Mad Cactus Razed In Strongsville

STRONGSVILLE, OH — The Mad Cactus — once a popular staple of Strongsville life — is no more. Crews demolished the long-vacant building this week.

The Mad Cactus was a popular Tex-Mex restaurant that enjoyed a 28-year run in Strongsville. The business closed its doors in 2013 and its former property has been for sale and vacant ever since.

In the restaurant's waning days, in 2011, it was featured on the Food Network's "Restaurant Impossible" show. It wasn't a flattering appearance. Here's the networks' description of the episode, "This dark, dirty and disgusting Tex-Mex themed restaurant, along with its lackadaisical owner, upsets Robert to no end, but it's when he finds out that they're not even cooking "real" food that things really get heated."

Behind the scenes, things may have been even worse. Patch's Debbie Palmer reported in 2011 that Mad Cactus owner Tom Krukemeyer and Food Network Chef Robert Irvine got into a screaming match after Irvine went ballistic on the show's director.

"I never met such a hothead," Krukemeyer said.

Krukemeyer claimed the show then set up his restaurant to look bad. The gritty details can all be found by clicking here.

The Mad Cactus did get a makeover — and a new menu — after its TV appearance, but that bought the building life for just two more years. The city initially expected another chain restaurant to roll into town and take over Mad Cactus' parcel, according to Cory Shaffer from cleveland.com.

Problem is, that never happened. The lot has been unoccupied for five years.

The city said it believes razing the old Mad Cactus building could entice a new business to the location, at the corner of Pearl and Whitney.

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Photo from Google Earth