Welcome to the #1 ranked blog in Cleveland. Thank you readers for
all your help. I'll try to keep up serving you and the bars of
Lakewood the best I can. This blog actually begins after I picked up
my award in Ohio City. We were tempted to head over to one of the
hip Cleveland bars; but then decided that; when you can pick from any
bar in Lakewood, why go anywhere else. That and I needed a blog for
this week. There was only one choice I could make and steak was on
special at bar #57, The Waterbury Coach House.
When entering the bar from the parking lot you are greeted with a
foreboding dark steel door. I believe this is simply because it
lowers your expectations briefly to the classy bar inside and
probably to keep out the face stabbers after closing. The Waterbury
Coach House gives you a mixture of vintage posters, classy
surroundings, a diner feel with a splash of Italian. We were the
only people in the bar below 45 years old. Jeopardy and the Indians
game were on the TVs.
There are no beer taps. They have a standard selection
of domestics, plus Great Lakes Brewing Company's Dortmunder. I went
with the latter because you really can't go wrong with that
direction. To describe what a standard beer should taste like is to
describe Dortmunder. For those of you that prefer a dark beer, or a
hoppy beer, or even a fruity beer that's all well and good, but that
still requires an addition to the ideal beer. Even if it's not the
beer you're in the mood for you won't complain about it. It's a good
beer to compare the rest to, too.
They appear to have a larger selection of wine but no beer/wine
list was provided.
You're going to spend more than 10 bucks a plate but you get
multiple sides and it feels like a meal at a restaurant not simply
getting bar food. The salad was fine. The buns were warm. The
steak fries were fine. The ribeye was thin and a bit fatty. It was
also large, cooked to perfection (real medium rare), and required no
steak sauce to cause me to inhale it.
Our bartender was polite and took care of all of our needs. She
was professional and had a good repertoire with the everyone that
came in.
I had a conversation with an elderly man about the Pittsburgh,
Pirates. He has always been an Indians fan, but added the Pirates
onto his favorite list back in '54 when one of his favorite players
were traded to them. It obviously takes more than a player moving to
make you a fan of a new team *coughHeatcough*. It took the trade to
get his notice but it was a similarity that has kept him paying
attention over the years. Both Cleveland and Pittsburgh are smaller
city markets but carry major teams. Where other teams rely on our
largest cities or just claim geographic regions, these teams
represent a different kind of a fan and relationship. These small
cities that have put together great teams that stand (more or less)
against the titan cities with vast financial and populations. It's
more than a simple Napoleon complex, the teams become a part of their
cities identities.
Here's the key, the cities aren't great because of these teams,
these teams are great because of the cities. Cities like Cleveland
and Pittsburgh don't see themselves as small cities that are lucky to
have big teams. When we refer to our teams as we, we aren't saying
we're on their team, we're saying they're on ours. We are great and
our team must reflect that. We thrive because we believe we can. We
make our city an extension of ourselves. We share our city's every
win and every defeat as our own.
Cleveland/Lakewood aren't simply our cities, they're our
neighborhood. Our professional sports teams are in turn our
neighborhood's teams. I think this is what makes us friendlier, is
that we carry that neighborliness with us and it doesn’t get wiped
out in the feeling of the big anonymous city. Every bar in Lakewood
are a reflection of our neighborhood city ideals. They are all
unique, personal and, mostly, strive to make themselves worthwhile.
We in turn want them to succeed; if our city is full of these great
businesses it in turn reflects our own potential greatness. Like our
teams, we share their wins with them.
The Waterbury Coach House has good service and a loyal clientele.
Their food has a better than average diner quality to it. They have
an average beer and wine list with no taps. The average age of their
customers is around 55. I enjoyed my time at bar #57, The Waterbury
Coach House, where they'll treat ya nice and make you a darn good
steak!
13333 Madison Ave
Facebook
Website
Twitter
No comments:
Post a Comment