Morning, Day and Light

Light Bistro:What happens to a dream that’s served. How award-winning chef Matthew Mathlage filled the space left by Parker’s
By Ivan J. Sheehan
Photographs by Robert Muller

Aperitif / January 1, 2007

For years, Parker’s New American Bistro, the culinary forum that solidified Parker Bosley’s place in the region’s local dining scene, had educated and entertained eaters with plates promoting sustainability, locally sourced products and organics. The corner restaurant, in an 1860 building in Cleveland’s Ohio City, was a piece of regional history that became a gastronomic landmark. Then, it was gone.

Amuse-bouche / February 21, 2007

On a late-winter afternoon, the Parker’s sign still hangs on the Market Avenue building. The front door is locked, trade laborers toil over carpenter’s benches outside, and the cacophony of construction is audible from yards away, all during one of the sunniest days of the year so far – a preview of the soon-to-be Light Bistro. The interior is a whirlwind of activity, and the haphazard placement of tables, chairs and two missing bathrooms indicates the storm has taken its toll. Despite the train-wreck appearance, the scene here is far from derailed. The conductor is Matthew Mathlage, 31, fresh from an award-winning gig as executive chef at the Leopard in Aurora. Mathlage, who got his start in kitchens at 12 years old, with a mom who co-owned a deli in Akron and a father involved in restaurant management, is now gearing up to open his first restaurant.

“My philosophy is, every day we push forward further than we were the day before, and I had done all I could do at the Leopard… it was getting to a point where we were going to start regressing soon, and I am not for that,” says Mathlage, as his restaurant literally goes up around him. “The day I start regressing is the day I go in my grave.”

As is the dream of so many chefs, opening a restaurant has long consumed Mathlage, and his latest endeavor is a giant leap forward. “I’ve been trying to get a restaurant up and going for about two-and-a-half years now,” says Mathlage, who forged a plan with co-owner Eric Dietrich more than a year ago. “We met with Parker and Jeff [Jaskiel, business partner], they liked what I was about, what I did. Parker wanted to – instead of turning this place into a bar – keep it going the way it was going.”

“I think that is exactly what closed the deal,” says Dietrich. “I think the minute Parker sat down and started talking with [Mathlage], I think his eyes lit up, and he kind of said, ‘This is the kind of guy that believes what I believe.’”

“They had money. It was a business,” Bosley deadpans. “They were very good business people, with a very, very good proposal. I was personally then pleased when I found out that his values were such that I could be very happy about it. He’s very concerned about sources of food and environmental issues, and all that sort of thing, and I just think that’s really wonderful.”

While inking the deal was a relatively amicable experience, getting there wasn’t. After six-and-a-half years at the Leopard, Mathlage’s departure from the restaurant left a bad taste in his mouth. He gave his supervisors six weeks’ notice prior to leaving, and offered to train the new chef and staff. The cordiality ended, however, when Mathlage received a “cease and desist” order from the Leopard asking that he stop using its name and certain pictures on the new Light website.

“After that, I didn’t talk to them,” says Mathlage. “I trained all the chefs that worked there, so when I left, they wanted to leave also. I only have two guys here who worked there, currently, but four people left right after I left.”

Since then, day-to-day life has been no less hectic, albeit decidedly less caustic. Logging 14-hour days, taking applications, working with contractors, filling orders, designing a menu – building a restaurant. “Really, when you hear about these crazy openings of restaurants and stuff, we’ve really come into this prepared to do it,” says Mathlage, as dining room manager Nick Cain interrupts to ask about an order and before the chef’s wife, Jaimie, asks about rubber mats behind the bar. “There are some things we’ve missed, but it’s been really cool for us,” says Mathlage, acknowledging they inherited a nearly fully functional restaurant.

Mathlage’s original culinary inspirations include Thomas Keller and Charlie Trotter; today, he looks to chefs like Wylie DuFresne of WD50 in Manhattan, and Grant Achatz of Alinea in Chicago (where Mathlage “had the most awe-inspiring meal”). He considers the mad scientists of molecular gastronomy to be trailblazers and is slightly envious of their ability to offer only 12-course tasting menus every night yet still have to turn diners away.

Though a revolutionary in his own right, Mathlage is not trying to remap the course plotted by Bosley – just take an alternate route to the same end.

“It’s not completely different at all. It’s an evolution of what they were doing,” says Mathlage. “I think [Parker’s] had an effect on a lot of people, including a lot of chefs… even chefs who don’t know they’re influenced by him, are.

Since he became an executive chef, Mathlage has embraced the region’s agricultural industry, supporting area farmers. “He was one of my first customers,” says Jeremy Lissy, owner of KJ Greens, a fiveacre farm specializing in microgreens and heirloom vegetables in Bristolville, Ohio, which opened more than four years ago. “He just totally supported me all the way, giving me recommendations – ‘try doing this, or I would really like that’ – he’s very passionate about everything.”

