Piada Italian Street Food is coming to Mayfield Heights; Chick-fil-A will add a second

MAYFIELD HEIGHTS, Ohio — Piada Italian Street Food will soon become another Mayfield Road dining option when it remodels and moves in to the former Bruegger’s Bagels building, across from Mayfield Heights City Hall.

City Council, on Monday (Feb. 14) approved the preliminary site plan for the new Piada restaurant at 6075 Mayfield Road. Council also approved parking for 25 cars at the site, and operation of a Piada drive-thru lane.

Piada Italian Street Food is a fast-casual restaurant that serves lunch and dinner. The nearest Piada now does business at Cedar Center North in South Euclid, at 13947 Cedar Road. To take a look at Piada’s menu, visit here.

The news of Piada getting preliminary site plan approval was one of a few involving businesses in Mayfield Heights. At the same meeting, council approved a much-needed second drive-thru lane for the Chick-fil-A restaurant, 6390 Mayfield Road, at Golden Gate Shopping Center. The current single drive-thru lane at Chick-fil-A is often seen extending around the building and into the eatery’s main parking lot. Those entering the line spend a considerable amount of time waiting for their food.

“First of all, it’s a really long drive-thru (lane),” said Councilwoman Gayle Teresi of waiting at Chick-fil-A. “You could be in that drive-thru for 20 to 40 minutes. It’s wonderful for the business, but holy cow, when you’re in the car — I want to jump the curb and leave.”

A Chick-fil-A representative told council that the plan calls for adding more employees to serve the second drive-thru lane. The second lane will be alongside the current (and what will be the inner) lane. Chick-fil-A is instituting a change throughout the country in which runners will take food out to cars to try and quicken the wait in line.

The representative noted, however, that like all businesses across the country, the local Chick-fil-A has a shortage of employees.

While Chick-fil-A’s lengthy drive-thru lane merely extends into its own parking lot, Councilman Robert DeJohn asked Piada representative Jeffrey Lonchor, of CESO Inc, of Columbus, if there is a danger of traffic extending onto Mayfield Road as driver’s await their food in the Piada drive-thru lane. DeJohn noted that this is a frequent problem at the nearby McDonald’s, 6225 Mayfield Road, where work will soon begin on adding a second drive-thru lane.

Lonchor said that that there is enough car “stacking” room for four or four and a half cars before cars would have to wait on Mayfield Road. But, he said, a traffic study showed that the stacking would be ample space for keeping cars in the Piada lot. Piada’s stacking has also received approval from the city’s Planning Commission.

“Interior construction will begin soon,” Mayor Anthony DiCicco said of Piada, “with a targeted opening date in early summer.” Piada will also, Lonchor said, offer outdoor dining on a patio in addition to indoor dining.

It is an active time for business in Mayfield Heights as DiCicco, during his mayor’s report at the start of the council meeting, stated, “We have some new businesses that opened in the city. Against All Odds opened on Landerhaven Drive. The business offers adult day care and activities.

“Handel’s Ice Cream will be renovating and opening at 1245 S.O.M. Center Road, in the Town Center Shopping Center” he continued. “Primoz, a new carryout pizza place, is looking at the (former) Pizza Hut place at 5867 Mayfield Road. And the plans for Sheetz (gas station/convenience store/sandwich shop) are completely approved (at the former Mayland Shopping Center site, off Mayfield Road) and they’ll start construction soon.”

Mayland reconstruction

Mayland Shopping Center redeveloper Larry Ottino was in the audience as council approved Monday a resolution declaring that the city of Mayfield Heights will provide financial incentives to help with the rebuilding of the once blighted, now demolished shopping center.

DiCicco said that the city may help in a number of ways, such as with helping to pay for the vast amount of infrastructure at the site, or in lending its support to tax increment financing (TIF funding) for the project, or in some other way Ottino might need. Although the resolution includes in its language the figure $2 million, DiCicco said of the resolution, “It’s not committing $2 million dollars.”

DiCicco said if some financial help is needed, council will consider the amount requested and will have the final say on what might, or won’t be spent. He said that $2 million was merely a figure Ottino mentioned, which led to its inclusion in the resolution. When Councilwoman Susan Sabetta questioned the $2 million figure and if it meant the city would be committed to that amount, Teresi clarified the resolution’s meaning.

Teresi said she works for a real estate developer and that there are often instances that a city will help a developer when needed “in order to remove (a) blighted property and have (the) development become a success. I know that first-hand for a development my company did.

“So, everybody’s complained about Mayland and how it looked, and everybody sitting at this table (council dais) has come forward with all of the comments about what our residents were saying about Mayland, and this could turn out to be a beautiful project and we have to help, with what little help we can give. Something might be better than nothing to get it going so it’s just not a blighted or a blank field, or muddy field. It’s just my opinion.”

Ottino and partners purchased 12.8 acres of the Mayland property, on the southern side of Mayfield Road, just east of Mayfair Road and west of Lander Road, in 2019. The project, at the time, was estimated at $30 million, with plans calling for the construction of eight or nine new buildings, but not apartments.

In addition to Sheetz’ coming, Starbucks has already opened on the site, Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers in the spring, and work has begun on adding roads within the development.

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