Best Blog in Cleveland Contest!

When I began this quest it was simply because I wanted to go to every bar in Lakewood. Turning it into a blog was simply to feed my need for a creative outlet and keep me from getting bored or lazy and quitting. Other than a few early bits of fame, including an article about me in the Cleveland Scene and being a celebrity judge for the Pillars Wing Crawl, I have been able to do this blog in relative anonymity. A handful of bar owners and bartenders knew who I was and occasionally I would be approached by someone that would randomly recognize me or more probably would recognize my shirt and want to know how I got one. When Scene Magazine's Best of issues would come by, I usually figured I could get nominated through a strategy of persistent online annoyance. I assumed my chance of actually winning was fairly slim, especially with the strong competition I had.

So, I was pleasantly surprised when I found out that all of you thought I deserved to be the best blog and blogger in Cleveland. THANK YOU! I had a couple supporters that really supported the blog through the voting and nomination process. Thanks to Lakewood Citizen, or @lkwdcitizen as he's known on Twitter, we've been tweeting Lakewood news with each other on for a little while now and took to sending each support for the vote as well. You should follow him on Twitter for all your non-LKWD bar and disaster related news. (Don't worry he'll put up posts about bars and gang wars as well.) Momocho and El Carnicero included me in their own search for Cleveland royalty. I loved their bars before now. I even had my wedding reception at Momocho; yeah I bet you didn't have wild boar at yours. Bella Sin of Ohio Burlesque was a huge supporter of the blog for this years BOC. Her burlesque troupe is the longest running currently in the United States and is known internationally. I am also sponsoring a Nerdlesque (nerd burlesque) in Lakewood's Mahall's on May 10^th that she is headlining.

The most important contributor to this royal victory is all of you. I have received nothing but positive support from all of my readers whether they live locally or moved away and want to hear about their home town. Plus, obviously, I couldn't win unless you all voted. Since, you've all been nice enough to allow me the chance to win this award I'm giving you the chance to win something too!


THE CONTEST!


Tell me what your favorite bar from the Every Bar in Lakewood list is and why. The winner will be picked at random. Lazy people who write something like, “Buck's Beer Bar because it's good” will not win. You can attempt to win by commenting on my Facebook page, tweeting @EverybarLKWD, comment on my victory photo on Instagram @everybarlkwd, emailing me at samlakewood@gmail.com or even commenting below. One entry per person, please. Sharing this blog may increase your chances of winning and/or increase the amount of prizes. Speaking of prizes, if you win you will get a $50 gift certificate to the any bar of your choosing from the Every Bar in Lakewood list. Runners up may win a Every Bar in Lakewood T-shirt or a beer token from Tarrymore Inn! The winners will be announced on May 9^th! Answers may be featured in the actual Every Bar in Lakewood blogs.

Thank you for voting and of course thank you for reading. I hope you continue to enjoy my blog!


Cheers!  Because the best of Cleveland is Lakewood.

The Best of Cleveland is Lakewood

Every year, Scene Magazine has us vote for who we think are the best at what they do at, well at this point, just about everything, in the greater Cleveland area. It's easy to get overwhelmed while trying to make it through the nomination list. This year Every Bar in Lakewood is going to try and help out with a Lakewood voting list.
One of the key missions of this blog has been to help promote this great city. In the voting this year I would like to see a stronger presence of our community felt.
It's time to show the rest of our area, that the best of Cleveland is Lakewood. If your business, self or favorite is from Lakewood and should be nominated, let me know. Comment on this blog, tweet me, email me at samlakewood@gmail.com, or just comment on my Facebook page, then I'll list it on this blog. The more entrees included will create a stronger presence for the list on Google's search engine helping others support our great city. If you'd rather someone different than I've listed, let me know. Some of these have simply been big supporters of the blog. I also wouldn't mind your votes for Every Bar in Lakewood as the best Blog and Food Blog.


Use this link to get to get to the voting page.
http://posting.clevescene.com/cleveland/Survey

Art event?

Lakewood Arts Festival

Performing Arts Theater

Beck Center

Place for free fun

Lakewood Park

School District

Lakewood 

Local Neighborhood

Lakewood

Suburb

Lakewood

Restaurant

Deagans

New Restaurant

Humble Wine Bar

Romantic Restaurant

Humble Wine Bar

Brunch

Deagans

Buffet

India Garden

Patio Dining

Humble Wine Bar

Patio for Drinking

Humble Wine Bar

Wine Bar

Humble Wine Bar

Beer List

Buckeye Beer Engine

Vegan

Root Cafe

Burger

Deagans

Fries

Deagans

Seafood

Pier W

Pizza

Dewey's

Greek

Greek Village

Indian

India Garden

Taco

Barrio

Bloody Mary

Deagans

Taco Tuesday

Merry Arts

Dessert Menu

Humble Wine Bar

Place to Buy Music

My Minds Eye

Thrift Store

Avalon Exchange

Antique Shop

Lakewood Antique Mall

Consignment Shop

Curvy Consignment

Best Chocolate

Fears Confections

Deli

TJ's Butcher Block

Wine Shop

Rozi's

Beer Store

Simone's

Eco-Friendly

Root Cafe

Hair Salon

Crazy Mullets

Barbershop/Men's Cut

Reagle Beagle

New Store

Re/Dress

Jazz Club

Vosh

Blues Club

Winchester

Hipster Bar

Mahall's 20 Lanes

Karaoke Bar

Corky's Place or Eddy & Iggy's

Neighborhood Bar

Merry Arts or Plank Road Tavern

Industry Night

Mahall's, Deagans, or Harry Buffalo (We do Industry night well!)

Bowling Alley

Mahall's 20 Lanes

Darts

Bobby O's

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.

St. Patrick's Day 2013

Fasting before St. Patrick's Day allows more room for beer.

The Original Ladies of the Screaming Rooster

The head martian of the Mars Bar

Mars Bar

Amazingly my first green beer ever

I needed this hat

The Shamrock was busy at noon.

The Flying Rib 

More Flying Rib

Fans of the Every Bar in Lakewood at the Flying Rib

Mahall's

A fan of Pawsitive Influence and Every Bar in Lakewood at the Tarrymore Inn.

Free food at the Tarrymore Inn

Lakewood Village Tavern dressed in traditional Irish clothing?

McGinty's is back and was packed to the the walls.

The Patio

The Patio

Yes that's a mohawk and kilt at The Patio.

Taught me that I was wearing a leprechaun hat.

O'Donnell's Pub

Johnny and Katie, Every Bar in Lakewood's biggest fans!

Around the Corner

Sloane Pub

The Avenue

A St. Patrick's Day Pyramid

Plank Road Tavern

If you liked my St. Patrick's Day Guide and the pictures (should have had more but ran into a camera issue,)  then vote for Every Bar in Lakewood for this year's Scene Magazine Best of Issue

Best of Cleveland 2013