Nectar of the Tupelo works to find the Euclid sweet spot

Mar. 21—Euclid had much to buzz about over the past year, including the opening of Nectar of the Tupelo in June.

The upscale restaurant features chef-inspired American classic dishes with a local and Southern twists.

The name Nectar of the Tupelo is based on the relatively rare honey of the same name. It's rare because it comes from one source, the pollen of the tree Nyssa ogeche which only grows in the southeastern United States, making the honey sought after for its light, smokey bourbon taste.

Owner Matt Quinn said he lives part-time in Florida and wanted to bring the taste of the honey, so well known there to locals in Euclid. He also owns The Standard in Cleveland and saw a lack of fine dining in the area, and as a Euclid resident himself, he took the opportunity to buy the 102-year-old building located at 805 E. 222nd St. and remodel it.

Now it has a heated outside dining area that will have a full bar and bar menu in the summer, and he hopes it will become a "third space" for the community, as he said he wants to invest in Euclid, not shy away from it.

"(In) three years of building this — and it was a huge, huge project — not one piece of material was stolen," Quinn said about the remodeling of his restaurant. "We want to be part of the community. We will donate to needy families; whatever you need, we are here, it goes back to our third-space philosophy.

"This project came about in 2019, and when COVID hit we sat back down and worked with architects and some designers and came up with a concept," he added. "It was going to be this concept before but just mostly cocktails, and then we decided to add the whole food element."

Partner and Executive Chef James Forman graduated from the Pennsylvania Culinary Institute in 1992 and has worked in sushi and other fine dining restaurants in Cleveland and the surrounding areas for more than 30 years. He speaks passionately about the techniques and reasons behind each item on the menu. He said that the food is designed to be elevated but not out of reach for local taste buds.

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"Our Slovenian sausage is house-smoked," Forman said. "This is different from a normal Slovenian sausage smoked because we don't hang it, we don't let it cure for so many days. We take the fresh meat, we case it, we heat up our smoker to about 100 degrees, we pull the plug, take that off and lay it straight flat on the rack and let it cure in there for about four hours.

"It never goes over about 80 degrees, so it's a cold smoke, so it's really cool. The sausage is still raw on the inside, but it gets impregnated with all the flavor of the smoke."

The house-made sausage is just a start. The pickled cabbage it's served alongside is made in house, along with a stone mustard crema that's served as a dip. Most of the sides, down to the infused cherries used in their Tupelo Old Fashioned, are made in-house and used between dishes.

He said the menu is designed to be familiar but with a new twist.

"All the items on the menu are a familiar take on all the classics that your parents used to eat, just with a high execution level of cooking with French techniques and things like that," Forman said.

"Is it kind of like a continental steakhouse. Is it a country club type of thing? Maybe we could do so much more, but we try and keep it simple because I think our clientele likes it simple," he added. "So by not evolving, we evolve. Everything is familiar."

He said he wants to change the menu to introduce new people to what they offer. He said he wants the younger generation to feel welcome to sit at the bar, eat some food and use the space as more than a temporary resting stop — more of a third place to be, between home and work.

He hopes that by opening the outside bar by May 1 that the community will start producing regulars, with folks not feeling as if they have to have a fancy excuse to visit.

"We are looking at changing our menu twice a year now," Forman said. "We can't change too much because we don't want to lose anybody, but (we plan to add) in some healthier dishes or vegan dishes, which seems to lend itself to some of our clientele. We will be expanding our bunch menu, as well as our lunch menu.

"Matt (Quinn) has an allocation with different bourbon companies which are very hot and popular," he added. "We will be getting rarities that no one else gets, and I think that would be a contributor to why you would want to come here — you are going to get things that you won't get anywhere else and that's key."

According to Quinn, reservations are recommended, but if there is space at the bar people can eat there or wait for a table.

Call Nectar of the Tupelo at 216-417-0301.