Credit: Douglas Trattner
Greenhouse Tavern, chef Jonathon Sawyer’s flagship eatery, will close after Valentine’s Day, if not before. The news was shared to staffers today in a meeting and was confirmed by one of those employees. Reasons for the abrupt closure are not known at this time as attempts to reach Sawyer have been unsuccessful.

Greenhouse Tavern opened to much fanfare in the spring of 2009 and has been a staple of the Cleveland dining scene ever since. The restaurant earned a spot on Bon Appetit magazine’s list of “Best New Restaurants” the year it opened and landed Sawyer on the cover of Food and Wine magazine’s influential “Best New Chefs” issue in 2010. After back-to-back nominations for a James Beard Award, Sawyer finally earned that coveted medal in 2015 for Best Chef of the Great Lakes.

Sawyer, a graduate of the Pennsylvania Institute of Culinary Arts, worked for Charlie Palmer and Michael Symon before opening Bar Cento. He moved on from there to open Greenhouse Tavern.

This impending closure follows that of Trentina, which closed after a five-year run in University Circle, and Noodlecat, which closed last month at Crocker Park after a two-year run.

Sawyer still is associated with Sawyer’s at Van Aken District and SeeSaw in Columbus, both of which are owned and operated by Forward Hospitality Group.

This story is still developing and will be updated as new information comes in.

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This article appears in Feb 5-11, 2020.

For 25 years, Douglas Trattner has worked as a full-time freelance writer, editor and author. His work as co-author on Michael Symon's cookbooks have earned him four New York Times Best-Selling Author honors, while his longstanding role as Scene dining editor has garnered awards of its own.

24 replies on “Greenhouse Tavern to Permanently Close Following Valentine’s Day or, Possibly, Before”

  1. Search his name on Cuyahoga County Civil Court Docket Lookup and doing some looking around. You’ll see very quickly why it’s closing.

  2. So sudden. He getting a divorce or something? Gotta liquidate assets?

    Even then, you could just sell. This is definitely gonna “Trump” the other news. It’s about to get real “Hot in Cleveland”

    Jokes aside, terrible for downtown and CLE in general. Such a great spot

  4. -eliminating qualified managerial staff responsible for financial decisions and reporting as a means to cut costs
    -recanting on employee raises by using false claims of insubordination
    -inability to pay employees because of a deficit caused by a dummy payroll account to pay children’s private school tuition
    -manipulating commission based purveyors by dodging invoices
    I hope this family recovers, but only so much empathy can be given by a downfall solely caused by blatant hubris and maltreatment of people.

  5. The dude is a clown. Rides his motorcycle between lanes all over the area. Obey traffic laws and don’t be such a diva.

  6. May be true but I’ll wait for another news source to confirm. Scene reported wild mango closed when simple call or internet search shows renovating.

  7. Hard to confirm when he’s been hiding in another city until he was forced to come in and deliver the news to staff after being called out in social media. Meanwhile his wife is topless in a hot tub posting veiled nonsense about the evils of the restaurant industry to make them appear like the victims. They’re users. And they have no one left to use which has turned them into cowards.

    They, team sawyer and gastropub farms took out a revolving commitment loan of $600,000 in 2017. The way those loans work is the bank gives you $600,000 at a higher interest rate than say, a mortgage- in this case 7.25%. The purpose of the loan is for someone to draw from, typically to cover operating costs for a business. They were required to pay back anything they drew from at that rate- but withdrew and never repaid any of it. So, the bank wouldn’t let them withdraw anymore bc they couldn’t repay what they had borrowed against. Ever.

    All while sucking a 30,000 a month profit share out of the restaurant. Two years removed from the Lebron James fueled business boom it could not sustain itself and the hole got deeper.

  10. This is not surprising. Poorly managed by the Sawyers- no willingness to invest back into the restaurant or its people, and living a lifestyle that was not sustainable. Too cheap to get real air conditioning in the areas of the restaurant that get insanely over-heated but your kids can go to private school that cost more than most colleges and you can afford a new half million dollar home. As others have said, follow the money- they were taken to court and their lawyer didn’t even fight anything, flat out acknowledged they have not paid a red cent on the revolving loan they took out a few years back. This really sucks, not because the restaurant is a gem anymore (quality has been going downhill a long time now- it used to be truly special) but there are good people there who worked hard and were probably blindsided by this. All because of ego in my opinion. This place was his flag ship if only he took care of it and showed up.

  12. We ate at his other restaurant, Sawyers, last Saturday and the server was telling us that he announced to them that he was stepping away from his restaurants due to personal reasons.

  13. I can’t believe this they had such good food probably the best on 4th and now it’s closing. I get he has to do this for personal reasons but sell instead. They had some of the best wings I have ever had. Once again Cleveland has let us down.

  15. Jon is an astounding chef. Whatever his personal matters, I wish him the very best and feel certain he will again rise to the top.

  18. Alan Glazen: Are you saying that as an investor in his business or a PR maverick who is going to help him climb out of this shithole?

  20. Its pretty obvious what happened here. Anybody who thinks GHT didnt go downhill in the last few years either was never there, has never been to a top notch restaurant, or is a sawyer family member and apologist. This closure was a long time coming but the manner of it, with these issues we are hearing about, makes it even worse. He had a responsibility to his employees and stakeholders. Be a chef, be in your kitchens and restaurants, and stop trying to be a star. Theres many good Zack Bruell comments about celebrity chefs (whether you like Zack or not), they hit home.

  21. Zack bruell fucks everything up when hes in his restaurant any one whos worked there will tell you keep zack out of the kitchen and off the line lmao

  22. NoBSHere: Alan Glazen is a cheerleader for anybody in the hospitality (restaurant) industry, and they’re all his friends. Always. No matter who they are and what kind of shit they pull and how badly they screw people over. This parrot act of yours is getting old, pal.

  23. I was shocked and disappointed when i heard this, but the more information pops up the less surprised i get. Feeling for all the good people that lost out on this and now have to scramble for jobs.

  24. one of those “only in Cleveland” types of stories
    I’ve never heard of a James Beard chef having to shut down a restaurant

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