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MARC BONA Features writer, cleveland.com spoke to Bill about Jade Steak & Sushi closes in Cleveland - Tricky Tortoise Brewing Co. opens - 10 Cent Beer Night program set at Goldhorn Brewery
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Jade Steak & Sushi closes in Cleveland
https://www.cleveland.com/entertainment/2024/05/jade-steak-sushi-closes-in-cleveland.html
CLEVELAND, Ohio – Jade Steak & Sushi is closed.
The restaurant’s Google business profile lists Jade as permanently closed. Its phone number is not in use. Its website appears down. Cleveland.com reached out to owner Zdenko Zovkic.
Jade is at 1048 Old River Road, in Cleveland’s Flats East Bank.
Zovkic opened the multi-floor restaurant as Jade New Asian and Sushi Bar in April 2022 with the Cuyahoga River and bridges as its backdrop. A year later, he made a few changes – including the name to Jade Steak & Sushi. He also switched the focus of the previously exclusive third-floor space and revamped the menu.
“People are kind of catching up with us,” Zovkic told cleveland.com a year ago. “Things evolve, and we evolve.”
Jade’s first floor offered a sushi lounge with emphasis on small Asian plates while diners could find more of an “Asian-inspired steakhouse” on the second floor. The third-floor rooftop was reverted from its original intention of being a private-membership area.
Zovkic previously ran XO Prime Steaks in downtown Cleveland for 17 years. That space ultimately became Acqua di Luca, which has changed its name to Acqua di Dea.
Tricky Tortoise Brewing Co. opens today (photos)
https://www.cleveland.com/entertainment/2024/05/tricky-tortoise-brewing-co-opens-today-photos.html
WILLOUGHBY, Ohio – Bobby Ehasz is used to tackling projects efficiently with an always-keep-moving-forward pace. No surprise, coming from a career Air Force veteran.
That makes the name of Tricky Tortoise Brewing Co. ironic. The brewery that Ehasz owns officially opens to the public today – Saturday, May 25, in the former Willoughby Brewing Co. space. It’s at 4057 Erie St., southeast of Erie Street and Mentor Avenue.
Ehasz used to own turtles. At one point he had conjoined Siamese twins called Peanut Butter and Jelly. They became a bit famous, appearing 20 years ago on “Larry King Live” with famed zookeeper Jack Hanna. Ehasz’s kids even got a chance to play with Hanna’s animals, he said.
But around the brewery, Ehasz keeps a brisker pace.
“When it (Willoughby Brewing) closed, it really, really impacted this whole downtown,” he said. This was the corner store; this was the anchor for the whole downtown. … I like to think this will bring a lot of people to this part of Willoughby. And all of us should benefit from many of us bringing more people down here.”
This part of Willoughby had two breweries close in recent years. Willoughby Brewing shut down in 2020. Months later, Brim Kitchen + Brewery closed.
The bones of the old, spacious Willoughby Brewing – it covers about 20,000 square feet – are intact. But Ehasz and his team have refurbished the building quite a bit.
Building a brewery
The dining room is opened up. Booths are out. Seven giant circular lights hang, adding a modern, softer light overhead. The wall by the hostess stand is gone, as is the giant lip along the main bar. That old-fashioned curvy line of wood is great for spillage and cumbersome for laptops. Ehasz extended the bar with milled wood from Middlefield, and it now has a seamless look to match the original. Bar taps in that front bar also have been pushed back to make the area more accessible.
Tables near the bar have cool chop-block tops that Ehasz put in, along with self-levelers.
“They never rock or bounce; they’re all sturdy on the floor,” he said.
“We’ve done a bunch of little things. The whole concept was based on when my wife and I go places with my two kids, what do we want and what do we not want? What do my kids like to eat, what do I like to eat?”
Tiles in the dining room are near imported Brazilian cherry-wood flooring. That type of wood hasn’t been imported for 20 years, but Ehasz said he found some in an attic in Indiana and remilled quite a bit of it.
“This place was so well done - the initial concept with the glass and the tanks,” Ehasz said of the transparent brewhouse behind the bar.
In the outdoor bar, which was added a couple of years before Willoughby Brewing closed,
he patched together Indonesian teak pieces to yield a unique look.
High-tech televisions in that bar area are designed for sports viewing.
“For sports I wanted to be able to pack this place and everybody gets a decent picture,” said Ehasz, who said the television “refresh rate” catches movement, and the side angle viewing gives a solid vantage to everyone in the vicinity.
“I spent a lot of time researching televisions,” he said.
The stage has new lighting and sound, and he hopes to crack through an exterior wall so folks can be outside but close to the band.
But a few things remain: Exposed brick still has painted labels touting old local beer and breweries – P.O.C., Forest City Brewing Co.’s Waldorf Samson Brau Lager, Leisy’s Bock Beer, Erin Brew Standard Beer from Standard Brewing Co. and others.
That overhead train that chugged around the elevated track still runs. The train cars were in storage, but the track was left untouched. So Ehasz’s 13-year-old son Kale “sanded every square inch of this track all around to get the train going again. It was three years of dust and goo and gross and the train wouldn’t move an inch. … he got it going again.”
Ehasz saw a project and potential in the Erie Street building.
“When I first saw this building I fell in love,” he said. “If I was going to sit down, design, plan and build the perfect brewery, it’s right here.”
Ehasz’ entry into beer came in a couple of ways. He tried his hand at brewing – he made root beer - but an overfermentation problem caused a bit of an overflow issue.
“Well, I guess I’m done brewing,” he thought. “I am very happy to have people who know how to brew here for me. That’s how my brewing career ended.”
But when he tried a friend’s home brew he said, “This is the best beer I’ve ever had in my life.” That initial tasting wound up with Ehasz and a pal opening Pompatus Brewing Co. in Chagrin Falls.
