Black Market Meats brings creative vegan deli options to downtown Lakewood

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CLEVELAND, Ohio — Lakewood’s downtown district is gaining another tasty spot aimed at those looking to explore a vegan diet.

Black Market Meats is a vegan delicatessen from Todd Kronika, known for working as head chef at restaurants like Cloak & Dagger cocktail bar and Deagan’s Kitchen.

Kronika and his business partner, Cory Hajde, one of the owners of Mahall’s in Lakewood, acquired the building that most recently housed Little Lakewood Pasta Co. The space at 15613 Detroit Avenue was small, so Kronika naturally thought it led to a grab-and-go concept. The building also came with a kitchen full of equipment for Kronika to experiment with. It’s the first restaurant he’s opening on his own outside of working as a chef.

He’s aiming to open the shop sometime before the end of October.

“It’s a from-scratch kitchen. I’m not buying Beyond [Meat] and making you feel like, ‘This tastes like real meat,’” Kronika explained. “It’s my own.”

Black Market Meats will offer standard deli options like sandwiches, soups, and picnic salads with a focus on seasonal ingredients. Everything will be vegan, from the “meat” grilled on kabob sticks or vegetable-based burgers. Kronika isn’t interested in offering meat substitutes like Impossible Burgers and “diet cheese.” Rather, he likes to take fresh fruits, vegetables, and pantry ingredients and let his creativity run wild.

The concept of a scratch-made menu is the heart of the Black Market Meats concept. The focaccia bread is designed to be eaten on the go while walking through downtown Lakewood. He incorporates methods like brining, smoking, pickling, and dehydrating to make unassuming ingredients like turnips, watermelon, tofu, and mushrooms the star of the show (which will probably be a sandwich).

“Every time I make something, it’s different. I don’t have a recipe book,” Kronika said. However, he plans on improving his recipe records at Black Market Meats to provide reliable favorites for customers.

Kronika has followed a mostly vegan diet for 20 years, with occasional detours for items like eggs or seafood. He has an excitement for creating delicious food that happens to be vegan and that he hopes will match the high-energy area of downtown Lakewood.

The store will also sell wholesale vegan protein items to other restaurants, or allow customers to buy “raw” meat to grill at home. He also plans on offering vegan butter and cheeses made out of items like miso, olives, nuts, and beyond.

Black Market Meats will be open several days during the week. Kronika envisions the hours will incorporate both lunch and dinner, somewhere in the 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. window. The team will be small with Kronika and one other staffer in the kitchen and a friendly face taking orders at the counter.

“I want to be hands-on with everything,” Kronika said. “I’m going to be here at all times.”



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