Dietrich, the consummate businessman, chimes in, “It’s going to be an education process for the customer. We need to make sure we don’t get too far ahead of them. We need to make sure we have what they want as we are trying to share new things with them.”

Opening a restaurant, given the rate of failure, is a grand gamble. Filling the shoes of one of the region’s most beloved restaurateurs was a pressure cooker that the poised Mathlage anticipated – but not for the usual reasons. “The pressure of it is, [Parker’s] was number 37 in Gourmet [magazine’s best restaurants list] last year – there’s some pressure there … the same people who came there three months ago are going to come see what we are doing, and be very impressed.”

Mathlage will have some help creating award-winning progressive cuisine, thanks to longtime associates, chefs and friends, sous chef Karl Williams and chef de cuisine Jeffrey Jarret. Though on this day, the Light kitchen equipment is covered in bags as painters give the walls a fresh coat, it will soon be a hotbed of creativity. A chalkboard, where the chefs will write ideas and bounce concepts off each other, will be an open exchange presided over by Mathlage.

“It’s going to be a really creative atmosphere – I can’t wait,” he says. “Other people have a job and a hobby, mine is all the same thing. I absolutely love to do what I do. I get very excited just talking about it. I can feel my face is flushed right now just from being excited from talking about ideas.” And it is. His palpable enthusiasm is contagious, especially to his business partner.

“That passion is probably what excited me the most when I first sat down and got to know Matt, and what he was all about,” says Dietrich. “I know that there’s somebody here who truly wants to be here.”

“There’s a buzz in the neighborhood about it,” says Mathlage of the new venture. “I think everybody is just waiting for us to open, and hopefully they will bum-rush the doors on March 12.” With just over two weeks left before opening, he will soon find out.

Appetizer/ March 8 – 10, 2007

After years of planning and a furious rush to put his dream together for the public, Mathlage and crew opened the restaurant to friends and family on Thursday, March 8.

The day before, Mathlage and company were hanging artwork, and working into the witching hours, painting the hallways after the bathrooms were finished late that day. “It went from nothingness to being done in 48 hours,” says Mathlage, who was out shopping for doorknobs, toilet paper, soap and lotion on Thursday morning.

Adding to the pressure, Mathlage had been out of the kitchen for a month and a half, and developed the Light menu without having ever cooked it. He was about to put his staff through their paces: He invited 70 of the staff’s closest friends and family, who arrived simultaneously, and encouraged them to order whatever items – and however many items – they wanted.

“My guys hated me for it,” says Mathlage. “That was the hardest night, because we had to prep the entire menu, running out of things, prepping on the fly. You know, our friends and families aren’t shy, they’re ordering seven courses, eight courses.”

The following night, the restaurant hosted a cocktail party, once again with a different menu. The team prepped all day, and the night went off without a hitch. Saturday morning, Mathlage arrived at Light Bistro (named as much for the lighter bistro-style fare as for the casual attitude Mathlage promotes) around 1 p.m. – a nice respite from the 15-hour days he had been logging. “By the time we got to Saturday, we were kind of in a groove, and it was just easier – we took it real lightly and slow.” he says. “Coming into Saturday, I was completely confident because I got through Thursday.”

On March 10, after dining for the best part of three hours, the modest crowd at Light Bistro is nothing but smiles. Satiated diners fill the air with jubilant chatter and marked praise for the seven-course meal Mathlage has just finished delivering, the only complaint being that it’s over. As Mathlage and his team emerge from the kitchen, they are greeted with a round of applause. This is his moment: He has put his culinary talents on the line in a brand new setting, offering everything from papaya, pineapple and cucumber soda to licorice sous-vide pheasant with blackberries and brie fondue to Wagyu short ribs with Thai peanut glaze, tater tots and beer powder; and, it has been a success. This, however – an invitation- only benefit for the American Cancer Society – was a cakewalk.

Though Mathlage had received nothing but praise so far, he was still wary. “It’s great to be congratulated, but that lasts for a second,” he says. “If you tell me something is wrong, I can fix it. Even the most minute thing, I’d rather have it fixed, because what we’re looking for is perfection.”

Main Course / Week of March 12

Despite Mathlage’s claim that he’d have no trouble sleeping the night before Light’s public opening, he is down at the restaurant at 8:30 a.m. Monday morning, toiling away. Improvements have been made to the menu and service, and the space has received fresh touches, including modern art, paint and new seat covers created by Jaimie. Though the executive chef/owner is confident in his staff and his abilities, he cannot predict the future. The first three opening nights were choreographed, and he knew he would have guests. This is the real challenge: no friends, no families – just six reservations.

“Thursday I was nervous,” says Mathlage, “but that Monday, I was sick nervous, because you didn’t know if people were going to walk in the door. When people started finally filtering in, it was really cool. It was gratification of everything.”

