Montrose is home to a boomlet of regional restaurant groups.
The latest to reveal plans to come to the party are Hospitality Restaurants, the Fairview Park-based group behind Rosewood Grill in Hudson; and PizzaFire, the Medina County-headquartered chain that plans to open some 20 locations in the next year.
The new restaurant owned by the Rosewood Grill folks will focus on seafood, and business partners are still considering possible names. It will likely open in June or July, in an existing building on “Restaurant Hill,” off state Route 18 (Medina Road), in the Copley Township portion of the Montrose area west of Akron.
PizzaFire, meanwhile, will open in an existing storefront in Fairlawn. Sean Brauser, founder of PizzaFire and the Romeo’s chain, isn’t ready to reveal the exact location. (It is not the West Market Street building that housed a Max & Erma’s that abruptly closed earlier this month.)
The PizzaFire and the seafood eatery will join a Melt Bar & Grilled, set to open this spring in the old Friendly’s restaurant on state Route 18, in the Bath Township section of Montrose. It will be the first Summit County location of the Cleveland-headquartered chain known for its grilled cheese sandwiches.
Also sometime this spring, a Bomba Tacos & Rum plans to open in the Montrose Town Center plaza at Cleveland-Massillon Road and state Route 18 (West Market Street) in Fairlawn. Bomba is part of the Beachwood-based Paladar Restaurant Group.
The new Hospitality Restaurants venture should fill a gap in Montrose, said Chris Oppewall, managing partner.
“We thought a seafood concept would absolutely fit in,” he said, noting that the group’s portfolio includes seafood-centric Salmon Dave’s Pacific Grille and Blue Point Grille.
He said the plan is to create “something more intimate” than Red Lobster, a seafood staple in the area. Oppewall, who stressed that he thinks Red Lobster does a good job at what it does, said, “We’re going for a little bit more of a high-end experience,” though it won’t be “really expensive.”
So far, Oppewall said, Hospitality Group is leaning toward a menu influenced by seafood specialties popular in the Low Country coastal areas of the Carolinas and Georgia, as well as the New England coast.
It will go in the site at 115 Montrose West Ave. that formerly housed Amazon Trail, and most recently the Tres Potrillos Mexican restaurant, which moved last spring to the nearby building that previously housed Fiore’s.
A significant renovation is well underway. “We’re down to studs,” he said, noting Hospitality Restaurants has often recycled buildings for its locations. The group, founded 25 years ago, owns eight restaurants.
Regarding PizzaFire, Brauser said the chain — where pizzas are made to order in front of patrons, a la Chipotle — plans to grow big-time this year. Leases have been signed for sites in Fairlawn, Strongsville, Parma and Beachwood.
In all, 20 Ohio locations should open by the end of the year, he said. They will be a blend of corporate and franchise locations. By the end of 2017, the chain will expand to Columbus, Dayton and Cincinnati.
PizzaFire has opened five corporate stores to date, including the first one, in downtown Akron, and in the Portage Crossings development in Cuyahoga Falls. It offers build-your-own thin-crust pizza that is fire baked in 180 seconds.
Wine dinner in Stow
Cellar 59 Wine Bar & Wine Shop in Stow is teaming up with Hudson’s Nosh Eatery to host a Buoncristiani wine dinner at 6:30 p.m. March 4 at Cellar 59, 3984 Kent Road (state Route 59) in Stow. Nate Buoncristiani of California’s Napa region will be on hand.
Nosh’s Rick Carson and associates will prepare four courses, each of which will be paired with Buoncristiani wine: Triad, chardonnay, O.P.C. and The Core cabernet sauvignon.
Tickets are $75, plus tax and tip. Call 330-688-2684.
Wine sampling
The Wine Shop at Kirbie’s Meats & Catering in Stow is hosting a sampling of four wines from the Puglia region of Italy from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday. Puglia is the area known as the heel of Italy’s boot.
The shop is at 4062 Fishcreek Road in Stow, in the Oregon Trails Plaza at Graham Road.
Charlie Chambless, who joined Kirby’s as wine specialist last year, is trying to get the word out about the small shop’s informal Saturday wine tastings.
