our story

Real food. Real people. Right across from the West Side Market.

Bright Side is about the people who come through the door: beer for people, food for people, a night out for people. We've been part of this corner of Ohio City since 2005, and we're still here because of you.

place-making, one block at a time

Twenty-plus years on West 25th.

Reserve a table
✳ Plan an event
Join the team

✳ 2003 An empty store and a crazy idea. Sam McNulty and Mark Priemer walked into the old Fries & Schuele department store on West 25th and saw a bar.

✳ 2005 It started with beer. Bier Markt opened, pouring more than 80 Belgian beers at a time.

✳ 2007 A hundred wines and a young chef. Bar Cento opened next door. Its first chef-partner, Jonathon Sawyer, went on to win a James Beard Award.

✳ 2009 Then we went downstairs. Speakeasy opened in the basement. Market Garden Brewery and Nano Brew soon followed down the block.

✳ 2022 Bright, on purpose. We opened the front to the street, put a 44-seat island bar in the middle and opened Bright Side. Speakeasy woke up as Bird of Paradise.

✳ Today Made by hand, served with heart. Everything from scratch. Chef Pat leads the kitchen.

✳ Next What’s coming. From the market hall to the Irishtown Bend park taking shape down the hill, we’re proud of where Cleveland is going.

West 25th Street in Ohio City, Cleveland, in 2007, looking toward the West Side Market clock tower

West 25th Street, 2007, the block where Bier Markt and Bar Cento stood · photo: Clevelandguy, CC BY-SA 3.0

West 25th today: Bright Side lit up across from the West Side Market

the people pouring

Meet the crew.

Vintage-style placeholder graphic with a camera icon and the text “Add a crew photo behind the bar.”
Illustrated camera icon with text reading “Add a crew photo in the kitchen” inside a dashed border.
Minimalist beige placeholder graphic with a camera icon and the text “ADD A CREW PHOTO on the floor.”
Minimalist placeholder graphic requesting a crew photo at the host stand