More and more local restaurants are exploring how to serve food grown right here in Northeast Ohio. This is not only a way to create wonderful dishes from fresh food in season, but it also strengthens a local food economy.
This section will highlight the restaurants who are promoting local food. Local restaurants are invited to create their own page to tell their story.
And we also are including a list of restaurants that feature vegetarian food. Although vegetarianism isn't necessarily an issue for the local food economy, the entire world food system will be more sustainable if we eat lower on the food chain. Suggest your favorites!
Restaurants featuring local foods
Bar Cento
Baricelli Inn
Carrie Cerino’s Ristorante
Crop Bistro and Local Crop, an online farmers market serving area chefs and restaurants.
Fire Food & Drink
Flying Fig
Great Lakes Brewing Co.
The Greenhouse Tavern, Ohio's first certified green restaurant
Light Bistro
Lolita
Lucky's Cafe
Marotta's
Mustard Seed Market & Cafe
Restaurants featuring vegetarian foods
Tommy's
Other resources
Green Restaurant Association
Parker's Restaurant Requiem
Susan Miller Says:Locally grown food available seasonally. That was Parker's. The restaurant closed at the end of 2006. Listen to the interview with Parker Bosley here.
The new owners? Here's the news:
Parker’s new owners
Parker’s New American Bistro, almost as much of an Ohio City landmark for its feisty founder as its food, is being sold to a local partnership with plans to reopen the renamed restaurant in March.
The buyers are Matthew Mathlage and Eric Dietrich, who became friends and business partners through their wives, who were University of Akron roommates.
Mathlage, 31, of Lakewood, was executive chef of the Leopard Restaurant and the Bertram Inn in Aurora for 6½ years. He resigned Jan. 18.
Dietrich, his 35-year-old business partner from Solon, is a former vice president and general manager of the Cleveland Force professional soccer team. He’s also an investor in a New York company that franchises products and restaurants under the “The Original SoupMan” name — more familiar to “Seinfeld” fans as “the Soup Nazi.”
A deal is to be signed Monday for the restaurant’s sale and a five-year lease in the 1865-era building at 2801 Bridge Ave. on Cleveland’s near West Side. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Parker’s, recognized nationally for its nouveau French cuisine, use of meat and produce from regional farms and its cooking school, closed Dec. 31 after 14 years there. Its namesake chef/owner, Parker Bosley, originally opened the restaurant at East 68th Street and St. Clair Avenue in 1988 to much fanfare. A fire led to the move to Ohio City, this time in partnership with Jeff Jaskiel.
The new owners take possession Feb. 1. After a brief remodel, they’re aiming to reopen as the Light Bistro on March 12.
While the new menu is being developed, Mathlage said customers can expect “progressive American tapas,” mainly small plate specialties (for about $4 to $8), with some entree-sized plates for sharing (about $18 to $40).
And, like Parker’s, Light Bistro will use sustainable, slow foods bought seasonally from local growers, he said.
Bosley, 68, who essentially left kitchen supervision to his executive chef two years ago, consults and manages for the North Union Farmers market. Jaskiel is pursuing a real estate sales career.
— Bill Lubinger, blubinger@plaind.com
Slow food, served seasonably and sustainably grown and harvested from local farms... that's the good news here. Stay tuned and write about your experiences when the new place is open and the new fare has been et.