The news rocked the local dining scene.
In January, chef Brandon Chrostowski announced he was moving his Edwins Leadership & Restaurant Institute from its decade-plus spot on Shaker Square. He needed more room for the celebrated French eatery. It’s a key component, along with a Buckeye Road bakery-cafe and butcher shop-deli, of a 501(c)(3) culinary arts and hospitality management training operation for formerly incarcerated adults that recently won the James Beard Foundation’s new Impact Award.
The new address is hallowed ground: the location once occupied by Nighttown, the Cleveland Heights institution mourned by legions of regulars when it closed during the pandemic and then was revived by Red Restaurant Group in 2023, and closed again less than a year later.
Chrostowski has used the additional square footage to better accommodate the 40 to 50 students and graduates who work at Edwins on any given night, and to add tables to serve up to 350 people. He, along with Chris Kascsak and Bret Manning of Cleveland-based In Design Inc., have created distinctly different dining venues while preserving Nighttown’s architectural legacy, right down to the signature glass panels featuring the hulking fedora-topped figure.
“The goal was to transition it from what Nighttown was, which was the red-light district in London,” Chrostowski says. Edwins, he adds, is Paris’ Latin district. “Which part of the City of Light — or the type of establishment — depends on where you dine.”
The front room, for example, is what Chrostowski characterizes as classic brasserie, a narrow space that combines the massive old bar at the front with new green banquettes at the back. Here, we opted to sample the brasserie menu, which replaces the former Edwins Too bill of fare, in the relative peace of the Tiffany Room, so named for the existing fan-shaped art-glass window over the entrance. Olive damask-print wallpaper and banquettes several shades deeper than the blue accents in the bright green floral carpet combine to evoke an “older world Latin Quarter” vibe, as Chrostowski puts it. We glimpsed a flower-filled patio through a glass hall door as we entered.
We were surprised by the wide range of menu options. “Hors d’oeuvres” ran the gamut from escargot to mac and cheese, “mains” from duck confit and beef bourguignon to short ribs and a burger. Ordering an appetizer seemed redundant. The bakery-fresh baguette came with a blue cheese butter, a spread that balanced the sharp, tangy pungency of the former with the creamy sweetness of the latter. It elevated the bread to starter status, particularly when paired with a glass of Edwins’ excellent private-label French Bordeaux ($10).
Chrostowski made an appearance while we were still twirling linguine, moving from table to table to chat with his customers. One woman mentioned that the service was slower than usual. There were no such issues when we returned on a busy Saturday night to eat in the fine-dining room, a luxe combination of rose wallpaper and plush banquettes, original dark wood and art glass windows that Chrostowski describes as “8th arrondissement, very high end, classy, chic.”
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Chrostowski says the fine-dining menu is a “stepped up” version of its Shaker Square predecessor. The lobster bisque ($12) was a little too salty for our taste. But the shrimp scampi with linguine ($22) satisfied. The butter-and-white-wine sauce was garlicky enough to make it tasty but not so garlicky that it interfered with enjoying the bananas Foster ($10) that followed. Three banana halves, split lengthwise and arranged around a scoop of vanilla ice cream, were served in a buttery, brown-sugary sauce made with rum and banana liqueur that filled the small bowl.
Next came the bouillabaisse ($48), Chrostowski’s culinary pride and joy. The saffron broth is prepared with ingredients such as rascasse, a fish that’s “damn near impossible to find in the States — we try to procure the bones,” and pastis. He augments the usual selection of fish with mussels and lobster.
“Lobster puts it over the top,” he concedes. “Some purists would object.”
We knew from previous experience that bouillabaisse could be served in two courses: the broth, ladled into individual bowls, and the fish, chosen from a communal platter. But the menu described it as a “seafood stew,” words that conjured up visions of a hearty soup.
What we got was a selection of seafood artfully heaped in a deep white bowl. A blackened plank of sea bass, as long and wide as a small banana, rested atop a half-dozen mussels, shells yawning wide open, with a large chunk of golden branzino tucked to one side. Two crostini dolloped with saffron aioli topped the arrangement.
We looked up at the server and, genuinely perplexed, asked, “How do we eat this?” The server fetched a supervisor who, smiling at our confusion, suggested we “unpack it” on the dinner plate she subsequently retrieved from the kitchen. We gradually uncovered a lobster tail curled around a smaller piece of branzino submerged in a couple inches of broth. Executive chef Tim emerged from the kitchen to explain that the presentation was developed to achieve maximum “wow factor.” We began cutting fish and lobster into bite-sized pieces and dropping them into the broth, laughing at our ignorance.
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For dessert, we vacillated between the Grand Marnier souffle ($15) and pyramid du chocolat ($15), the latter of which Chrostowski describes as “a big, decadent chocolate truffle.” The souffle won out — barely. Yet another server placed a white ramekin containing the powdered sugar-dusted delight on the table, raised a knife above it, and asked, “May I?” We nodded. He pierced the souffle, poured a small crock of creme anglaise into the opening, and left us to savor the faint taste of citrus in each light bite.
Part of the Edwins’ experience is meeting the people who take advantage of the second chances it provides. Our server in the Tiffany Room confessed that she was a little nervous working “the front of the house” — she worried that her people skills weren’t good enough to do it. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to pursue a career in hospitality after she graduated from the six-month Edwins program. But she now had the commitment needed to get her GED, maybe go on to college and study psychology.
Her words made us forget any lapse in service as we figured the tip.
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