Sprouting Eco-Friendly, Sustainable Flavors
An Old Corner Comes to Life with The Market Café & Wine Bar

With Euclid Avenue resembling a modern day dust bowl, the restaurant and dining options on the main drag are pretty bleak. Head one block north of the bulldozed path and the prospects look a lot more appetizing. The AmTrust Bank building’s Market Café and Wine Bar, at East 9th and Chester Avenues, is a phoenix amidst the otherwise meager choices amidst the ruins.

Speaking of choices, it was a series of thoughtful, ecological, and historical ones that brought the restaurant to life. AmTrust Bank’s Zac Ponsky, Director of Real Estate Investments and Community Affairs, wanted to “show some life on East 9th Street” and recreate a restaurant that fits with the company’s sustainability and eco-friendly philosophy. (AmTrust is recognized as offering the first paperless mortgage program.) Ponsky dreamed of building a restaurant that met bank’s business philosophy of committing to the community and doing the right thing. One of his right things involves making fresh food a staple, not a commodity...

In the process of building the dream, Ponsky took to visiting other cities and researching restaurants that fit with his concept. This included looking at others’ traffic flow, layout, and menu selections. The restaurant’s vision came into sight and Ponsky teamed with the nationally-based Bon Appetit Management Company to make it a reality. The companies share the eco-friendly and healthy philosophy and the desire to bring freshly prepared, locally grown and organic foods to Clevelanders. From this collective thought The Market Café came to be with open cases of fresh fruits and vegetables placed in around the room in scattered food-stations, each with its different menu that allow customers to drive their dining choices. The selections are broad and inviting and include: fresh cuts of meat, unique toppings from the salad bar, warm, fresh baked casseroles, and sandwiches. The food items are all clearly visible to the customer and accessible from long counters where the lines move quickly. Ponsky equates it to “the farmer bringing the food to the people.” His version of the West Side Market has something even more unique…a top-notch chef available to prepare the selection.

Chef Dean Diluciano is familiar with Clevelander’s palates. Having spent time at Classics and the Botanical Gardens, he understands how to approach Midwestern comfort foods with style. His selections include a range of fare from chilled butternut salad to made–to-order chicken kebobs, or a hot cassouleit to take off winter’s chill. The salad bar’s dressings are all homemade and compliment the health-minded toppings such as wheat berry and tofu. For those looking for more basic meals, old reliables such as burgers, chili, and turkey sandwiches are plentiful. The new twist here is the chicken is all anti-biotic, the meat grass fed, the Wonder bread is now crusty baguettes. Mainstays are available daily, such as a selection of quesadillas, pre-made salads, and pizza; all with meat-free options. There’s even peanut butter and jelly for those with a simpler taste. Diluciano fits the Market Café’s easy-going style and likes working with fresh ingredients and simple preparations that allow the ingredients to speak for themselves.

Ponsky’s ecological and sustainable approach goes beyond bringing in fresh food. The menu is complimented by its space, built with recycled and repurposed materials. Former barn wood makes up the tables with bench seating and cushions adorned with organic fiber covers. The serving counters are built from compressed paper and old milk bottles hang cleanly from the ceiling, giving much of the café its light. Ponsky believes this to be the first floor-to-menu sustainable restaurant in the city. He and his family even tracked down Amish carpenters to build the tables. The food alone will bring customers back and the natural materials and warm tones add texture to the comfortable experience, one which Ponsky hopes people will embrace. The long tables seat 8-10 and he envisions people joining strangers at an extra seat and experiencing their meals together...as a community.

The Market Café already boasts a steady lunchtime crowd. Accessible from the street and an underground tunnel from the neighboring Huntington Building, Downtown workers are quickly flocking and returning to this new find. This makes General Manager Giovanna Daverio, formerly of Little Italy’s Battuto, very happy. She has her own dreams for the café and hopes to generate an evening business for the after work crowd. It is then the bright, open space takes on a warm, cozy atmosphere. With strategic lighting changes and tables that easily move together, a bistro and wine bar comes to life. Featuring wine by the glass or bottle and small plate, tapas style food, the mood is much more demure. Daverio has planned promotions that include “Nothing to Do Days Tuesdays” and monthly wine tastings. Keeping with the casual feel, she often joins the guests at their table to answer questions and ask for feedback on the dishes composed just for these nights.

Why is so much emphasis being put on dreams and community-building? That is because, to talk about the Market Café and Wine Bar, one also has to understand what drives Zac Ponsky. As third-generation businessman, Ponsky is the grandson of a former fresh food market owner. An owner who then purchased the bank that provided him his first business loan. The former Ohio Savings Bank, now AmTrust, has gone on to become one of the top mortgage lenders in the country. These Clevelanders invested in the community, rather than lease space to another chain restaurant. AmTrust spent money, energy, and time on a city that is perpetually on the brink of coming back. With ideas more ideas like this, we surely have a chance.

Walking down or up East 9th Street, (this is always a topic true-Clevelander’s debate) it’s hard to miss The Market Café and Wine Bar, in its windowed, corner space on the AmTrust building’s first floor. Located slightly below street level, passersby now see life and activity. This in itself is an invitation to come inside. The basement Colonnade is gone and Ponsky’s Market Café and Wine Bar is truly not his grandfather’s cafeteria, but surely one in which he’d proudly invest.

From Cool Cleveland contributor Christine Young itsmecayATcox.net
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