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| - This place is crowded for lunch, but wide open for dinner. Take a break from your usual downtown dinner spots and give this place a try--you will not regret it!
I've passed by this place so many times without even thinking of going in. Wow was that a mistake. I went to their gluten free dinner with my mom (she can't have gluten at all) and I was thoroughly impressed with the food and service. This is now on my list of regular dining options when I want to eat out.
The space is open, clean, and modern. The floors are bare concrete, polished and stained, and the ceiling masks the industrial elements with vertically hung linens that create a nice pattern. The decor gives it a slightly fancy feel without getting stuffy. I wouldn't call the place upscale in terms of decor, more trendy and modern if anything, but the food quality is very upscale. Service was fast, attentive, and very personable.
The food is chef-driven, from scratch, and brought from local farmers. The menu rotates seasonally. Everything I've had looked and tasted very fresh. All the items were expertly cooked and plated--I felt like I should be paying much more for this food. While this falls into the Yelp catchall of American (New), the dinner menu is not made up of the standard Cleveland items every restaurant around the town seems to copycat these days. Finally, a place that's NOT pushing the tired and overdone dishes of mussles, hanger steaks, and pomme frites.
While I've had great food over the past year in Cleveland, nothing has made me really look at a menu and feel like I got something new, special, or different within the modern American classification of things. That changed when I hit Pura Vida. Executive Chef Scott Coffman displays a lot of skill with his menu, preparation, and plating that sets him, and Pura Vida, apart from the rest of the Cleveland pack. Pura Vida sits up at the top with the major players in the Cleveland scene for me.
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