Off Their Walls

Elmwood dining/drinking/entertainment/shopping experience Off The Wall is closing.  The store, near the Elmwood Lounge at North Utica, was a popular one-stop-shop for fun and funky cuisine (the most outrageous sweet potato fries ever) and fresh scenery.  You could also buy anything in the place, from the chair you were sitting in, to the clocks on the wall, to the plate your sauteed bean curd meatballs (I made that up) were on.  You could literally take things off the wall and buy them.  I haven’t actually acquired anything from the place before, though I would at least look through and wonder where I was going to put a disco-mirrored rocking horse (I made that up, too) and purple neon-lit reading lamp (yep).  It was more like a pop art gallery than a store and certainly unlike any other restaurant you’d ever seen.

Truth be told, I never had a truly amazing meal there before.  The problem—and I think it’s not the worst problem to have, though worse than not having a problem to begin with—was that the menu always sounded more interesting and delicious than it ended up being.  Which leads me to believe that a dash of the correct seasoning might have set every......thing on a better course.  Oh well, I am sad to see it go as it was a popular summer hangout with its great patio, and a killer place for a good dance party.  Friends of Block Club have DJ’d there, and they were always awesome parties in a great setting.

What I appreciated the most about it, beyond a spotty menu and wall hangings that were a bit too (so sorry for this:) off the wall for some people’s tastes, it was a novel idea and an inventive way of reinvigorating a sometimes static restaurant scene in town.  The truth is, so many businesses come and go and dining establishments are by far the hardest to keep afloat, even when they are doing well.  I commend any business owner for giving a new idea a shot, and bigger kudos for staying in the game this long.  It makes me wonder what the next unique idea out there is going to be.  (I’m still setting my sights on the perfect location for my Wontonamera cafe, a Mexican/Chinese fusion experiment.  I’m too picky, is the problem.  Drive-thru or video ceilings?  I can’t decide.)

To help things go smoothly for the closing, Off The Wall will be having a closing sale this week every day from 1 to 5 p.m.  All furniture must go, so says the announcement.  Check out the last days of this cool place and take home a piece of local dining history.  You might get lucky and, at last, spice up your beige living room with something lime green.  How new!

Image of Off The Wall courtesy this guy.

Posted by on 01/30 at 09:30 AM