For sale: classic Cleveland dive bar. Credit: Google Maps

If you’ve been dreaming of running your own dive bar, give this classic Cleveland tavern the once-over. Located at W. 50th and Detroit, the Edgewater Café (4911 Detroit Avenue) offers up a heaping slice of understated elegance.

The Edgewater enjoyed a brief renaissance that began in 2014, when owner Frank Spremulli reopened the joint after shutting it down in 1996. The timing could not have been better. Cleveland was in the midst of nightlife boom, with shiny new bars, breweries and “eatertainment” venues opening weekly. In stark contrast to every one of those places, the Edgewater was without pretense. The interior was – and is still – essentially unchanged from the day Spremulli locked the doors in 1996.

Since 2014, the bar operated irregularly until it closed for good last year, when Spremulli passed away.

Today’s listing price of $649,900 is up considerably from its 1985 transfer price of $12,000. The sale does include a D-3 liquor license.

Here is the listing from Progressive Urban Real Estate.

This article appears in Sep 7-20, 2022.

For 25 years, Douglas Trattner has worked as a full-time freelance writer, editor and author. His work as co-author on Michael Symon's cookbooks have earned him four New York Times Best-Selling Author honors, while his longstanding role as Scene dining editor has garnered awards of its own.