For weeks, Douglas Katz and his team have been cooking, tasting and tweaking dishes in advance of opening his newest restaurant. That will occur on Oct. 22, when Kiln welcomes its first public guests. Many months of work have transformed the former Shake It/Kindred Spirit/Sawyer’s property at Van Aken District in Shaker Heights into a warm, elegant and airy bistro.
“The whole idea was to bring everyone together in a room, like we do at Zhug and Amba,” Katz explains.
Like Amba and Zhug, Kiln will treat guests to exceptional hospitality and a broad range of dishes meant to be shared and enjoyed family-style. But Unlike Amba and Zhug, Kiln will offer American bistro fare rooted in classical European cooking techniques from an open kitchen.
From that kitchen will come a flurry of appealing dishes that range from seasonal crudite with hummus to braised lamb shanks with preserved plums and mint. More than two dozen items are available, including many vegan and vegetarian dishes.
“The servers will help guide you through the experience and say which dishes go well together,” says Katz. “It’s about the hospitality.”
Some of Katz’s favorite groupings include crudite, mushroom tartlets and American ham or the vegetable tian, ribeye steak tips in Burgundy jus and golden-brown popovers.
Some diners might spot some old Fire Food & Drink favorites like chicken livers and dry-aged pork chops, but they have been redesigned for shareability. Groups marking a special occasion can call-ahead to order a "celebration cake" for four, six or eight people.
The wine program will be built around small American producers, including a handful of Ohio growers.
Unlike Amba and Zhug, Kiln will accept reservations, but the majority of tables will be set aside for walk-ins, says Katz. While they wait for a table, diners can have a drink upstairs, at the cozy eight-seat bar in the dining room, or elsewhere in Van Aken.
“We want people to walk in, to hang out in the district, and come back for their table,” he says. “It’s important for us to be able to get people in.”
For the first time, the main level restaurant and rooftop bar space will operate as one unified business. Guests can dine either in the 80-seat main dining room or in the 65-seat upper-level lounge space. In spring, patios up and down will come into service.
It's remarkable to think back to 2020, when the entire Katz team was down to just four people. Now, with three full-service restaurants in the portfolio, the company is up to 150 employees.
The core team consists of Katz, managing partner Todd Thompson, executive chef Cameron Pishnery and director of operations Phoebe Connell.
For this project, Katz worked with designer Dana Sobota to create a simple but sophisticated dining room designed to unite guests in a spirit of conviviality. Much of the work focused on decluttering the space and opening it up, says Thompson.
“We took away a lot more than we added to let the building be airy and spacious,” he explains.
Katz says that the time just feels right to welcome Kiln into the world — and that he and his team have never been more up to the task.
“I feel that we have been waiting for this as a community since the pandemic,” he says. “I’m not nervous because, if I think of Fire, it was just me. When I think of Amba and Zhug, it was just Todd and I. But now we have all these people who are so passionate and part of our team.”
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