Bar #20: Riverwood Cafe

Until this point I have tried to go to bars on their “off nights”. On these nights when the big promotions aren't going, you get a better feel for who their regular crowd is, plus there probably won't be a wait for a table. This week I decided I wanted tacos, and only knew one place with Taco Wednesdays. This week I got my taco fix fixed at bar #20, the Riverwood Cafe.

We arrived to a packed bar and claimed the last table. Unfortunately, it was chairless and we had to stand. We spent the next half hour or so deciding if we wanted to stick around or leave. Luckily, before we could decide we saw a couple ask for the bill at a booth and claimed the table for ourselves. Unluckily, they ran into the age ole problem of who pays the bill. As we acted like we weren't watching them pull more and more money out of their wallets and move the check and cash back and forth, growling at each other, we listened to our bellies growl back and forth as well.

How do you decide who pays for what when it doesn't happen naturally. A couple elements come into the decision/complication of who pays. There is the chivalry element that demands that a man should pay. This can cause complications as it can cause some women to feel unequal early on. Rejection of this can cause the man to feel emasculated. Then some guys may have a problem having their food paid for by a woman. Along with all that, who pays can determine the seriousness of the relationship and can cause the other person to feel like they owe the payer. To all these complications I have two conclusions. I never cared who paid and I'm glad I'm married; so that I don't have to worry about crazy dating games ever again (among other reasons).

The beer selection was good. Regardless of the type of beer you like you should be able to get what you want. I went with a Bell's Oberon, a good quality craft beer with a strong distribution out of Kalamazoo. It's got a an interesting assortment of flavors that's not too heavy on the hops. Oberon is a good gateway beer if you are trying to get a loved one to move on from lesser corporatey beers.

We got a big assortment of foods. I tried all three types of tacos. I ordered them all hot, spicy obviously. They aren't that spicy, so order them hot. My favorite was the fish. They also have a competing version of Firecrackers. They were good but needed the dipping sauce. Other foods that were good included their wings, fries and pirogies. Unless we were very lucky it seems that all their food is good so come ready to get what you're in the mood for without having to only rely what they're known for.

The bar clientele were basically just a random selection of normal people younger than myself. They all seemed friendly and rarely annoying. The music was also fairly normal but both younger and rarely annoying. There was also, a pool table that spent most of its time unused as well. We didn't use it either. The bar had interesting things up in random places. The floor had nice tile work.

The Riverwood Cafe has been on the top of bars that many people recommend. There's a reason for that, it has what you want and at a good price. I had a good time and had no complaints about the Riverwood. The service was good this time and when I was there for the wing crawl. It's a bar that comes with the question: Why shouldn't you come here?   

Awesome: Tacos, Atmosphere

• 18500 Detroit Ave
• 216-521-9999
• On Facebook
• http://www.riverwoodcafe.com/

Bar #17: Rush Inn

You know what would be funny? If I waited two weeks to write my blog for bar #17 because it's called the Rush Inn and I didn't rush to get it done. Yeah, if you're pretending to believe that, then you can pretend it was funny too. Anyway, I was told the Rush Inn is great and it is.

Kelly and I arrived at the Rush Inn with the mission to figure out where to seat 4-10 people. The Rush Inn has plenty of seating a long bar and a room full of booths with giant walls. We went with the bar because we didn't know if anyone could find us in a wooden booth fortress city. There is a little bar in the city's side as well. It was probably better that we went with the bar side because we would have pulled one of the more annoying scenarios that you can put waiting staff through. Our friends slowly showed up every 15 minutes or so for the next 3 hours.

I was told by our Rush Inn expert that I was to get the hot Parmesan wings. I did and they are my new favorite wings in Lakewood. Now I have to go get more tonight! All the food was good. Practically every night something good is on special. They even have a $15 steak which I'm sure is great. But it is not on special.

The service and prices were good.

