Earlier this summer, Kevin O’Connell pulled the plug on Le Marché Clifton, the all-day café next door to his two-year-old French brasserie, Le Ville Lumière (10427 Clifton Blvd.) in the Edgewater neighborhood of Cleveland.
“It was a really cute idea and it was a really cute space, but there was no foot traffic there,” he explains. “My thought of playing it off of the restaurant next door was a good idea, but they were never open at the same time.”
After letting the space sit idle for the rest of the summer, the chef and owner took a trip to Boston and returned with a bright idea.
“The success of LVL is because it’s a good product but it’s also because it filled a void; there’s not really a French restaurant on our side of town,” O’Connell adds. “So when we were thinking what are we going to do, I thought to fill a void. Everybody loves a seafood idea, everybody loves an oyster bar. There really isn’t anything like what I’m trying to do over here”
After reconfiguring the Le Marché space, O’Connell will open Brine Bar in October. Inspired by his trip to Boston, the chef set about creating a “fun New England-style oyster bar.” He describes the concept as super-casual, walk-in only, and ideal for small groups in search of a great time.
“It’s more of a gathering place than anything else,” he says.
A raw bar will stock a daily selection of oysters, clams, red prawns, snow crab, and lobster-crab salad. There will be a small selection of crudo and tartare dishes, hot and cold lobster rolls and crab cake sandwiches. From the kitchen will come bowls of clam chowder, steamed mussels, swordfish skewers, crab-stuffed shrimp and steak frites.
Brine Bar isn’t the only new concept that O’Connell has planned for the block. In an adjoining space formerly used as Le Ville Lumière’s private dining room, he will open La Porta Rossa, an Italian-style sandwich shop.
“Porta Rossa is a real version of a Naples street sandwich place,” he says.
The largely carry-out venture will offer a limited menu of Italian sandwiches made-to-order on house-baked schiacciata, a thin, crisp and airy Tuscan bread.
“When they’re out, they’re out,” says O’Connell, referring to the small loaves.
The sandwiches will feature prime Italian ingredients such as prosciutto de Parma, mortadella, porchetta, stracciatella and burrata. There is a vegetarian sandwich as well starring mushrooms and pesto.
La Porta Rossa is also expected to open some time next month. When it does, it will be open every day but Sunday from 11 a.m. until sold out. Brine Bar will be open every day but Sunday from 4 p.m. until midnight.
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