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

Bar #13 Bonnie and Clyde's Bar (Deceased)

One of the biggest hurdles that I have to watch out for while doing this blog is the raising of expectations. You hear these great things about a bar and the bar just gets better and better in your head. This week's bar is one such bar. I'd heard their food is great and have only heard about how wonderful the bar is. The question is does Bonny and Clyde's Bar do a bang up job or is this bar the unlucky #13?

Kelly and I arrive at Bonnie and Clyde's a couple minutes early and waste a couple minutes out front until Katie and Johnny arrive. Before they arrive we are met my new craziest old guy we've met at a bar. We're looking up the street seeing if we see them when suddenly there is a loud high pitched sound directly behind us. I spin around and am greeted with an old man with a giant gray/white beard on a bicycle. He was wearing a backpack with a single flower sticking out of it. He then motions to me if he can have a smoke. I say no, and he silent rides off up the sidewalk. Sadly, I didn't get a picture of my ninja, hobo friend.

Katie showed up next but Johnny wouldn't meet us for a while as he was thwarted by animals for the third time that day. The first was that he helped save a dog hit by a car that morning on his way to work (he didn't hit the dog.) The second was his car was attacked by a bird. This last time, a herd of 20 deer blocked off the exit from his parking lot.

The excitement never stops out front of Bonnie and Clyde's Bar as we approached and greeted by Bonnie, the owner. She was very friendly and excited to show us around her bar. She was one of a couple of bars that had invited us to come see them early on in the blog. She did not have a tommy gun.

They have two rooms with fun 20s style and they place was busy. The seating, even the bar seats, was quite comfortable, I've rarely found the seating worth mentioning and even rarer bringing up their comfort. There was paintings of Bonnie and Clyde's scenes throughout the second room. It also included some dart boards.

Bonnie then brought us back to a very nice hidden back patio. She took pride in it and it showed. We also heard a story about a woman that decided to move both above and next door the two bars at this location. She calls the police on a regular basis complaining about the noise. I'm not going to say that a bar patio is never noisy but Bonnie's is hardly one of Lakewood's rowdier bars and there's no speakers outside. But I would like to know why she moved into a location that was surrounded by bars?

 

My beer was a Lemon Berry Leinenkugel. I didn't hate it but I didn't like it either. It was a mixture of berry and lemons but really tasted fairly generic.

We put our orders in with our waitress with our hopes high after many accounts of how good the food was. I ordered the day's special, a ground beef quesadilla . A few minutes later, two more of our friends showed up, Beth and Yvette. They waitress immediately began to help them but disappeared when they said they were going to go look at the taps. They got their orders in within the next 10 or 15 minutes. 

 

Our conversations included exciting topics like: Everything tastes better with dog hair in it (no dog hair was found in or near food from Bonnie and Clyde's) and mechanical claw games that allow you to catch live lobsters.

A little while later they got their food. 15 minutes later I went to the bar to ask what had happened. The cook couldn't give any reason but our waitress was very apologetic.

Eventually, the food did come. My quesadilla was giant and good. Nothing that I would have complaints about as was everyone's food that came. It didn't quite live up to the expectations of the best food ever made but it never does.

Bonnie and Clyde's Bar is an overall solid bar with a good beer selection, food, and atmosphere. It's owned by a woman that really cares about her bar and making it a place to go. As a comparison to Bar #11, after I left Bonnie and Clyde's I was still happy and had good things to say about it. Basically, you gotta give Bar #13 a shot, you won't regret it.

Awesome: Atmosphere, Food

13603 Madison Ave.

216-228-0706

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Bonnie-and-Clydes-Bar

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. 

Saturday Celebartion!

Get ready for one of Lakewood's biggest bar event weekends. Every Bar in Lakewood has been invited to four different events this Saturday. There's a wing crawl, a classic car and music show, a pot luck, and a wedding reception (congratulations Steve and Beth!) This should be a great weekend for you to make a dent in our list of all the bars.

First off is the Pillars Wing Crawl. You'll be able to get 4 wings at each of the 11 bars participating. You'll also get to ride around in the shuttles. The cost is $20 presold, you can buy them online or at the partipating bars. You get five bucks off if you are part of the Pillars. The bars are Around the Corner, Avenue Tap House, Midtown Booths, Deagans, Eddy and Iggy's, Harry Buffalo, Jammy Buggars, the Local Bar, Merry Arts, Plank Road Tavern and the Riverwood Cafe. If you buy online you can pick up the passes tomorrow at the Local between 12:30 and 2pm. The crawl will last from 1 pm till 7 pm. Come out and try some of the best chicken wings in Lakewood and vote whose is the best. Drink beer, eat wings, it's the democratic thing to do!

http://pillarsoflakewood.org/wingcrawl/

That's not all, Madison Avenue will be rocking all day long as Lakewood throws it's 10th annual Car Kulture Show. The show runs from 10 am till 6pm. You'll get to see plenty of classic cars, including hot rods, vintage race cars and even custom made. There will also be plenty of chopper and bobber style motorcycles. There will be vendors offering everything you can think for the hot rod and cycle enthusiasts. Music will be outdoors for most of the day and move into the Screaming Rooster with the Straight 8s at 3:20. After the show ends you can catch more rock-a-billy playing Straight 8s at 9pm back at the Rooster. The Red Hot Heathens Burlesque Troupe will be performing between their sets. During the day don't forget to stop in the Rooster, Mars Bar and Beer Engine they helped sponsor this fantastic event. Make sure you stop on by, it'll be running before the crawl and it's free!

http://www.lakewoodcarkultureshow.com/

What's missing from all this awesome? Togas! The Tarrymore Tavern will be having a toga potluck party starting at 1pm on Saturday. Stop on by in your best sheet (maybe not best) and share some food, fun and buy some cheap beer. You are guaranteed to have a good time!

https://www.facebook.com/events/128865090591357/

Today's official bar is Around the Corner! Also, don't forget to buy a t-shirt from our shop, they'll be needed for a contest we'll be starting soon. Have a great weekend and go enjoy Lakewood!