Local Chef in his Element on Chardon Square
When Paul Mendolera was a kid, he knew he wanted his own restaurant.
When Paul Mendolera was a kid, he knew he wanted his own restaurant.
That dream has come true with the Sept. 19 opening of Element 41 at 141 Main St. on Chardon Square.
“I used to cook at home and sell sandwiches to my neighbors,” Mendolera said.
When he was 13, he asked his father for a BMX bike and a Nintendo.
“(My father) worked at LTV Steel,” Mendolera said. “He was like, if you want this stuff, you’re going to have to go get a job and get it yourself.”
Mendolera did just that, picking up a job washing dishes at Tommy’s Pizza in Maple Heights and before long, he had his new bike and Nintendo.
Now, after 28 years in the restaurant business, he has finally realized his other childhood dream by opening his own restaurant on the site of a former victory — he and his Bass Lake Inn team won the Chardon Chef Maple Cook-off in 2013, which was held at his current restaurant, the former Morgan’s Smokehouse.
While the timing was right for Mendolera’s move, his location on the square gives him an opportunity to add chef select specials to the restaurant’s menu, which emphasizes local ingredients.
“It is comfort food with a twist,” he said.
“What’s really cool is every Friday there’s a farmer’s market right on the square,” he added, referring to the Chardon Farmers Market that runs from June through September with the support of the Chardon Square Association. “So I can go to the farmer’s market and just get stuff right at my front doorstep.”
According to a press release from the Chardon Area Chamber of Commerce, Mendolera isn’t the first to appreciate the building for its access to fresh food.
Originally the site of Errett King’s grocery store King’s Central Market, groceries were delivered by horse-drawn cart to Chardon customers from the building as far back as 1894. A 1948 fire seriously damaged the interior of the grocery, then owned by D.L. Hamm, and a succession of grocery stores eventually gave way to restaurants.
Mendolera also reaches out to local Geauga communities to fill his menu; the roasted beet and goat cheese salad features bib lettuce grown at Great Lakes Growers in Burton, while Middlefield Buffalo White Cheddar highlights the Middlefield cheeseboard sampler, which Mendolera says is popular for football season.
Element 41’s burgers and steaks are Ohio grass fed beef and Mendolera uses Ohio corn in his risotto, which his wife, Julie, thinks is “like nobody else’s.”
“I only eat his crab cakes,” Julie said. “I only eat his risotto.”
The restaurant is a family affair, with the couple’s daughter, Taylor, stepping into her father’s footsteps as a teen restaurant employee working tables. No word, however, on whether she’s in it for a BMX.
“It’s very family friendly; there’s lot of kids that come in here,” Mendolera said.
The kid’s menu features such popular restaurant staples as macaroni and cheese, chicken fingers, mozzarella moons, a corn dog and grilled cheese.
But one of the restaurant’s most popular dishes so far, with a nod to Chardon’s maple syrup heritage, is the maple bourbon bacon brussel sprouts.
“It’s a tongue twister,” said Mendolera, but a popular one nonetheless.
The bar serves a maple bourbon bacon martini that Julie says has gone over really well with patrons, and also offers a full beer selection with local beers on tap.
Mendolera feels the five years he spent down the road at Bass Lake Inn gave him a good feel for Geauga County and Chardon people, and their likes and dislikes, which led him to introduce wine dinners at that restaurant that he hopes to continue at Element 41.
The restaurant currently offers Happy Hour Tuesday through Friday, from 3-6 p.m. in the bar, with $1 off house wine and draft beer, $2 off tacos and $5 mules.
Taco Tuesday runs from 4-11 p.m., with $5 sangrias and $8 taco specials — $2 off the regularly priced $10 for three tacos.
Wing Wednesday, featuring special prices on home-smoked wings with a choice of sauces, including mild, hot, house-made BBQ and customer favorite garlic parmesan, starts at 4 p.m.
Weekend brunch, Saturday and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., will be another opportunity to get the family eating together. With “The 41 Breakfast” topping the menu – offering “two farm fresh eggs or egg whites, home fried potatoes, choice of bacon, sausage or ham, choice of toast” for $9 – the Mendoleras hope to see Chardon families filling their restaurant.
“I’ve always wanted my own restaurant,” Mendolera said, “ever since I was a young kid.”
