Two years ago, Chris and Katie Wolf didn’t see themselves here. At the time, the then-newlyweds lived in Pepper Pike, just a few miles from Chris’ job as the executive chef of Shaker Heights Country Club; Katie worked in commercial underwriting at Progressive. Neither had any inkling that they’d soon upend their stable, straightforward suburban life to open one of the hottest new restaurants in Cleveland.
In the middle of 2022, Chris left his job at the country club to figure out what he wanted to do next. Though he’d planned to take a bit of time off, life had other plans.
“Our intent was never to open up a restaurant,” says Chris, an Orange native. “But a buddy told me to come look at this spot that was for sale, and from there, everything happened really fast.”
That spot was a building at the edge of Little Italy that once had housed Club Isabella, a French-inspired restaurant that closed in 2021. Though other local proprietors had been angling to buy it, no one was more surprised than the Wolfs when they managed to snag it first. And as soon as they did, their lives changed completely.
It was the first time that Chris, a longtime country club and resort chef, would helm the kitchen of a restaurant that was open to the general public. Katie took on the mantle of designing and furnishing the building despite having no prior interior decorating experience.
“I mean, I do like shopping,” she jokes. “This space was built in the early 2010s, and it had good bones, but it was a little dated. I’m a girly girl, and I like fun, bright, bold colors, so I was like, ‘Let’s paint things gold!’”
She outfitted the 100-seat dining room in jewel-toned floral motifs, sparkling light fixtures and unexpected touches of kitsch, like a rainbow-hued neon sign that bears lyrics to the hit Duran Duran song (“Hungry Like the Wolf,” obviously).
In both appearance and cuisine, you’d never guess that Wolf Pack Chorus is owned by two people with no prior entrepreneurial experience. But unlike other local restaurateurs, the Wolfs didn’t have outside investors or a contracted construction company to help them renovate the space. They did nearly all of it themselves.
“We’re first-time business owners, and in today’s economic and political climate, that’s really scary,” Chris says. “We threw everything into this. We sold our house and a car; if I could’ve sold a kidney, I probably would’ve done that, too. For us, it was win or go home.”
The couple moved into an apartment in Cleveland Heights, opened the doors to their restaurant and hoped for the best.
Luckily for them, East Siders enthusiastically embraced Wolf Pack Chorus even before it opened, eager to welcome a broad, modern American concept to a neighborhood jam-packed with singularly focused Italian eateries.
So far, Wolf Pack Chorus’s best-selling dish is the pot-au-feu ($36), a hearty, slow-cooked stew of tender braised short rib and confit potatoes in a rich demi-glace of beef stock and mushrooms. Chris, whose culinary education included training in China, has put his spin on the classic French dish by garnishing it with a homemade ginger scallion sauce.
His love of Asian flavors shows up in other dishes, too, like a truly stellar spicy-sweet gochujang cauliflower ($28) and an eggroll-style take on crab Rangoon ($18), made with real snow crab and house-made duck sauce. But Wolf Pack Chorus isn’t limited to one cuisine or region, instead presenting a satisfyingly eclectic and truly global menu.
The good news? It lives up to its looks in taste, too. Other standout dishes include the duck confit ($35), another French classic made distinctly American by the addition of a subtly spicy Nashville hot sauce, and the pizza dip ($16), a deconstructed, Italian-inspired starter that blends Diavolo sauce, crispy pepperonis and pulled mozzarella.
Leave room for dessert. With her insurance days behind her, Katie has taken on the role of pastry chef, and her baklava cheesecake ($14) can convince you to make your next reservation before you’ve finished the last bite. It’s a thick, generous slice that marries the tang of creamy cheesecake with the nutty, honeyed crunch of traditional Greek pastry.
With white tablecloths and entrees that average $30, there’s no question this is a fancy restaurant. But importantly, in this era of fine dining, it’s also a cool restaurant, presenting an inspired, diverse array of dishes that both adventurous and picky eaters can enjoy. Plus, there’s always something new to try, as the Wolfs continue to experiment, iterate and incorporate feedback from the (dare we say it?) chorus of their pack of diners. A few items on the menu rotate every two to six weeks depending on seasonality, ingredient availability and Chris’s culinary impulses.
“We know we’re a little bit of everything — big, unapologetic, sometimes slightly unpolished,” he says, “but we think it’s a lot of fun.”
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