Breakfast, lunch favorite Eye Opener in West Akron adds weeknight dinner service

There's a new dinner spot in town.

Liz Keener, owner of The Eye Opener in West Akron, has branched out after nearly 14 years of serving breakfast and lunch to add a dinner service.

Dinners began at her establishment April 17, running from 4 to the last seating at 8:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. The change came after chef John Kilmer came on board at The Eye Opener four months ago.

Kilmer, who has previously worked at Bravo Brio Restaurant Group and Punchbowl Social and Collision Bend Brewing Company in Cleveland's Flats, was Keener's inspiration for expanding Eye Opener's offerings to dinner.

"He was banging out beautiful specials for the weekends for breakfast, and that's when I said, 'You want to do dinner for me?' He was all in. He's just jumped all in and doing very creative work and very delicious," the restaurateur said.

Keener needed to come up with a way to generate more income after some difficult pandemic years.

"It's been hard coming back from this pandemic and we're still 20% down from 2019," Keener said.

Among the eatery's dinner specials, baby back ribs were such a hit the first week, they were offered all week the second week. Items offered on Fridays only are prime rib, IPA mussels frites and seasonal bruschetta.

The prime rib was popular the first Friday, Kilmer said.

"The comments we got were there's not many places to get prime rib," Keener said.

What's on Eye Opener's dinner menu?

Appetizers include sauerkraut balls with gyro meat, cream cheese and brown mustard; onion flowers (deconstructed blooming onion); vegan fried brussels with Vietnamese caramel sauce, shishito peppers and feta; cheese curds and meatball slide with house marinara on brioche.

Among the four salad offerings is a watermelon steak salad, with mesclun greens, candied pecans, strawberries, grilled hanger steak, bruleed watermelon and feta mousse. Kilmer said the bruleed watermelon, which is like candied watermelon, is created using a blowtorch to caramelize sugar on the fruit.

The best seller so far is the French Chic sandwich, featuring deep-fried, batter chicken breast with red onion, lettuce, tomato, pickle and white French dressing on a toasted croissant. Honey hot chicken is also a top seller.

"I think it's going well. People are enjoying the food," Keener said.

The average time to get a dish out is six to seven minutes, Kilmer said.

Other sandwiches are fried chicken and waffle sandwich, a double bacon cheese smash burger with 80% ground beef and 20% ground bacon; gyros and Reubens. Diners brave enough to complete the JD burger challenge and eat two eight-ounce patties with fries will win a restaurant T-shirt.

Other vegan offerings are a black bean burger with vegan cheese and red pepper aioli; a Green Goddess Portobello wrap with spring mix, roasted portabella, vegan mozzarella and sliced tomato; and brussels Caesar salad with vegan Caesar dressing and vegan parmesan cheese.

Additional entrees are chicken scallopini; blackened salmon; linguine and garlic cream with shrimp, chicken, salmon or steak; and hanger steak au jus with roasted vegetables.

Desserts are bread pudding and crème brulee. The Eye Opener also serves everything from wine to its popular breakfast Bloody Marys with dinner. Keener's ex-husband, Steve Arn, who retired from Arnie's Public House three doors down from The Eye Opener, is tending bar at her restaurant.

Hours at The Eye Opener

Breakfast and lunch continues to run seven days a week at The Eye Opener, 1688 W. Market St. Monday through Friday, breakfast/lunch runs from 6:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., with the restaurant closing from 2 to 4 p.m. to convert to dinner service at 4 p.m. Breakfast/lunch hours remain from 6:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays and 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sundays.

Keener plans to hire and train two new cooks for day service so Kilmer can focus on dinner. When that happens, hopefully in the next several weeks, Keener said, she plans to add dinner service on Saturday night.

The 65-seat restaurant has additional patio seating. For the most up-to-date information, call 330-867-1114 or see The Eye Opener on Facebook.

Arts and restaurant writer Kerry Clawson may be reached at 330-996-3527 or kclawson@thebeaconjournal.com.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Eye Opener in Akron now open for dinner on weeknights