The beer selection is diverse. I got some kind of cider that I'll edit in later once I figure out what it was. I like hard cider between the Octoberfest and Christmas ale seasons. It's apply but in a manly way...well, it's better than some kind of lemon flavored Zima. I hate Zima. It's like someone fermented Clear Pepsi, which I didn't like either.

Bar talk of the night: is 3 Musketeers candy bar good? Though the vote was against it in the beginning it still won the night. I like 3 Musketeers! But I also respect it. Most chocolate bars need to rely on some combination of nuts, caramel or random crunchy things. 3 Musketeers, however, win with just chocolate. Payday decided that it would take the other end of the spectrum and went from a candy bar to glued together trail mix.

Rush Inn has good food and beer. It has a great atmosphere and it's patrons love it. Everything is not a bed of roses at the Inn. There aren't really cheap nasty beers, any chance of mostly naked painted women, and the excitement of possibly getting stabbed is nonexistent. I'll still go back to the Rush Inn, in fact I'm going tonight. Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

• Awesome: Food, Customer Service, Water Buffalo Head, Booths
• 
  
• 17800 Detroit Ave
• 216-221-3224
• Rush Inn

Bar #18 and #19: Obituary

There are two bars that I wish I could have blogged about before their premature demise. Sullivan's suddenly closed its doors shortly after I began this blog. The Screaming Rooster is still open but the owner/manager has been forced to leave and there's more to a bar than decoration and beer. This blog isn't about why these bars have closed but why they were great. I present to you:

Every Bar in Lakewood Obituary Edition

Sullivan's Irish Pub

Sullivan's Pub has been one of my favorite bars in Lakewood as long as I have lived here. It brought everything you'd want out of an Irish Pub without having to worry about the thick accents. I was usually drawn to their fish and chips with ample amounts of malt vinegar for the fries. By that point I was already stuffed with their artichoke/spinach dip and boxty wedges; a must for all visitors.

The pub's beer selection was everything Irish and complimented by their purchasable mugs. The mugs came with your name of choice on it and hung from the rafts anxiously waiting your return. Beer always tastes better from your own mug, especially when you get a discount for it.

Sullivan's was a place for events. They always had Irish performers that would come adding a that extra bit of Irish to the experience. One day a year Sullivan's was the only place to be. Obviously, that's St. Patricks Day. The bar was filled to the brim with a slowly revolving hoard of green people. If you wanted a booth there was an hour wait, if you were lucky and if you made arrangements to people that had already stolen seating earlier. Basically, you inherited seating and only the tricky ever stopped standing. We would get a booth early in the day and our friends would come and be replaced as the day went on. Live music would be playing for most of the day and the food wouldn't be quick but it would be done well.

Alas, Sullivan's Pub's new owner could not keep it open. Now the keys are returned and questions remain. Will somebody stand up and take over the reigns or will it become our next dollar store? Has anybody been able to get their mugs yet? Where is Every Bar in Lakewood going to spend it's St. Patrick's Day? Remind me not to use up all the Irish bars before March. For now, I raise my glass and say cheers to the finest Irish Pub Lakewood.

Awesome: Atmosphere, Personalized Beer Steins

13368 Madison Avenue

The Screaming Rooster

The Screaming Rooster was my current regular bar when I began this blog. We celebrated birthdays with our friends and the bartenders that knew our names. It was never a question knowing somebody when we got there, simply who we would know. We even ran a fundraiser for the local animal rescue All Dog's Heaven. The Screaming Rooster was everything we needed from a bar and that included Donna, one of two owners and the only manager we knew there.

The Rooster has my favorite bar food. It's called a Fire Cracker and it's an egg roll full of chicken, hot sauce, cheese and jalapenos. They were willing to make it as hot as it sounds. Every time I went there I order them even if I'm not going to eat them there. Immediately after typing that, I got a very strong craving for them. But isn't that what an obituary is, a chance to write what makes you happy about something that's gone even if it makes you a little sad.

