The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Brennan’s Fish House in a league of its own
Grand River Village restaurant serves high-quality seafood with a New England vibe
Walking through the restaurant door in Grand River, it’s obvious this isn’t your average seafood joint.
Walking through the door at Brennan’s Fish House in Grand River Village, it’s obvious this isn’t your average seafood joint.
Maybe it’s all the shiny brass and polished wood accoutrements, miscellaneous treasures and nautical art literally covering the place that impart the New England fishing-town vibe its cozy quarters provide. Or perhaps it’s the sweet smell of high-quality seafood, meats and other fresh ingredients wafting from the kitchen that can cause one to drift off into a comfortable, nostalgic momentary pause upon entering.
One thing’s for certain, though: There’s nowhere quite like it in Northeast Ohio and its solid reputation as a happy place to get a great meal at a reasonable price — and feel like a member of the family while you’re doing it — has been keeping customers from near and far coming back again and again for generations.
Just ask Sharon Hill, who bought the business, hook, line and sinker, in 2006 from its longtime owners Tim and Betty Brennan, who owned and operated it over the previous 31 years.
“It’s a very, very special place,” she said during an interview there April 5. “I mean, it’s not like it was just built in China in some factory and just put up here. It’s very precious to us and I feel like I’m its caretaker because sometimes it seems like a museum.”
Hill and her husband, Steve, who passed away in December, bought the business, the building and the property it sits on in 2006, Hill said. She added that she’d been working there as a hostess on Fridays when she learned about the chance to buy it. She now runs it alongside her three sons, Mitchell, Tom and Tim.
Hill said she didn’t take buying Brennan’s lightly, simply because she knew what it meant to its customers.
“I remember, when I first started looking into the purchase, I didn’t want to let a whole lot of people know about it,” she said, adding that if the loan didn’t go through or some other hiccup prevented the sale, she didn’t want to have to do all the related explaining. “But the word got out that it was for sale and I was still a hostess here. So, one night, one of our regular customers — this sweet, little old lady — said to me, ‘Sharon — Do you know they’re gonna sell this place? Boy, I sure hope they sell it to the right people!”
So, Hill said, without any further elaboration, she asked the woman, “Would it be OK if I bought it?”
“And she just gave a sigh of relief and told me that would be OK,” Hill said. “And I could see that she was just, like, relieved, like a weight had been lifted off of her.”
Hill said she didn’t take maintaining that kind of respect lightly and therefore hasn’t changed much in terms of the restaurant’s recipes or how the place is run.
“These things were really important to me. So, before I made the decision to move ahead (with purchasing Brennan’s), I had four questions: How much do you want for it? Will the name and recipes come with it? Will the buildings and grounds come with it and will you teach me how to run it?” And so it went, she said. “I knew I had to have the name,” she said. “I had to be taught how to run it and I had to have the recipes. If the answer to any one of those three wasn’t ‘yes,’ I would’ve walked away.”
She said Brennan stuck with her for months and months as the sale was being finalized, and beyond, passing on his wealth of knowledge and making the transition between his and the Hills’ ownership a smooth and painless one.
And that’s something its loyal customers appreciate to this day.
Take Eastlake resident Mike Strainic, for example.
“I’m known as Friday Night Mike,” he said in a phone interview April 7. “If we were in town and I didn’t have something going on, I’m at Brennan’s. Period.”
He said he was happy to learn of the Hills’ decision to buy Brennan’s, as well.
“I’ve known Sharon from when she was a hostess — before that, even,” Strainic said, adding that he and his family have been coming to Brennan’s regularly for over 30 years. “When she said, ‘I might buy this place,’ I said ‘Go for it.’ I knew she’d be a great owner and she is. One thing I really think is important is that she didn’t change the recipes.”
Audie and Lorie Mulhern, Concord Township residents who spend winters in Florida, said the food’s a big reason they’ve kept coming back over the last two decades.
“The food is always excellent — the perch, the walleye — it’s always excellent quality,” Audie said. “Plus, it’s kind of a friendly place to eat.”
Hill said she’s seen the couple pull into town from their latest Florida visit and proceed directly to Brennan’s, before going the rest of the way home.
“That’s us!” Lorie said cheerfully in an April 7 phone interview. “We get back from Florida and we miss the fresh perch and walleye.”
Plus, like Strainic said, it’s a congenial place where, like everyone’s favorite 1980s bar-room sitcom setting, everyone knows your name.
“It’s kind of like ‘Cheers,’ ” Strainic said, adding that, as Hill, herself, said she’s noticed, people don’t even seem to mind waiting for their tables.
“I’ve waited there for an hour and a half and it was worth every minute of it,” said Strainic, who added he’s been known to ride his bike from Eastlake on a Sunday during clambake season to relax and toss back a few dozen of the tasty crustaceans, hence, according to Lorie Mulhern, his other nickname — Bicycle Mike.
“That’s just a testament to the atmosphere and the food and the staff and the service. It’s just a happy place.”
And that goes for the staff, too, who share a special bond and genuinely enjoy working together, Hill said.
“I’m not bragging or anything, but what I really like to hear from the customers is: ‘Your staff seems so happy.’ And I hear that a lot,” She said. “And you can tell they really care about each other. They work well together and they do things, socially, together outside of here. So we have a really great staff here and it’s reflected in the overall atmosphere here. So I’m very proud of that. I feel like we have a good community here.”
And that happiness seems to be contagious, she said, as evidenced especially in how well guests tend to tolerate — and even enjoy — waiting a while to be seated, especially on a Friday night.
She said that point hits its mark dead-on when another restaurant owner comments how well the crowd is handling the wait and when her customers, themselves see the line and congratulate her on how much business the place is doing.
“Someone will say ,’Sharon — I’m so happy for you,’ even though they’re waiting to be seated for a while,” she said. “The generous spirit that my customers have is really special to me because I know they’re going to have to wait longer. But they’re happy for us. I appreciate that and I always thank them.”
She said it’s especially meaningful to her when a young family will come in and tell her their parents used to bring them to Brennan’s when they were kids.
And, at Brennan’s, that happens quite a bit. In fact, Strainic’s family is a good example, with three generations of Brennan’s fans always eager to return.
Besides the great food, good people and quality service that are the norm at Brennan’s, the fact that its interior is festooned with curiosities donated by loyal customers throughout its history as a restaurant is a big draw for visitors, too.
Between old life preservers, fishing nets, various military and other uniforms, hats, horns, bells, whistles and burgees (flags bearing the colors and/or emblems of sailing clubs), it’s tough to look at the inside of Brennan’s Fish House the same way twice. Each item has its own story and, when she can, Hill said she sticks a label with some of that history on back for posterity’s benefit.
“I love that history,” she said. “I love that all the stuff up there comes from people in the community who just brought it in.”
Grand River Village Mayor Christopher Conley put into perspective just how important Brennan’s is to the community.
“There are a few places in Lake County that have put us on the map. Brennan’s is one of them,” Conley said. “Brennan’s isn’t just a business, they’re our neighbor and our friend.”
Although Brennan’s is proud of its perch — and walleye — and these fish represent some of the restaurant’s most popular fare, there’s plenty more on the menu. She said the New England clam and fisherman’s chowders are always popular. The homemade crabcakes, scampi linguini and fresh sea scallops are also perennial guest favorites.