Housed In An Old Firehouse, This Ohio Delicatessen Makes A New Menu Every Day

Some restaurants have one special thing, aside from their food, that sets them apart from the rest. Consider Fritz's, the Kansas restaurant that brings meals to your table via train, or The Great Escape, a restaurant once frequented by Al Capone (and currently frequented by an assortment of ghosts). Larder Delicatessen & Bakery, a James Beard-nominated restaurant and one of Cleveland's most beloved young eateries, is lucky enough to have two. The first is that it's housed inside a former firehouse, "Ghostbusters" style. The second is that it changes its menu on a daily basis, depending on the high-quality ingredients the deli sources from the surrounding area. (While it's true that smaller, focused set menus often mean a better quality product, there are always exceptions.)

Let's tackle the firehall thing first. Larder is located in the Ohio City Firehouse, which served Cleveland for over a hundred years before becoming vacant. After some time, it was bought for redevelopment purposes and is now the perfect home for a restaurant that seeks to style itself as an old-fashioned delicatessen. The interior, with its wood paneling, suspended fluorescent lights, and chairs in a shade of green we can only describe as "if 1974 was a color," completes the friendly vintage feel.

If you follow Larder on Instagram, you'll see the menu changes as they occur. Certainly, they're not completely radical changes — this is, and remains, a delicatessen and bakery, after all, so don't come in expecting ceviche or anything. And Larder often has old reliable standbys, including pastrami sandwiches and fried chicken, which will recur more often than not. Still, it's undeniably impressive and speaks to the dedication of Larder's kitchen.

There are often special events, too. For example, during Lent, Larder offers a fish fry every Friday, using fish caught from nearby Lake Erie. And the restaurant routinely hosts classes for those who want to know the ropes when it comes to, say, baking bread or foraging for wild plants and mushrooms. These are the kind of touches that really demonstrate how passionate the restaurant is about serving the community — we should all be so lucky as to have a place like this in our hometown.