Showing posts with label shamrock. Show all posts
Showing posts with label shamrock. Show all posts

Thursday, April 25, 2013

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.

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Bar #10 The Shamrock Tavern (Deceased)



There are a couple bars in Lakewood that everyone refers to as Lakewood's biggest secret. All those bars really do have great food, beer and environments, but everyone knows it. To find Lakewood's biggest secret you must go to the end of the rainbow...well, Madison and find a Shamrock Tavern, Bar #10.

When you enter the Shamrock you are surrounded by games and windows. You've got pinball, a two person sit down Galaga and Pacman arcade game, a pool table, the Claw, an electronic shuffle board and horse shoes in the back patio. Along the walls and the booths are antique and Irish symbolic stained glass windows. The bartender was very friendly and our service quick.

Their on-tap options are small currently having a specialty, a domestic and a light beer. I went with Stella, a very drinkable beer that is both flawless and uninteresting. Their bottled selection wasn't bad and allowed me to try my first Black Label Beer. I don't drink urine, but if I wanted to, then I would go with the cold, fizzy urine taste of the Canadian beer with a black label.

The Shamrock Tavern makes all of it's own food including its bread. I went with the local favorite bahn mi, a brisket sandwich with pickled jalapenos and other good stuff with Jojos. All of it was great. Everything on their menu had this same unique take to your standards. Next time I go to the Shamrock I'll be trying the jalepeno poppers with chorizo inside.

Katie was defeated by the claw. The lack of drop button raises the level of practice needed for success.

We started off the evening with confusing game of shuffle board. We set up our own scoring for three people playing instead of two. Johnny broke out early but his high attack playing style was better at stopping scoring then getting points for him. Katie and I went neck and neck till the end. With victory in my grasp sent my final disk at about 50 miles an hour sending all my discs off the board leaving her winning by default. So, she went home to get ready to go to Chicago for Johnny's surprise birthday party the following day.
Our next game was Galaga. If you haven't played, the game is simple, you move left and right shooting aliens that shuffle back while they shoot and swoop at you. I got a top 10 score! When the other person is playing you get to see the game at the perspective of the aliens, sitting above the screen.

We made our way out back past a large dining room that hasn't been updated in a couple decades besides the large flat screen TV at it's entrance. There was a large patio out back with a nice view of the surrounding neighborhood. I don't know if the neighborhood would agree with that. The pit was set up mainly for daytime use to appease the neighbors and was still wet from the earlier rain. We weren't detered, as Johnny said, “with enough beer, anything is possible.” After jury rigging some extra lighting (we still couldn't be sure where the shoes landed when we threw them but we knew where to aim.) and our shoes getting a bit muddy the game was on. John's bounces were truer than mine and after a longer time than should have been required he won the day.

The Shamrock may not be made of gold but I will keep going back. There's plenty you'll want to do, eat and drink. Every other Friday the tavern is filled to the brim with an epic night of karaoke. There is too much awesome to this bar to just pick one thing, and if you're lucky, next time you go out you'll pick a Shamrock.

Awesome: Games, Customer Service, Food (quality and price), Horseshoes, Size

11922 Madison Ave
216-521-9740
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Shamrock-Tavern/114037981960235