CLEVELAND, Ohio – When Vic Searcy decided to develop Sauce the City Cleveland food hall at W. 25th Street and Detroit Avenue, a single driving force motivated him.
“I kept it Cleveland,” he said. “I use ingredients (within a few) miles from here. We try to resource local farms, Rid-All (Green Partnership) off of Kinsman. We try to utilize all Cleveland. It’s like full-circle economics. That’s what we stand for. Even with the art in Cleveland.”
What Searcy is promoting is an incubator-style approach with an initial quartet of businesses, similar to the genesis of Pittsburgh-based Galley Group’s former Ohio City Galley. That rotational restaurant space, at 1400 W. 25th St., closed at the tail end of February 2020, weeks before the stay-at-home pandemic orders took effect. Searcy was an original tenant in the concept and wound up staying the full three years.