Hungry for wings and cheeseburgers? Good Company to open in former Spotted Owl

Restaurateur Will Hollingsworth’s second Good Company restaurant will open Friday in Akron.

Restaurant owner Will Hollingsworth is returning to Akron with the grand opening of Good Company Akron restaurant Friday, in the space where he formerly operated the Spotted Owl.

The casual, family-friendly eatery is located at 60 S. Maple St. at an old fire station built in 1904 in West Hill. It’s the second location for Good Company, whose original restaurant opened in Cleveland’s Battery Park in 2019.

Good Company Akron is opening after building a full, commercial kitchen where the little electric kitchen was for Spotted Owl.

“It’s gorgeous,” Hollingsworth said Tuesday of the new, fully equipped kitchen.

Above the yellow brick restaurant’s door is the French phrase “La Nuit Porte Conseil,” which translates to “Best to Sleep on It.”

The dining room has remained largely the same, including its green and white color scheme, said proprietor Hollingsworth, who’s CEO of the restaurant group Buildings and Food.

“I’m genuinely very excited to return to Akron,” he said. “There’s so much music and there’s so much art there and I feel like it’s genuinely really sort of alive and electric with culture. I really dig Akron a lot and I was excited to build something there in 2019 and obviously, we got four or five great months before the world ended.”

The Spotted Owl, which Hollingworth opened five months before the pandemic started, closed in March 2020. It was known for its creative cocktails.

Good Company grand opening

Good Company’s grand opening will run from 4 to 11 p.m. Friday. The menu focuses on wings, its burger, milkshakes, boozy hard shakes and more. Ice cream is made in-house, as are all breads, buns and desserts made from scratch by pastry chefs.

Good Company offers four flavors of regular shakes and four varieties of boozy hard shakes.

“I think that they’re the best chicken wings on earth. I think that they’re chicken wings that will make you question your religious beliefs. I would put our cheeseburger up against just about anybody’s in the world as well,” Hollingsworth said.

Wings at Good Company Akron, opening Friday, are marinated and braised over 72 hours.

The 72-hour wings marinate in dry spices for two days and are slowly braised the third day. They’re then fried to order and tossed with house sauces or dry spice blends.

The Good One burger has two Angus patties made with a sirloin and beef belly blend, griddled onions, malted pickles, shredded lettuce, American cheese and company sauce, on a house-made poppy seed milk bun.

The restaurant’s “Gabagool” sandwich, which is on Good Company Akron’s menu, was showcased on Guy Fieri’s “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives” in the episode “From Chicken to Chiles” in 2022. It features house-cured capicola ham, Italian-dressed shredded lettuce, pickled banana peppers and American cheese on a house-made poppy seed hoagie roll.

Good Company’s Gabagool hoagie, which features house-cured capicola, was showcased on “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.”

“I think that feeding families is a tremendous responsibility,” Hollingsworth said. “I’m honored that people would want to come and visit us and feel good about eating our food.”

Buildings and Food restaurant group’s properties include Good Company Akron, Good Company Cleveland and La Cave du Vin wine bar. The latter opened in December in Tremont, where the original Spotted Owl location, which closed in May, was.

Hours at Good Company Akron are 4 to 10 p.m. Sunday through Tuesday, closed Wednesday and 4 to 11 p.m. Thursday through Saturday. For more information, see goodcompanyakron.com or call 330-252-9099.

Arts and restaurant writer Kerry Clawson may be reached at 330-996-3527 or [email protected].

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Hungry for wings and cheeseburgers? Good Company to open in former Spotted Owl