Finally heading back to the office? Scott Hess is working to soften the landing by creating a downtown eatery and bar that serves your needs all day long.
Set to open in early March, Let’s Talk CLE is a new 1,600-square-foot cafe and bar in the lobby of the Aecom Building on the corner East Ninth Street and St. Clair Avenue. Split into two distinct rooms, the downtown restaurant owned by Hess serves breakfast, build-you-own sandwiches, small plates, cocktails and takeaway dinners.
“This restaurant is everything I like about the industry and nothing I don’t,” says Hess, who has worked as a dishwasher, chef, bartender and server in restaurants for the past decade and a half, including in restaurants from Driftwood Restaurants and Catering and Dante Boccuzzi. “Basically, you can come into this building in the morning to get coffee, grab a bagel or whatever; go up to your office then come down for lunch; go back and come down again for drinks in the afternoon. Then if one drink turns into three drinks and you don't want to cook for the family, we’ve got you covered with dinner boxes ready to rock.”
Let’s Talk is not the only one soon to open up in the Aecom Building. Hess’s place joins a slew of new food offerings in the building, including displaced downtowners Anna in the Raw (formerly in the IMG Center), Winking Lizard (formerly in the Galleria) and Colossal Cupcake (formerly in the Fifth Street Arcade). Let’s Talk is the first among these to open, and the first food purveyor since Al’s Deli (not the same one as is in the Residences at 1717) closed.
While some might be hesitant to open a restaurant in the post-COVID work-from-home era, opportunities abound in the 20-story Aecom Building, which sees about 400 bodies enter its doors on a daily basis and an influx of residential properties downtown. In a neighborhood that doesn’t have many other places to eat and drink after 3 p.m., Let’s Talk may be the missing puzzle piece.
“In the next couple of years, there's going to be some serious foot traffic over there,” says Hess. “There's a few people that are trying to bring it back like downtown 10 years ago was happening and I'm trying to do it, too.”
Here’s what you need to know about the new workday hot spot.
The Space
The split concept features a 20-seat bar and a 25-seat cafe, though the space can fit 103. The cafe side has a service counter, a small library and space to line up for morning espresso, house-made snacks, afternoon lunch or evening heat-and-eat meals. The bar side’s retractable windows open to the lobby, and the bar back features some of Hess’s favorite books and nicknacks. A 100-year-old German player piano sits against the south wall hinting at the music and live programming, such as trivia and stand-up comedy, that Hess hopes to bring to the room. The project is the result of a year-long renovation project to revamp the space, add gas cooking lines and more. “It used to be two different units, so we ripped the wall down to create one cohesive space,” says Hess. “You've got all these options for dinner, but you really don't have any place downtown you can just go quietly with a friend, sit and have a chat, have a drink and have a snack.”
Food
The space is inspired by Hess and his wife’s own eating habits. “When my wife and I go out to dinner, we end up getting a drink and an appetizer, which turns into more drinks and appetizers,” says Hess. “By the time dinner comes we’re ready to go home.” That means the bar menu is small-plate focused with oysters, fried peppers and charcuterie, with cheese from Cleveland’s Agora Foods International.
The menu will also feature rotating chef-driven specials. “We want our dishes to be creative, tasteful, simple and beautiful without making them ridiculously expensive and pretentious,” says Hess. In the cafe, build-your-own breakfast and lunch sandwiches and salads include ingredients such as pastrami hash, pork belly, portabello mushrooms, flank steak and more. Pastries, bagels and house-made hummus round out the breakfast and lunch options.
Drinks
Securing a liquor license, which kept him from originally launching this idea in Lakewood, is what sold Hess on the space, so expect a focus on wine and craft cocktails. “We’re gonna start with classic cocktails,” he says. “We’re going to start by trying to get good at those.” In addition to martinis, Manhattans and bloody Marys, the bar features craft beer and a list of six spirit-free cocktails with juices and tea from The Tea Lab. The coffee program centers around a Rancilio espresso machine (for which Hess thanks Addie’s Cup’s, located on the back patio of Porco Lounge & Tiki Room) and beans from Heartwood Coffee Roasters. “We can do everything Starbucks can do and more,” Hess says.
