chef-owner of Flying Fig, a new 100-seat restaurant across the street from the much-larger Great Lakes Brewing Co. brewpub in the Ohio City historic district, also has a mixed clientele of urban and suburban residents. "There has been a renaissance downtown," she said. "Suburbanites are willing to travel downtown to go out to eat."

Her customers have not balked at paying about $41 for dinner, a check average that is bolstered by high wine sales. "We've trained our servers a lot on wines," she said, noting that her mark-up is between $10 and $12 above retail.

Some of her specialties are a daily changing antipasto plate; lobster and goat cheese quesadilla; grilled long-bone pork chop with Asian barbecue glaze, corn and green chile bread pudding and braised greens; and herb-roasted baby chicken with tomato chutney and polenta.

Two other downtown newcomers, One Walnut and Johnny's Bistro, opened with bigger budgets in less-risky locations One Walnut is on the first floor of the Ohio Savings Bank, which owns the financial district restaurant and paid $500,000 for the build-out, while Johnny's Bistro is next door to Johnny's Downtown, in the historic Warehouse District.

Marlin Kaplan, who operates One Walnut on a management contract, expects first-year sales to be above the original projection of $1.5 million. A sizable amount of business entertaining contributes to the American fine-dining restaurant's $57 check average.

"This is more formal than my previous establishments," said Kaplan, who formerly owned Lira, Marlin and Pig Heaven, all of which closed for various reasons. "Keeping people in here on Monday through Thursday nights is crucial," especially because Cleveland lacks both tourism and a downtown residential population, he noted.

"It's a tough restaurant town; there's a finite number of diners," Kaplan observed, adding that restaurants with the most longevity in Cleveland seem to be dinner house chains located in the suburbs.

Kaplan is optimistic about the future of One Walnut and local fine dining in general. "People are starting to recognize there are things beyond bistros and chains," he said.

Although One Walnut has one of the highest dinner check averages in town, Kaplan said his customers "don't seem to have an issue about that. There is a need for fine dining."

One Walnut's fall dinner entrees include pan-seared beef tenderloin with noodle cake and shiitake mushrooms; five-spice-roasted duck breast with duck sausage, long noodles and egg-drop broth; and grilled Maine lobster with vanilla butter and corn flan.

Kaplan also offers a few comfort foods, such as pot roast or macaroni and cheese, which often sell out. "The menu has good balance," he said.

The owners of the well-known Johnny's Bar on Fulton and Johnny's Downtown, both upscale Northern Italian restaurants, are continuing in the fine-dining vein with Johnny's Bistro. Vid Lutz, the restaurants' corporate executive chef, is incorporating some of what he learned from renowned French chef Roger Verge while spending six weeks in the south of France.