Former Bricco owner bringing fine dining restaurant with rotating menu to Merriman Valley

Restaurateur David Glenny, who's always had a love for fine dining and upscale atmospheres, will finally be living that dream when he opens Stirling restaurant later this month in the Merriman Valley.

Glenny is well known for founding the Bricco restaurants starting in 2003 in downtown Akron. In 2019, he sold his five Bricco locations, including Bricco's Pub in the Merriman Valley.

Now, he's working with executive chef Amy Wanek to open an intimate, 60-seat fine dining establishment in Liberty Commons, in the space where Brubaker's Pub was for many years at 1288 Weathervane Lane.

Stirling will have just 10 tables and serve dinner only. The small menu of first, second and main courses will rotate every two weeks with new themes. Selections will be ordered a la carte.

"I just knew that I wanted to do something really small and I wanted to have a rotating menu and I wanted it to be very focused on service and I wanted it to be very upscale, intimate, a little bit old-school, fine-dining feel on the inside," Glenny said

The first menu, titled "Our First Chapter," will be a very personal one for Glenny with chef Wanek highlighting his favorite foods and ingredients. Guests can expect first courses of capellini alle vongole (clams) with chiles and bottarga (grated roe sac); ham and egg made with spaetzle, quail egg, gruyere and speck (cured ham); seared tuna with orange, mustard seed and black sesame; and pierogies with chorizo, potato and onion-apple cider jus.

Second-course salad choices are caprese with radicchio, burrata and mango; and spring bibb with seasonal vegetables, goat cheese and herb vin.

Main courses are White Oak Pastures New York strip with gratin and port demi; halibut creole with chorizo and spoon corn bread; seared scallop with white bean puree, endive, orange and almond butter; and lavender duck breast with celery root, spring onion, fennel and citrus jus.

For the first menu, first courses range from $17 to $22, second courses are $15 to $17 and main courses cost $35 to $45.

See stirlingakron.com for the first menu. Stirling's second menu theme will be "Springtime on the Coast."

Other upcoming themes could be inspired by a specific farm, ingredient, color, season, country or style of cuisine, Glenny said.

How Glenny made the transition

After selling his Bricco restaurants, Glenny worked as a bartender and server at Alley Cat Oyster Bar and L'Albatross in Cleveland and, most recently, at his nephew Nick Jones' new Akron restaurant, Barrelhouse .

"I was just getting burned out and I was working a lot" with the Bricco restaurants, said Glenny, who still loved the restaurant business when he sold Bricco five years ago.

After considering other careers, including teaching, he decided it was time to open a fine dining restaurant.

"This is what I love to do, and this is what I'm meant to do," he said. "This time I'm doing everything that I always wanted to do."

Glenny, 58, said most of what he learned about fine dining was in the 1990s, when he worked at the former Inn at Turner's Mill in Hudson.

Stirling, slated to open within the next several weeks, is Glenny's middle name and his grandmother's maiden name.

"I like that it was a play on words," he said of Stirling/sterling. "Basically it's of the highest quality."

Stirling's path to the Merriman Valley

Glenny has been working on his Stirling plans for more than two years. When Liberty Commons owners Mandy and Sanjiv Lal heard Glenny was looking to get back into the restaurant business, they reached out to him and asked him to be a part of the revitalization of the Merriman Valley complex.

"We were really excited to have Dave on board. He's got a great reputation in Akron and has had successful restaurants, so for us, we felt like having Dave there [would] bring this fine dining that would attract other upscale businesses," Mandy Lal said.

The couple met Glenny when he was helping friend John Bisson open Vinifera wine bar in the same building where Mandy Lal's Falls Yoga and Barre is located in Cuyahoga Falls. The Lals also were Glenny's customers when he owned Bricco.

The Lals' renovation goal is to return Liberty Commons to its former glory days when it featured high-end restaurants and shops. Glenny, who has fond memories of Maison Martel, Cafe Rapallo and Carnaby Street at Liberty Commons, liked the location, which he said will be easily accessible to the upscale Stirling clientele he's looking for.

As the inaugural tenant for the complex renovation project, Glenny's restaurant has a new stone façade, windows, door and front sidewalk. The parking lot outside the restaurant also will be resurfaced this week as part of the ongoing Liberty Commons project, Mandy Lal said.

Glenny, who gutted the former bar space inside, also has built a new addition for a full restaurant kitchen.

In late April, the restaurant's wood flooring, wallpapering and lighting was being finished.

Stirling has an intimate main dining room and a small private dining room with a walnut table for 10 and wallpaper inspired by the hills of the Cuyahoga Valley National Park.

Throughout, Glenny went for warm, masculine restaurant decor with lots of woodwork. High baseboards and crown molding are painted black and wallpaper with foliage in browns and gold.

Columns in the main dining room are wrapped in antique painted mirrors, made by designers Jessica Fueston and Marcia Wolff.

"People are gonna open the front door and go 'wow' when they see the inside. It's unlike anything that we have around here," Glenny said of Stirling.

Who is Stirling's chef?

Introducing the restaurant's first menu online, Wanek said she shared Glenny's desire to create a standard-setting fine dining restaurant with an owner who's "almost fanatical about what genuine hospitality is."

Wanek, a former chef de cuisine at Portage Country Club, has worked in Michelin Star restaurants including L'Arpege in Paris, Charlie Trotter's in Chicago and Eleven Madison Park in New York. She also has a pastry chef background.

"There will obviously be some pretty incredible desserts as well that will all be house-made," Glenny said.

What's expected of Stirling's patrons?

With its old-school fine dining vibe, Stirling will require a business to formal attire dress code, with the menu and environment "designed with adults in mind," Sterling's website says. No smoking or vaping is permitted and diners are asked to take all speaker phone calls outside.

Glenny, who formerly worked in wine sales for Vintage Wine Distributor, will also be focusing on wine at Stirling. He'll have a small wine list with food-friendly wines that he'll suggest to complement the food. See @stirlingakron on Instagram for new developments.

Liberty Commons renovations

Renovations of the Liberty Commons courtyard and building exteriors are expected to be done by late summer or early fall, Mandy Lal said. The courtyard, which will serve as a common area where activities can be held, also will have new public restrooms completed by next month.

The Lals are focusing on attracting high-end retail to the refurbished complex, which has one large 7,000 square-foot space that will be configured for multiple businesses. Mandy Lal stressed that Liberty Commons is seeking small, locally owned businesses, including startups.

The complex has six buildings, many of which look like they're connected. Hair salon Ready Set Glow, formerly in a different building, moved into a newly renovated space in a standalone building with a weathervane on top in January.

Arts and restaurant writer Kerry Clawson may be reached at 330-996-3527 or kclawson@thebeaconjournal.com.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Former Bricco owner bringing fine dining restaurant with rotating menu to Merriman Valley