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Photo by Talia Hodge
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Photo by Talia Hodge
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Photo by Talia Hodge
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Photo by Talia Hodge
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Photo by Talia Hodge
Around age 12, John Kolar caught a glimpse of something spectacular. His father, a meat-cutter, had brought his family to Johnny’s Bar for dinner. As they stood outside, they saw light pour from its windows, illuminating the Cleveland night.
“That’s the glow that got me hooked into the restaurant business,” Kolar says.
After getting sober in 1994, Kolar applied to the Culinary Institute of America, becoming a student in 1998 at age 32. In 2000, he took a job under Michelin-starred chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten in New York City, learning about sourcing ingredients, using spices and working in a high-intensity kitchen before returning to Ohio around 2003.
“By the time I was 40, I wanted to have my own restaurant,” he says. “It was the scariest thing I’ve ever done, but it was definitely very fulfilling.”
My Favorite Local Bite:
Luigi’s Restaurant’s pepperoni pizza and house salad
“My wife grew up in Copley … and she went to Akron U, so Luigi’s [Restaurant] was her favorite spot that she turned me on to,” says Thyme² executive chef and owner John Kolar. “So, we’ll still go have lunch there once a month or so.”
Serving experimental fare like frozen blue cheese croutons, his Medina restaurant, Thyme, became a hit. In 2012, Kolar moved to a dual-floor location in the same city: Thyme² was born, with both elevated fine dining and pub-style menus.
Thyme²’s menu shifts seasonally. One of Kolar’s most personal dishes is the fire-roasted pork chop ($32), served with a sweet potato souffle, braised green cabbage, roasted local Honeycrisp apples and an apple-pork jus. Created as a tribute to his parents, who often made pork chops at home, iterations have been on Kolar’s menus for nearly two decades.
“We put it in a brine of apple cider and bourbon and mustard for a couple days, and then we cook it right in the pizza oven,” says Thyme² executive chef and owner Kolar of the pork. “It gets this little char on the outside and still is soft and juicy on the inside.”
Also try unique chipotle cream steamed mussels — inspired by Kolar’s time with Vongerichten. When first coming up with a recipe for the dish, a colleague suggested a classic preparation for the shellfish: sun-dried tomatoes and white wine. Kolar suggested cream.
“He goes, Cream? You can’t put cream with a mussel. And I said, Yeah, you can,” Kolar recalls. “Jean-Georges did coconut milk with a curry with his mussels. We could do it.”
The resulting dish, made with onions, garlic, chipotle peppers, double-thick cream, andouille sausage and diced tomatoes, has been a staple since — now served with house-made focaccia to soak up sauce.
“There’s nothing better than looking over and seeing someone take a bite … and their eyes lighting up,” Kolar says. “You gotta find your passion. I was lucky enough to find mine.”
// CG
113 W. Smith Road, Medina, 330-764-4114, thyme2restaurant.com
