Bar Cento

Chef Jonathon Sawyer is entering the Cleveland restaurant scene much earlier than anticipated. The former Parea chef is still planning to open Gastropub in the coming year, but a more immediate opportunity presented itself: Sawyer has partnered with Sam McNulty and will open Bar Cento in the space adjoining the Bier Markt. "I couldn't pass up the opportunity to open something so quickly in Ohio City, a neighborhood I really believe in," says Sawyer. Since opening the Bier Markt, McNulty had looked unsuccessfully for an operator to run a restaurant in the next-door space. But he found in Sawyer a suitable match. Bar Cento will be, in Sawyer's words, a Roman-style enoteca â€' essentially a wine bar with food. The menu will feature traditional Roman recipes utilizing local ingredients. We can expect house-cured charcuterie and antipasto, traditional and modern brick-oven pizzas, and daily specials like meatballs, gnocchi and lasagna. Cento is Italian for 100, and Bar Cento will offer that number of wines by the bottle, with more by the glass. Guests will belly up to a bar constructed of wood salvaged from a 200-year-old barn. Bar Cento, which is slated to open early October, will serve dinner and late-night eats seven days a week.