Osupa 12 June 2010 Featured Stories, MXO Events, Restaurants 3 Comments

The Ohio Restaurant Association

By Jarrod Clabough

Posted June 12th 2010

The Ohio Restaurant Association Bestows Highest Honor upon Cleveland Restaurateur Nick Kostis, operator of Pickwick & Frolic Restaurant and Club, to Receive Lifetime Achievement Award

CLEVELAND – On June 13, 2010, the Ohio Restaurant Association will host its Chairman’s & Industry Awards Event at the Ritz-Carlton, Cleveland. The event is held by the ORA, which celebrated its 90th anniversary this year, to recognize excellence among restaurateurs, industry purveyors and public officials whose actions have benefited Ohio’s foodservice
industry.

Among those being honored this year is Nick Kostis, a long-time leader in the Cleveland restaurant and hospitality scene. Kostis will receive the association’s highest honor – the Claude F. Morton, Jr. Lifetime Achievement Award. The award is given to a restaurateur who demonstrates exceptional lifetime service to the foodservice industry and his community.

“I am pleased Nick was selected as the Claude F. Morton, Jr. Lifetime Achievement Award winner,” said Geoff Hetrick, ORA President & CEO. “He has been a credit to the industry and his community for many years. Nick represents the best of what our dynamic industry has to offer.”

Following a celebrated career in many other professional arenas, Kostis launched The Hilarities Comedy Clubs in 1985. With two locations in the Cleveland area and two in Florida, Hilarities served as a launching pad for many notable acts, including Jerry Seinfeld, Tim Allen and Paul Reiser. The clubs were also part of the Showtime Comedy Club Network and were the impetus for bringing two one-hour HBO specials to Cleveland, thus shining a national spotlight on the gem along the shores of Lake Erie.

In 1994, Kostis and his partner established the Little Bar & Grille, a downtown Cleveland institution and lynchpin to the redevelopment of Cleveland’s historic Warehouse District.

Never afraid to try something fresh and new, Kostis reinvented Hilarities in 2002 as Pickwick & Frolic Restaurant and Club, which is home to Hilarities’ 4th Street Theatre. Created as a one-of-a-kind, dining and entertainment complex, Pickwick & Frolic has been credited for the revitalization of East Fourth Street as one of Cleveland’s
premiere downtown destinations.

Kostis, whose tight-knit Greek family instilled in him at a very youngage a strong sense of community and loyalty, meets and excels the ORA’s expectations of a recipient for the Claude F. Morton, Jr. Lifetime Achievement Award. His loyalty and commitment to exemplary service have
long been recognized by people throughout Northeast Ohio and beyond.

The Ohio Restaurant Association (ORA), celebrating its 90th anniversary in 2010, is the leading business trade association for the Ohio food service industry, the second largest, private sector employer inOhio. The ORA represents the interests of the $16 billion restaurantindustry, which is comprised of 27,000 locations and a workforce of more than 553,000 employees. The ORA provides its members with advocacy,
information services and education, as well as many cost-savingbenefits. For more information, visit the ORA website atwww.ohiorestaurant.org.