Chagrin Valley Magazine (2017-2018)

The following is an excerpt from an article written by Sue Hoffman for the annual Chagrin Valley Magazine.

 ....Lemon Falls turns 6

Another Cleveland-area native, Jim Linhart, moved from Los Angeles to start Lemon Falls Café
and Marketplace at the corner of North Main and East Orange streets in Chagrin Falls.
“I was in the furniture manufacturing business, and it was time to turn corners once again,” Mr.
Linhart, a Mentor High School graduate, reminisced. “I had a friend who had a place in L.A. that
was successful. I watched her and thought, ‘I could do this.’ ”
Lemon Falls will be 6 years old next January. “Business is better than ever,” said Mr. Linhart,
whose business partner Pablo Montiel moved to the Cleveland area from L.A. to help start and
run the café.
“Of course, I’ve never worked so hard in my life,” Mr. Linhart said. “All of our menu items are
homemade. We use the best, fresh ingredients out there. Everything is bought locally, and we try
to use as much as possible that’s organic.”
Growing up, he said, “We were always in Chagrin,” and he wanted to open his business there.

The café, co-owned and managed by Mr. Linhart, Mr. Montiel and their families, features a
number of coffee and tea specialties along with an ample selection of breakfast and lunch items.
“We also cater, and have take-out food for dinner, including chicken cutlets, lasagna, macaroni
and cheese and meatloaf.
“People come in for coffee, but they also love our breakfasts,” Mr. Linhart said. The café bakes
its pastries each day. “We offer fresh scones, breakfast wraps, fried egg sandwiches and a Greek
yogurt parfait that’s beyond delicious.” The cafe’s steel cut oatmeal is chopped rather than
rolled. “You have to cook it longer, but it has a better texture.”
For lunch, customers have a number of salads and sandwiches from which to choose, along with
the soup of the day. “Our kale Caesar, served with or without chicken, is our most popular
salad,” he said. The item combines kale, romaine, chopped egg, parmesan and a light Caesar
dressing. Sandwiches range from tarragon chicken salad with grapes and toasted almonds, to a
four-cheese panini, and a Maine-style lobster roll.
For coffee, Mr. Linhart said, “We custom (prepare) our drinks to whatever the customer wants.
We have a lot of European customers who like a dry cappuccino with a shot of espresso and
topped with foam (frothy milk). Others enjoy regular American coffee, as well as cappuccino,
latte and mochas.
“Our iced coffees are very popular,” Mr. Linhart said. “There’s no bitterness and the actual taste
of the bean comes through.” Many customers enjoy the iced teas, brewed with green, black or
ginger peach varieties.
Lemon Falls purchases its coffee beans from Caruso’s Coffee in Brecksville, a certified organic
and kosher company which roasts coffees separately by origin and type. Caruso’s sources
Arabica beans from each of the world’s major growing regions. The café grinds the coffee just
before brewing, and sells it for table consumption, take-out, and by the package.
The restaurant’s tea is from Mighty Leaf in California.
Mr. Linhart, a Pepper Pike resident, said he learned to cook from his two grandmothers, and
what they taught him was perfect for the café. “Most of what we do is home-style cooking. I’ve
been very lucky.”