Service Wet Grinding, Cleveland's Sole Commercial Knife Sharpener, Closing After 119 Years

Service Wet Grinding Credit: Photo by Doug Trattner

For 119 years, Service Wet Grinding has been supplying commercial food establishments in and around Cleveland with sharp knives on a weekly, bi-weekly or monthly basis. Beneath a nondescript storefront on Prospect, a dozen employees grind, hone, buff and box a wide array of blades that make their way to thousands of accounts throughout the region.

For just as long, Service Wet Grinding has been one of the only places in town for chefs and home cooks to take their quality cutlery to be professionally sharpened.

All that has ended.

Service Wet Grinding was started in 1905 by Adriano Ambrosi. Credit: Courtesy photo

“We’ve sold the business,” says owner Ms. Ambrose. “It’s kind of sad that we’re closing, actually, but we do what we have to do.”

Service Wet Grinding was sold to Cozzini Bros., a 120-year-old knife-sharpening business in Chicago. That company has its own equipment and facilities, so the Prospect Avenue shop will be winding down completely and its equipment sold off. In essence, Cozzini is buying a customer list 119 years in the making.

The sale likely will not affect local commercial accounts like restaurants, supermarkets, and other food-service providers, as Cozzini will step right in with their own products and route salespeople.

“I do business up and down the East Coast, and everywhere we go Cozzini Brothers is there,” says John Selick, Director of Culinary at Metz Culinary Management. “They do a good job.”

But where does that leave home cooks like you and me? Likely reaching for alternatives like mail order services and small, independent sharpeners.

“Home cooks might be out of luck,” says Selick.