One day, he wound up at a dealership to buys a truck. The sales guy saw his Pompatus hat and said: “You’ve got to put a place like that up here.”
They built Pompatus last June. A business partner runs that. And Ehasz turned his attention to plans for what would become Tricky Tortoise.
But he had his work cut out.
Willoughby Brewing had been left to atrophy. It had been vandalized. Windows were broken; squatters came in. Graffiti was scrawled, full beer cans that were left had exploded. Liquid was still in the lines.
“It’s been a lot of labor of love to get all this scrubbed out,” he said. “We had a lot of work to do to make it usable and presentable.”
Ehasz is putting heart and soul into Tricky Tortoise, and the irony is he and his wife Sharon are not locals. He was born in New Jersey and grew up in North Carolina, and she grew up in Los Angeles. He served overseas and in the United States. In 2000, he graduated from the Air Force Academy, where he met his wife. They moved to Northeast Ohio so his wife could study for a Ph.D at Case Western Reserve University.
Now, beer is his life.
What’s on tap?
Tricky Tortoise uses a 15-barrel system. Ehasz subbed out much of the equipment, too.
As general manager Donny McCraith said: “Anything that touches beer is new.” So the brewhouse remained intact, but everything else changed out.
Ehasz brought in Caleb Brown, formerly of Thirsty Dog Brewing Co. in Akron and Platform Beer Co. in Cleveland.
“He’s special,” McCraith said. “He’s like a magician.”
Brown implemented technology to, basically, make the best beer possible. He installed a specialized pump, better temperature gauges and specialized lines that limit waste when a keg runs out.
“You can certainly take it too far. But I think we have the right perspective here right now,” Ehasz said about limiting waste. “There’s no reason to waste. Why would we? Why dump it on the ground if you don’t have to? Why put it down the drain if you don’t have to? … There’s other things we can do. We’re supporting a local softball team. We’re trying to get into all these cool things. We want to be a community stop. We don’t want to just be a local bar. That’s never been our intent.”
Brown is brewing a handful of beers with in initial lineup of core styles:
• Tricky IPA
• Cream Ale
• Indian Star IPA
• Hella Helles Lager, a collaboration with Akronym Brewing and Tricky Tortoise’s first beer.
• Terrapin Valley Pilsner, a collaboration with Green Valley Brewing Co. of Hudson.
Also, a Lime Seltzer is on tap, and cocktails with regional spirits (blueberry lemonade anyone?) are available.
This week Brown was bouncing in and out of the brewhouse, keeping tabs on a West Coast IPA, what Ehasz called “a whole big bucket of yummy right there.”
Who knows with Ehasz’ aviation background might bring?
“ ‘Warthog Wheat’ would be fun for aviation enthusiasts,” he said about the reference to the low-altitude, single-seat air-support aircraft.
One beer was named ‘Hey Bobby,” he said, “ ’Cause the last 15 months everyone runs around looking for me – ‘Hey Bobby, Hey Bobby.’ ”
Crowlers are being stocked, but there won’t be growlers.
Food and the future
For food, chef Glenn Layton is cooking up an array of pub fare. He redid the ceiling with state-of-the-art, anti-stain panels and LED lights. And a bar was added near the kitchen.
Appetizers include nachos, wings, sausage-stuffed peppers, Bavarian pretzels and hand-breaded mozzarella and zucchini sticks. Sandwiches, salads, pizzas, a few sides and a trio of kids’ items $10 and under are offered. Pierogis are coming, Ehasz said.
Pierogies aren’t the only thing in the works. Ehasz is considering a few other projects:
• The front patio might be extended with its own doors cut through the brick in the dining room.
• An extra room – currently used for storage - is in good shape, and he aims to open it for private events. It has a cool mural and its own bar.
• Old railroad lines run underneath, and Ehasz and his team are considering adding a viewing floor window so folks can peek at a bit of history.
• Comedy acts, both adult and family-oriented (“there’s a world for both,” he said).
• A wedding planner envisions 200-person weddings accommodated on the back terrace.
• The city said he could fence in an area for more production space, and he might extend that part of the building.
• He is mulling making root beer for kids, and video games will be free.
• Bottling and canning are down the line, but “We’re in no rush to get into production and distribution. I want to serve the people of Willoughby. I want to be at this counter and I want to give these people beer. When we get really, really great at that, and we have excess capacity, then we’ll deal with that.”
Some plans will have to wait. For now, the kitchen is up, the beer is flowing, and alternative-rock cover band EndRock is set to play at tonight’s official opening.
“We couldn’t be more excited,” Ehasz said. “This is so cool to see people in here with a smile on their face, eating something and drinking something. It’s been 15 months of thinking and planning and paperwork.”
10 Cent Beer Night program set at Goldhorn Brewery
CLEVELAND, Ohio – Goldhorn Brewery has scheduled a program about 10 Cent Beer Night.
The 50th anniversary of the ignoble moment in Cleveland’s sports history is coming up.
The Texas Rangers-Cleveland Indians game was played June 4, 1974, at Municipal Stadium. Beers were sold for a dime apiece with little limit enforcement. The result: Drunken behavior, streaking, tossed chairs and a forfeit for Cleveland.
The event is noon to 1:30 p.m. Saturday, June 1. It will feature local sports historian Vince Guerrieri, who wrote the entertaining 2022 book, “Weird Moments in Cleveland Sports.”
Cost is $20 and includes one Goldhorn beer for 10 cents. Go to eventbrite.com. Also, admission includes a one-year membership to the Baseball Heritage Museum, which is located at League Park on Cleveland’s East Side.
Organizers encourage anyone who was at the game to bring your ticket stub and your story for a prize.