Lakewood Halloween Guide 2013

Melt

14718 Detroit

Patio Tavern: Friday, October 18th 9pm

15615 Madison

It's that time of year again!  Katie and Lauren are once again thrilled to host the best costume party on Madison!  No costume is too crazy, funny, whorish, or nerdy! We love it all!  To the newbies invited this year: EVERYONE DRESSES UP FOR OUR PARTIES! :-)

Prizes for the first and second place best costume winners!!!

Lets make this best party yet!

Quaker Steak & Lube

15312 Detroit

Five Oclock Lounge: Friday, October 25th 10pm

11904 Detroit

Hey everyone, its THAT time again....the final friday on the month is SOUL CLUB O'CLOCK..This time it'll be a tad SPOOKTACULAR...Resident GHOULS/DJ's ALR!GHT and PARTY SWEAT will be adding some seasonal monster jams to the mix..COSTUMES ENCOURAGED....and as usual 1-2-3 Dance contests w/ cool prizes will be had!

We r cleveland's most dapper rock & soul dance party at 45rpm and FREE OF CHARGE...Secret SOUL Club, The Boss City's Boss Party where ALL MOVES ARE ALLOWED

Northern Soul

Garage screamers

Jungle rockers

Mod groovers

Fuzz blasters

Around the Corner Saloon & Cafe

18616 Detroit

Harry Buffalo

18605 Detroit

Spitfire Saloon: Friday, October 25th 12 am

1539 W 117th

HALLOWEEN PARTY Torments / Scoliosis Jones

Riverwood Cafe

18500 Detroit

Spitfire: Saturday, October 26th 12 am

1539 W 117th

HALLOWEEN PARTY Gluttons / Fuck You Pay Me /Kill the Hippies

Iggy's

13405 Madison

McGinty's Pub: Saturday, October 26th 9pm

13751 Madison

It's that time of year again so get dressed up and come have some fun with us. We will have two costume contests with prizes. One for individuals and one for couples and other fun stuff going on.

Mahall's

13200 Madison

Avenue Tap House: Halloween 9pm

18206 Detroit

Tricky Dick

Spitfire: Friday, November 1st 12 am

1539 W 117th

HALLOWEEN COVERBAND SHOW

Corky's Place

13302 Detroit

HALLOWEEN COVER BAND SHOW

Fri, November 1, 12am – Sat, November 2, 12am

Thank You

This was just a quick blog to throw some thanks out to some of the people that have helped Every Bar in Lakewood reach its current successes.

First off, many of our readers find out about and read my blog through some of our local social media sites.

Lakewood's Patch.com has given me free will to put whatever I like up since I came up with this idea. As many as a quarter of my weekly readers read my latest adventures through them. Plus, I used their directory to help put together our original list of bars. Thanks Colin!

http://lakewood-oh.patch.com/

The Lakewood Buzz is a pretty cool site that lets people post about things going on around Lakewood in a text only format. I've found their readers to be amazingly friendly. Check them out you never know the random Lakewood knowledge that might pop up.

http://lakewoodbuzz.com/

The Lakewood Citizen has helped boost my new Lakewood readers on occasion and have quite the active twitter feed at @lkwdcitizen.

http://LakewoodCitizen.com/

The Lakewood Pillars and their annual wing crawl helped me get out in the community early.

Pillars of Lakewood

The Cleveland Scene Magazine's article about me during my first month definitely kept me from feeling like I was only writing for my family.

Scene Article

A couple of the bars have been a big help to the blog in both promotion and helping with other facets of my work. Coincidentally, they also are some of my personal favorite bars.

Bar #1, Mahall's 20 Lanes is always willing to spread the word and has been very open to helping out in other projects that I have been working on. I really enjoy their food and beer selection. Mahalls also offers a lot of different things to keep you occupied from bowling and games to benefits and concerts.

