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Tag: Beachwood

  • Funshi Revolving Sushi Restaurant to Open Sept. 29 in Avon – Cleveland Scene

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    Northeast Ohio’s latest conveyor-belt sushi restaurant is just days away from its grand opening. Funshi Sushi, Ramen and Boba will open its newest restaurant, Funshi Revolving Sushi (35918 Detroit Rd.) in Avon, on Monday, September 29. Funshi opened its first restaurant in Rocky River earlier this year, but this is an entirely new concept for the homegrown restaurant, says Christine Xiao, partner and manager.

    “We are a family business,” explains Xiao. “We have been in the sushi industry for 20 years with Hibachi Sushi, but we created a new concept – something fun, you know?”

    For its latest act, Funshi has devised a space-age, interactive dining concept that features a conveyor belt, train track and robot servers. Items like edamame, seaweed salad, sashimi, sushi and sushi rolls will glide through the restaurant on the conveyor belt for diners to grab at will. Hot foods like ramen, rice bowls and stir-fries can be ordered on tabletop e-menus. Those items will be delivered directly to the table via the train. Drinks like boba, fruit teas and smoothies are transported to diners by robot servers.

    Unlike other conveyor-belt sushi restaurants, which use different colored plates to designate prices, all of the conveyor-belt items will be a single price, adds Xiao.

    “We will have more sushi options than other places around here,” she says. “And we will have the same price for any plate you want.”

    There will be two plate colors, she clarifies, white and black, a system that lets diners easily distinguish between raw and cooked items.

    Following quickly on the heels of the Avon restaurant is a second location in Beachwood, specifically the former Bomba Tacos space at the corner of Cedar and Richmond (2101 Richmond Rd.). That restaurant is on pace to open in November, according to Xiao.

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    Douglas Trattner

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  • Former Cuyahoga County Employee to Plead Guilty to Wire Fraud Charges

    Former Cuyahoga County Employee to Plead Guilty to Wire Fraud Charges

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    Tim Evanson

    The federal courthouse in Downtown Cleveland.

    Curtis McEwen, an IT professional facing federal wire fraud charges, is set to take a plea deal in court, filings this week show.

    In charges filed last month, the DOJ alleged the now former IT director for the Cuyahoga County Board of Developmental Disabilities manufactured false expense reports and employee invoices to redirect millions to his own pockets at Saber Healthcare, where he worked for nearly two decades before being fired in March 2023.

    He was hired months after by Cuyahoga County, which has previously said background checks and employer reference calls revealed no reasons to be concerned. He was asked to resign the day charges were filed and did so.

    Court documents released on Tuesday show that McEwen agreed to a plea deal to two counts and was released under an unsecured bond of $20,000. On release, he had to surrender his passport, get a mental health evaluation and is barred from obtaining any new lines of credit.

    According to the July indictment, from 2014 to 2023, McEwen allegedly “falsely represented” on expense reports that he had paid contracted companies for “IT-related products and services.” He then, the Feds say, created imitation invoices to “substantiate his payments.”

    McEwen allegedly siphoned $80,006 to $182,808 for each monthly invoice, and rerouted that money intended for third party companies into his own assets, which grew to include a mansion, a $11,000 2017 BMW R Nine T motorcycle,  a $15,000 2020 Ducati Diavel 1260 bike, a Rolex Submariner, a $44,000 Ressense Antwerp watch, a $10,000 Luminor Panerai Automatic Power Reserve watch and more.

    McEwen’s allegedly long stint of wire fraud at Saber didn’t apparently extend to his IT work at the county.

    “As a public entity,” a spokesperson told Scene in July, “we have many safeguards in place to ensure fiscal responsibility. We have reviewed all relevant records and are confident that our safeguards worked.”

    McEwen should be sentenced in federal court sometime this fall.

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    Mark Oprea

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  • First Look: Antica Italian Restaurant, Opening in Beachwood on March 20

    First Look: Antica Italian Restaurant, Opening in Beachwood on March 20

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    Douglas Trattner

    Antica Italian opens in Beachwood on March 20.

    Hecks just celebrated its one-year anniversary in Beachwood. In a week, that restaurant will be joined by Antica Italian Restaurant (3355 Richmond Rd., 216-831-1004), which is preparing to open in the adjacent space that formerly was home to Red and Cut 151. When it opens on March 20, it will become the second Antica, the first of which opened in Avon back in 2021.

    Owner Fadi Daoud said it was the natural choice for the attractive 100-seat restaurant.

    “I think the space kind of lends itself perfectly to cozy Italian, casual-fine dining,” Daoud explains. “We just kind of tied them together.”

    A gentle renovation warmed up the previously contemporary interior, making it more in line with the original.

    Since opening, Antica has not only built a local following for its Italian cuisine, but also has become somewhat of a destination restaurant for those outside the immediate area.

    “We’ve made really good progress at Antica in Avon,” the owner adds. “It’s everybody’s favorite now; it’s the place to be on that side of town.”

    Diners in Beachwood can look forward to a very similar menu, with the exception of a few more steak and seafood options. Everything from the pizza and pasta dough to the tiramisu is made in house. Appetizers include arancini, Kobe meatballs, shrimp scampi and fried calamari. A roster of soups and salads joins a half dozen thin, crisp pizzas, including the signature chicken parmesan “pizza.”

    “Originally, we didn’t want to put chicken parmesan on the menu, but everybody wants chicken parm so we said, let’s do something different,” Daoud explains.

    The popular dish swaps the customary dough for a shell made from seasoned ground chicken, which is pressed, shaped and deep fried. It is then topped with tomatoes, cheese and greens.

    Homemade ravioli is filled with braised short ribs and topped with parmesan cream sauce; rigatoni arrives in a spicy vodka cream sauce; and a bounty of shellfish is tossed with linguini in a lemon and garlic white wine sauce. In the big-plate department there is veal piccata, roasted branzino, grilled lamb chops, and bistecca alla Fiorentina.

    To finish, there’s tiramisu, cannoli and Nutella panna cotta.

    Soon, the restaurant will begin serving on the 60-seat patio, which it shares with Hecks.

    click to enlarge Antica Italian opens in Beachwood on March 20. - Douglas Trattner

    Douglas Trattner

    Antica Italian opens in Beachwood on March 20.

    click to enlarge Antica Italian opens in Beachwood on March 20. - Douglas Trattner

    Douglas Trattner

    Antica Italian opens in Beachwood on March 20.

    click to enlarge Antica Italian opens in Beachwood on March 20. - Douglas Trattner

    Douglas Trattner

    Antica Italian opens in Beachwood on March 20.

    click to enlarge Antica Italian opens in Beachwood on March 20. - Douglas Trattner

    Douglas Trattner

    Antica Italian opens in Beachwood on March 20.

    click to enlarge Chicken parm "pizza" at Antica Italian. - Courtesy photo

    Courtesy photo

    Chicken parm “pizza” at Antica Italian.

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    Douglas Trattner

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