For nearly 20 years, Zhong Chen has been involved in his family’s restaurant businesses. Now, he is looking to expand with his own in the Willowick community.
Chopsticks Cuisine, Chen’s new Chinese restaurant, is to be located at 31442 Vine St. In April 2022, Chen purchased the property and has since prepared architectural construction documents for submittal. He most recently presented the new business to the Willowick Plan Review Board.
“I believe this restaurant, which will mainly be a takeout and drive-thru establishment with minimal seating, will be a great asset to the city,” Chen said.
Toward the end of 2021, Willowick gained a Chipotle into its Shoregate Shopping Center in a new strip mall area in front while in that same strip mall, Starbucks and Be Smoothie Cafe opened. The city also had two new restaurants, Bar Forno and Pasha Turkish Kitchen, open.
“We need to be as business friendly as possible to get these businesses coming into the community,” said Mayor Michael Vanni. “Our residents are supporting them, which is great to see.”
He said he city becoming more business friendly started with when Richard Regovich was mayor.
“We used to have conversations about trying to grow businesses and use our lakefront, which is our biggest asset,” Vanni said. “We’re situated not that far from Cleveland, the lake, the parks, Shoregate — it’s a combination of all those things.”
For Chen, he is looking forward to occupying a currently vacant building with his new restaurant.
“I have a vast knowledge of how to operate a Chinese restaurant,” he said. “I look forward to becoming a part of Willowick.”