The Screaming Rooster had an interesting selection of bands come through their doors. They ranged through many genres of music. Even as a small venue the Rooster has been recognized as a music venue throughout the Cleveland area. Its bands have been the back drop to different Lakewood events. Last year All Dog's Heaven special needs animal rescue had a fundraiser called Barktoberfest helping out with one of their dog's emergency amputation. The event's soundtrack was provided by the Samantha Fitzpatrick Band. They played a great variety of covers and original music that helped make the event a success. On the night of the Screaming Rooster's grand finale the rock-a-billy band, The Straight 8's, kept us rocking and dancing all night long. Even when the music wasn't play there were plenty of reasons to go to the Rooster.

The Rooster had some additions that made it a good bar to visit any night of the week. They had a diverse selection of beer ranging from the domestic to craft. The Screaming Rooster also knew how to properly serve tequila. It also has both skee ball and pool in its second room. If you wanted to watch “the game” the Rooster came very prepared with more TVs than any bar I know of. This includes TVs above the bar, on the walls and in many of the booths. All this isn't why the Screaming Rooster was my favorite preblog bar. This was Donna's bar.

Donna Repasy loved her bar. She was the the type of owner that always put the extra effort into making sure her customers, employees and even the bands were happy. She was friendly with everyone that came in and always made sure you felt welcome no matter how busy they were. To understand what the Screaming Rooster was you had to be there on its final night.

Saturday, August 18^th two of Lakewood's biggest summer events squared off. As the Lakewood Pillars Wing Crawl highlighted Lakewood's Detroit Avenue bars, Madison Avenue had it's 10^th annual Lakewood Car Kulture Show. It sprawled from Warren to Hilliard full of cars, motorcycles and vendors. The Screaming Rooster and Mars Bar helped sponsor the event that brought people to Lakewood from all over the county and beyond. Donna's only complaint of the the timing of the crawl was that it would limit the amount of new customers that would visit our town by not giving them the chance of going to both great events on different weekends. Donna was always a big supporter of Lakewood businesses.

That evening the show moved the Screaming Rooster. In between the Straight 8's sets the Rooster had a burlesque show by Cleveland's burlesque troupe, The Red Hot Heathens. The Heathens used a mix of comedy, sex, props and costume to to entertain at a level beyond simple dancing mostly naked women to actually entertain. Plus there aren't enough boobs in obituaries.

The bar was packed all night long. Donna's friends and customers showed up throughout the night, sometimes just to give their condolences and thanks even if they couldn't stick around. As many tears of joy and laughter were shed that night as tears of sorrow. It was a great night that few people that attended would forget any time soon.

The Lakewood Car Kulture Show wasn't the end of the Rooster or Donna. She now manages the gigantic Two Bucks in North Olmsted and the Rooster carries on run by the other owner. The Rooster is now just a bar with a really good spicy egg roll for me. Imagine Cheers without Sam Malone, it would look the same and taste the same but that era has ended. So, if you decide that you have to try a firecracker, head over while Vicky is bartending and tell her I said hi. I won't be going back, it'd be like going back to your house after you had moved away; same place but empty. Thanks for the good times Donna.

Awesome: Customer Service, Live Music, Donna, A Billion TVs, Skee Ball, Firecrackers, Family

15527 Madison Ave

There will always be new bars coming into and leaving Lakewood. I look forward to going to our newest bar, Taco Tantos; it's supposed to be phenomenal. Today, I mourn the loss of two of the best bars in Lakewood. The Screaming Rooster is still running but under newish management and there is still the chance that Sullivan's will open again. I am glad I had the chance to visit them and in moratorium I check off bars #18 and #19.

Bar #16: Madison Square Lanes

There's a bar in Lakewood that doesn't bowl for compliments with flashiness and gimics.  I've struck this bar more than any other in Lakewood.  But it's been a while since I've been there and have been pinning for it.  I couldn't spare another week.  So this weekend after the Spooky Pooch Parade we went to bar #16, Madison Square Lanes!