Bar #1

The Shamrock Tavern and Bane Boys was probably my biggest surprise of the blog. Not only is their food great and bar full of fun surprises but they are always willing to lend a hand to anything I might need of them. I look forward to returning over and over again, not to mention future projects they'll be involved in.

Bar #10

The Tarrymore Inn, especially their bartender Cheryl, have been one of my biggest cheerleaders. They are always spreading the word about my exploits. You should definitely check them out for their friendly staff and patrons along with having the best patio in Lakewood.

Bar #5

Donna Repasy, once the owner of the Screaming Rooster, was a promoter of the blog from the beginning and has helped out even after she lost her bird.  Thank you Donna, you've been a good friend.  Obituary

Special thanks also go out to Jammy Buggers, Mars Bar, World of Beer, The Patio , Bonnie and Clydes and the Harry Buffalo.

A bigger thank you goes out to all of you. 80% of my likes on Facebook are from you guys liking and sharing my articles and pictures. This has helped spread word about the blog around the city and even the country.

Also, thanks for helping me make a little money off the blog. For each blog that goes out around 5 hours of research, aka drinking and talking to bartenders, writing and social mediating. So, when you read the blog, if you see an ad that looks remotely interesting feel free to click it. This can help me make additions, pay my graphic designer, get shirts available at local bars and fund events.

Thank you to those of you who have bought my shirts. Most of the price goes to the actual materials. I have tried to offer shirts with ink and material that can survive being washed after wearing them to all 53 bars. They won't be as fun if when you're done the only thing you can see are the check marks. I am looking for a local printer, hopefully that will cut a couple bucks of the price.

Buy Shirts Here

Johnny and Katie Vanderford have been with me through most of the blog putting up with my crazy schedule and my picture taking. This wouldn't have been nearly as much fun without you both.

My biggest thanks of course goes to my wife Kelly. She has supported me throughout this process and is always excited to jump on the bandwagon of whatever crazy ideas I come up with for Every Bar in Lakewood. Plus, without her the shirts would look horrendous and everything would be covered in comic sans. Thank you, Kelly, for coming with me on this crazy journey.  I love you.

                                   Jewelry & Metal Smithing                        Wedding Photography & Stationary

Thank you beer.  You have been with me through all of this.  All full of frothy, alcoholicy goodness.  This blog couldn't happen without you.

I have a couple new things in the works, so by the time we hit the 1 year mark I'm probably going to have to put up another one of these. Till then thank you for reading. This has been a fun crawl so far and it makes it worth the work to know you're all enjoying it.

Bar #31 Harry Buffalo

Picture from Lakewood's Patch.com

I have had a tendency in this blog to avoid bars that are having their busy nights. I have only been to one Taco Tuesday. When the bars are having their big league nights with darts, trivia, bowling etc. I end up going to the half empty dive bar eating a processed meat treat that comes in an old pretzel container. This week I made an exception, mostly by mistake. I went to a sports bar on the night OSU played Arizona to get beyond the Sweet Sixteen. The odds are against Harry Buffalo as bar #31.

Harry Buffalo is the third chain bar that I have officially visited. The previous two are the only bars to have failing reviews, both because they were unable to give me service in an adequate amount of time. They also gave the feeling that the chain bars' staff and management don't have a personal connection with their job. Lakewood's Harry Buffalo has from the start given a very different vibe. I was invited to the Harry Buffalo by the general manager Mike Potraffke. He was personable, a fan of the blog and a proud Lakewood native.

When I finally announced Harry Buffalo as my next bar he immediately contacted me again and made plans to make sure my friends and I would be able to sit down. Upon our arrival I was greeted by Mike and a small Reserved for Every Bar in Lakewood sign at an empty booth. We chatted about how OSU in the tournament keeps his bar packed. Also, the one of the coaches from Butler was a native from Rocky River and brought in its own big crowd while they were still relevant. Our first round was comped as well. *Note free stuff does make me give a bar a better review but they usually come from the better run bars.

