First Look: Solstice, Opening Friday in Former Deagan's Kitchen Space

Solstice opens in Lakewood on Sept. 22nd. Credit: Douglas Trattner

After taking possession of Deagan’s Kitchen, the new owners spent the past two and a half months refinishing the floors, painting the ceiling, hanging drywall, scrubbing the kitchen, resurfacing the dining room tables, rebuilding the back bar and about one million other tasks. It was an arduous labor of love for this tight-knit group of bar and restaurant vets.

“We’ve worked so hard doing everything ourselves in here,” says executive pastry chef Annabella Andricks.

Andricks and her six partners – Bradley Kaczmarski, Cory Miess, Ben Lebovic, Andrea Tsiros, Rachel Rosen and Eric Ho – took the space over from Dan Deagan in June, when he decided to close his popular Lakewood gastropub after 13 years. On Friday, September 22, Solstice (14810 Detroit Ave., 216-767-5775) will open in its place. While the restaurant has been refreshed and reconceived, its owners hope to achieve the same goals as their predecessor.

“It’s filling the same type of space that it had before as far as programming goes, it’s just updated to, you know, not 2007,” explains Lebovic. “It’s the goal of this place 13 years ago, except reimagined for 2023.”

Chef Miess, also of LBM, has crafted an “adventurous, fun, but approachable” menu divided into categories of small plates, greens, big plates and sweets. Many are listed as being vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free. Among the small plates are dishes like spring rolls with sweet soy dipping sauce, veggie-stuffed jalapeños, speck sliders, deviled eggs, calamari with lemon tarragon mayo, moules frites, and spinach and artichoke pakoras. A handful of salads star arugula and pear, kale and apple, or Brussels and cabbage. For the main event, there are crab cakes, burgers on focaccia, ravioli with sage-cashew cream sauce, seared salmon with green harissa, cassoulet and pork chops.

To finish, Andricks offers diners a selection of treats like sweet potato crème brûlée, s’more tarts, dark chocolate chile panna cotta and a hot fudge sundae, among others.

Solstice seats about 130 guests, including a whopping 35 at the large island bar. It was the very scale of that bar that persuaded the team to go all in on draft cocktails.

“Cory and I would sit at the bar every Thursday and have burgers,” Ho says of his frequent visits to Deagan’s while working in the neighborhood. “When this place is packed with just one bartender making cocktails, he’s just fucked – especially at happy hour. That’s why we changed all of the cocktails to draft. It’s still the same quality of product that we use at LBM, it’s just in a different serving format.”

Those batched cocktails include a Margarita with reposado tequila, Curacao and pomegranate, a Collins with blackberry, lemon and soda, a Penicillin with Johnnie Walker Red, ginger and lemongrass, and a Negroni comprised of gin, Dolin Rouge, Campari and bitters.

In addition to 11 cocktails on tap there are 14 draft beers and three wines on tap. There are many more of each available in glass or bottle form.

Starting Friday, Solstice will be open for dinner Tuesday through Saturday. The team plans to roll out happy hour, a children’s menu, brunch and lunch down the road.