By: Deborah Johnson Wood
Authentic 1800s U.S. patent drawings cover the walls of one bathroom; jigsaw puzzles cover the walls of the other bathroom. On the kitchen wall an original mural of a cheetah sniffing a crocus (the flower that produces saffron) painted by Kendall College of Art and Design student Beth Jacobson. Twelve-foot planter boxes of recycled barn wood overflowing with rosemary plants. A piano for entertainment.
Oh! And of course there’ll be food…
It’s been a year in the making, but the Electric Cheetah, 1015 Wealthy SE, an eclectic restaurant owned by Cory DeMint, is nearly ready to open and worth the wait. DeMint is known for the popular homemade soups he creates for The Sparrows Coffee Tea & Newsstand up the street at 1035 Wealthy. Soon, he’ll also serve those soups, and his original “green cuisine,” to Electric Cheetah customers.
“We’ll have our signature tomato bisque all the time and one new soup every day,” DeMint says. “There will be a dinner special every night, like the Friday lake perch in wheat beer, lightly seasoned and fried, served with homemade fries with fresh rosemary, homemade cornbread, homemade coleslaw and braised greens.”
Owners of the building, designed by DTS+Winkelmann and developed by Bear Manor Properties, have applied for LEED certification.
DeMint continues the reduce, reuse, recycle mantra inside with some unusual trappings: two 8-foot-long circa 1800s church pews, recycled chairs reupholstered by DeMint, reused barstools newly sanded and stained, and a concrete bar with a recycled brown-glass-embedded top designed and created by Michael Hancock and other Kendall students.
“I don’t have a culinary degree, but I love creating food for people,” DeMint says. “I love watching people have a good time through food; to sit there and do what human nature requires us to do while enjoying the food and each others’ company.”
Source: Cory DeMint, Electric Cheetah
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Deborah Johnson Wood is development news editor for Rapid Growth Media. She can be contacted at [email protected].
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