CLEVELAND — Shooters, a summertime staple in the Flats, could reopen by Labor Day weekend — after a major overhaul led by new owners, including homegrown celebrity MGK.
Over the last year, workers have been gutting and remaking the riverfront restaurant. They've cleared out the kitchen, making room for new appliances. They tore out drop ceilings and dark wood paneling. Now they’re busy installing colorful tiles, blending nautical themes with a bit of pop-punk flair.
The project – a multimillion-dollar makeover – is a partnership between TurnDev, a busy Northeast Ohio real estate developer, and investors including Colson Baker, the singer and performer known as MGK, or Machine Gun Kelly. The group bought the business and took over the Shooters lease last year, said Jon Pinney, TurnDev’s managing partner.
Now they’re getting closer to unveiling the new Shooters, mixing nods to almost 40 years of history with upgrades aimed at a new generation of customers.
“We’ve sort of taken the best of the old and put it with the new,” said Tom Flynn, the director of construction for TurnDev.
During a recent tour, he pointed out white shiplap paneling that now covers part of the walls, brightening up the space. At the front entrance, the new owners kept the original blue-and-white tiled floor, which includes the retro Shooters logo.
The bones of the expansive bars are still there – but they’ve been stripped down. On one, boxes of fluted orange Italian tile sit, waiting to be installed. The larger bar, overlooking the river, is wrapped in undulating blue tiles. Nearby, there’s a new room for private dining and a refurbished pizza oven.
Outside, TurnDev replaced both the upper and lower decks and redid the whole exterior of the restaurant, which occupies the end of a former sugar warehouse off Main Avenue, near the mouth of the Cuyahoga River and the old river channel.
Eventually, there will be a concert stage on the deck again, in front of a permanently raised jack-knife bridge that’s a popular photo-taking spot.
“Having a partner like Colson … that’ll bring a crowd that enjoys music,” Flynn said.
Cleveland native Andre Cisco, one of MGK’s managers, is also part of the investor group and has been heavily involved in the planning, design and marketing strategy for Shooters. “Our partners, every one of them, has a Northeast Ohio connection,” Flynn said.
Right now, the goal is just to get the restaurant back open.
Workers from Ashtabula-based CESCO Imaging started installing new signs this week, to beckon passing boaters on the river and people driving down the hill into the Flats.
Shooters temporarily closed its doors last fall, after a 37-year run, and was originally set to reopen earlier this summer. But Flynn said the construction team ran into some surprises, as workers opened up walls and dealt with roof leaks, grime and other challenges.
“Obviously, it’s a little later than we’d like,” he said of a possible opening celebration in late August or early September. “But … it’ll be a first-class product.”
Restaurateur Pat D’Onofrio, of Slyman’s Tavern, Inferno Flats and other businesses, is part of the operations team.
The revamped menu will include raw and grilled oysters, fish dip, shrimp cocktail, fried fish, a bucket of chicken, smash burgers and a pasta salad – with the option to add caviar to pretty much anything.
“We’re still gonna serve great quality food,” Flynn said. “But you’re not coming here for a steak, right? You’re here to … enjoy yourself, listen to music and have a great view.”
That view — of pleasure boats, freighters navigating the river's tricky curves and trains chugging across a vertical lift bridge — is what drew Shooters co-founder Roger Loecy to the west bank in 1987.
“It was a lot of fun,” he said of the heyday of the Flats, when crowds flocked to both sides of the river to locally owned bars, restaurants and nightclubs. “And it was way more open back then. I mean, you could drink as much as you want.”
Watch more about the history of Shooters here:
RELATED: In June 2022, Shooters celebrated 35 years in business
Loecy opened Shooters with partners — Wendy’s founder Dave Thomas and the fast-food chain founder’s son. They named their restaurant after Shooters Waterfront in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, which opened in 1982. Loecy bought the Thomases out early on.
The Cleveland Shooters hosted free concerts and brought in both up-and-comers and well-known acts, including the Village People.
Flynn remembers when there was a swimming pool on that deck – a pool Loecy eventually closed because of maintenance costs and liability issues.
“Shooters brings everyone in Cleveland back to their youth. All of your friends, every Friday night, you were either at Shooters, or you were at Fagan’s,” Flynn said.
But Fagan’s and other Flats mainstays gradually closed.
Shooters survived, serving up dockside food and booze to boaters — and selling so many drinks that Loecy often ran out of ice.
He chalks that longevity up to one thing. “The water,” he said. “If it wasn’t for the water — if I was on a parking lot someplace … Nah.”
A serial entrepreneur from Chardon, Loecy has watched the Flats change. Buildings and bridges went up — and came down. Traffic ebbed and flowed.
And would-be buyers periodically approached him, asking whether he was willing to sell.
After surviving a pandemic and dealing with inflation and growing repair needs, Loecy decided he was ready. Staff shortages also played a role. In the 1990s, Shooters had 300 employees. By 2024, the restaurant was down to 120 workers or so, and Loecy was struggling to find help.
Plus, “I’m getting older,” he said.
He quietly sold the business in September, after a year of negotiations.
Loecy still visits regularly, checking on the progress. But he still hasn’t met MGK.
“They’re paying me over a number of years, so I’m still part of the deal,” said Loecy, who wouldn’t disclose the sale price for the business.
He’s not sure what to make of the new pink-and-green wall tiles in the women’s bathroom. But overall, he thinks the renovations are fantastic.
“People won’t recognize anything when they come down here,” he said.
As for how his longtime customers will react?
“They’re gonna go ‘whoa,’” Loecy predicted, with a laugh. “But all those people are dead anyway!”
