Abundance Culinary to Expand at Diner Car on Lee After Departure of Rising Star Coffee

Expect a trimmed-down coffee program alongside sweet and savory Chinese pastries sometime this winter

By Vince Grzegorek on Tue, Oct 1, 2024 at 12:01 pm

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Courtesy Photo

Abundance Culinary

Rising Star's residency at the diner car on Lee Road was always meant to be a temporary one.

With news this week that the local coffee chain has landed a permanent home in Cleveland Heights at the corner of South Taylor (2184 S. Taylor Rd.), it also means that Abundance Culinary, the year-old modern Chinese outfit from Chef Liu Fang and Carl Setzer, can expand into the former coffeeshop space.

Rising Star Coffee Lands New Cleveland Heights Location: The cafe will shift from Lee Road to S. Taylor Road

And the pair aim to serve the same customers that had been stopping in for a jolt of caffeine and a snack in the morning.

The plan, after a slight renovation of the area helmed by Kelley Shaffer, who has designed Doug Katz's restaurants, is to open a breakfast/all-day service featuring a slimmed-down roster of coffees alongside sweet and savory Chinese pastries and other breakfast goodies.

"A real simple caffeine service, Chinese baked goods, Asian-style handhelds, something for the morning with a diner aesthetic," Fang told Scene about what to expect. "It's a lot of the same influence with which we built our menu -- things people are already familiar with, like Moon Cakes or pineapple buns, but we want to incorporate a modern interpretation of it. Stuffed flatbreads, stuffed sandwiches, probably using our house-cured meats. We've been doing R&D to make sure we have a solid product."

Setzer said they want those currently visiting in the morning and early afternoon to still experience it as a cafe, just not in the same way they did with Rising Star.

The pair hope to open sometime this winter, but currently have no hard timelines.