Wave of business closures hits Ohio City

• Forest City Shuffleboard (4506 Lorain Ave.) closed after a year under out-of-state ownership. Founder Jim Miketo told Cleveland Scene he's already working to line up a new local operator, with hopes of reopening soon.
• Arsenal Cider House (4507 Lorain Ave.) quietly ended service Dec. 27, shuttering its Cleveland tap house while continuing to distribute locally.

💭 Sam's thought bubble: Owners Bill and Michelle Larkin opened the Ohio City location of their Pittsburgh-based business in early 2020. It might have been doomed anyway, with its frontier aesthetic and limited hours of operation — but the pandemic precluded it from ever establishing a foothold.

🇯🇵 Elsewhere in Ohio City, the highly anticipated Japanese izakaya Kyuu-juu closed Dec. 31.

Yes, but: The stretch of Lorain between Fulton Road and West 47th Street just welcomed Soho Chicken and Whiskey in the former location of Xinji.

• And Visible Voice's restoration of the Lorain Theater into a 6,000-square-foot bookstore, café and cultural hub was one of last year's most celebrated local openings.

The bottom line: Growth isn't always linear, even in buzzy neighborhoods.

• And success isn't always guaranteed, even with buzzy concepts.