Bar #47 Pacer's Restaurant (Deceased)

This week's bar faces the strongest opposition that I have seen so far. When announced that I was going here for this week's bar I had multiple negative comments with a slew of likes on them. Looking up reviews of the bar gives an odd split of very negative and positive reviews. My friends and I still ventured in to this week's bar ready for anything. Is bar #47 the worst bar in Lakewood or is Pacers Restaurant on pace for the best.

The first thing you see when you get to Pacers is a gigantic patio. It's in fact the largest one in Lakewood. So, if today's blog entices you to visit, then do it while it's warm enough to enjoy the giant outdoor space. The second thing we noticed was the entrance is a revolving door, always a good decision for drunk people. Of course the entrance is for the entire office building and not just the bar.

Upon entering the bar you are greeted by the hostess and a long room. The bar is split in four parts. The quarter you're in is just entrance area and bar seating. You can circle around the bar for more seating at the bar and play a variety of games like pool, darts and corn hole. There is of course the large patio area, that we chose against to hide from the insect hordes. The downside to living next to a Great Lake is it's also a great buzzy insect incubator. Lastly there is a bunch of seating at tables and booths ending with a large projection TV. The whole restaurant has a horse racing theme, which explains their name.

Just to get this part out of the way the service was good. They were friendly, answered my questions and put up with the my minor obnoxious ordering quirks that have slowly grown through this blog.

I ordered a Southern Tier Pumkin Ale. It had its own glass and they put cinnamon around the rim. Pumpkin is the primary flavor to the beer with a background taste of mild ale and a dusting of seasoning. I prefer a pumpkin ale to taste like pumpkin, not as an ingredient to be hidden. So I approve of the beer and will drink more of it once it's no longer summer.

Now onto food! There's free fresh popcorn. I ordered the garlic and chili wings both saucy and crispy. This didn't please me, they are very small and the crispiness eliminated almost all meatiness leaving them a bit tough. I also ordered the self proclaimed “America's Best Ribs.” They are not the best ribs in America. They are quite good. The sauce was solid, not standing out but enjoyable. The ribs were tender and meaty. Kelly ordered the quesadilla with very low expectations but they were good, being both light and non-greasy. Their ranch sauce/dressing was highly recommended. They also offer food, some nights, till 1 am.

Jonn doesn't like spicy foods for the most part. You may remember from a previous blog that he still tried the ghost pepper sauce and extremely regretted it. Jonn has been trying fight back against things that make him unhappy. He has a fear of heights but has been climbing mountains, very tall buildings and even trapezing. This is the reason that he tried the undead sauce, just because he doesn't like most hot things doesn't necessarily mean he won't like this one. The counter argument was presented: I don't like being hit in the face with a ball peen hammer. I'm not going to try getting hit by other hammers to see if I'll like a different one. The moral to our story is that there is a difference between facing new things and your fears and doing things that will make you unhappy in different ways.


Today's tip on women: Guys, when women have a cold with puffy eyes, and a runny nose. No matter how much “you don't mind”, they do not feel sexy. They also probably won't want your oozing face near theirs if you're the sick one. Tell them they're beautiful and give them some chicken soup because you know you're going to be a whiney jerk when you catch it from her.

Pacer's can stand as much as a restaurant with a bar as a bar with food. They have your normal bar activities including trivia, karaoke and free wifi. There's no problem just drinking during your visit. Pacer's has a large food selection levels and received mostly good reviews by the five of us. The beer selection is passable giving multiple options no matter what your beer taste is. The pricing is above dive bar but you can eat a meal for under $10. We left bar #47, Pacer's Restaurant, happy and so can you.

14600 Detroit Ave

216-226-2000

pacers1453@sbcglobal.net

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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

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 www.jammybuggars.com

Bar #9, The Church Bar (Deceased)

A preacher, a nun, and a blogger walk into a church. The blogger goes to the preacher, what's good? The preacher answers: Beer! When I look around this house of worship, I see a mixture of gay and straight people with plenty of good beers on tap. At Bar #9, The Church Bar, drinking is a religious experience.

There is a new trend in Lakewood. Bars are beginning to open that really try to be unique and want to be the place you want to keep coming back to. The Church Bar is one of those bars. They invested over 45 thousand dollars into renovating and revamping McGintys Achill Isle Pub. They've created a warm and inviting environment with sofas, a fireplace and a noticeably clean environment. The bathrooms are immaculate. The Church Bar is a good mixture of the cozy and comfortable with random Christian iconography and fanciness.

My beer of the night was another from Six Point called Resin. 6 Point takes what's left over from their pilsner vats and make the beer from that. It tastes like a darker IPA..that's been scraped off the side a vat. But I liked it! Christopher was the bartender of the night, I was told that he makes perfect drinks by a bartender that comes to the Church to drink. They didn't have food, so I had more beer to wash my beer down with.

A man in black had been staring at our table on and off all evening. He eventually put together the courage to come over and talk to our resident preacher. I assume he was looking to get lucky. Unfortunately, once he found out that Aidan's boss is God, he shot himself down with the excuse that Aidan wouldn't like him. He spent most of the rest of the time we were there sitting by himself. Don't be this guy, be social and give yourself a chance to be shot down.

The Church Bar has a nice pool table. They also have a trivia game on Wednesdays that's a lot of fun and isn't afraid to admit that their game is actually for adults.

The Church bar isn't your stereotypical gay bar. This isn't a dance club and you can hear people talking below a yell. When asked why people come to this bar two of the primary reasons were this is a chill and relaxed environment and because this is a bar where everyone feels comfortable coming. The Church bar has made it, its mission to create a space where everyone is equals regardless of gender or orientation. They are currently the #3 ranked gay bar in all of Cleveland. If you want to go to a bar where you'll have a good time and meet friendly, interesting people in a great environment then come to the Church Bar. It's not a bar for gay people, it's a bar for people. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Awesome: Craft Beer, Atmosphere, Customer Service, LGBT

13751 Madison Ave.

(216) 226-1770

https://www.facebook.com/thechurchbar