CLEVELAND HEIGHTS, Ohio — Nighttown has officially closed for the last time.
The iconic restaurant and jazz bar in Cleveland Heights held its last day of business on Sunday, just months after a big renovation gave loyal customers hope the location's legacy would continue. While the current owners haven't given up hope of finding a potential buyer, at this time, the bar's long-term future remains unclear, and community members are disappointed.
First opened in 1965, Nighttown has been a Cleveland Heights staple ever since. Sheila Epp has great memories of coming to the bar.
"This was the place that we would take new friends who were maybe new to Cleveland Heights because there was always something for everyone," Epp said, "and it was our neighborhood place."
The restaurant and jazz club drew in guests and performers from around the country, with Epp saying she had "seen so many nationally known musical acts" inside its hallowed halls. However, the business hit a roadblock during the COVID-19 pandemic, and longtime owner Brendan Ring sold it to Red Restaurant Group in early 2021. Following an extensive overhaul, it reopened in November of 2023, but the new owners claim they faced serious construction delays that eventually forced them to shut it down again.
"While we enjoyed the journey of preserving the spirit of Nighttown and greatly improving and enhancing the underlying infrastructure and facilities, while attempting to usher in the new era of patrons, the challenges brought upon by delays, construction difficulties and unforeseen circumstances made it clear to us that it was time to pass the baton to a new stewardship," managing partner Gregg Levy wrote in a statement shared with 3News last week.
Now, patrons are looking back at all the good times spent at the Cedar Road restaurant.
"My family has been coming here for, I don't know, 30, 40-plus years," Anne Burns told us. "I used to come here with my grandmother and my grandfather, and so we have a lot of history here, and so it feels really sad that it's closing."
Despite the immediate closure, Red Restaurant Group is hopeful it can eventually pass the baton to someone else, all in hopes of keeping this Cleveland area staple here to stay for decades to come. However, no such plans have been made as of yet.