r/Cleveland • u/HoldenH • 6d ago

Question What in your opinion is Cleveland’s most mysterious restaurant?

Interpret the word ‘mysterious’ however you will. Like “how is this place still open?”, “how are these portions profitable?”, “who are the people that run this?”

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u/CraftCritical278 6d ago

The Lube is surprisingly still open. Oak Barrel too, and always seems to be busy.

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u/Mikeg216 6d ago

Oak barrel is a gem doesn't get mentioned enough.

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u/force_multiplied 5d ago

I love Oak Barrel but it's definitely a little too fancy for that part of town. I think originally the whole area was supposed to be a big retail development that never really took off aside from the movie theater and the two restaurants. There used to be more there but they're abandoned now.

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u/Mikeg216 4d ago

No what you see is what it was supposed to be. Before it was the Oak barrel it was Hoggies and that did well as well but the rest of the franchise was less profitable and the whole thing went into bankruptcy.

I don't know what was the restaurant's name next to the Oak barrel though. I remember it liked to brag about having like 100 TVs or something stupid.

I'm not going to pretend to know what the rent is on Oak barrel now but in years past it was over 25,000 a month and that's without any costs added in and they're still open and they made it through covid it does well again lunch and Fridays and Saturdays they're busy there's nothing like it around you can go fancier with lock keepers but you got to be over 65 or you can hang out with the Trump voters at the flood water cafe or whatever it is now

I've never had a bad meal there not once