Ryan Beck
Martha On The Fly | Cleveland, OH
July 2025
Ryan Beck didn’t grow up dreaming of a life in restaurants. In fact, he was deep into an industrial design degree at Ohio State University when he realized he’d never be satisfied sitting behind a drafting table. Cooking had always been a down-home comfort—something he did for his brothers while their mom worked late, and something he learned from his grandmothers. So, Beck followed that instinct and never looked back.
In the mid-2000s, Beck began cooking professionally in Columbus, Ohio. Instead of finishing culinary school, he dropped out and landed at Sage American Bistro. There, he worked his way up to chef de cuisine over five years, gaining creative freedom and the confidence to lead. After the restaurant closed in 2015, he moved to Cleveland to work with Rising Stars alum Jonathon Sawyer at The Greenhouse Tavern. He later helped open Trentina with Sawyer and Chef Jeremy Umansky, where he led the wood-fired cooking program. Beck’s curiosity took him into the startup world next, developing recipes and scaling operations for HarvestOwl, a lunch delivery company. He later led the food program at Hilton Cleveland Downtown, managing multiple venues and outlets.
But, it wasn’t until Beck started dropping pies on porches during the pandemic—under the name Martha’s Pie On The Fly—that everything clicked. That project evolved into Martha On The Fly, a playful, modern Tremont neighborhood diner concept he co-founded with LT Magnotto, Justin Carolyne, and Joe Marino. Beck has invested fully into his scratch-made mindset, making everything from the milk buns to the complex sauces in-house. So, it’s no surprise that Martha has amassed a cult following for its ingredient-focused yet approachable dishes. With plans to expand in the future, Beck remains rooted in Cleveland’s food scene, from weekly fish fries to heartfelt pies and pop-ups that pay it forward.
