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Though iconic restaurants and bars have been closing in Syracuse and the university area, largely due to the strain of the COVID-19 pandemic, two up-and-coming restaurants and bars from local business owners are looking to change the pattern.

Michele Roesch, of Emerald Cocktail Kitchen, and Michael Greene, of Harvey’s Garden, are both bringing new projects with twists on regular bars and restaurants to the city of Syracuse. Emerald Cocktail Kitchen will open its first two floors in January of 2023 and Harvey’s Garden will open this November.

Roesch has been in the restaurant business around Syracuse for almost her entire life.

“I grew up in the restaurant industry,” Roesch said. “My parents had operated restaurants for a really long time. And I had worked for them through my middle school and high school years and into college.”

After college, Roesch partnered with her mother, Nora Roesch, to create the Brasserie Bar & Bistro in 2015, inspired by the French restaurant scene.

Four years later, Roesch bought a building from her father with the intention to resell the business. However, the pandemic quickly shut down that endeavor, and Roesch was not able to find a buyer. Seemingly stuck with the property, located on Tipperary Hill, Roesch decided she was going to make the best of it.

“I kind of was just looking at the space. And I grew up on Tipp (Tipperary) Hill, and lived there right after I had graduated college and when I was working at the Brasserie, and I just kind of missed being there,” she said. “So I think everything kind of lined up for me to reopen it.”

Roesch had an expansive, full vision for the restaurant with space to fill. She decided to take advantage of it and create a bar that offers an environment for everyone.

The building has three floors, with the second and third being new additions to the structure. On the first floor, there will be a bar that has a speakeasy feel, with a darker aesthetic. The second floor will be a little brighter, featuring a more retro, loungey atmosphere. Roesch plans on opening these floors in January 2023.

The top floor will have a theme of a “concrete jungle” with a rooftop bar, which would be the first rooftop bar in Syracuse. Roesch hopes to open the third floor on St. Patrick’s Day 2023.

While she hopes to introduce great new cuisine to the area, Roesch hopes that Emerald Cocktail Kitchen also sparks local progressive change through example.

“In the past two years, we’ve just been trying to make as much local support (for) women and minority owned businesses, as well as coming up with a lot of sustainable options through the build out and through operations,” Roesch said.

Roesch hopes that bringing this project to Tipperary Hill will continue to make the area into the “new downtown” of Syracuse.

“I think it’ll bring something different. Now and Later has a great beer scene. Coleman’s has live music. Blarney (Stone) has, you know, their burger and everything like that,” Roesch said. “I think that what’s missing there is a little bit… not more upscale, but a little bit nicer with cocktails and you know, nicer quality food, like shareable appetizers and that kind of atmosphere.”

Just 10 minutes east of where Emerald City Cocktail will be opening its doors, Harvey’s Garden, an outdoor bar featuring a food truck park and beer hall, will also be opening.

The Garden, which is currently an abandoned warehouse, will be transformed into a fully functioning bar with both a traditional serving-style and the ability to self-serve.

Michael Greene, who also works as a Syracuse Common Councilor At-Large, developed the idea after visiting other communities with food truck parks and thought the system would be a good addition to Syracuse. Greene was able to work with both food truck drivers and the legislation needed to open the bar in his role on the Common Council.

Greene’s goal for the project is to add a different way to gather for members of the Syracuse community.

“A lot of different people from all different walks of life could go and find something they like. From a culinary perspective, by having up to three food trucks at a time, you can have people who have different taste, find something that they like, you can have people come and go as they want,” Greene said.

Greene, along with Nick Sanford, the president of the Syracuse Food Truck Association, are planning to improve the area not only for the community, but for food truck owners as well.

“What happens now is we create pop-up food truck parking, and that works pretty well,” Sanford said. “But this (Harvey’s) is the first location dedicated to that.”

Even with the closures and barriers from the pandemic, both Harvey’s Garden and Emerald City Cocktail have an emphasis on giving back to the community while trying something new.

“What we’re trying to do is be a community gathering space. So we’ll have events over time that’ll have different ideas to bring people together,” Greene said.

Published on September 6, 2022 at 10:06 pm