At 12300 Mayfield Road, Terry Tarantino is restoring the 1923 Mayfield Theater as a dinner theater, live-music venue and private-event space. Plans include repairing the original structure, recreating its historic sign and rebuilding the former vaudeville stage.
Tarantino, who has run La Dolce Vita for 37 years, bought the shuttered theater in 2005, according to Cleveland.com and Cleveland Magazine. The purchase came about two decades after public screenings ended. The property then remained vacant for years, and neighborhood writers and residents questioned whether the restoration would move forward.
A Condemnation Notice Forced the Issue
The delay nearly cost the building its future. In September 2023, the City of Cleveland officially condemned the decaying structure, creating a legal mandate for Tarantino to either restore it or risk demolition, per the same Cleveland Magazine report. Building code violations and structural decay at the property had generated safety complaints from neighboring property owners, pushing the long-dormant project toward an ultimatum.
The city issued an initial building permit on Aug. 11, 2026, authorizing Lakewood-based Scalish Construction to repair and weatherproof the roof to prevent further deterioration, Cleveland Magazine reported. Permit records describe a phased renovation, beginning with structural stabilization, with no demolition proposed.
Tiki Bar Meets Italian Disco
DS Architecture designed an interior that combines tropical tiki motifs with 1980s Italian disco styling, according to Cleveland Magazine. Plans call for a lower-level lounge with deeper colors. Cleveland.com reports that the main bar and dinner-theater area will have a stage, reflective surfaces and color-changing lights; an outdoor patio with lighting and plants is also planned.
Tarantino has informally nicknamed the project Cinema Paradiso, drawing on the film of the same name, The 216 Scoop reports. He plans to incorporate 1980s Italo disco nights alongside live opera and jazz performances. In marketing materials, the project is also referred to as Next Act, though it has no finalized name, Cleveland.com notes.
Moving Opera Out of the Restaurant
Tarantino plans to move La Dolce Vita’s live opera performances to the theater, Cleveland.com reports. Opera has been part of the restaurant’s offerings for 33 years, and the theater is expected to accommodate more people. He has also expressed interest in Latin jazz performances there.
The initial plan calls for three private-event areas, with the possibility of as many as five, according to Cleveland.com. An upstairs room could be reserved for gatherings, and customers would choose from a list of approved caterers.
Cleveland.com reports that Tarantino wants the venue to complement, rather than compete with, Little Italy’s restaurants. He envisions it hosting public and private events and serving as an amenity for new residential developments in the neighborhood, a goal also described by Cleveland Magazine.
From Dry Goods Store to Vaudeville Stage
The theater's roots trace back to founder Michele Mastandrea, who ran a dry goods store on the same Mayfield Road lot before building the theater in 1923, according to the Encyclopedia of Cleveland History. Mastandrea had previously worked as a shoe salesman on the lot where Maxi's Bistro now sits, and Mastandrea and his wife remained in the building's upper apartment until their deaths in 1955 and 1958, respectively. The original two-story structure paired a first-floor stage with that second-floor apartment, and the venue hosted Italian plays, second-run Hollywood movies and Italian lessons, per Cleveland.com.
After Mastandrea died in August 1955, the theater reopened in January 1959 as the Mayfield Art Theater, screening foreign films before closing, the Encyclopedia of Cleveland History notes. The venture lasted barely two years, and the theater remained closed from 1961 until October 1968, when the Old Mayfield Theater opened showing films, including Blood and Sand. By 1974 it was operating as the New Mayfield Repertory Theater showing movies, a run that continued until it closed for good in 1985.
Exterior decay compounded over the following decades. High winds from Hurricane Sandy damaged the theater's historic blade sign atop its marquee in 2012, Cleveland Magazine reports — damage the current restoration plan addresses by reproducing the original signage as part of its historic facade work. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places on June 14, 2013, under reference number 13000389, according to federal registration details published in GovInfo.
The theater in Cleveland’s preservation record
National Park Service metadata lists entertainment and recreation as areas of significance for the Mayfield Theatre Building and identifies 1922 and 1923 as significant years, according to the National Park Service. The metadata establishes the theater’s recognized historic significance; the history above documents features including its stage and former upstairs apartment. Other Cleveland theaters followed different paths. In Gordon Square, the Capitol Theatre received a $7.5 million renovation and reopened in October 2009, according to the Gordon Square Arts District. For the separate Variety Theatre, Cleveland.com reported in May 2022 that new owner Kelly Flamos did not yet know when repairs or reopening would occur.
Tarantino has served Italian food at La Dolce Vita for 37 years, at the corner of Mayfield and Murray Hill roads. The Mayfield Theater currently has no determined opening date, but its revival marks a pivotal shift for a Little Italy landmark that spent far longer vacant than it ever spent open.
