The Spotted Owl in Tremont Has Closed. Will Reopen as La Cave Du Vin This Summer

The Spotted Owl, which opened in Tremont in 2014, has closed its doors. Owner Will Hollingsworth will partner with Erich Lasher to revive La Cave Du Vin, the pioneering Coventry Road bar that closed in 2018 after 23 years. Lasher was the owner of that bar. La Cave Du Vin will be a part of Hollingsworth’s expanding Buildings and Food hospitality group.

“The Spotted Owl just wrapped up its best-ever year, both in revenue and profit," Hollingsworth explains. "But I’m bored. I’m bored with cocktails right now — but I won’t be forever. I love bars. I never get bored of bars, especially my bars. I love the Owl, I love what we’ve accomplished there, and I am proud of every bartender, barback, server, cocktail and mug of beer. But we’ve gotten to a place, as a company, where we can change things when we get bored. One of Buildings and Food’s values is that we never play defense. We’re not beholden to revenue, or to profits — we want to be engaged in our work, we want to do new things, we want to take risks. That’s what the Owl has always been, because that’s who we are. We’re bored with cocktails, and we want to sell wine. We want to talk about wine, we want to get people excited about wine. And La Cave was always the coolest place in Cleveland to drink wine."

Buildings and Food recently acquired the property at 900 Literary Road in Tremont, long home to Michael Symon's Lola and Lolita restaurants.  Shuttered since a fire ravaged it seven years ago, the building essentially is a brick shell with a new roof. Given that it needs plumbing, electrical and HVAC, Hollingsworth pegs this as a two-year project. When completed, the second-floor space of that building will be the new home for Spotted Owl.

"Folks still come up to me all these years later and tell me how much La Cave meant to them," Lasher says. "It’s incredibly humbling. We were just a bar, but there was magic. All I have wanted since we closed was to capture that magic again and make a place that folks can come in and feel that love. I’ve had lots of offers over the years, but it never felt right. Then Will, one of my oldest and dearest friends, brought up the idea of resurrecting it. Took me all of two seconds to say yes. Now it’s right.”

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