A new restaurant built around a wood-fired hearth and three separate kitchens has quietly begun serving diners in Victorian Village. Tre Kitchen & Bar launched its soft-opening schedule earlier this month at 335 W. Third Avenue, with plans to officially open in the coming weeks.
The restaurant comes from local restaurateurs Xhevair Brakaj and Koli Memushi, who previously opened Arch City in the Short North and Tip Top downtown, according to Columbus Underground. Tre marks their third restaurant concept, and the name itself is a nod to that pattern: the outlet reports the pair named it Tre, Italian for three, because the number three kept presenting itself to them throughout the project. The space has three rooms, each with three windows, along with three kitchens, three chefs, and three arches above the bar.
The menu specializes in what the restaurant describes as Southern Mediterranean hearth cooking, drawing on influences from Spain, Morocco, Greece, Albania and Turkey. Dylan Jones, speaking to the outlet, said the goal is to make diners feel as if they are sitting in a home kitchen, with cooking and pasta-making visible right in the dining room. Jones added that the menu reflects food people from those regions might actually eat at home, featuring familiar regional classics prepared in the style of the places they come from.
What's On the Menu
Starters include grilled oyster mushrooms and hearth-warmed olives, alongside spreads of roasted eggplant and whipped ricotta served with hearth-baked pita. There's also a giardiniera made with banana peppers, green tomatoes and grapes. For something heartier, the kitchen turns out a ragu made with lamb neck and harissa.
Wood-fired pizzas round out the menu, including a Napoli-style margherita and a salsiccia pie topped with mozzarella, pork sausage and smoked salt. Pasta is made in-house, with dishes like spaghetti chitarra and a sweet corn tortellini. Main courses include a lemon and herb roasted half chicken and lamb kofta.
Running the kitchen is chef de cuisine Jon Gruseck, who told the outlet he is ready to make people happy with good food and drinks. Gruseck said he enjoys a busy, full restaurant and finds the work highly enjoyable.
From Dive Bar to Dining Room
The address has history. Harrison's on Third occupied the space from 2008 to 2024, and per Columbus Underground, Brakaj and Memushi took ownership of the space shortly after Harrison's on Third closed. According to columbusnavigator.com, the Columbus Jewish News had reported back in November 2023 that the bar would close for good that January, after the space had been Harrison's on Third for 15 years.
Turning the former dive bar into an upscale restaurant wasn't a quick cosmetic job. Brakaj and Memushi renovated the building themselves, adding new floors, walls and woodwork, and the outlet notes they even built the restaurant's hearth after chiseling concrete away from the brick walls to expose it.
Reservations and Hours
Tre Kitchen & Bar has limited hours and capacity until its official opening in the coming weeks, and the restaurant accepts reservations through OpenTable. Separately, columbusnavigator.com reported that OpenTable's listing described the concept as Southern Mediterranean Hearth Cuisine and put dinner in the $31 to $50 per person range, with the page marked as coming soon and showing its earliest open tables in mid-November. That same report listed daily hours running from 3 to 11 p.m., with no lunch service.
Columbus Underground's first look at the restaurant, reported and written by Ashley Kimmel, who also photographed the space, gives Victorian Village diners an early glimpse of what's cooking before the official opening.
