Cleveland Beer Week

In case you've been hiding under a rock for the past week, it's Cleveland Beer Week.  That's right, it's the magical 10 days of the year when Cleveland restaurants have "brewery takeover" nights, which basically equates to meet and greets with Brew Masters from your favorite breweries, free glasses almost anywhere you order a pint and super-delicious small batch beers, some of which are brewed exclusively for Cleveland Beer Week!  I've been to a few of the events, mostly because I love collecting different pint glasses..."collecting" meaning I'm 25 years old and really need to build my dishware collection...

But the food's great, the people are great and the beer's especially great.  So what are you waiting for?  Be sure to check out the Cleveland Beer Week Events page on their website to see what's happening tonight...and tomorrow...and Saturday and Sunday too, of course!  And if you have a chance to sample the Fathead's Jungle Juice Head Hunter IPA like we did last night at Forage Public House, I strongly encourage it!

No Place Like Home...Panama, Part 1: Panama City

Howie and I officially scratched Central America off of our travel bucket list last week during a wild and adventurous trip to Panama.  After having the opportunity to visit a cosmopolitan finance capital, a quiet beach town, the Pacific Ocean, the Caribbean Sea, the rainforest and a gorgeous Spanish Colonial Old Town - all in a single trip - I can most certainly promise that this won't be my last time visiting Central America.  There's no doubt in my mind that the most spectacular part about traveling to Panama was that it still felt like a secret.  I was at some of the most astonishingly beautiful places I had ever been in my life, but knew that only a handful of other people had laid eyes on the landscape or stepped on the terrain.

Welcome to Panama, the "land of 1,000 fishes"...and perpetual bad hair days.

The Detroiter

I love a good Friday happy hour after a long week of work.  Who doesn't?  What I love even more is when said happy hour establishment sells only regional craft beers and has amazing appetizers, sandwiches and entrees to accompany these local beers.  Did I mention every single item on the menu is made from scratch?  Sounds too good to be true...but it isn't.  The Detroiter, located in the former World of Beer location, is the newest addition to Lakewood's bustling restaurant and bar scene - I must say, it's quickly becoming my favorite.

Platform Beer Co.

The sun's shining, it's Saturday and it's debatable whether or not you need to wear a jacket today - stop what you're doing and head to Platform Beer Co.'s patio immediately.  I visited for the first time last night and will DEFINITELY be making my return trip as soon as possible; I think it just might be my new favorite spot in Ohio City.  I loved the industrial feel of the interior, the laid-back staff, the young(er) crowd and, of course, the outdoor patio that seems to have been built for people like me that want to bask in that warm orangey-yellow evening sunlight with a cold beer in hand.  On the hipster scale, it's probably the closest you can get to Portland without physically being there.  But hey, we all know that embracing our hipster side is what's finally making Cleveland "cool" to people who don't actually live here. Though we were planning on only staying for happy hour, we ended up ordering dinner from the Cleveland Pickle, which sets up shop there on Friday nights.  Since they don't have a kitchen, Platform brings in different Cleveland foodie favorites each day of the week that offer a condensed version of their regular menu.  Kind of a like a food truck, but minus the truck and inside instead of on the street.  I must say my Clevelander sub and kettle chips were a perfect match with the Platform Speed Merchant IPA.  Now what are you doing still reading this?  Go, as you are, right now.

An Afternoon in Ohio City: West Side Market and Great Lakes Brewing Co.

So we're not exactly getting the spring weather that we hoped for.  Um, what the heck Ohio, 27° and it's almost April?  Regardless, it's a sunny beautiful day, and one of my favorite places to go on a Saturday is the West Side Market in the Ohio City neighborhood.  For some reason, every time I step inside I instantly feel like I'm somewhere else...or maybe more like I'm living back in Florence again and visiting the Mercato di San Lorenzo for some fresh vegetables and ciabatta bread.  Okay, I'm officially daydreaming - back to the West Side Market.  On the weekends, it's always bustling with with people; you literally have to shimmy sideways sometimes to get through the crowds.  But if you time your trip just right, at about 3:30 in the afternoon, all of the vendors start to mark down their prices because the West Side Market is closed on Sundays and they have to get rid of their produce for the new week.  You'll get the best deals on the freshest produce around!

Rocky River Brewing Co.

My favorite thing in the whole wide world might be Friday Happy Hour.  There's just something about the feeling of freedom from the work week and excitement for the weekend's festivities that pair perfectly with a good beer and equally delicious food.  Howie and I have our old standbys, Deegan's Kitchen and Bar ($3 drafts til 7!) and 16-Bit Bar+Arcade ($1 off beers and we can channel our inner hipsters), but we also love trying new restaurants and bars.  Like Rocky River Brewing Company. I've been to RR Brewing Co. a few times since late fall and it's never disappointed!  It's kind of like a miniature version of Ohio City - super great food for reasonable prices with craft beer brewed in-house - but without all of the chaos typical to West 25th St.  Not saying that you won't have to wait for a table if you come after 6, but it won't be a 2 hour wait like everybody's probably had to suffer once or twice in order to eat at Great Lakes Brewing Co. or Market Garden.  

Brite Winter Fest

I know that you can tell it's absolutely freezing outside just by looking out the window...and that it's actually colder here than on Mars today... and that you're going to think I'm crazy for advertising an outdoor event in Cleveland in the middle of February...but you have to go to Brite Winter Fest tomorrow in Ohio City.  It's an amazing night filled with bonfires, food trucks, beer, crowds of people and a ton of live music, all set up at various places throughout Ohio City.  I braved the elements this same time last year, and had the time of my life!  When we live in a city that has winter for 6-7 months out of the year, we might as well embrace the season!  Besides, the high tomorrow will be 37 degrees, which is about 45 degrees warmer than today.  Yikes!  If you get cold, I can name at least 5 breweries in walking distance of the festivities, one of which is releasing the Chillwave (or "Schill"wave, as I like to call it) Double IPA tomorrow, just in time for the festival!  Brite Winter starts at 4:00 p.m. tomorrow in Ohio City, and lasts until 11:00 p.m.  Be sure to check out the awesome Ohio City bars afterwards!  See you there!

Here are a few pictures of last year's event from the Brite Winter Fest official website...enticed yet?

Portside Distillery & Brewery

Howie and I made the trek from Lakewood to University Circle last Saturday afternoon with full intent to ice skate  Wade Oval.  When you both forget to bring a hat, gloves and scarf and it's 27° outside, there is a 99.9% chance that you will end up eating copious amounts of Chinese food at Ninja City Kitchen & Bar instead.  At least that's what happened in our case, with a little trip to Coquette Patisserie for a sweet treat afterwards.  The amaretto macarons were the bomb!  We still wanted to do a little Cleveland exploration, so we decided to make a pitstop at Portside Distillery & Brewery on the way home because the public tasting room recently opened.  You have to hit it up one of these weekends!

Old World Wednesday at Prosperity Social Club

Some people say Wednesday is their least favorite day of the week.  I say there's no reason to have a bad day of the week, so I go to Prosperity Social Club in Tremont for tasty food, Polish beer, and some good old Polka music.  That's right, every hump day from 6-9pm is Old World Wednesday, 3 full hours dedicated to celebrating Cleveland's Polish heritage.  As soon as you walk past the beautiful stone exterior and through the 1920's era wood door, any worries on your mind are instantly replaced by the sounds of the accordion and sights of people of all ages enjoying themselves in a room that has probably not changed for at least 60 years (besides the 13" TV above the bar circa 1989).