LAKEWOOD, OH — Eddie Tancredi wants to help all of Lakewood. In fact, he wants to help all of Northeast Ohio by creating a sustainable, environmentally friendly and locally sourced restaurant on Madison Avenue. His dream will take the form of Distill Table, a restaurant attached to the set-to-open Western Reserve Distillery.

The restaurant is set to open in the fall, which Tancredi said could mean September or late November depending on permits and construction. Once the doors do swing open, it will represent the culmination of a decade-and-a-half-long journey. (Stay up-to-date on all things Lakewood: Subscribe to the Patch Lakewood newsletter. You'll be the first to get Patch's uniquely local and in-depth coverage.)

"Since I was 12 I've wanted to open my own restaurant," he told Patch. "I knew I was going to attend culinary school since my junior year in high school. He started his pursuit of a life in the cooking arts when he attended Le Cordon Bleu in Pittsburgh. It was there that he combined his two passions: cooking and competing. He joined the Junior Hot Foods team, the competition team for the school.

From there he landed at the Greenbrier, a resort in West Virginia with an intensive chef training program. Tancredi did a three-year apprenticeship at the resort, learning how to cook in various styles, for quantity, and, most importantly, discipline. Located among the mountains of West Virginia, the Greenbrier was surrounded by a lot of nothing. The nearest attraction was a Wal-Mart, and that was a 15-minute drive away. Tancredi's apprenticeship class started with 13 members, and only three graduated. The lush and lonely beauty of the Mountain Mama is not for everyone.

Tancredi kept competing and kept developing as a chef. He found himself wandering through Europe, staging (like unpaid internships) at world-famous restaurants. Among the restaurants he spent time at was the London-based Fat Duck, which has received the coveted three stars from Michelin.

Wanderlust behind, Tancredi decided he wanted to compete for the U.S. in the culinary Olympics. So he moved to Columbus and became the sous chef for the team's then-captain. His strategy worked, and he made the team. But his captain's restaurant closed in 2010, and Tancredi found himself out of a job again. So he went back to the hills of West Virginia and the Greenbrier, and he kept competing.



In 2012, he moved home to Solon to found his own restaurant but instead found himself still out on the competition circuit. In 2013, he won the title Chef of the Year from the American Culinary Foundation. He also represented the United States at the 2016 Global Chef Challenge. Then the Metropolitan at the 9 called him and asked him to design its menu. Tancredi seized the opportunity and became a managing partner. It was close to his dream. So close. But not quite there.