Melt to Go Down to Only Original Lakewood Location After Imminent Closure of Mentor and Akron

Following the recent closure of its Easton Town Center location in Columbus, Melt Bar and Grilled is announcing that it will also shutter the Mentor location (7289 Mentor Ave.) and the Akron location (3921 Medina Rd.). The last day of operations for Mentor will be Sunday, August 11th, with Akron following suit on Sunday, August 25th.

For those keeping track, that leaves just the original Lakewood location, which opened 18 years ago. At its peak, Melt operated 13 separate locations, including satellite shops at Cedar Point, Progressive Field and the Case campus.

Owner Matt Fish says that while the decision to close the final two stores and file for bankruptcy was difficult, it places him in a position to maintain the brand while improving all aspects of it.

“This is what I wanted to do; go back to the original store and run it with some key people and make a lot of changes,” he says.

Those changes to the Lakewood shop are designed to improve food quality, service levels and atmosphere, adds Fish, who admitted that quality had suffered at the hands of expansion and other factors since opening.

“Post-pandemic we were chasing ourselves all over the city and state just trying to keep stores open let alone maintain quality of the products, so unfortunately we probably did a disservice to the brand because we had to cut some corners, reduce the quality of some of the ingredients and maybe not produce as many items in house as we were before because we didn’t have the staffing,” he says.

To achieve some of those goals, Fish will close the Lakewood location (14718 Detroit Ave.) between September 2nd and September 9th, when the restaurant will celebrate its grand re-opening.

Fish says that when guests return to Melt after the pause, they will find a more polished and mature version of the brand they know and love.

“We’re 18 years old – we’re not kids anymore, we’re adults – so people are eating a lot differently than they were 18 years ago when we first opened,” he states. “It’s time for us to change with them.”

Diners can look forward to new and improved appetizers, a smaller but better selection of sandwiches, fresh-made salads and soups, and some plated entrees.

When Fish opened Melt in 2006, he was at the forefront of a single-item menu trend that saw the arrival of meatball shops, mac-and-cheese restaurants, fried chicken joints and grilled cheese bars.

“We rode that wave for many, many years and it worked, but I want to get back to the basics,” adds Fish. “I don’t want to be looked at as a novelty. I want to bring regulars back and build back the clientele we had when we first opened up, when we were the local haunt for a lot of people on the west side.

“I want to create something awesome again, not only for Lakewood but for Greater Cleveland.”

The Melt University location at CWRU and Melt Ballpark location at Progressive Field will remain open.

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