Greenhouse Tavern in downtown Cleveland embraces eco-friendliness
Jonathan Sin-Jin Satayathum likes to repeat an old eco-adage. "The greenest building," he recites, "is the one you don't build." Which yields another adage. At Greenhouse Tavern, what's old is new again.
Literally. You could call downtown Cleveland's newest restaurant a ground zero for the earth-friendly movement.
At first glance, the spot sandwiched between House of Blues and Wonder Bar on East Fourth Street has a light, ultra-modern vibe. Look beyond the room's zesty tempo, hip young staff and fresh, bright colors and, gradually, it comes into focus.
It's filled with ghosts of antiquity. Even though you probably won't notice most of them.
Floor to ceiling, wall to wall, almost everything in the Greenhouse had a previous life.
When Satayathum, an interior designer, joined forces with chef-owner Jonathon Sawyer, chef-partner Jonathan Seeholzer and a variety of other potential partners, they envisioned the creation of a truly down-to-earth restaurant. They wanted to build a menu around seasonal produce drawn from nearby farmers. They intended to run a business that left as small a carbon footprint as possible. They wanted their place to be cool, but friendly cool.
Sawyer, who once headed the kitchen at Michael Symon's Parea restaurant in New York City before taking the helm at Bar Cento on Cleveland's West 25th Street, was an inveterate recycler. Seeholzer, who cooked with Sawyer at Symon's Tremont restaurant Lolita, liked to collect cool old stuff.
Satayathum, affiliated with the U.S. Green Building Council, had a growing interest in the possibility of creating Ohio's first green certified restaurant.
"We all saw the same thing from different angles," says Sawyer.
"It was SO amazingly collaborative," says Satayathum. "The big surprise was that rather than too many cooks ruining the soup, we saw eye to eye so much of the time."
"Not that it was all smooth sailing," says Seeholzer. "Sometimes we butted heads, but it really was remarkable how things came together."
By taking over the Cort's Building, at 2038 East Fourth, the team had to comply with historic preservation guidelines -- right up their alley -- but often found their personal goals thwarted by the ravages of time. The original floor simply couldn't accommodate the weight of 200 occupants, so it had to be gutted. In keeping with green guidelines, it was replaced with an eco-friendly form of poured concrete that contains a form of ash that's a byproduct of electrical and coal- burning plants.
As repairs were made, in compliance with the green building council recommendations, Sawyer, Seeholzer, Satatyathum and their partners scoured the region for almost anything they could repurpose. Woodwork was salvaged from Civil War-era barns from around Ohio. They shopped salvage yards, built casework from scratch from designs they sketched. And they weren't above snagging a good find from area treelawns.
That sophisticated drop lighting throughout the main dining room? Look closer. The funky metal work is actually old bicycle wheels.
From a vintage jukebox and stacks of vinyl along one wall off the basement kitchen to the montage of old window panes, pharmacy cabinets and restored wood siding that towers above the eye-catching bar, the space is a salvager's dream.
An environmentalist's dream too.
Ecologically sound decisions were made at every turn. Paints low in volatile organic compounds went onto the walls. Water-sparing fixtures in the lavatories were carefully selected. Energy Star-rated appliances and a high-efficiency heating and cooling system were installed.
"Doing a project like this has to be a complete package," says Sawyer. "It's not just our cooking with local ingredients, even though that's really one of the most important things for us as chefs and foodies."
"Creating a 'green' plan is only the beginning," says Satayathum, who now holds the title of the restaurant's "eco-manager." "Building it, furnishing it, lighting it -- that's all important. But how we operate the place, every decision down to what we use to mop the floors, has to be thought through."
"And we're not even done," says Seeholzer. "We're still learning as we go. We spent a year just finding stuff. We're still in the process of putting this together."
Calm before the crowd: Staff members at the recently opened Greenhouse Tavern in downtown Cleveland handle last-minute matters before the evening crowd descends.