Lettuce Head opens in Erie; also, new food truck on way

Lettuce Head, 2167 W. 12th St., is a new kind of restaurant, at least around these parts; trust me. When I’m trying to eat healthy food, one thing that’s darned hard to find is a restaurant that caters to me. Usually, I find myself combing the menu, digging for the least terrible option, deciding against it, and going for the cheeseburger and fries anyway.

But Lettuce Head, in the shopping plaza just east of Pittsburgh Avenue, is taking the ball the other way, according to owner Phil Gernovich. In the middle of a soft opening now and planning a grand opening in another week, they’re serving chopped salads, lettuce wraps and grain bowls.

Gernovich said his son, Chad Gernovich, and Chad Gernovich’s wife, Emma Gernovich, are managing the place. Chad Gernovich was a manager at Aoyama. 

“We started looking at the architectural prints at the end of last year,” Phil Gernovich said. That was in the middle of the pandemic. “We’re risk-takers, I guess,” he said.

He said employees think two of the chopped salads will be favorites: the American Steak and Fry Salad and the Lettuce Go to Buffalo (chicken). 

Lettuce Head is open Mondays through Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Another eatery, this one a food truck, was licensed last week to open. 1 of 1 Eats is owned by Tommy Clanton. He specializes in rice bowls and plant-based burgers. But it also will have regular beef burgers for carnivores.

“I’m a vegetarian myself,” Clanton said. “I wanted to give people another option, especially in the inner city. It seems like we have to travel to the outskirts to find food like ours.”