About Fahrenheit
Fahrenheit was a run-away hit the moment it opened its doors in 2002. But even its rising star chef Rocco Whalen could not anticipate the heat he would generate with this Tremont gem. After a very short year of wowing its guests and the press, Rocco took over the vacant space next door to add 50 more seats and a private dining area. In 2008 Fahrenheit Tremont added alfresco seating to the mix to allow patrons to enjoy the warm Cleveland summers while sampling some of Clevelands most innovative cuisine.
On any given night, Fahrenheits comfortably sexy environment transforms into a hangout for the dressed-in-black crowd, a respite for downtown suits-and-ties, a charted destination for suburban adventurers and a laid back meeting place for the neighborhood folks.
The Menu
The Fahrenheit menu, says Chef Rocco Whalen, is "contemporary American regional cuisine." It is Roccos Asian insinuations that make this fare uniquely his own. The menu is so imaginative and distinctive youll not find anything else like it no matter where your travels take you. Each and every day, Chef Whalens mind is crammed with new food creation ideas so that Fahrenheit has taken to changing their menu every six weeks to accommodate as many as possible. Indeed, some items hang around from menu-to-menu to appease the regulars who have their long-standing favorites. And because Rocco uses only the finest and freshest ingredients available during any particular season, sometimes the menu varies more greatly than others. This, to Roccos way of thinking, is the only way to cook: always fresh, never frozen, prepared from scratch with most of the ingredients coming from local and regional farms. Click here to view the current Fahrenheit menu.
The Tables
The new tables in the dining room at are Fahrenheit are wrought with history. They are composed from materials that once were part of Cleveland-area old homes and even some shipping pallets that once served local businesses! Read the full story here.
The Chef
Rocco Whalen, if nothing else, is wrapped up in the love of cooking: the idea and vitality of it, the doing of it, the invention and sustainability of it, the day-to-day enrichment of it, and, ultimately and significantly, the memory of learning all about it from his Mother. All combine as convictions he affectionately shares with regulars and first-timers who dine at his remarkable restaurant, Fahrenheit in historic Tremont, a stone’s throw from downtown Cleveland. Rocco opened Fahrenheit in 2002. It is contemporary American cuisine, always in a state of flux and perfection. It was a hit from the get-go. After 11 years,it still is: it never fails to impress.
You may, if you wish, engage Rocco in idle chitchat about stuff totally unrelated to cooking, but not for long. Eventually the chitchat reverts to what he loves to talk about best: his ideas and perceptions about cooking, the world of food service, and the business of running a restaurant. What else to expect from a chef who says, “I was put on this earth to cook and I plan on doing that with lots of love for many years to come.”
He does not stand still. Which is why, today, with Fahrenheit home to a packed house every day of the week, Rocco has emerged as one of the best chefs in Cleveland which makes him one of the best in the Midwest. That’s not just me talking. Accolades and recognition flow seemingly nonstop from local and national media. He is rarely overlooked. He does cooking demos once a week on a local television station; he has traveled to other cities to do the same. He explains articulately, intelligently, and seriously what he does and why and how he does it.
Gourmet magazine listed Fahrenheit in its “Guide to America’s Best Restaurants”; in 2002 trade pub Restaurant Hospitality named Rocco a “rising star”; in 2004 he was a James Beard rising star nominee. Esquire magazine’s food and travel writer, John Mariani, in his 2002 annual report of the best new restaurants in America, informed the food service world that “[Rocco] is a chef to keep your eye on.” When Mariani was asked what he meant by that, he said, “it’s all about effort and technique.” Indeed.
Other recognitions? Lots, but two more deserve mentioning. Crain’s Cleveland Business included Rocco in its 2013 annual report, “Forty under 40”: its selection of 40 of the city’s top business whiz kids, all younger than 40 years old. There among the 40—among vice presidents, presidents, CEOs, CFOs, law partners, et al—Rocco Whalen, the publication’s tacit acknowledgment that he is not only a great chef, not just a cook, but a savvy businessperson who knows what it takes to run a business from hiring to accounting to tracking inventory to daily expenses to the continuing fine-tuning of the product. Fahrenheit first and foremost is a restaurant;it is also a business and Rocco knows how to run it. Also, last year, Cleveland magazine named Rocco one of the city’s most interesting people, a compilation the magazine publishes annually that informs its readers who, among athletes, artists, media guys and dolls, restaurateurs, musicians, doctors, teachers, whimsy-spinners, and other sorts, are worthy of our attention.
The people of Cleveland, enamored of Rocco and his skills,“keep an eye on him” fixing him with a steady gaze that focuses on everything he does. They can’t wait for the next Fahrenheit menu iteration (“the fine-tuning of the product” seem to appear as do the phases of the moon) to find out what inventions Rocco has come up with. Rarely are they disappointed.The latest? “Fahren-Lite”: new course additions light in calories and fat, a deliberate spin-off some say of Rocco’s starring in Food Network show, “The FatChef,” that highlighted what he did to overcome his struggle with fatness. Helost a lot of weight and will tell you he feels better than ever. He looks it. About the Fahren-Lite items? Rocco says, “I felt compelled to add them; after what I went through, it was the right thing to do.”
Whalen has evolved: from five years cooking with Wolfgang Puck at damn near every one of his restaurants on the west coast, to a stint as exec chef at Blue Point Grille when he returned to hometown Cleveland in 2001,to, 18-months later at the age of 24, leaping at the chance to open Fahrenheit, September 2002.
You may explain Rocco’s success by talking of his hard work and dedication and indefatigable hours working the kitchen and talking to guests in the dining room to find out what they liked about his food and what they didn’t. However, in the business of running a restaurant, each of these tasks is a given. It is the intensity and manifestation of each that has positioned Rocco where he is today. He has never lost sight of that; never faltered, never become complacent. Laurels he has received are back burnered and waiting for the next batch of them, each dependent on execution, guest appreciation and reviews in the media. Day to day, he overachieves himself,relentlessly raising the restaurant’s bar of excellence as he brainstorms ways to exceed his guests’s expectations and, lest we forget, distance and distinguish himself from the competition.
Without that kind of unstinting commitment to excellence, his unrelenting perseverance in the pursuit of excellence, Rocco would not be where he is today. He is pleased as punch at how Fahrenheit has grown,overjoyed at the recognition he has received locally and nationally, all of which has led to an expansion of his brand at Rosie & Rocco’s restaurant—his homage in name and deed to the memory of his Mother—at the just-opened Horseshoe Casino in downtown Cleveland; at a kiosk at Quicken Loans arena where the Cleveland Cavaliers play; and at a couple of quick-serve restaurants serving pizza and meatballs at First Energy Stadium, home of the Cleveland Browns. Absent Rocco’s extraordinary work at Fahrenheit there would be no expansion, no invitations to expand.
He’s not quite finished. Nor, it seems, will he ever be.
The Darling of the Bohemian Tremont District-Gourmet 2002 / Best Chef-Cleveland Magazine 2002 / Chef to Keep Your Eye On-Esquire 2002 / Rising Star-Restaurant Hospitality 2004 / Rising Star Nominee-James Beard-2004 / Tasty Travels-Rachel Ray 2005 / Bon Appetite Magazine / Balanced Living Magazine / CBS The Early Show 2007 / Tastemakers-Cleveland Magazine 2008/Crains Business "Top 40 Under 40"Cleveland Magazine Most Interesting People 2013