The Overlook 1923 will relocate as Twin Lakes clubhouse owner considers ‘something different’

Photo via The Overlook 1923

The owners of the former Twin Lakes Country Clubhouse won’t renew their lease with The Overlook 1923 restaurant, casting the future of the fine dining establishment into uncertainty. 

Despite rumors that the building is set for demolition, the Beck family corporation that owns it says no decisions have been made about the building.

“The lease expired,” family spokesman Dave Beck said. “We are trying to look ahead to see what is next, and what is the best fit with the golf course. We chose to end the lease. There has been no decision made as to the future of The Overlook.”

Beck has owned the building for 12 years. The golf course, under the direction of Bryan Harvey and Harold Burns, continues to do well, he said.

Zouheir Kahwaji, The Overlook 1923’s chef and owner, said Beck told him in April that his lease was good until the end of 2023. In July, however, Beck told Kahwaji to vacate the building by Dec. 31 of this year, Kahwaji said.

Though Beck told The Portager that Kahwaji’s lease had expired, the chef said there was no discussion about an expired lease. He has been operating The Overlook since 2015, he said.

“I’m disgusted, but what can I do?” Kahwaji said. “I would not treat somebody like that. Not even a thought why he wants me out. We agreed on 2023. They never even gave me a reason. They said they want me out. He won’t even give me one explanation.”

Kahwaji said he was forced to cancel 14 weddings he already had booked for next year, and had to disregard 100 more leads, not counting private parties.

The Beck family did not ask for increased rent, and there are no structural problems with the building, Beck said.

An architect for the Beck family has applied for multiple zoning variances on behalf of the property owner from the Franklin Township Board of Zoning Appeals. Beck said the purpose of these variances was to give the company flexibility as it weighed future plans.

On Oct. 10, Peter Paino, the architect, requested a variance from a zoning code that restricts the number of modifications that can be made to a building’s square footage. Only one modification is permitted by law. Paino’s request didn’t indicate any specific plans.

The Board of Zoning Appeals debated whether the building had at some point in the past been altered. But they lacked their own records, and they believed the county’s records of permits don’t go back to the building’s origins, so they decided to grant the variance.

Paino also received a variance from a township code stating that alterations cannot exceed half a building’s fair market value. The code was written years ago, and applying it in today’s market would be impossible, the board decided.

Beck, via Paino, must present the Board of Zoning Appeals with a site plan if they want to alter the building because it doesn’t conform to the low-density residential zoning in which it is located.

Beck said the variance requests were meant “to see what we can do moving forward.” Terminating The Overlook’s lease gives him “some options, and we’ll have the building open should we decide to do something different.”

What “something different” might be is a mystery.

“I can’t comment on that because there’s nothing to comment about. We don’t know yet,” Beck said. “We just chose to terminate the lease so we will have our options. If I don’t terminate the lease, and somebody’s always in there, then I don’t have control and I can’t do anything different.”

Without an extension to dispose of his equipment, Kahwaji said The Overlook’s last day will be Nov. 4.

Besides losing the bookings, Kahwaji said he is looking at a $500,000 price tag to reopen as a restaurant-only establishment in Streetsboro. The new restaurant, which Kahwaji hopes to open in February, will also bear the name The Overlook 1923.

The cost to Kahwaji and his employees, some of whom will not be able to transfer to the new restaurant, is significant. 

Kahwaji wondered if his regulars, groups that range from sports teams to ballroom dancers, would follow him to his new location.

“My customers are unhappy,” he said. “They don’t understand why. They got the best treatment there is. My main concern is customer service, to make the customers happy.”

“God bless,” he concluded. “I want to thank everybody who came to the Overlook, and everybody who was a part of The Overlook, and supported the Overlook. I can’t say enough about how beautiful the community is, and how beautiful the people are.”

“I want to thank every customer that visited The Overlook and spent a penny in here,” Kahwaji added. “They’re more than beautiful people. They made my life and my wife’s life and my kids’ life a lot better, not because they spent money in here, but because they were good people.”

+ posts

Wendy DiAlesandro is a former Record Publishing Co. reporter and contributing writer for The Portager.