Bricco closes permanently in downtown Akron; new upscale restaurant tenant sought

Bricco downtown, which was shuttered for all but five months of the pandemic, has closed permanently. Banners on the building at Main and Exchange streets say the space is available.

Building owner Jeffrey O'Neil said from his home in California on Tuesday that it was restaurant owner Dave Sharp's decision not to reopen Bricco.

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"He tried opening briefly after the original mandated shutdown, but it just didn't go well. Staffing was a problem, and business was an issue as well," O'Neil said.

Staffing issues and problems with customers related to COVID-19 created early challenges, Sharp said.

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"The problem is it's hard to hire just one or two people when you're short, but to have to hire 30 or 40 to open up a new restaurant, it's just impossible now," said Sharp, who took over ownership of Bricco downtown as well as three other Bricco locations from previous owner Dave Glenny in May 2019.

He said he's gotten only one back-of-the-house application for his restaurants in the last 18 months, which makes the prospect of losing a cook "scary." Sharp, who also owns Pub Bricco in the Merriman Valley, Bricco Kent and Bricco West at the Holiday Express Hotel in Fairlawn, said his other three Bricco locations are fully staffed.

That's after he experienced 300% turnover with his Pub Bricco staff over a three-month period from June through September.

Bricco downtown presented some unique challenges, Sharp said.

"It's too big of a location, and you can't keep it full enough," the restaurateur said of the 6,500-square-foot space. "I wouldn't go into a new restaurant like that, that big. I took it over, and it was fine when it was at its peak. The problem is there's nobody downtown" as far as customers.

After the initial pandemic shutdown, he reopened Bricco downtown for dinner and bar service in June 2020 and continued through August 2020. Restaurant employees received a lot of pushback at the time from customers about wearing masks, Sharp said, and dinner sales were low.

"We had issues with mask mandates, people refusing to wear masks, people not leaving [the bar] when we were closed," which led to his front-of house staff quitting, Sharp said.

Bricco downtown closed to the public in August 2020, and offered carryout only for a few months, which never took off. Sharp closed the restaurant operation that November.

Property owner O'Neil, who owns four downtown buildings, stressed that he hasn't evicted any of his tenants who've experienced difficulties during the nearly two-year pandemic.

"If people couldn't make the rent, we just kept them on and tried to keep them open and operating," O'Neil said.

"It didn't seem to make any sense to kick people out for something that was beyond their control" and leave empty spaces, he said.

O'Neil and Sharp had a rent-free agreement at Bricco downtown that extended for about 1½ years in hopes that the restaurant could reopen. Under that arrangement, Sharp paid the tenant's share of real estate taxes, insurance and maintenance costs.

"Jeff was great. Jeff was very accommodating during this and understanding about what was going on. I've got nothing but love for Jeff O'Neil," Sharp said.

In June, Sharp told the Beacon Journal that Bricco downtown would remain closed for the foreseeable future, as he couldn't find 20 qualified employees to reopen it. He also didn't think there was enough business downtown for another restaurant at the time.

His latest rent-free extension expired Sept. 1, and several weeks before the deadline, Sharp discussed with O'Neil reopening as well as some remodeling plans for Bricco downtown. In the end, though, he decided it wasn't going to work out.

"It's just the business wasn't there, and the staffing wasn't there," Sharp said.

Other difficulties with reopening Bricco

In June 2020, Sharp said in an interview that he lost "hundreds of thousands of dollars" in sales due to the Main Street reconstruction before the pandemic hit. Then, the restaurant sustained at least $10,000 in damage in May 2020, when the building was vandalized during unrest downtown following a peaceful protest of George Floyd's death.

Property manager Joe Santoferraro described the impact of the prolonged Main Street construction and the pandemic as a "double whammy" for Bricco.

"The other problem was construction [on Main Street] was such a mess, we would lose power intermittently, we would lose telecommunication," Sharp said.

Santoferraro's company, JVS Construction, did a $500,000 restoration of the building that included building the original space for Treva restaurant, which opened in 1998. After Treva closed, Glenny opened Bricco there in 2003.

Building owner O'Neil said he's had some interest in the former Bricco space but "nothing that looks like a super great fit yet."

He wants to see another upscale restaurant that serves both lunch and dinner in the space.

"Everything is designed well. We had professional kitchen designers come in and do all the restaurants in my buildings," O'Neil said.

He also owns the Main Street buildings housing Cilantro restaurant, DaVinci's and the former Woody's bar. The Boiling House restaurant also is located in the same building where Bricco was at 1 W. Exchange St.

Santoferraro said the former Bricco space is in turnkey condition for the next tenant.

"That place has a fantastic kitchen in it. It's built out nicely," he said.

Arts and restaurant writer Kerry Clawson may be reached at 330-996-3527 or kclawson@thebeaconjournal.com.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Bricco closed for good in Akron; new upscale restaurant tenant sought