True, Madison Square Lanes doesn't have a tap.   For every rule an exception must be made, and there is something exceptional about Madison Lanes.  The bowling alley offers a bar, snack bar, bowling (of course,) pool, and a random assortment of arcade games.  What pulls all this together is Mike the owner.  He is always willing to help out and remembers the people that come in.

Your beer options cover both your normal options in canned form and a number of Great Lakes Brewery beers in bottles.  This is the first place I had the hipster iconic beer, PBR.  Since then, I have probably drank more PBR then any other beer.  The funny thing about PBR is that it's not very good, it's like a alcoholic water with a hint of beer.

They do have a variety of smacks you can order to be made from the bar.  More importantly, they have Sam's Smokies!  The best generic meat product in a plastic jar that money can buy.


I used a specific red ball back when I used to bowl more often.  It was the perfect weight and the holes were exactly where I wanted them.  This ball bumped my mediocre 130 average to a respectable 180.  The trick was that there was a chip in the finger hole that forced me to bowl better.  It also, made a mildly painful dent in my finger.  Mike wouldn't sell me it.  Turns out I wasn't the only one using it.  The combination of pain and a false sense of skill lead me to buy a new ball and shoes.  My finger felt better but my score did not.


Tonight, I used my red ball of awesome one last time.  One last time because it had two chunks taken out of it.  It left a dent but not in my score.  It seems if your ball randomly bounces it becomes less effective at hitting the pins.

Who is Mike you ask?  Mike owns and runs Madison Square Lanes.  He is what makes the bowling alley worth while.  He remembers the people that come to the Lanes and is usually there to offer advice on bowling and the individual lanes.  Thanks Mike.


Madison Lanes also has some other games.  There's a pool table.  You can get the feel of an amusement park with a classic quality skee ball game, sorry no game tickets.  You've also got the options of eating ghost clothes, jet skiing, and dancing.  You can also play your favorite backyard game, corn hole, but in an electronic folly ball version.  

Lastly, the bar has a juke box with a weird mixture of hits from over the last 60 years.  I usually make it my job to monopolize it for the entire time I'm there.  Primarily this is to prevent other people from playing bad music than my own skills as a dj.  Don't worry if you see me there I won't play anything off of the Best of Bread album.

I'm naming Madison Square Lanes as bar #16.  I go there to drink and have a good time with my friends.  This bar makes me happy and you should give it a try.  Tell Mike I sent you.


Awesome: Customer Service, Bowling, Juke Box

1653 Westwood Ave.

216-221-8558

Madison Square Lanes

Random Stuff

First, I'll have a booth at the Spooky Pooch Parade this Saturday, October 20th. My dog daycare and training facility, Pawsitive Influence will be located in the back left corner. My wife's store Rustbelt Revival will have dog beds, hand made jewelry and vintage items for sale as well. She will be offering a discount, so it's worth the visit just to check it out. If you have a dog there will be plenty of free stuff and activities for your furry family member. Plus, there will be a bunch of dogs wearing costumes. Registration starts at 12:30 and the parade starts at 2. The parade will walk from St. Charles Green to Caribou Coffee and back. Check out the details at www.spookypoochparade.com

Second, “Facebook now requires page administrators to pay to promote updates if we want our content to be seen by all our fans. If we do not pay to promote our posts, only about 10% of our fans receive updates on Facebook's home page feed.

However, there is one thing you can do to keep receiving posts from your favorite pages. Hover your mouse on the "Like" button to the right of our name. In the drop-down menu select "Add to Interest Lists." Then create an interest list (and make a name for your favorite sites). When you select that interest list you will see ALL of our posts and you won't miss anything!” -Carnegie Museum. If you want to make sure you're seeing all my posts and those of your favorite Lakewood businesses on Facebook you'll have to go through all this now.

Third, let me know how think the blog is going. Am I missing topics you think should be addressed like bathrooms or the type of free peanuts on the bar. I haven't seen anybody give away free nuts yet. How do you like the shirts, are there any changes you would like to make them even better? Do you want me to come up with any of those 1-5 scales on stuff? Is anyone on Google+?

