You’re probably a fan of Matt Fish, whether you’ve enjoyed one of his craving-inducing sandwiches at his restaurant or maybe you’ve rocked out to one of his various bands around Cleveland.
The Northeast Ohio native and owner of Melt Bar and Grilled, an iconic gourmet grilled cheese restaurant with multiple locations in Ohio, grew up among the Cleveland suburbs, where he spent his childhood summers at Memphis Kiddie Park and drive-in movie theaters with his family and friends.
“I grew up originally right on the border of Cleveland and Parma, it was at the corner of Brook Park Road, and Broadview Road, which is on the corner of where Cleveland and Old Brooklyn come together. We had a lot of family friends in surrounding neighborhoods. My parents were churchgoers and so we had a lot of people that we knew in that environment,” Fish says. “A lot of the kids were the same age, we kind of all grew up together and I’m actually still friends with a lot of those people. And even my parents’ friends, I’m actually close with still, I consider them my secondary parents. So that’s pretty cool. My grandparents owned a farm in North Ridgeville. My mother’s parents had 250 acres in Ridgeville when I grew up, so from my birth until 1991, when I graduated high school, I was spending almost every weekend on the farm because my mother would go out and visit her parents and we would work on the farm, and me and my brother would kick around and help my grandfather.”
Fish worked in the restaurant industry and played professionally as a touring musician for about a decade, seeing all parts of the United States and Europe before opening Melt in 2006.
He says he always knew Cleveland would be his homebase.
“I just love Cleveland. I love the sports teams. I love the people, the infrastructure. From traveling so much I discovered that Cleveland has everything that every other city in the country has,” he says.
Now, residing in the Cleveland suburbs with his wife Jess, a talented violinist and baker, and their two children, Felix (4 1/2) and Zoey (2), the Fish family shares helpful parenting “hacks,” kitchen adventures and the daily discoveries with two little ones that makes their journey in parenthood truly special.
You are in a very fun stage of life with two little kids, what are their personalities like and what are they into right now?
JF: “They’re both very smart. They’re both very headstrong. They’re both musical. They’re constantly singing and shrieking songs at the top of their lungs. Zoey is a little bit more artistic and physical. I think she’s going to be more into gymnastics or dance. She’s constantly climbing. She’s much more adventurous than Felix ever was at this age. And I think Felix is going to be a little bit more of an intellectual, creative type of kid. Felix is very social. He’s very smart. He really loves monster trucks. He’s super into playing video games, and cars and Hot Wheels tracks, all kinds of those types of things. He also has a really sweet cuddly side to him. He physically needs attention. Touch, I think, is his love language so he’s constantly hugging us. He’s constantly saying I love you. It is a wonderful thing to hear your little kid say I love you all the time.
Zoey started talking very early. She is almost speaking at the level of her brother, which is wild. She’s a spitfire, she’s like a little Sour Patch Kid. She’s very, very sweet. And then also very, very sour. She loves animals, she’s obsessed with our dogs.”
Food is obviously an important part of your lives, so are the kids foodies? Are they helping in the kitchen yet?
JF: “I would say they’re definitely into the kitchen. As far as being foodies, we have always exposed them to everything, and anything they want to try they can! If you want to try paprika out of the spice bottle, go right ahead, like whatever you want. We have always given them a wide variety of foods to try at mealtimes. In terms of what they actually eat, you can cook your kids a healthy meal, and then they’re just going to want mac and cheese and chicken nuggets anyway. So that’s kind of where we’re at right now — pizza, chicken nuggets, mac and cheese, and the 2 or 3 veggies they tolerate. They do love to help make their dinner, and Felix loves to make smoothies with Matt in the morning. They make smoothies and pancakes or waffles almost every day.”
MF: “We like to make waffle batter for the week. And now Felix will help me do the whole thing. He’s actually gotten really good at it. Before it was like oh, no, it was a disaster. But now he’s pouring everything himself and he’s mixing stuff and he knows how to do things with a minimal mess. It goes back to saying yes more and letting them try it because that’s the way to figure out how to do it.”
JF: “We make cookies and decorate them all the time, especially for all the holidays, we’ll find different cookie cutters and make sugar cookies. Felix loves to decorate with sprinkles. Zoey’s starting to get a little bit more into it. She sees her brother up on the step stool, so she wants to get up on the step stool and do the same thing. I think she’s going to be into it soon as well. In general, food has always been an important part of our lives together. We love to cook and bake.”
What’s the best part of parenting right now?
MF: “The most fun, what I enjoy about being a parent is the surprise of who they are becoming. It’s the daily discovery. It’s seeing them develop and change on a daily basis and say different things or learn different things or something they said two days ago or something they saw two days ago, comes back out two days later, and we forget about it, but to them, it was the biggest thing. There’s a video that Zoey watches every day, it’s about dinosaurs and she’ll tell you ‘T-rex is coming’ and you know it’s a couple of dinosaurs down the line, but she knows it’s coming, and that’s her favorite. We got Felix a Nintendo Switch for Christmas and when we first got it, it was very foreign he didn’t know what to do with the buttons, he was just hitting stuff. However, here we are a few months later and he can turn it on and turn it off, he can turn the TV on by himself, and he’s getting fairly good at the games too.”
What are some things you enjoy doing as a family?
JF: “We have a pool, so in the summertime we’re outside in the backyard, and in the pool as much as possible. I like to have a little container garden and the kids love to help water the plants. I don’t have a lot of green space in our backyard but I do like to plant as much as I can. So, we spend a lot of time doing that. Felix loves to ride his scooter. He’s got one of those little John Deere tractors that he drives around too, so those are two of his favorite things. He’s just now learning how to ride a bike, and that is quickly taking first place on his list of preferred activities. Zoey is now old enough to be able to play with the water table on her own and go exploring with her brother around the yard. She has started riding a scooter too! So, within our neighborhood is generally where we spend the most of our time. I’m looking forward to taking them to the children’s museums and places like that also, now that they’re a little bit older they will be able to understand and enjoy themselves more.”
MF: “We are fortunate that we’ve got this great neighborhood and backyard, and there’s about five miles of sidewalk in our development. We can cruise around on a bike ride or walk. We have a good park system over here with multiple playgrounds and big open spaces and baseball and basketball and tennis courts, pavilions and all that kind of stuff so we go there quite often.”