Nighttown to be reopened, operated by the team behind Red, the Steakhouse

CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) -Nighttown, which has been closed for the entire pandemic, was recently sold. Now, the Cleveland Heights favorite will be operated by the team behind Red, the Steakhouse.

“Both me and my partners grew up going to Nighttown. My parents and their best of friends spent a ton of time at Nighttown so it was just, ‘we have to look at this opportunity,’ and the more we looked at it the more we fell in love with it,” said Gregg Levy, managing partner.

Levy said the Red team will lease the space in the Cedar Fairmount neighborhood and keep all that’s inside, to operate the restaurant and venue, not as Red, but as Nighttown, just as the city remembers it.

“It’s going to feel, look and taste like Nighttown. It’s going to have the Red quality. Red service, but you are going to be at Nighttown,” he said.

Some of those touches include all new audio-visual equipment to upgrade private dining spaces.

“Being so close to the main campuses of both hospitals, that we do a lot of work with both in our downtown and Pinecrest locations, we’ll be able to use the knowledge and the systems we have in place,” said Levy.

He says the will bring back the live music element to the beloved stage area in the restaurant as well.

“Nighttown wouldn’t be Nighttown without the music. Granted, we are going to take it slowly. That is Nighttown’s bread and butter so that is important. It’s important that portion survives,” he said.

The biggest changes won’t be visible to customers. The new operators will be gutting the kitchen and replacing all the equipment, and modernizing the infrastructure of the entire place.

The building is more than 150 years old, and has been in the neighborhood for several decades, so Levy says they’re not going to rush the reopening process, as they only have one chance to make a second first impression.

“We understand that the Cleveland Heights community and Cedar Fairmount Hill community has pride in Nighttown and we intend to make them proud,” said Levy.

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