Food. Rooms. Community.

For over 100 years this boarding house has been a space for all kinds of people; artists, activists, bootleggers, numbers runners, and fancy ladies have all called this old Inn home. The orginal owners were Jewish merchants who worked in the attached store front to put their son through medical school, taking in boarders and renting out the bar to African-American bar keeps.​

 

The neighborhood once known as

Central, was one of the most diverse neighborhoods in Cleveland, home to various ethnic groups and the largest African American community in the city.

 

Central was a welcoming place in Cleveland for immigrants who were not welcomed by downtown hotels. Newcomers from as close as the southern United States all the way to southern Italy knew where to come for a room, a drink and maybe a little companionship.

 

The bustling multi-ethnic enclave had a high concentration of brothels and speakeasies and was a hub for "speak tours" during the Prohibition era. More exclusive speakeasies, often frequented by cab drivers, were located primarily along Euclid Avenue where drivers could cater to the most exclusive speakeasies of all, private clubs for denizens of Millionaires Row.

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By the time the Lancer Steakhouse, which was the oldest Black owned fine dining establishment in Cleveland and an important political staging ground both locally and nationally, opened in 1960, this section of Central had been renamed Fairfax. Named after Florence Bundy Fairfax, a civil servant and community organizer, Fairfax was a political and social hub.  On one end, home to the world recognized Cleveland Clinic. On the other end home to the Karamu Theater, the oldest African-American theater in the United States and of course the Lancer where all manner of people met from laborers to the poltical elite.

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But after Lancer's closed at midnight, revelers would spread out into the neighborhood to continue carousing in numerous after hours joints that remained open after the end of prohibition. The joint at the Fairfax was one of the most popular. Sadly, all of that has changed. As far as we know, the Fairfax is the only remaining speakeasy in this neighborhood.

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We want to save that culture, not just because this kind of history is actively being erased, but because it represents all that is great about Cleveland; a culture of first and foremost hustle, but defined by it's embrace of diversity. Those are ideals that we support now more than ever, while continuing the legacy of this place. To that end we have hosted art shows here, fundraisers, and more parties than we can count, and we are always open to ideas.

 

Food. Rooms. Community. The reason that people came to Fairfax for over a century, and we see no reason to change that now.

 

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Stop by for a cup of coffee in the morning to find out more about us.