Also, we decided that hard cider goes well with bacon.  What do you think is the proper beer to compliment bacon?

Check out these links:

If you have dogs: www.pawsitiveinfluence.com

If you like Handmade Jewelry, Metal Smithing & Vintage Items: www.therustbeltrevival.com

If you are looking for Wedding/Shower Invitations, Favors & Photography: www.rockpapercutpress.com

 

If you are looking for print design services such as logos, advertisements, promotional materials, etc.:

www.rockpapercut.com

These pay for the blog and the beer I have to drink to make it possible. So check them out and I hope to see you on Saturday.

Bar #15: Jammy Buggers (Deceased)

How do you pick a bar when your only deciding factor is that you haven't been there?  My first time picking a random bar I just used a random number generator website and counted my way to O'Donnel's Pub.  This week I decided not to leave it to chance by instead leaving it to you, the readers.  Two bars were neck and neck till the final hour but Thor's voters rallied hard tripling his votes.  I owe Thor Platter a beer for picking bar #15, Jammy Buggars.

My friends couldn't wait for me to be done with work at 8 so I met them.  When I told the hostess I was meeting people she sadly told me that trivia had just been canceled (the trivial man had a flat tire and wasn't willing to run his equipment to the bar.)  Jammy Buggars was nicely arranged with brick and wood work. There are three sections, the bar, dining, and game room.  Since trivia was unanswerable, we were in the dining room.  I let our waitress pick my meal as I couldn't make up my mind.  She was also able to both pronounce my second beer and understand my horrible mispronunciation of it. I also didn't write it down so if you know it, put it in the comments below.

 The owner came by and introduced himself.  Soon afterwards, my food showed up.  I ordered the fish and chips.  The fish was good, the breading was different than any I have had before, but in a good way. The overall report of the food from my table mates, that had mainly had the bbq, was that it was good but not spectacular. Jammy Buggers does have my favorite buffalo wings from the wing crawl. The sauce was a little thicker and had a good flavor. Plus the meat was definitely the highest quality of the crawl as well.  Obviously, better quality food has a higher quality price tag, but Jammy Buggars is striving for more than cheap bar food.

They of course have a higher quality beer list then just beers that you see during the Super Bowl.  My first beer was a Victoria Golden Monkey.  Its full of alcohol and tastes like good beer.  Basically it's as awesome as it sounds. But like this beer I think it is better if you've had a beer before you meet a gold monkey in steam punk attire. 

As normal, when I went off to take pictures of the bar I got sidetracked for a half hour. This time it was talking to the owner, Jim. Highlights of our talks were: gossip about the future of Sullivan’s (and no I'm not telling,) why doesn't anyone know that the Shamrock is awesome (we don't know,) Jim's worked real hard trying to make a great and unique bar, and yes, I do accept free beer.

The women departed. Johnny and I moved to the bar for free beer and to root on the Orioles. The beer was good I had another Weneaidfslahifhieaojflisjhfioe. We then got to try a new beer from Akron's Hoppin' Frog, “Natasha Rocks” America. It is a chocolate rye imperial stout. I don't like chocolate, rye or stout beers for the most part but this beer was pretty damn good.

The Orioles were not good but kept up a healthy amount of denial into overtime.  A worse baseball team was brought up, from one of the other bar patrons.  This one from Cleveland. No not that one, I'm talking about the one from the National League. The Spiders were Cleveland's professional baseball team in the late 1800s. During their final year in the NL they were so bad, partially their owner that both owned a second NL team and referred to them as a side show attraction.  That meant teams couldn't make money playing in Cleveland because of the extremely low attendance. The Spiders ended up playing most of their games at the opposing stadiums. The Spiders lost most of their games, officially achieving more away losses than any other professional baseball team ever will. No matter how bad your favorite team is, they will never be as bad as the Cleveland Spiders. That was also the Spider's last season and they are in no way connected to the AL's Indians.

