Marble Room Steaks and Raw Bar, the opulent steak and seafood restaurant tucked inside a former downtown Cleveland bank, has been crowned the winner of a national best-steakhouse competition. The restaurant at 623 Euclid Ave. bested 63 other contenders in a bracket-style tournament called The64, capping the run with a championship-round win over Vernon's Speakeasy in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
The64 organized the competition much like the NCAA basketball tournament, according to Cleveland.com, with 64 restaurants advancing purely through online public votes rather than judges' scores. Marble Room served as Ohio's sole entry in the field, and its path to the title ran through several regional steakhouse names: it knocked off Raleigh's Angus Barn in the first round, Clarksburg, West Virginia's Wonder Bar Steakhouse in the second, and Chicago's Maple & Ash in the third. The wins kept coming from there, with victories over Cattleman's Steakhouse of Oklahoma City in the fourth round and Chicago Chop House in the fifth, according to the same report from Cleveland.com.
A Former Bank Vault Turned Dining Room
Marble Room opened on September 5, 2017, and has now passed its ninth anniversary, per the outlet's account. The restaurant occupies the ground floor of the Garfield Building, an 11-story structure built in 1893 by Harry and James Garfield — sons of assassinated President James A. Garfield — that stands as Cleveland's first steel-frame skyscraper, according to a PR Newswire release.
The building's ground floor was converted into a public banking hall back in 1921, complete with 40-foot coffered ceilings, marble staircases, and Corinthian columns that earned it the local nickname the Cathedral of Finance, as detailed by FreshWater Cleveland. During the restaurant's $6 million buildout in 2017, developers transformed the bank's subterranean 3,500-square-foot vault — complete with three-foot-thick steel doors — into private dining rooms and event spaces, the outlet reported. Millennia Companies had acquired the vacant Garfield Building in 2014 and converted its upper floors into residential apartments before Marble Room opened on the ground level, according to NEOtrans.
Owners Bring Decades of Cleveland Dining Experience
Marble Room is owned by Savour Hospitality, whose founders Malisse and Frank Sinito entered the local restaurant business back in 1988 running The River Pub before rebranding it in 1992 as LockKeepers in Valley View, Ohio, per Eat Local Media. That three-decade-plus track record now extends across a broader downtown Cleveland portfolio that includes Il Venetian, Marble Room Sushi, St. Clair Ballroom, and the Cleveland Marriott Downtown at Key Tower, according to Baldwin Wallace University.
The recognition also arrives on the heels of independent national acclaim. Tripadvisor ranked Marble Room 15th among the top 25 fine dining restaurants in the United States in its 2025 Travelers' Choice Best of the Best Awards, ahead of its win in The64 bracket.
Corporate Backdrop at Parent Company
The steakhouse's national win comes amid separate developments at the Sinitos' broader real estate operations. Frank Sinito stepped down as chief executive officer of Millennia Housing Management Ltd. in June 2025 as the parent company began a strategic sale of its affordable housing portfolio, according to NEOtrans. Corporate communications for that matter were directed to Savour Hospitality Group.
Separately, federal agents from the Department of Housing and Urban Development searched the Waite Hill residence of Frank and Malisse Sinito in October 2024 as part of an active federal inquiry, Cleveland Magazine reported at the time. No arrests or formal charges were reported in connection with that search. Marble Room continues to operate under Malisse Sinito as a distinct dining destination within the Savour Hospitality portfolio.
