All The Cleveland Restaurants That Closed In 2021

By Scene Staff on Fri, Dec 10, 2021 at 3:45 pm

While 2021 wasn't as devastating as 2020 for restaurant closings, we still lost our fair share of beloved restaurants and bars this year. Whether it was due to the pandemic, staffing issues or simply just time to shut it down, some of our favorites served their last dish.

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Pour Cleveland

530 Euclid Ave., Cleveland

Owner Charlie Eisenstat permanently closed his downtown coffee shop Pour Cleveland, which he opened in 2013. The retail establishment had ceased serving customers in March and never reopened. Eisenstat says that he had hoped normal downtown life would return, but even after a year, the outlook for his business had not improved. Eisenstat still maintains a coffee roastery and e-commerce site for international coffees.

16-Bit Bar+Arcade

15012 Detroit Ave., Lakewood

It's "Game Over" for the Lakewood location of 16-Bit, which opened in August of 2014. The popular "barcade" closed in March. The announcement, which was shared on social media, cited the approaching opening of a new combined 16-Bit and Pins Mechanical in Ohio City as the reason.

DiCillo Tavern

6088 Mayfield Rd., Mayfield Heights

DiCillo Tavern wasn’t just the oldest restaurant in Mayfield Heights; it was the oldest business in Mayfield Heights. The longstanding fixture on Mayfield Road has been around in some fashion or another since the area was more forest than concrete jungle. The space reopened as the Tavern of Mayfield.

Minh Anh

5428 Detroit Ave., Cleveland

For many diners in Cleveland, Minh Anh Restaurant was where we first learned to love pho, the Vietnamese beef noodle soup. While pho is now available all across the region, this modest restaurant on Cleveland's near-west side was a pioneer in the field and unfortunately served its last bowl of pho in September.

Zocalo

1360 E. 9th St., Cleveland

East Fourth Street has been on a bit of a roller coaster ride for the past year and a half. Following the huge losses of Greenhouse Tavern, Chinato and Lola, the street scored a big win with Dante Boccuzzi’s splashy new Goma. New tenants also are teed up for the Greenhouse Tavern and Lola spaces. In July, we learned that Zocalo, one of the longest running restaurants on the street, ceased regular service.

The Big Egg

5107 Detroit Ave., Cleveland

The Big Egg, the legendary once-24/7 diner at West 52nd and Detroit, permanently closed this October. Enjoying two distinct lives — one as the original, beloved greasy spoon with as many devotees as health code violations that closed in 2002, and the second iteration, opened some seven years later with a fresh interior redo and little carried over from its first life other than the name and egg-shaped menu — the Big Egg had been a part of the near west side since at least the early 1950s.

Winking Lizard Gateway

811 Huron Rd. E., Cleveland

John Lane and his partners at Winking Lizard announced back in August that the Gateway location would be shutting down for an undisclosed period of time. Citing myriad pandemic-related issues, Lane added that any potential reopening would be considered after the first of the year but made the decision to shutter for good in October.

Sweet Moses

6800 Detroit Ave., Cleveland

Sweet Moses Gordon Square closed its doors in October after 10 years. Owner Jeff Moreau, who owned both the business and the building, had been in negotiations to transition the beloved business to a new operator, but those plans fell through at the last minute, he says, forcing the old school ice cream shop to close.

Lindey’s Lake House Beachwood

2101 Richmond Rd., Beachwood

“I’m humble enough to say that if it doesn’t work, that’s okay. We tried,” said Rick Doody, owner of Cedar Creek Grille, 17 River Grille, Bar Italia and formerly Lindey’s Lake House in Beachwood. In February, Doody announced that he was re-concepting his two-year-old Lakewood eatery, Lindey's Lake House, to Bar Italia. At the time, the co-founder of Bravo and Brio restaurants expressed a hesitancy to do the same in Beachwood, where another Lake House sits adjacent to Cedar Creek Grille. But that’s no longer the case.

Crop Bistro

2537 Lorain Ave., Cleveland

Crop Bistro in Ohio City has been closed since January, explained owner Marcelo Fadul, who took ownership of the grand space four years prior. Fadul says that the struggle to stay afloat in such a large space during the pandemic eventually proved too burdensome. While Fadul says that he officially handed the property over to the landlord, he hopes to reopen the same concept in the same space at some point in the near future.