Chambless said this week he’s offering typical wines from Puglia, a small region that produces more of Italy’s wine than any other region, around 17 percent. The lineup includes Li Veli Verdeca (verdeca is a white varietal), as well as a wine that blends negroamaro, primitivo and cabernet sauvignon. Samples are 25 cents each.
Spring brunch at UA
University of Akron students studying hospitality management will host their annual spring brunch from 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. March 6 at the student-operated Crystal Room Bistro, 360 Grant St. (Gallucci Hall). They’ll serve up breakfast items and a lot more.
Cost is $18.95; $14.95 for ages 60 and older; and free for children 3 and younger. Phone 330-972-6615 for reservations.
Flavors of Kent
Only 65 tickets will be sold starting Tuesday for the second annual “Seven Courses of Kent” event on April 17.
Tickets are $60 — including tax and tip — for the seven-course meal of dishes from Kent establishments. It is organized by the nonprofit Main Street Kent, the group that promotes the city’s downtown. Each course will be paired with a beer or wine from Heidelberg Distributing Co.
Eight establishments will provide the food: Kent Cheesemonger, Nineteen10 Restaurant (in Kent State University’s Hotel & Conference Center), Little City Grill, Belleria, Bistro on Main, Taproot Catering, Tree City Coffee & Pastry and Popped! (the popcorn shop). Tree City and Popped! make up the dessert team.
Another Kent restaurant will host the event, Laziza, at 195 E. Erie St., in the Acorn Alley development downtown.
To buy tickets, and for a description of menu items, go to the event page at www.mainstreetkent.org. Call 330-677-8000 for information.
Cookie time
Girl Scouts of the USA has declared this weekend National Girl Scout Cookie Weekend to herald the arrival of truckloads of cookies at sites around the country. Cookie “booth” sales at grocery stores, shopping malls and other places will begin March 3.
To find a cookie booth, download the Girl Scout Cookie Finder for iPhone or Android, or go to http://girlscoutcookies.org. This weekend, Girl Scouts of North East Ohio will be tweeting @GSNEO, encouraging area residents to use the hashtag #howdoyoudunk to show their support.
James Beard nominee
Zack Bruell, operator of 10 Northeast Ohio restaurants, has been nominated for a 2016 James Beard Foundation Award, in the “Best Chefs: Great Lakes” category.
Bruell, one of 20 semifinalists, is nominated for Parallax, in Cleveland’s Tremont neighborhood. He has been nominated before.
Last year Jonathan Sawyer nabbed the same award for his flagship Greenhouse Tavern in downtown Cleveland. Michael Symon won it in 2009 for Lola, the first time a Cleveland chef won the award.
The foundation will name finalists March 15, and winners will be revealed at the James Beard Awards Gala on May 2 in Chicago.
Gervasi event
Gervasi Vineyard in Canton will host a release event from 7 to 10 p.m. March 4 for the latest wine from its vineyard.
Tickets to the event celebrating the release of Unita cost $50 for GV Club members and $60 for nonmembers. (The club is free to join; you join by signing up for the e-newsletter).
Tickets are at www.gervasivineyard.com/events. Unita, according to a news release, boasts an “aromatic mosaic of blueberry, black currant, vanilla and cloves.”
Linda Swaldo, of the family than owns the vineyard and its eateries as well as the Twisted Olive restaurant in Green, is officially releasing the wine. It’s part of the vineyard’s Family Reserve wine collection.
The vineyard is at 1700 55th St. NE, Canton. The phone is 330-497-1000.
Nuevo celebration
Celebrate Leap Day at Nuevo Modern Mexican & Tequila Bar, 54 E. Mill St. in downtown Akron. Nuevo actually is marking its second anniversary Monday, with an all-you-can-eat party for $50 a person. The event will run from 5 to 10 p.m.
On the menu are house-made guacamoles and salsas, as well as lots of other Nuevo noshes, with wine, beer and margarita stations.
Call 330-762-8000 for reservations. Walk-ins will be accepted.
Send local food news to Katie Byard at 330-996-3781 or kbyard@thebeaconjournal.com. You can follow her @KatieByardABJ on Twitter or become a fan on Facebook at www.facebook.com.