cleveland recs that aren't the obvious ones

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But wait, there's more! I realized I didn't really do highlights besides beer and sandwiches.

***Official*** highlight reel:


Lydia's Hungarian Strudel - excellent fruit pastries here, good place to stock up for quick breakfast items


Sweetie's - world's 2nd largest candy store, tons of nostalgia and obscure things, a seasonal soda fountain, especially fun with kids i'd imagine


Sokolowski's - dripping with old school atmosphere, cafeteria style service, stick to your ribs Polish fare

Mack's Beverage - dingy store by the airport (Parma) with a huge beer selection, owner was a character, knew his stuff. picked up Melvin beer from WY.




CMoA art museum - large with a lot to see, we beelined for a modern Swedish textiles exhibit & contemporary artist Liu Wei's architectural ruins made from rawhide.




MoCA art museum - Margaret Kilgallen show, the impetus of the trip. A favorite artist of mine for 25 years. Saw this twice and also went back to CMoA for a Tiffany glass show.


Noble Beast Brewing - Laid back with a lot of regulars, good music, good beer, good food. Obatzda!


Bent Crayon Records/78th Street art studios - This was a trip, a record store in a huge warehouse full of art studios. It was like finding a treasure room in a maze.



Bookhouse Brewing - putting this here too, great beer and a very relaxed vibe. books all over you can grab and browse


Superelectric - very cool pinball parlor, lots of old ones with a few newer ones like Stranger Things, and a classic multi-game arcade. Family friendly.


Hausfrau Records - great record shop by Superelectric. i'd read it was mostly punk & jazz, but our friends were spending a lot of time in there, so we joined them and got a few records before they closed. (lots of dub 45's and albums, KingG> hey) Picked up Eno (& Fripp), Adult., Led Er Est, De Fabriek, and The Column.


Larder - holy shit, this was probably my favorite place. amazing food, very cool space in an old firehouse, complete with the 2-story pole and everything.


Craft Collective - Far away from the city center in Shaker Heights, located in a newer planned retail/residential complex that was hipper than most of these i've seen. large open hangout space with barrels/fouders aging wild beer in the front window. Wide variety of beer, cider, mead from Bottlehouse and well curated guest taps from smaller regional brewers. Great food at Brassica next door.


Stump - very cool plant shop near Craft Collective. they had these floating Japanese moss balls i've only seen before online.


Loganberry Books - sprawling old-school bookstore with lots of antique stuff and affordable new/used books.

Lowlights: Saucy (oxidized beer & indifferent bartender), Banter (sterile vibe, slow service, good food), The Arcade Hyatt (nice rooms & historic space, but idiots yodeling at 3-5am), SP Parking next door ($20 a night to park overnight for a "special event").

Probably forgot a few things, but this is a good chunk of it!

man, you crammed a lot in to a few days.

well done

Thanks
We did hang out longer at places we liked, and I feel like we made it to at least 2/3 of all the places I had on my list.

[chi_dave]

Saucy is everywhere in cans here... and pretty meh. They are apparently opening a spot here in Columbus but it was supposed to open months ago.

Glad to hear so many other spots made the trip worth it.

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Saucy is everywhere in cans here... and pretty meh. They are apparently opening a spot here in Columbus but it was supposed to open months ago.

Glad to hear so many other spots made the trip worth it.

Yeah i’d skip them next time. Didn’t try the food but it looked decent. Bound to have a few hits and misses when trying to cover so much ground. I regret not making it to Mabel’s, but will make a point to the next time around.

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Braised lamb with greens and farmers cheese at Larder. This was amazing.

Still dreaming about this lamb. Thinking about smoking a shoulder and doing something like this or a stew...

[bakes]

Braised lamb with greens and farmers cheese at Larder. This was amazing.

Still dreaming about this lamb. Thinking about smoking a shoulder and doing something like this or a stew...

I must hit Larder on the way through next time.  And bring a spare stomach or three.

Damn, I have not seen a Future Spa pinball machine in almost 40 years.  I looked at the pic and I could smell the inside of the old Aladdins Castle arcade right down to the attendant wearing Jovan Musk for Men and trying too hard to be cool. Anyway, it's a solid target shooting machine.

[emerge]

Braised lamb with greens and farmers cheese at Larder. This was amazing.

Still dreaming about this lamb. Thinking about smoking a shoulder and doing something like this or a stew...

I must hit Larder on the way through next time.  And bring a spare stomach or three.

Damn, I have not seen a Future Spa pinball machine in almost 40 years.  I looked at the pic and I could smell the inside of the old Aladdins Castle arcade right down to the attendant wearing Jovan Musk for Men and trying too hard to be cool. Anyway, it's a solid target shooting machine.

Get a whole pastrami for the cooler.

The theme of those 3 pinball machines... it's almost like the designers put their own faces in the game or something. Unless there was a running theme of middle-aged mustachioed white guys in 70's pinball games. The guy in Future Spa reminded me of a more svelte Ron Jeremy.

[howardf]

Braised lamb with greens and farmers cheese at Larder. This was amazing.

Still dreaming about this lamb. Thinking about smoking a shoulder and doing something like this or a stew...

I must hit Larder on the way through next time.  And bring a spare stomach or three.

Damn, I have not seen a Future Spa pinball machine in almost 40 years.  I looked at the pic and I could smell the inside of the old Aladdins Castle arcade right down to the attendant wearing Jovan Musk for Men and trying too hard to be cool. Anyway, it's a solid target shooting machine.