Our waitress was helpful, friendly and knowledgable. We also never waited longer than we wanted for service. Mike took a hands on a approach to running the bar, helping customers and not simply acting as an autonomous king on a thrown. I never throughout the busy night saw any customers giving the tell tale sign of waiting too long by half standing up from their seats, rapidly looking around the room and then burning a hole in the back of their server's head.

I got my first Leinenkugel Summer Shandy of the season, if for no other reason but to spite our cold spring. I followed it up with a Stone Arrogant Bastard. It had a wonderfully complex taste that was amazingly easy to drink, where others could taste funky by the end.

We ordered the cheesy garlic bread first, which with its dipping sauce caused us to converge and devour it like locusts. Of course if any cheesy garlic bread with dipping sauce doesn't create this effect than someone isn't doing their job. Warning, it's also very filling.

Harry Buffalo is heavily wooden, with it covering most of their walls, booths, some ceilings and of course the bar. There were flat screen TVs around the three rooms of Harry Buffalo, so that just about everyone can see the game. The bar itself is three sided and makes its way around the whole room. There is a second bar in the basement as well. The two giant front windows open up during the warm season. Standing and roaming       space is at a minimum. Harry Buffalo has more of a restaurant/sports bar setup.

I ordered the wings and wings for my entree. I got the Hot Pepper Buffalo wings with the bone in and the Thai Chili for the boneless. I liked both but I liked the extra little kick of the buffalo more. It also came with a side. I went with the macaroni and cheese, which was good. I also tried the Cajun Ranch and it was real good as well. It is one of Johnny's favorite wings now. 've had their buffalo meat burger before and I like it. It may be slightly gamey for some tastes and slightly awesome for others.

I now looked at my phone and realized I had two text messages one telling me that three more people that I didn't think were coming now were and a second saying they're on their way. Our booth would not fit more than 4 (we already had three.) So we called on our waitress and asked about fitting another three. Her and Mike quickly went into action asking people at another table to move to ours so that we could fit that table and another together. It is possible that Harry Buffalo's staff is simply that awesome but I prefer to go with that it was the amazing power of my new LkwdVIP status. They carried our food over and moved that tables around to suit us.

All the food our new wave of friends got looked good and brought no complaints.

I made my way around the bar to get some pictures as the game was coming to its very close end. Arizona had held a lead in the beginning of the game but OSU took control till the final minutes. Arizona then made a push tying the game with only a hand full of seconds left. As you probably know in the last two seconds Ohio scored a three pointer to bring the bar into a fevered celebration. Soon followed everyone in the bar going into a rendition of the song, not called, Hey Snoopy. One of my favorite things about being a Clevelander is seeing people experience that song in Ohio for the first time. Since, only Ohioans do the O-H-I-O, visitors always first freeze then their head starts swinging around wildly like a rabbit that knows the owls coming but can't figure out from where, basically looking frightened and confused. This is usually followed in the next minute or two by them finding out the song's name is not Hey Snoopy but Hang on Sloopy.

Harry Buffalo was a win for the evening. The service was phenomenal and the staff seemed to care about making it a good experience. The food was good and not badly priced with a lot of different options. They had enough beer on tap giving everyone an option of something they will really like. If you want good service, beer, food and TV viewing ability goto Lakewood's Harry Buffalo, bar #31.

Note: I used a picture taking method on my camera that works real well when things aren't moving and worked otherwise tonight.  Guess I'll just have to go back for more pictures at some point.

18605 Detroit Ave

216-221-1313

Facebook

Harrybuffalo.com

In Search of a Wing Man

 A week ago I went for a magical four mile walk and every time I went into a bar they gave me free wings. Yes, I was one of the celebrity judges at this year's Pillars Wing Crawl. Last month I was asked to be one of the celebrity judges and asked for an interview for the Cleveland Scene. 4000 hits on my blog and 26 wings later has lead you to read this blog and me to have indigestion.

