Weekend Trip in Cleveland

[TheProf]

ML North, welcome, and please report back on your visit... I don't have much to add because the Clevelanders above pretty much covered everything. Nothing against Hampton (it's a very nice chain and I love their self serve breakfasts), I'd opt for the Hyatt if you got the deal. That's b/c Hyatt is in a beautiful/classic building (the 1890 built Arcade -- nation's 1st indoor shopping mall), plus you're directly across the street from/at the E. 4th Street Neighborhood, which is one of the hottest districts in all of Greater Cleveland. Plus you're closer to the main transit lines -- the Health Line (bus rapid transt) right out your door on Euclid (up to Playhouse Square and Univ. Circle), and the main rail rapid transit hub at Tower City on Public Square, just 2 blocks from the Hyatt.

[ML North]

Hi everyone, just want to give quick report on our trip in Cleveland.

We had a great weekend -- thank you all for the advice!

We arrived around 1pm on Friday and went straight to Little Italy. We really wanted to eat at Etna, but it was a meatless Friday, and since most of their dishes were meat dishes, we tried Trattoria instead. I had crab cakes with marinara and we split a small pizza. I loved the crab cakes, but the pizza has a sweet crust which I wasn't crazy about. We had a few glasses of good wine and then walked over to Presti's Bakery for some espresso and cheesecake. We spent a little time walking around the neighborhood, which reminded me of Pittsburgh's Bloomfield, except with more generously-spaced houses. Seems like it would be nice place to live.

Around 530 we headed over towards our Hotel on East 9th. While my girlfriend was getting ready for the evening, I went for a little walk and ended up at Nick's on Prospect Ave. I had a couple bourbons and a PBR and talked with the bartender and the booze delivery guy for a little.

On Friday night, we caught a cab over to Wolstein Center to see Eric Church in concert. I split the cab with a couple of drunk rednecks who of course stiffed me for the fare, but I kinda saw that coming, haha. Eric Church put on an excellent show, and afterwards we walked to East 4th and tied a few on at the Wonderbar. I wasn't crazy about the place, but we still had a pretty great time. (The lady sitting next to me was drinking Stroh's from a wine glass? lol).

I did not feel amazing on Saturday morning, but I got up around 9, drank about 8 glasses of juice from the hotel breakfast bar, and we headed over to West Side Market. I absolutely loved the produce terminal. Some lady cut me a deal on a delicious gala apple and I munched it down while perusing the various offerings meats, cheeses, fruits, vegetables, and baked goods. (Incidentally, what's up with Steve's Gyros? The line was really long and it smelled amazing, but I didn't notice it until we were about to walk into the West Side Market Cafe.)

The Cafe is a good little spot, and I loved all the old pictures. We ate a light lunch of lentil soup and salad, before deciding to head over to Great Lakes Brewery.

I had forgotten to reserve a spot for the brewery tour ahead of time, and the website showed the tour as being sold out; however we asked if they could take us at the gift shop and received two tickets. Our tour guide, Christine, walked us through the brewery, including the malt room, brewhouse, fermenting tanks, and bottling area, and provided a tasting in a beautiful room upstairs beside the brewhouse. My girlfriend and I each tried the Dortmunder and Perry IPA -- I ended up with both IPAs . After the tour and tasting, we walked over to the brewpub and enjoyed a few beers in the basement, which is an absolutely awesome old space. One of the beers I had at the brewpub was the Monster Double IPA and I liked it more than the Perry IPA, which I tasted on the tour.

I loved the neighborhood in which Great Lakes and West Side Market were located. There seemed to be a good mix of retail, dining, and housing, and a good amount of pedestrian street traffic. I would have liked to spent a little more time walking around some of the backstreets, but unfortunately we didn't fit it in.

Saturday evening we went with friends to see Cleveland Orchestra at Severance Hall. One of the pieces performed, Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in E minor, featured a young German violinist named Arabella Steinbacher playing a 300 year old Stradivari instrument. Her performance received a standing ovation and she actually offered a short encore performance, something I've never before seen at a symphony. It was truly an amazing performance.

