The best way to tour Cleveland suburbs

[teacherdad]

My ONLY time in the row of three... .the husband had the flu. His wife was covering for him. He was dry heaving for an hour. I was the aisle seat so I basically sat with my body OPEN to the aisle the entire flight. Was like an SNL skit.

[andrew61]

Originally Posted by responsiblestranger

Is Lakewood known as the 'gay area'? That's what his aunt, whose lived in Cleveland/Ohio her whole life, said. But I think that may just be because she has gay friends who live in Lakewood.

Lakewood has had a reputation for being "the gay area" going back at least 40 years now. A bit less so now than back in the '80s, I think.

It was somewhat unfair, as the "gayborhood" is actually in a part of Cleveland just east of Lakewood -- either side of Clifton from West 117th Street east to Edgewater Park or so. Lakewood just got the spillover, mostly in its northeast corner that borders Cleveland, with all its apartment houses and condo towers.

You do see rainbow flags in front of houses here and there around Lakewood. And it is a very accepting place for gays to live. But I don't really see how most of Lakewood is any gayer per capita than a great many other places. Personally, I see more (readily identifiable) gays walking around Gordon Square these days than I do in downtown Lakewood.

Originally Posted by responsiblestranger

We had dinner at Mad Mac's, a mac n cheese restaurant. I'd originally put it on our itinerary so we could do trivia, but it wound up being a bust because it was New Girl trivia and we'd never seen the show.

How was the food, though? I've been meaning to try Mad Mac's ever since they opened but have not gotten around to it yet.

Glad you had a good time, despite the car accident and the weather.

[responsiblestranger]

Originally Posted by teacherdad

My ONLY time in the row of three... .the husband had the flu. His wife was covering for him. He was dry heaving for an hour. I was the aisle seat so I basically sat with my body OPEN to the aisle the entire flight. Was like an SNL skit.

Wow that was so much worse than our flight back!! Horrible, but probably funny looking back on it now.

Originally Posted by andrew61

Lakewood has had a reputation for being "the gay area" going back at least 40 years now. A bit less so now than back in the '80s, I think.

It was somewhat unfair, as the "gayborhood" is actually in a part of Cleveland just east of Lakewood -- either side of Clifton from West 117th Street east to Edgewater Park or so. Lakewood just got the spillover, mostly in its northeast corner that borders Cleveland, with all its apartment houses and condo towers.

You do see rainbow flags in front of houses here and there around Lakewood. And it is a very accepting place for gays to live. But I don't really see how most of Lakewood is any gayer per capita than a great many other places. Personally, I see more (readily identifiable) gays walking around Gordon Square these days than I do in downtown Lakewood.

How was the food, though? I've been meaning to try Mad Mac's ever since they opened but have not gotten around to it yet.

Glad you had a good time, despite the car accident and the weather.

We did see a lot of rainbow flags! So every time we'd point them out to each other like, "Well, guess she was right!" It was cool though, there was a rainbow door display ("God opens doors for all people" or something) in front of a church.


The food at Mad Mac's was... okay to pretty good. I got a carbonara mac n cheese (mac n cheese, bacon, chicken, extra cheese, ranch drizzle) - I really liked it but it was pretty heavy. BF got regular mac n cheese, he liked it... but then he got a slice of mac n cheese pizza to try and it wasn't *great*. The dough was flat, dense, white/pale... almost like a thick, doughy cracker.



Seems like more of a hang out / bar atmosphere rather than a restaurant. High top tables, a big bar, the trivia, board games. Definitely worth a visit, but I'd check out their trivia schedule before going. Our waiter said the one-off nightly trivias are just for fun, not competitive... but the leagues (they did 9 weeks of The Office trivia and are in the middle of a Park and Rec league right now) get SUPER competitive.

[ferraris]

Originally Posted by responsiblestranger

SHAKER HEIGHTS

• We drove around Lomond and Shaker Towne Center. The homes were nice but the area didn't seem super walkable... maybe because we were in south Shaker?

Lakewood and Cleveland Heights definitely have Shaker beat on walkability, on average. It's a shame you didn't visit Larchmere/Shaker Square or the Van Aken District, as both are much more pedestrian friendly than Shaker Towne Center, which as you saw is basically just a typical strip mall with a smaller than usual parking lot. It's functionally walkable, but it's not charming.

In your OP you mentioned wanting the "idyllic suburban dream", so I still wouldn't overlook Shaker and by that standard I'd say that section of Shaker is walkable, but it's not obvious from a car. There's quite a lot of businesses in the Chagrin/Lee area, notably including the library, coffee shop, grocery store, hardware store, and drug store. Plus the school, family center, parks, and playgrounds all along Lomond itself.

maybe because we were in south Shaker?

Nah, that area along Chagrin Road is actually one of the most walkable parts of the city, running through everything I mentioned earlier plus the Van Aken District. Only Larchmere/Shaker Square is comparable.

Shaker Heights is more what I would consider "suburban walkable". Cleveland Heights and Lakewood follow a more traditional urban model of walkability. I prefer the latter in principle, but as we are now a young family I have to admit the former is much more practical for us. Bars and restaurants are a much lower priority for us, though the Van Aken District is covering that nicely as more and more places open up.