I met Lakewood Patch.com's Colin McEwen at Around the Corner. We planned to make a straight line down Detroit catching all the bars as we go. The only curves on a trip were to pick up the random things Colin left behind at most of the bars. Around the Corner had real good wings, especially their black pepper wings that stood out ahead of most of the wings of the day. They were also able to keep table service going at a reasonable rate too.

Next we made our way to the Harry Buffalo. The service was fast even though the bar was packed. I really liked their wings. They weren't the best or the most original, but I they stood out as wings I'd want to eat again. Their buffalo wings made my top 3.

After our first back track for Colin's voting sheet we went to the Riverwood Cafe. The wings and service were good. We also stole the booth from the principal of Lakewood Highschool. Luckily, we were able to finish our wings before they got theirs and quickly departed. We then quickly came back and picked up Colin's glasses.

Our next stop was Guys Pizza. The service was slow, we didn't get napkins and the batch of wings we got were almost too freezer burnt to eat. I hope, normally the wings and service are good but we were there at the wrong time.

The Booth has been one of my favorite bars that I've gone to during my blog so far. My expectations were high and I had no complaints about their wings. I especially enjoyed their Sriracha wings but I try and put cock (rooster) sauce on any food I can. Service wise the bartender was friendly and helpful and this was the only bar that trusted us to get our own wings (as a good thing.)

Next I went to the Local. I enjoyed both wings and gave them a solid score. I was disappointed that the kickin BBQ wasn't hotter but you can lose points with some people for being too spicy. I did like that my wing experience was enhanced with a fog machine!

Another one of my blogged bars was the Plank Road Tavern. Their moroccan dry rub wing was my favorite taste of the crawl and I will be back for more later. They also had the smallest wings of the crawl, which goes to show that good things can come in small packages.

This was my first time inside of Eddy & Iggy's. We spent an intermission here playing foosball. Word of advise the slim side has a gravity advantage. Also, I'm no good at foosball and lost both matches. We had real good service. The bartender took time to talk to me about their beer even though they were being hammered with crawlers. I really liked their buffalo wing, it held to a much more classic style instead of going for fancy and they hit a home run with it.

Merry Arts' wings tasted good, but their service didn't keep up. It took us a couple minutes to figure out how to get the wings (from the cook.) But since the cook was busy cooking, by the time I got the wings that were sitting out they were cold. I wasn't allowed to grab them on my own because I was informed that “You don't steal from a pimp.” The citric taste of their second wing complemented its cool temperature, honestly.

Jammy Buggers had the best actual wing meat of any of the bars we went to. I gave their buffalo wing my highest rating for that genre. They put a ton of work into their Top Secret Recipe #6 wings and it was really good but it was also a bit nutty and I don't like nutty. It was definitely an improvement over their Top Secret Recipe #5 wings that were a bit squirrelly and mildly triangle.

Last but not least was Deagans as the reigning champs (and as I am late on getting this blog done, the still reigning champs) my expectations were high. They were great. The wings were a high quality, though my batch was a little over cooked. The buffalo wings were the hottest wings of the day, I really liked them. But, even though we were sitting to the right of the taps behind the register we couldn't get anything to drink. After watching 5 different people walk in and immediately get service I decided I would raise my hand because that's what I was taught in school. Colin said he could get someone to wait on us instead. So, he tried his talking to people way and I tried mine. I won. Deagan's second specialty was real good as well.

We then trekked all the way back to our cars at Around the Corner. We wanted to hand our votes to the Pillar people because we didn't feel comfortable giving our votes directly to the bars. We stopped at the Root Cafe on the way back across town. Everybody knew Colin there and they probably have the nicest bathroom in town.

I'd like to thank the 11 bars that made wings for us and the Lakewood Pillars that put all their hard work into making a great Lakewood event. Also, thanks to Shawn Juris who invited me as a celebrity judge! It was a great day and I ate a lot of good wings.