CLEVELAND, Ohio — Prosperity Social Club has a new menu for the first time in decades, with chef Jill Vedaa putting Eastern European dishes and Cleveland tavern favorites at the center of the Tremont restaurant’s next chapter.
The menu debuted Thursday, Sept. 24, at 1109 Starkweather Ave. It keeps longtime staples such as the fish fry, cabbage rolls, pierogi and chicken paprikash while adding shareable plates, sandwiches and entrees developed by Vedaa, Buildings and Food’s vice president of culinary operations.
When Will Hollingsworth, the hospitality group’s founder and CEO, hired Vedaa at the end of 2025, he asked her to imagine an alternate-universe Prosperity menu, she said. She has been working on it since the beginning of this year.
“We came to the conclusion that if this restaurant is known for being Eastern European and Polish and German, why do we have tacos on the menu? Why do we have pasta on the menu?” Vedaa said.
The result includes lamb pelmeni with sour cherry glaze, smoked whitefish dip with housemade chips and beet buterbrodi with farmer’s cheese, pickled onion and smoked salt on toasted rye. Other additions include sauerkraut balls over whole grain mustard aioli, crispy chicken livers with pickled mustard seeds and parsley salad and a schnitzel sandwich with cabbage slaw and spicy aioli on a pretzel bun.
Vedaa said she researched Polish, German, Russian and Hungarian food as she developed the dishes, adding her own touches rather than trying to change the restaurant’s identity.
“I’m not reinventing the wheel, we’re just leaning really hard into what the place is known for — that old world food that’s been a part of the establishment since the beginning,” she said.
Some favorites were never in question. When Vedaa asked employees what needed to stay, the fish fry and cabbage rolls came up immediately, she said. Potato latkes, mac ‘n’ cheese and the Prosperity Euro Platter also remain. Other dishes received smaller adjustments — the chicken paprikash, for example, now uses larger pieces of chicken rather than pulled chicken, Vedaa said.
The menu also gives diners more ways to order, pairing small plates meant for sharing with sandwiches and larger meals. Vedaa said she wanted to offer variety in portion sizes as customers these days are spending less and eating smaller portions, partially due to the rising popularity of GLP-1 weight loss medications.
“I want people to feel comfortable going out anywhere and being able to eat,” she said.
For Vedaa, the project is personal. She recalled spending time at the restaurant when it was Dempsey’s Oasis and returning after it became Prosperity. The new menu’s design is even a nod to the old Dempsey’s menu.
“It’s had many different owners and iterations of things there, and to be able to put my stamp on the history of that building is pretty cool and special,” Vedaa said.
Buildings and Food acquired Prosperity in 2021. Vedaa, whose more than 30 years in Cleveland’s culinary community include her work at Salt+ in Lakewood, debuted her first full menu for the group at La Cave du Vin in April.
Prosperity’s brunch menu has not changed. Vedaa said she did not want to take on too much at once, though brunch could be revisited later. For now, the aim is to give regulars something familiar and newcomers a reason to explore the menu.
“It’s not about making this a different place,” Vedaa said. “But if restaurants don’t reinvent themselves every once in a while, they become irrelevant. I think menu changes are always a great way of doing that.”
Dining and Cooking