Urban Farmer (1325 E. 6th St., 216-771-7707, urbanfarmercleveland.com) has been open for just six months, but already the executive chef has left the building. Opening chef Brad Cecchi, who relocated from Sacramento to Cleveland for the job, has accepted a new position back home. He will be the chef de cuisine at the Michelin-starred restaurant Solbar at the Solage Calistoga resort in Napa Valley, California.
“My fiancé and I always planned on eventually going back to California, whether that was in two years, five years or whenever,” Cecchi says from the sunny West Coast. “But then this opportunity at a Michelin-starred restaurant popped up.”
While here, Cecchi built a solid foundation for the restaurant – and his replacement – to build and grow upon.
“Urban Farmer is a great concept in a great building,” he says. “My kitchen staff was incredible. To find the amount of talent that I did there is pretty remarkable.”
While he won’t miss the winters here, he does have a newfound soft spot for the city he leaves behind.
“There’s such a buzz in Cleveland right now,” he says. “There’s nothing I could say about the city that isn’t totally positive.”
Of course, Urban Farmer will be in good (new) hands. Incoming executive chef Trent Love will take over the top chef role, says Kristen Pritchard, a manager who has been with the restaurant since the beginning. After graduating from Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Pasadena, California, Love worked as an Executive Sous Chef at Mastro’s Steakhouse in multiple locations, and helped open Herringbone in Los Angeles as their Chef de Cuisine.
“He has a great background and I think that he’ll work really well with our group.”
Meanwhile, Sage Restaurant Group, the Denver-based firm that developed the concept, will open the third Urban Farmer restaurant in the country in 2015, this one in Philly.
This article appears in Nov 26 – Dec 2, 2014.
Can the writer stop with the cliches such as “sunny West Coast”? I live in CA and there are clouds on occasion! And half the time you can’t see the sun because of haze. CA is not all it’s cracked up to be. And please stop with the ” Cleveland winters” thing. I really can’t abide people who complain about winter. It’s winter! 95% of the United States is freezing. This is not a situation that is unique to Ohio. That’s what happens in winter…you know, the earth’s angle in relation to the sun and all that. It’s not like winter only happens in Cleveland; there are so many other parts of the US that have it much colder. The worst winter I ever had was when I lived in NYC ten years ago. Painful. So let’s stop with the “California is always sunny and Cleveland is nothing but horrible winter” line of silliness, shall we?
Sacramento sees sun 78% of the time vs Cleveland at 49%. The average temperature in Sacramento is 10 degrees warmer. And the last significant snowfall in Sacramento was in 1976. Yes it gets colder everywhere in the winter – some places clearly have it worse than Cleveland too. Some places have it better. It’s all relative. Weather is barely mentioned in this article, so why take such offense to it?
Patrick, Jeremy is absolutely correct. It’s not about Sacremento having better weather than Cleveland it’s about the self deprecating, woe is me attitude a lot of people have here about everything (weather included). Scene Magazine is a perpetuator of that attitude, which is why it will be non existent in a few years (maybe sooner). The majority of people have a great new attitude about the city and don’t want to hear the constant negativity and backhanded compliments spewed by these “reporters” who couldn’t land a real job at a legit publication. The only reason I ever check this site is to be amused by their newest ways to add a slightly negative spin to the most positive of news. This article caught my eye because I love Urban Farmer. “Daily dispatches from the Paris of the Midwest.” is all you need to read to prove my point about the overall condescending attitude of this rag.
Let’s stop talking weather and talk about the food. Overpriced and nothing special. There are a lot better steaks in Cleveland. Parking slow. If I were a chef and had an opportunity to go to a Michelin-starred restaraunts in Alaska I’d go.