We spent Saturday night at various bars along East 4th and headed back to the hotel around 2am.

On Sunday morning we visited St. John's Cathedral on East 9th (amazing choir), and then checked out the lake a little. By noon, we were on our way back to Pittsburgh.

We really liked Cleveland, and I found that it shares characteristics with Pittsburgh and Chicago. The wide avenues and some of the housing in particular definitely reminded me of Chicago. We didn't get the opportunity to take the subway or the trolley for a ride, which we really wanted to do. (Downtown Cleveland has pretty excellent transit service, by the way. BRT systems are great, and the Euclid corridor seems to be the perfect place for that type of service.) We also wanted to check out some of the newer, more creative restaurants, but that, too, will have to be part of our next trip.

Thanks again for all the great advice and good wishes. I'm certain that we'll be visiting again, and hopefully this thread can help other visitors make their travel plans.

[osu4brutus03]

WOW!! What a great read. I'm so glad you enjoyed your visit to Cleveland. Its always heart warming to get feedback when visitors come to the city. Theres so much to do here in Cleveland. On your next visit be sure to visit the Greater Cleveland Aquarium and Horseshoe Cleveland Casino and if the weather is nice take a walk along the shore of Lake Erie...:-)

[CortlandGirl79]

I'm glad you had a great time in Cleveland MLN. Living in the Youngstown area I've always seen the similarities between Cleveland and Pittsburgh. I've tried to point this out to the Burgers in the Pittsburgh forum, but most will always argue that Cleveland and Pittsburgh are nothing alike and the funny thing is many of them have never been to Cleveland..........

[Peregrine]

Agree CortlandGirl. I have a friend in Pittsburgh who tries to tell me they are nothing alike. PBurgh and the CLE are very similar in a lot of ways. Although he does tell me that strangers seem much friendlier here. Not sure I really buy that.

Glad you had a good time MLNorth.

[ML North]

Hi all, just wanted to drop a quick line. I visited Cleveland again last weekend and stayed in the Hyatt / Cleveland Arcade. It was absolutely awesome. (Costello_musicman, I have to say you told me so!)

I visited some friends in Akron on Thursday evening. Had dinner and a few drinks at a bar in downtown Akron called The Lockview. Had some decent fish tacos and parked a few good draft beers. Friday morning we took a drive up to Portage Lakes and went out for a couple hours on a pontoon boat, a great way to spend a sunny afternoon. It was fun trolling along and checking out all the lake houses, and I actually thought that I may enjoy spending a weekend there sometime in the future.

Friday night we drove up to Cleveland. One of my friends from Pittsburgh booked the room from his phone using Hotwire and secured it for $80. I parked a few blocks away on the street and walked over to the Hyatt (saved $22!). Walking through the front door, I was instantly blown away. The ornate detail of all the wood, marble, and brass is stunning -- a portrait of the Gilded Age. Walking down the marble steps nearest to the lobby, you can feel that they've been slightly worn away over the last hundred years. I thought that was cool. We were assigned to a room overlooking East 4th street. The room was decorated with framed engineering and construction documents, an idea that I really liked. (I quickly checked their numbers, too ).

Headed down to East 4th around dinner. We had gotten favorable recommendations for the Greenhouse Tavern, but the wait was rather long so we opted instead for Italian at Chinato. It was delicious and quite reasonably priced. I had an endive salad and a braised veal breast that were both crazy good. Later in the evening we went over to West 6th for a while, ran into a bunch of the Browns, and then had a great walk back to the hotel around 3am. The view of Terminal Tower from the Soldiers and Sailors Monument in the middle of the night is spectacular.

Saturday we drove up through Vermilion and went to Put-In-Bay. It was a pretty good time, but I think I would have rather stayed in Cleveland and went over to the Ohio City / Tremont area.

Another awesome trip to Cleveland. Just wanted to jot down a few notes for future visitors. Hope you're all doing well.