The game was over and the bar was empty it was time for us to go. It was also the first time Every Bar in Lakewood closed down a bar. Jammy Buggers was voted as the bar on Detroit Avenue that we needed to go to and for good reason. Many different establishments have resided in the JB location: Nikos, Route 6, and Nikos to name a few. Jammy Buggers has endeavored to break the mold of the terminally closing bars of 15625. It's not simply a nice looking bar with good food and beer. Jammy Buggars is constantly working at making the food and experience better. You can tell they put effort into finding quality ingredients and a unique taste. I had a great time at bar #15. They won't have to be jammy Buggars to be open a year from now and you'll feel like one if you give them a visit.

Awesome: Customer Service, Craft Beer, Gastropub Food, Wings

15625 Detroit Ave

216-767-5922

sprenger1355@yahoo.com

Facebook

 www.jammybuggars.com

Bar #14: Manja

Different people see hipsters in different ways.  To some, hipsters are lazy people that apathetically like old clothing and random things ironically.  To others, hipsters are people that pay attention to what is cool before the mainstream knows about it and what should be cool again.  Manja is known as a hipster bar but is it cool or is it simply ironically bad.

There are rules to follow when going to a bar. Rule #1, don't show up to a bar the minute they open. To be a hipster you need a certain nonchalance. You can't be nonchalant during an hour defined by being happy. Manja rejects so called "happy hours", not only by having beer prices competitive with the other bars temporary price drops but by rejecting the happy hour time block altogether. Manja usually opens around 9. Unfortunately, I start work every morning at 7:15. Staying out late on weekdays is rarely a good option. This brings us to why I broke rule #1, I wanted enough time to get a good feel for the bar and catch, at least the beginning, of the comedy show that night.

We were the only people in the bar for the first hour. We talked with John the bartender while we drank our first beers. He had two pythons, one of which is recently deceased. The snake's sibling may be acquired, you'll find a sign with a picture in the bar.Manja is a great mixture trendiness and college dorm room. This is seen by comparing the designer bar and hanging lights with the vintage couches and painting of Kramer. Pink Floyd was prevalent on the speakers but you can pick the music.

Some would say that a bar named Manja must have amazing food. However, Manja is so ironic that it offers nothing to eat all. Most of the beer options are working class cheap beers like PBR. I added the renowned Yuengling to my beers on tap list. Yuengling had been one of the most sought after beers to move to Ohio. The demand was so high that it was unable to handle starting sales to our state. A year ago Yuengling decided that was enough and opened an entire factory in Kentucky just so that Ohio could partake. It seems to be a success because I rarely can find a bar that doesn't carry it. It's probably my favorite of the mass produced beers of the US.

After our talk of John's snake, we moved on to the Sociability Center to play Foosball. As mentioned previously, I am not good at Foosball. I did come up tied playing against Johnny 1 game to 1. John, paid for our games and also for the two games we played against him. Bar Rule #2, do not play the bar game against the bar owner; you will lose. I was happy that I scored a point, but after only scoring 1 point you can never accept the "good job" by your opponent without a scowl. The owner may be a vampire, which would explain why the bar isn't open while the sun's out and his lightning fast reflexes on the Foosball table.

Around 10, people started showing up, including the funny people. By 10:30 the bar had a nice crowd but the little voice in my head start complaining that I had to wake up in 7 hours for a 13 hour day. Unfortunately, I had to leave with the night obviously feeling unfinished.  I'll leave you with a To Be Continued on the tale of Manja so that I can go there while people are around.

Obviously, I would go back to Manja. It's got a hip and friendly atmosphere and crowd, cheap beer, and a great downloaded list of songs on the giant pay ipod.  Once you're tired of your old bar head over to Manja where the party's just beginning.

Awesome: Customer Service, Atmosphere

13373 Madison Ave

216-221-5445

Manja on Facebook