Five Restaurants Explain Why and How They’ve Upgraded Their Spaces

Restaurants, like homes and people, need an occasional makeover to keep them fresh, current and attractive. The best operators know that stale interiors and exteriors are about as appealing as a loaf of stale bread, so they open their wallets and invest on improvements. We checked in on some of the most interesting projects taking place in and around Cleveland.

When the Nano Brew crew took over the former Black Pig space next door, the goal all along was to retain the easy, comfortable charm of the place that guests had come to love. So when the time came to address the back patio, which expanded right along with the interior, management followed the same playbook.

“We approached this along the same line of thinking as the first expansion,” says partner Mike Foran. “When we expanded into the old Black Pig space we said that the place needed to still feel like Nano. We are applying the same logic to the patio.”

The exterior spaces were looked at as distinct, diverse areas ­— or rooms — and treated accordingly, with improvements made to enhance the use of each one. In the main patio area, the beer garden-style picnic tables were replaced with Amish-made tables and high-tops better suited to dining, which more and more people are doing. Custom-built furniture on the side patio was tailored to the trim footprint, making it easier for guests to move around. One set of narrow stairs made it difficult to access and enjoy the raised back bar, so new sets of entry/exit points were added at both ends. Another set of new stairs leads to the raised patio behind the old Black Pig space.

“There are so many cool nooks now to sit and people watch, be it the upstairs patio, the deck bar area, the main dining area right out the back door, the side patio…,” adds Foran. “And with the new set of stairs you’ll be able to do a big circuit of the whole space.”

The redesign, which should be completed by the time you read this, netted a gain from 160 to 200 outdoor seats, each one coming with table service until 2 a.m.

“When you come into the same space every day, you really need to take a step back every now and then to take a fresh look,” explains Karen Small, chef-owner of Flying Fig in Ohio City. “We’re going into year 16, and I just want to stay current. You can’t just be the same place with the same energy after all that time.”

Not that she’s complaining.

“I’m privileged to have made it this far.”

It’s been eight or nine years since the last major overhaul, so Small knew it was time to pull out the checkbook and get to work. Following the Fourth of July weekend, including the second annual vegetarian dinner that Sunday, the restaurant will close its doors for a week to facilitate the work.

“This is a wholesale cosmetic change to breathe some new energy into the place,” says Small.

Walk in on July 10 and you’ll see a much brighter restaurant thanks to a fresh coat of new paint, new light fixtures, and new upholstery on the bar booths. In the dining room, all new tabletops and chairs will await guests. New art throughout the space will tie it all together.

Small is using the redesign as an opportunity to retool the menu as well. She will expand the small plates and tapas section while trimming the entree selections to just a handful of items that will change more frequently.

“All of the sudden it’s clicking and it’s making me really happy,” Small says of the small-plate trend, which she has been pushing for eons. “Small plates are where people put their heart, and you get to taste so much more.”

Despite its age, Fire Food & Drink on Shaker Square always feels fresh. Part of the credit for that goes to the initial design, which is classic and timeless. But credit also goes to chef-owner Doug Katz, who does frequent and consistent tweaks to keep the place in tip-top shape.

But the time had come, says Katz, to go above and beyond the typical skin-deep beautifications.

“We are 14 years old and we really needed to redo our wood floors,” he explains. “Unfortunately, they were 90 years old and we couldn’t rebuff them again. So we thought, since we’re getting all new wood floors, we should probably get new chairs too.”

Like pulling a loose a thread, the project didn’t stop there. Katz shuttered his bistro following the Easter rush to undertake the improvements. To go with the brand new maple floors, Katz purchased dark wood dining room chairs with neutral putty upholstery. That too-cool-for-school concrete bartop got a sanding and refinishing. Guests will be greeted by a new host stand and dine off new tableware, while the staff enjoys fresh-built service stations. A fresh coat of paint throughout and – boom! – Fire is fresh as a daisy.

“I think when people come in they might not initially think, ‘Oh, what did they do?,'” says Katz. “But they will see how great it looks. That’s what I wanted. I feel that people go to a restaurant and expect a certain experience and if you change it too much, they feel like something is different.”

The chef picked up a new toy in the kitchen too: an Argentinian wood-fired grill. Now, grilled items like chicken with chimichurri, lamb sirloin and grass-fed cheeseburgers will taste all new.

Things are going so well for Marc-Aurele Buholzer at Vero Pizza in Cleveland Heights that he recently signed a five-year lease extension. But that doesn’t mean that the restaurant can’t benefit from some improvements — and we’re not talking a fresh coat of Sherwin-Williams.

“There is an inefficiency in the way we seat people,” Buholzer says diplomatically.

The truth is, while the pizzaiolo works his magic at the wood-fired pizza oven, the front of the house can get a little hairy. Given the trim dimensions of the two-level dining room, those who don’t get completely shut out on busy weekend nights often suffer long waits for a table. A hinky HVAC system doesn’t ease the tensions.

Hopefully, much of that will change when Vero shuts down for a brief mid-summer break. In addition to a new air conditioning system, Buholzer will introduce a fresh interior layout designed to increase seating flexibility, decrease wait times, and ease aforementioned tensions. Vero will adopt the time-tested banquette system along the length of the main dining room, with a string of deuces (two-seaters) allowing for tables to be pushed together to accommodate groups of any size.

“It’s more flexible,” he says. “We should turn away less people on weekends.”

The move that likely will prove more controversial, says Buholzer, is the removal of the sole remaining gelato cooler, a holdover from when the space was La Gelateria. Not only is the additional real estate needed for more seating, the walk-in service seems to gum up the entire operation.

Whether or not he follows through with his threat of ice cream eviction, however, is left to be seen.

“Every summer I try to get it out and then it’s not out,” he says. “Its days are numbered. It’s going.”

When Isabel Montoya and her father Moncho opened this cozy Brooklyn Centre spot last summer, it was mainly as a bar and grill where neighbors could grab a cold beer, watch some futbol and, perhaps, order some homespun Colombian-themed fare. But as time went on, the business began to evolve, which motivated management to make some sweeping changes.

“After being open for a year now we realized that we are able to serve more people if we had more seating space. The large bar used to work out well when the place was an Irish bar,” Montoya says, referring to the previous tenant. “But now, a lot more families are coming in and eating. It’s a completely different crowd.”

As implied, the large 20-seat bar that dominated much of the room was ripped out and replaced by a much smaller one (with colorful inlaid beer-cap bartop preserved). That allowed the seating in the dining area to nearly double in capacity. All new walls — as in drywall — lighting and paint brightened up the interior. More TVs means even more soccer matches. A new wraparound patio extends from the front to the side of the building.

“You walk in and the restaurant looks completely different.”

Perhaps the best improvements come in food form. Thanks to a surprisingly warm reception, the Colombian menu will expand, with items that previously were specials-only affairs being promoted to permanent status. I’m talking about you, bandeja paisa! Diners also can look forward to whole fried red snapper with coconut rice and fresh fruit smoothies.

This article appears in Jun 24-30, 2015.