SHAKER HEIGHTS, Ohio – Michael's Genuine Food & Drink - the first restaurant in Ohio from James Beard award-winning chef Michael Schwartz - is set to open Friday, April 12, in the Van Aken district.
The restaurant - the company's eighth - is tucked into the new shopping district off of Warrensville Center Road and Chagrin Boulevard. Clothing stores, a barbershop and Mitchell's Ice Cream are among the businesses lining the quaint Tuttle Road.
The restaurant will emphasize a lot more than food.
"Michael has a very strong eye for design," said George Atterbury, vice president of operations. "He has great attention to detail."
That attention to detail started 12 years ago when Schwartz opened his first Michael's Genuine in Miami. The concept has evolved greatly.
"It was a very personal restaurant and an expression of what I wanted to eat," said Schwartz, who in 2010 won the James Beard Award for Best Chef South. "There was never a thought about scaling, about opening more of them. Twelve years ago this notion of 'casual fine dining' was new. It didn’t need to be fancy or white tablecloths or hushed. That, coupled with an emerging, particularly agricultural, scene here and this notion of farm to table made it to me … something that was not scalable (years ago).
"If you fast-forward 12 years ago it's not the same," he said. "There's great produce being grown everywhere. The sophistication of diners everywhere is so vastly improved so that something like Michael's Genuine Food & Drink born in Miami can exist anywhere."
The idea to expand to Northeast Ohio came about because of a convergence of several things. Opportunities pop up when chefs gain a bit of attention, said Schwartz, who initially wanted to move his pizza brand, Genuine Pizza, to this market. Add to this mix his relationship with local chef Jonathon Sawyer, and the market seemed appealing.
"It evolved into 'Wait, this is an underserved market with broader opportunities,' " he said.
He plans to serve the market through the restaurant's emphasis on "ingredients and sourcing and relationships with vendors and farmers and fishermen." Food offerings, he said, will evolve. "The menu next week might not look like the menu looks like next year."
Currently, expect a menu broken into sizes (snacks, medium, large, etc.) with everything from burrata to eggplant to country pate among nibblers, to stuffed onion to crispy pork belly to steaks, chicken, seafood and ribs. Several dishes are gluten-free and vegetarian.
Atterbury also stressed attention to customers is key.
"Service is the technical aspect whereas hospitality is how it makes you feel," he said. That means music, sound, lighting and other amenities are all priorities.
"The food is not the most important thing," Schwartz said. "There's so many other things that go into an enjoyable dining experience. I think about all that stuff. … My role now is less cooking, more coaching."
"Lighting," he said, "is a nightmare. You have to have a degree in engineering to understand lighting in restaurants. All this stuff - we've been fortunate as a restaurant group to work with amazing designers. … Sound levels are hugely important."
While some restaurants have a general manager who will walk in and simply put on Pandora, Schwartz coordinates music selections in his places.
"Music choice for me is always jazz," he said. Music, he added, "is a little bit tricky in restaurants." It's part of a customer's experience for an hour or two and is integral to their dining experience, he said.
He likes a particular genre of jazz, early to late 1960s, a little bit of groove. Think Grant Green, Lou Donaldson, Donald Byrd.
"I'm always curating playlists," he said.
That jazz will play throughout the space, which covers about 2,800 square feet, plus 700 more on the patio. A dozen seats are tucked around the bar, which has one television. About 20 low- and high-tops are scattered in the restaurant, with raw wooden beams forming a cool contrasting design.
Workers with MGFD hats hurried around the space to get it ready for the opening. A temperature-controlled pasta room sits near the front with open glass windows; dough is made in house.
"This is definitely a luxury to have," Atterbury said.
Rolls of butcher paper, which now show various motivational messages, can serve to note someone's birthday or other scribbles.
"We figure it out as we go along," Atterbury said.
While Schwartz and Atterbury hail from Philadelphia, and Miami is a key base of operations, the chef at Michael's Genuine is an Akron native. Vinnie Cimino, who previously worked for Sawyer, will concentrate on quality food rather than a specific focus on a particular cuisine.
"We're ingredient-driven," he said. "We don’t want to pigeon-hole ourselves."
More on Michael’s Genuine
• The restaurant, at 3427 Tuttle Road, is between a parking lot and garage. To start, hours will be 5-9 p.m. Sunday to Thursday, and 5-10 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Brunch eventually will be added.
• A chef's table near the Italian-made wood-fired oven allows for a vantage made for foodies. "We're big believers people love to be part of the action near the chefs," Atterbury said.
• Schwartz also has a deal with Royal Caribbean cruise line and has restaurants aboard ships.
• The patio will have a cart of stacked wood (ash, maple, cherry) that is used in the oven and will serve as drink tables for folks to gather, Atterbury said. Scissor doors will open to the outdoor space.
• The restaurant has a partnership with Riedel, a European glassware company with roots to the 1700s. (Wine and beer lists have not been set.)
• Staff will use a chalkboard near the kitchen like a household shopping list, a running inventory tally if items needed.
• Schwartz’s book “Genuine Pizza: Better Pizza at Home” is due Tuesday, May 14, from Abrams Books.