Get a whole pastrami for the cooler.

The theme of those 3 pinball machines... it's almost like the designers put their own faces in the game or something. Unless there was a running theme of middle-aged mustachioed white guys in 70's pinball games. The guy in Future Spa reminded me of a more svelte Ron Jeremy.

They were frequently the designers, a la "Gunslinger" from the pinball article that was posted here recently.

[unclejedi]

Actually got close to Cleveland without going all the way there this past weekend, and found plenty to get into, mostly around Cuyahoga Falls and Akron.  Was taking the long way home from a Bruery pickup in DC.  Some really great breweries in Cuyahoga Falls, Missing Mountain and HiHO Brewing.

[mr. furley]

local just got Cincinnatus from Listermann on shelves

any good?

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Actually got close to Cleveland without going all the way there this past weekend, and found plenty to get into, mostly around Cuyahoga Falls and Akron.  Was taking the long way home from a Bruery pickup in DC.  Some really great breweries in Cuyahoga Falls, Missing Mountain and HiHO Brewing.

Added these to my to-do list.

local just got Cincinnatus from Listermann on shelves

any good?

Listermann has medaled at FoBAB more than once, so i'd say it's worth a try. A couple reviews mention vinous grape skin notes, if that's your bag.

Edit: and maraschino

[mr. furley]

worth a shot pending price point, looks like

[unclejedi]

worth a shot pending price point, looks like

I've got a 4 pack or something that was sold as a vertical several years back... not sure where I put it.

[chi_dave]

local just got Cincinnatus from Listermann on shelves

any good?

Cincinnati beers in a Cleveland thread? Booo.

Never had Cincinnatus. Listermann makes solid NEIPAs.

[mr. furley]

local just got Cincinnatus from Listermann on shelves

any good?

Cincinnati beers in a Cleveland thread? Booo.

Never had Cincinnatus. Listermann makes solid NEIPAs.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJMa20xXykI

[chi_dave]

local just got Cincinnatus from Listermann on shelves

any good?

Cincinnati beers in a Cleveland thread? Booo.

Never had Cincinnatus. Listermann makes solid NEIPAs.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJMa20xXykI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZzgAjjuqZM

[emerge]

local just got Cincinnatus from Listermann on shelves

any good?

Cincinnati beers in a Cleveland thread? Booo.

Never had Cincinnatus. Listermann makes solid NEIPAs.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJMa20xXykI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZzgAjjuqZM

False. I did not see one Cleveland fish with AIDS.

[mr. furley]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZzgAjjuqZM

the internet has given us many gifts.. this may be the most precious of them all.

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Sandwiches, perhaps the finest innovation of modern eating.
Let's start with the best...

Pastrami at Larder. Holy shit this was good. Juicy and smoky with a silky texture.

Just found this video on how they make their pastrami, pretty cool



Got stuck on this local channel that features local spots and road trip segments:

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A couple good Cleveland BBQ spots (Smokin’ Q’s & Barabicu Smokehouse) start around 9:32:

[chi_dave]

 

It's always a good reminder of what it takes to run a bbq restaurant... you can try to do everything right, work 18 hours a day, and it all gets distilled down to the meat 'falling off the bone'.

Also, I hate the pre-pulled warmer full of pulled pork. It just turns to mush. It isn't that hard to keep a shoulder in the warmer and tear off/shred a section to order. 100000 times better.

[emerge]

It's always a good reminder of what it takes to run a bbq restaurant... you can try to do everything right, work 18 hours a day, and it all gets distilled down to the meat 'falling off the bone'.

Also, I hate the pre-pulled warmer full of pulled pork. It just turns to mush. It isn't that hard to keep a shoulder in the warmer and tear off/shred a section to order. 100000 times better.

Good point, I saw a place doing the whole shoulder method in TN, and they were foil wrapped too. Helen’s in Brownsville, TN.

There were a couple other Cleveland BBQ road trip vids on that channel, but a lot looked hit or miss.

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MoCA art museum - Margaret Kilgallen show, the impetus of the trip. A favorite artist of mine for 25 years, saw this show twice.

Wish we could've driven back to CLE to see this show one last time, as MK is one of my all-time faves. Just wasn't in the cards due to covid. No plans for the show to travel either, unfortunately. I took a lot of photos, and still want to make a small book of the show.



Interestingly, this work^ from the show sold at auction last month for 228K. Her all time auction record was set in 2019 for 447K. Wish I had the $ to buy some work back in the late 90's, sadly she passed away in 2001.

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http://chibbqking.blogspot.com/2021/04/eating-big-in-cleveland.html

Normally I like this guy's stuff, but after reading this blog post, I feel like we did way better eating in CLE.

I know the author really likes "road food", but from reading this, you'd think Cleveland was nothing but corned beef and chili dogs.

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Immigrant Son Brewing opens in Lakewood

Sounds promising, Hungarian food and classic beer styles.

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Sokolowski's - dripping with old school atmosphere, cafeteria style service, stick to your ribs Polish fare

RIP Sokolowski's University Inn (1923-2020)

Sadly a victim of the pandemic, they lasted until October 2020 and put the building up for sale. I guess it just sold for $1.75M, the new owner is an artist on the board of preserving historic places, so it may stick around in some form. There's a skyline view out back, which would be attractive for a high-rise development I guess.

The coolest old school place in Cleveland we went to. Good thing I got this shirt before they closed.



Edit: Damn, Michael Symon's Roast in CLE and Detroit just closed too

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Currently jonesing for Larder pastrami