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Michael D. Symon (born September 19, 1969) is an American chef, restaurateur, television personality, and author. He is of Greek, Sicilian, and Eastern European descent. He is seen regularly on Food Network on shows such as Iron Chef America, Burgers, Brew and 'Que, Food Feuds, and The Best Thing I Ever Ate, as well as Cook Like an Iron Chef on the Cooking Channel and The Chew on ABC. He has also made numerous contributions to periodicals such as Bon Appétit, Esquire, Food Arts, Gourmet, Saveur and O, The Oprah Magazine. A native of Cleveland, Ohio, Symon is the chef and owner of a number of restaurants in the Greater Cleveland area, including his flagship Lola, Mabel's BBQ and burger franchise BSpot. He is credited with helping to "save" the restaurant scene in Downtown Cleveland. He also owns Michael Symon's Roast (also known as Roast) in Detroit, Michigan. On May 6, 2017, he opened Angeline (named after his mother Angel) at the Borgata in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Symon describes his cooking as "meat-centric." Early life Symon was born in Cleveland, Ohio and is of Greek, Italian, and Eastern European ancestry. He was raised in North Olmsted, Ohio, attending St. Richard School in North Olmsted and St. Edward High School in Lakewood, graduating in 1987. He took a part-time job at Geppetto's Pizza and Ribs on Warren Rd. as a cook. He graduated from the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York in 1990. Career Chef and restaurateur Symon cooked in the Cleveland restaurant scene, working at Player's, a Mediterranean restaurant in Lakewood. In 1993, he moved to Piccolo Mondo as chef, developing a small yet devoted following. He subsequently moved to Caxton Cafe. In February 1997, Michael and his then-fiancée (now wife), Liz Shanahan, opened Lola in Cleveland's trendy Tremont neighborhood. It is named after his aunt. At the time, the neighborhood was just beginning to be rediscovered and develop into the hipster, "go to" neighborhood that it has become. Tremont food scene pioneers Gerry Groh and Lynda Khoury had opened and grown one of the first new restaurants, named Bohemia, in Tremont. After several years of success, the couple was ready to move on to other ventures and the couple sold the space to Symon. Lola garnered rave reviews and was named one of America's Best Restaurants in Gourmet magazine in its October 2000 issue. In 2005, he converted Lola into Lolita, and reopened Lola in downtown Cleveland the next year. On April 15, 2006, Symon opened a third restaurant, Parea, which in Greek means "a group of friends" or "company," in New York City. The restaurant, which featured upscale Greek food and was located on East 20th Street near Park Avenue, was run by Jonathon Sawyer, who tutored under Symon at Lolita. It was located next door to Gramercy Tavern. Symon partnered with Telly Hatzigeorgiou, George Pantelidis, and Peter J. Pappas. Although New York Times food critic Frank Bruni gave the food a 2-stars rating (very good), he noted that the sound level reached "piercing heights." By many accounts, the food was good, as the restaurant was even listed on "100 Tastes to Try in '07" in Food & Wine magazine. It closed in 2007, and was acquired by Stavros Aktipis who renamed it Kellari's Parea. Symon opened Roast, a restaurant at the Westin Book Cadillac Hotel in Detroit, Michigan in autumn 2008. Roast was named the 2009 Restaurant of the Year by the Detroit Free Press. He opened a restaurant on July 1, 2009 called Bar Symon in Avon Lake, Ohio featuring casual concepts on tavern food. Soon after, he opened a hamburger focused restaurant named BSpot in Woodmere, Ohio. The original Avon Lake Bar Symon closed on October 19, 2010. However, the concept still exists in airports. In October 2009, the Cleveland Cavaliers announced that Symon would contribute menu items to be prepared by foodservice firm Aramark at the Quicken Loans Arena. Two existing restaurants were renamed after Symon's bar-bistros, Bar Symon and BSpot, and some of his signature dishes were made available as suite catering offerings. On October 19, 2010, Symon announced that he would be closing the Avon Lake location of Bar Symon. He later announced two more BSpot locations, one in Strongsville (opened April 6, 2011) and another in Westlake (late 2011). Another BSpot opened at the Horseshoe Casino Cleveland in May 2012, and a BSpot stand opened on the club level at Cleveland Browns Stadium for the 2012 NFL season. The BSpot in the casino closed in 2017. On June 25, 2012, Symon opened another Bar Symon in Pittsburgh International Airport-Airmall in partnership with United Concessions Group and The Paradies Shops. On November 21, 2015, Symon opened Symon's Burger Joint in Austin, TX near The University of Texas. This was his first venture outside of the Midwest. It closed in June 2017. On January 10, 2016, a fire caused the closure of Lolita in Tremont, which was originally the site of Lola. On May 1, 2016, Symon claimed a restaurant named Sherla's Chicken & Oysters would open in the former Lolita spot. He posted a concept menu on Facebook. On March 14, 2017, a Symon representative said the restaurant was "currently in the design phase." A Facebook page for the restaurant was last updated on May 1, 2016, and has since been deleted. The URL sherlaschicken.com currently redirects to Symon's page. As late as May 15, 2019, Symon stated the project was in development: "We don't have an ETA, we're still plugging along," he said. "We got through everything with the building. We're hoping to start working on the building, hopefully within the next couple of weeks to a month. We're getting there." However, it was revealed 5 months later that the project would not be coming to fruition with no comment from Symon. On April 11, 2016, Symon opened Mabel's BBQ on East 4th Street adjacent to Lola. On June 11, 2016, Symon noted there would be only one location of Mabel's BBQ. On December 20, 2018, another Mabel's BBQ restaurant opened at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas. On February 6, 2019, a speakeasy named Sara's opened inside of the Palms Casino Mabel's BBQ location. On May 1, 2017, Bar Symon opened in Cleveland Hopkins International Airport in Concourse C. Also in May 2017, Symon opened Angeline at the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa in Atlantic City. In the spring and summer of 2018, without warning, Symon closed all BSpot locations outside of Cleveland in the areas of Columbus, OH, Indianapolis, and Detroit. On November 20, 2020, it was announced that Symon's flagship restaurant Lola and 2 more locations of BSpot would close due to financial pressures of COVID-19, leaving his only Ohio restaurants to be Mabel's BBQ in the East 4th Street District and BSpot Eton in Woodmere. In January 2022, Roast in Detroit closed suddenly and unexpectedly. In March 2022, what was the last BSpot location in Woodmere was converted to a Mabel's BBQ. Media appearances Symon often appears on behalf of Food.... Discover the Symon He popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Symon He books.