When Nighttown closed its doors in 2020, days before Ohio even mandated shutdowns, it seemed like the end of more than five decades’ worth of history. Since 1965, the restaurant-slash-jazz-club had developed a reputation as a venue worthy of musical greats like Freddy Cole, Jimmy Scott and the Count Basie Orchestra. Famously, Stevie Wonder and Wynton Marsalis even dropped in for surprise performances.
More than that, though, Nighttown was known as a buzzy, reliable haunt where locals came to celebrate milestones — from date nights and engagements to rehearsal dinners and 50th anniversary parties — or let nights fade away at the bar in the piano room. Like so many restaurants, though, the legendary Cleveland Heights spot couldn’t fend off the wallop of the first round of pandemic shutdowns.
As the building on Cedar Road sat empty, a handful of proprietors considered investing in the property and turning it into something new. But when the ownership group behind Red, the Steakhouse, looked at the space, they knew they wanted in — and that they wanted to build upon Nighttown’s storied legacy.
“It’s such a special place, and especially to the people of Cleveland Heights, who have spent their lives here,” says Stephanie Pack, director of operations for both Red and Nighttown. “When we decided to move forward, we went on a long journey of restoring the building.”
What was originally expected to be a light cosmetic makeover of the Nighttown space — just a fresh coat of paint and some elbow grease — instead turned into a full-blown renovation that included gutting and rebuilding the kitchen, extending the bathrooms and constructing a massive walk-in cooler. The work took a year longer than initially expected until finally, on Nov. 10, Nighttown reopened its doors.
Despite the extensive construction, most visitors will immediately note that it looks exactly the same as it always has. And that was the point.
“We put so much work, time, energy and money into this project, to bring it back to life to the closest we could — to what Nightttown was before,” she says. But there’s a catch: “Even though it’s still Nighttown, it’s also a brand-new restaurant.”
With new ownership comes a revamped menu and a fresh face at the helm. Chef Rowan Murray, who lives in the neighborhood, has worked in Cleveland-area restaurants since age 20, first at the now-defunct Moxie and then at Red. Though he’d never eaten at Nighttown, he was eager to help reestablish the iconic restaurant.
“When we started the process of figuring out the menu, we talked about the dishes Nighttown was known for and decided not to do them exactly the same,” Murray says. “I’d never tasted them, and it would’ve been hard to replicate things I’d never tried. Instead, I put a little spin of me on the menu and just have to hope the community enjoys it.”
Nighttown’s previous owner, Brendan Ring, grew up in Ireland, and the restaurant’s food offerings long skewed in that direction. Murray, on the other hand, moved to Cleveland from Jamaica at age 6 and is trained in French cooking techniques; he’s also a little bit obsessed with Italian food, having learned more details during a 2019 visit. It’s understandable, then, that he brings those flavors and sensibilities to Nighttown’s new menu.
As part of his commitment to quality, it’s a menu that is intentionally much smaller than before. “I believe in scratch cooking because I think it tastes better,” Murray says, “and it would be very hard to have a true scratch kitchen with 50 menu items.”
To those ends, he’s thoughtfully altered many of Nighttown’s most beloved dishes, including its most famous: the Dublin Lawyer. A longtime bestseller, this quirkily named Maine lobster dish ($38) features a rich sauce of heavy cream and Irish whiskey. Though it used to be served over rice pilaf, Murray has paired it with house-made gnocchi.
“I thought little dumplings would play well with the cream,” he says, “and now it gives you two different textures within the same bite.”
It’s a change that has upset loyal longtime fans, to say the least (some of the OpenTable reviews are nothing short of brutal), but diners open-
minded enough to embrace the dish’s evolution will likely find it sumptuous, indulgent and still unusual enough to retain its place as the star of the menu.
Though he isn’t a baker, Murray was also happy to play taste tester to pastry chef Crystal Sypniewski, who designed a knockout dessert menu that you absolutely cannot miss. In fact, even if you don’t have time for a full meal, pop into the bar and order a slice of the fluffernutter pie ($10), a sweet interpretation of the sandwich by the same name. It’s everything all at once: silky peanut butter mousse between a layer of springy marshmallow fluff and a chewy oatmeal cookie crust, plus a sprinkle of a few salty peanuts and a drizzle of honey butter sauce on top. “When it came to the pastry menu, we talked about keeping it seasonal but also having things that were very approachable that people love,” Murray says.
That approachability is one of the throughlines between the old Nighttown and the new. Both Murray and Park agree that their goal isn’t just for the restaurant to reclaim its place as one of the Cleveland greats; it’s for the locals to feel like they’ve gotten their favorite neighborhood restaurant back.
“We’re excited to see the entire space open and have all of the pieces come to fruition, where we’re doing brunch and private dining and hosting big life events again,” Pack says. “But we know we can’t do everything overnight, so we’re taking our time and doing it the right way.”
And for now, that means it is missing a former major element: live music. “We’re constantly talking about music, but our main focus is to get the restaurant fully operational,” Pack says.
Where the restaurant used to pack in 500 people, its legal occupancy is now down in the 200s, which means carefully reimagining its potential as a venue. In the meantime, though, you can catch solo pianists playing on the weekends.
“With every change of ownership, things have changed,” Pack says, “but as its new stewards, we did everything we possibly could to honor Nighttown and to bring it back.”
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