That first night, all six tables showed up, and during the course of the evening, nearly 30 diners came. The following Tuesday, the stream of diners continued. On Wednesday, award-winning chef Michael Symon brought his wife Liz to Light for her birthday. “You know the word is out, if you get the most well-known chef in the city coming in,” says Mathlage. But, Symon isn’t the only notable chef who respects Mathlage.

“Anyone can put a steak on the grill, and as along as you don’t overcook it, you’re okay,” says Bosley, who has dined at Light. “To make something like pork belly, that is not easy; to make these secondary,… the peasant kinds of cuts of meat, to make those appealing, that’s where you need talent… so, that’s a dish I think is just really, really good, really outstanding.”

Still, the initial reaction hasn’t been all roses, and as is the case with most chefs, you only remember the critics. “We’ve had two people who weren’t ecstatic about their dining experience – that’s the two people I remember,” says Mathlage, who also notes that there were problems with the service.

The restaurant also didn’t have the luck of the Irish on St. Patrick’s Day – its first Saturday. “We were terribly dead,” recalls Mathlage. “It was very depressing.” Yet the kitchen staff, including Mathlage’s longtime friends Jarret and Williams, remains decidedly optimistic.

“It’s pretty much been all-good so far – we really haven’t had any downers,” says Jarret. “You have your slow night, but they’re just nights to get other things done that couldn’t be done on the busy nights.” Sous chef Williams, who began working with Mathlage when he was in high school, agrees the three have a unique dynamic in the kitchen.

“It’s not just cooking or producing food,” he says. “We’re definitely the tightest restaurant in Cleveland – there’s no doubt about that.”

Dessert / Week of April 2, 2007

It is just after noon at Light, and Mathlage is proudly showing Brandon Kercher, the executive chef of the Grovewood Tavern, his new restaurant. Later, Mathlage, dressed in jeans and his chef’s coat, seems truly at ease. With nearly a month under his toque, the chef/owner finally has some time to sit back and begin to really process the opening – and what the future may hold in store.

In the weeks leading up to this moment, there had been no such thing as a normal day, and while he still works 12- to 15-hour days, Mathlage has found a routine. No longer does he arrive at the crack of dawn, coming in at a more humane hour, around noon. On Saturday, he wakes around 8:30 a.m., travels to the North Union Farmers Market at Shaker Square and makes a stop at the West Side Market to collect additional produce. He ends his day at Light around 1 a.m. “Saturdays are my favorite days,” he says. “At the Farmers Market [in Shaker] I see all the other chefs who are doing the same stuff, and we get to talk. It’s a little community of chefs there.”

He is excited that there are menu favorites, including the pork belly and the goat cheese flatbread, which features Lake Erie Creamery cheese that he gets three hours after it’s made. “It’s the most expensive goat cheese I’ve ever bought in my life, but it’s well worth it.” His commitment to using locally farmed foods isn’t always easy, trying to manage more than 40 farmers that he works with.

“Farmers are odd people to begin with, and then trying to catch them on a cell phone is even harder,” he jokes. “We have a very hands-on, grassroots sourcing of our foods – it’s really cool, it’s even cooler than I imagine… just to know where your stuff comes from, to see the farm.”

Mathlage is proud of his new restaurant, yet humble. He is excited about the family he has created there. Each day, he hosts a mandatory staff meeting at four o’clock. He makes dinner for them, and they discuss personal business, but also the restaurant’s goings on. Naturally, the conversation is heavily focused on food. Mathlage will bring out a selection of lettuces, for example, and let the staff know where they came from, who grew them and why he bought them. “It makes for a family,” says Mathlage.

“He wants you to be able to know everything that he knows, so that he doesn’t have to do it all,” says Jarret. “He trusts those of us in the kitchen to do the things the way he does.” He has earned the admiration of many, including the person whose space he filled.

“He works in his restaurant. He is in there. He’s chopping and cooking and doing things,” says Bosley. “He’s not trying to be a celebrity, [wondering] ‘what TV show am I going to be on?’ He’s a worker. I have a lot of respect for the person who really goes in there and sweats.”

However, Mathlage is not one to leave his work at work. While he admits to being able to catch up on some sleep, he doesn’t feel as though he ever has a day off. “Every time Jaimie falls asleep, I’ll just start typing and working on some stuff,” he laughs. “She’ll get pissed at me, say: ‘It’s a Sunday, can you take a couple hours off?’ You can’t take a day off from owning a restaurant – she disagrees with me about that – but, I am happy.”

He talks with Jaimie about retiring after they have opened four or five “great” restaurants – yet still running one small place – an idea, Jaimie reminds him, “Is not retirement.”

“It’s what I do. It’s in my blood,” Mathlage says. “I really can’t see myself doing anything else. I’ll always cook. I’ll probably always have a restaurant, even until I am an old man.” Bosley, now in his late sixties, should be proud.

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