A Dallas chef with deep Cleveland roots is bringing his roaming pop-up concept to the city his parents call home, setting up shop Saturday inside a 128-year-old Detroit Shoreway tavern with a menu built around fried bologna katsu, a salmon BLT and cacio e pepe chips. Chef Josh Harmon's Homesick pop-up opens at 6 p.m. on August 15 at Park View Niteclub, marking the latest stop in what he describes as a longtime dream of opening a permanent restaurant in Cleveland.
Harmon grew up in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, but as reported by Cleveland.com, he spent summers, Christmases and Easters visiting family in the city. His parents were born and raised in Cleveland, his grandmother lived in Ohio City, and his uncle owns the Voodoo Monkey tattoo shops. That family history, per the same report, is central to why Harmon says he wants to make a name for himself in Northeast Ohio before he arrives for good.
Harmon started the Homesick pop-up earlier this year, and the Cleveland stop follows earlier runs at Hoople's in Cleveland and at Rood in Lakewood, where the collaboration paired playful, nostalgia-driven plates with elevated technique, according to a Facebook post from Rood Lakewood OH. The Homesick menu follows a formula the chef has used across several concepts: familiar comfort food reimagined through fine-dining technique. That includes chips and dip made with a caramelized shallot dip, veal demi-glace and cacio e pepe chips, and the Pork-View, built on a Wiencek's pork-and-beef patty topped with government cheese, sweet-and-sour mayo and Peter Luger onions.
A Menu Built on Comfort Food and Fine-Dining Technique
Other dishes on the Homesick menu lean just as hard into nostalgia filtered through technique. The fried bologna comes as bologna katsu with gribiche, milk bread and West Side Market gherkins, while the self-described famous salmon BLT arrives on a steamed bun with bacon, lettuce, pickled reds and Japanese mayo. For dessert, there's a Snack Pack banana budino finished with hazelnut, salty cajeta, Biscoff cookie butter and roasted white chocolate. Cleveland.com reports the pop-up will run until the menu sells out.
Harmon has said the goal behind the food is simple. He wants diners to remember what they ate and to laugh while eating it, telling Cleveland.com that food can bring people back to specific places and memories. He envisions eventually opening a concept in Cleveland that blends fast-casual and fine dining, and he's told the outlet he's discussing additional Homesick pop-ups with other Northeast Ohio restaurants, including a possible collaboration with Edison's Pizza Kitchen in Tremont.
Inside the 128-Year-Old Tavern Hosting the Pop-Up
Park View Niteclub, at 1261 West 58th Street, has been a Detroit Shoreway fixture since 1898 and became a speakeasy during Prohibition before taking on its current name in 1933, according to the venue's own history cited in the dossier. The bar has hosted major jazz performers over the decades and was featured on Food Network's Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, which spotlighted its smoked salmon BLT and chipotle pork tacos when it aired in October 2009, per Food Network. The Plonski family has run the bar for more than 30 years, and owner Mike Plonski still manages the historic tavern today, according to Cleveland Magazine. Hoodline previously named it Cleveland's No. 6 pub in a 2019 ranking.
A Culinary Resume Built in Michelin Kitchens and Texas Pop-Ups
Harmon's path to Cleveland runs through some notable kitchens. Early in his career he staged at Le Cirque in New York and worked as part of the culinary team at The Breslin Bar & Dining Room while it held a Michelin star, according to background compiled by CHEFIN Inc. He appeared on Food Network's Restaurant Rivals in 2019, winning first place alongside his mother and sister, a credential the Dallas Observer has cited as part of his national television profile.
In Texas, Harmon built a reputation for turning temporary pop-ups into permanent restaurants. He partnered with restaurant incubator founder Casie Caldwell in 2017 to transform the rotating pop-up space Kitchen LTO in Dallas's Deep Ellum neighborhood into Junction Craft Kitchen, a full-time restaurant blending Southern comfort food with Asian fermentation techniques, according to CultureMap Dallas. He later opened Birdie, a fast-casual chicken concept at The Exchange Food Hall in Downtown Dallas, building on his earlier Fort Worth concept BirdieBop, as the Dallas Observer has reported.
Most recently, Harmon co-owned Rayo Bar & Lounge in Dallas's Fair Park neighborhood alongside Ryan Victor and Lauren Wahlstrom, a fast-casual cocktail bar in the former Pizza Lounge space that served drinks built around house-made shrubs, syrups and tinctures alongside fast-food-inspired dishes reimagined with unconventional ingredients, according to PaperCity Magazine. Harmon sold Rayo about two months before the Cleveland pop-up was announced. He has said he's pursuing a longtime dream of opening a restaurant in Cleveland and hopes to eventually become a James Beard Award finalist.
