Nearly three years after the Clifton Martini & Wine Bar shut its doors after a lease dispute with the landlord, the space has finally been claimed — La Ville Lumiere opened its doors last Friday.
The French-inspired brasserie is helmed by chef Kevin O'Connell, formerly of the Cleveland Sandwich Co. After leases were set to run out on his two sammie shop spaces Downtown, O'Connell was on the hunt for his next project.
The Clifton Wine Bar spot was an immediate draw.
"I didn't know the space in its early incarnations before I got to Cleveland, but I saw the space when it was Clifton. I always thought it was so cool, the patio is insane," he says. "We signed a lease in three days and we kind of knew the direction we wanted to go."
That direction is a classic French restaurant, a sort of white-table-cloth European gastropub, drawing on O'Connell's previous tenures in L.A. and other cities and fitting a niche in the local scene.
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"We're not Chez, we're not trying to be Chez. It's fantastic and has its own market," he says. "L'Albatros is on the other side of the universe. Tartine is a bit smaller. There's nothing like this."
O'Connell imagines guests dining early on oysters, salade lyonnaise, croque madame and other offerings from the all-day menu while transitioning to glasses of Champagne and French dips for happy hour and bouillabaisse, duo de canard, and coquilles Saint-Jacques à la Provençale for dinner.
"It's traditional fare," he says. "And we have our pastry chef from the French Pastry Institute in Chicago doing our baguettes, brioche, quiche, our own desserts. We have a butcher in house, all our steaks are cut here, same with the fish. There's been a swing in the last decade toward communal table-sharing food, and this brings it back to traditional dining. We're not trying to reinvent the wheel. These are tried and true 200-year-old recipes. It's not my riff. We buy good product, treat it right and serve it right."
The patio, a huge draw for the chef, can seat up to 65 while the newly renovated dining room sits dozens more.
Business, O'Connell reports, has been brisk so far.
"The reaction has been amazing," he says.
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