Interview with Matt Fish, Founder of Melt Bar & Grilled

Matt Fish, founder of Melt Bar & Grilled Credit: Courtesy photo

In 2006, Matt Fish opened Melt Bar and Grilled in the former White Door Saloon in Lakewood. To say that the concept took off is an understatement, with the homegrown brand growing from one tavern to more than a dozen locations across the state. Now, 18 years later, the chain is down to one. In this interview with Scene, Fish discusses the journey.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

SCENE: Where did the idea for Melt come from?

FISH: I was working at Johnny Mango. I would come home after work every day and write down ideas. I was going to open up a craft beer bar. If you remember 2006, craft beer was not anywhere close to what it is today. And the more I worked on the menus, the more I found myself gravitating towards these grilled cheese sandwiches. So I thought craft beer was going to be the driver. The grilled cheese would just be this cool little sidekick.

But that’s not how the customers responded?

I was like, I’ll make 15, 20, maybe 50 sandwiches in a weekend and people are going to come in for the beer. But holy mackerel, when we opened up, it was a complete flip-flop. I thought I was opening a bar that just happened to have this cute little grilled cheese menu and I ended up opening a grilled cheese restaurant that just happened to have a really killer beer list.

You were at the forefront of the niche-menu trend, with places showcasing foods like hot dogs, tacos, meatballs and mac and cheese.

Exactly. I’d never seen it done before. I wasn’t trying to be an innovator, I was like, Hey, McDonald’s focuses on hamburgers. Pizza joints are a dime a dozen. Why can’t I do grilled cheese? Nobody was doing exactly what I wanted to do.

You had only been open a couple years when the Food Network came through. How did that affect your business.

We were very early on in the Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives world and the Man v. Food world. It really put us on a national platform. We were then known coast to coast as to what we were doing. It puts you on the map and it kind of puts you in a different light.

Your first big move was to open a second location across town in Cleveland Heights. Was that to take some pressure off the Lakewood store?

That’s what the thought was, but it did not work. We got busier in Cleveland Heights and we got busier here, and that’s really what propelled us.

Around that time, it felt like you were opening a new restaurant every year.

To be honest with you, a lot of it was self-preservation. Somebody else that’s out in the world who has more money than me, more talent, more whatever, is going to potentially bring a competing grilled cheese restaurant into Cleveland. Opening multiple stores was to plant my flag and say, gourmet grilled cheese, Melt Bar and Grilled. We own that concept.

You guys were cruising along with 10 full-service locations until 2020. How did Covid upend your plans.

We waited too long to make adjustments. We listened to our gut and we also listened to the media and we listened to analysts and we listened to everybody else who kept saying, it’s going to come back. People are going to be throwing money around. So it was leading up to the end of 2022 when we said, it’s not going to come back. We need to make some significant changes.

Earlier this summer, you pulled the plug on all remaining stores except Lakewood. What led to that decision?

The restaurant industry has been an incredible struggle for the last four to five years. This year in particular is probably the hardest year that I’ve worked in the restaurant industry in 33 years. I said, I don’t want to be a multi-store owner anymore. It was truly a financial decision to say, I’m going back to Lakewood only. It makes more sense for me. It makes more sense for my family, it makes more sense for the community.

It’s a bittersweet outcome, you bringing it all back down to the place where it all began.

I was never going to close this space. If this location closed, Melt was going to close.

What can people expect to find when they return?

We’re going to take care with everything we do. We’re going to get back to the way things were in `06. The service levels are going to be as good or better. The food is going to be better. The atmosphere is going to be better. And I’m going to be here with my staff.

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