First Look – GUSTI Italian Grill
GUSTI Italian Grill is tucked away in Beachcliff Market Square on Detroit Rd. in Rocky River. If you haven’t been there, your missing something special. Founder Pat Burns, a 35-year veteran of the restaurant industry, has made it his mission to educate Northeast Ohioans on the fast casual art of Italian cuisine. Since the inception,…
Video: This Woman is an A-Hole (Updated)
Update III: In addition to yanking Shena Hardin’s license for 30 days and forking over a $250, the judge sentenced everyone’s favorite a-hole driver to some public shaming. Next Tuesday and Wednesday you can find Hardin at the corner of E. 38th and Payne wearing a sign that reads: “Only an idiot would drive around…
Concert Review: Sum 41 at House of Blues
The four-minute wait between the end of opener IAmDynamite’s set and the beginning of Sum 41’s set last night at House of Blues was quickly forgotten once the band, on tour to celebrate the ten-year anniversary of its pop-punk classic Does This Look Infected?, came out and delivered “Hell Song.” By the set’s fifth song,…
Who are you voting for?
I am not talking about Obama or Romney. There is a much bigger issue at stake here; burger or hot dog joints? This choice has been debated ever since bread was sliced. And Northeast Ohio has its share of classic and trendyburger and dog spots. The burger as of recently has taken a culinary twist…
Here’s Sherrod Brown Dancing at a Jay-Z Concert
Jay-Z’s performance at an Obama rally really had the Senator and his lovely wife, Connie Schultz, in the mood and showing some of that election fever. Get down, you two. Get down. In related news, Brown has now locked up the coveted male 45-55 “can’t dance” demographic. And Josh Mandel still doesn’t know who Jay-Z…
Grilled Cheese Invades Mentor
The past weekend was a big one for Mentor. No, I am not talking about the President’s visit. The new Melt Bar and Grilled has opened. The long-awaited opening marks the fourth location for this Cleveland-area favorite, which serves award-winning gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches. Located in the Points East Plaza at the corner of Route…
Concert Review: The Tragically Hip at House of Blues
Longevity doesn’t guarantee anything in the world of rock ’n’ roll. Plenty of classic rocks continue to plug away on the touring circuit, trotting out their hits and going through the motions. Thankfully, Kingston, Ontario’s the Tragically Hip, which has almost 30 years under its belt, is not one of those bands. These guys have…
Judge Rules in Favor of Cleveland Heights Football Team (Updated)
Who gets to play for the glory? Update: After initially siding with Cleveland Heights, a judge has now rescinded his temporary restraining order. In plainspeak, that means the original playoff schedule is a go — Mayfield is in the playoffs; Cleveland Heights is out. Domino-ing off this decision is the Division 4 schedule: in that…
Josh Mandel’s Family Calls Out Josh Mandel For His Backward Views on Gay Issues
The Mandel/Brown race has been contentious enough, but even more so amongst Cleveland’s east-side Jewish population, torn between the Democrat and the homegrown east-side Jewish boy running against him. It shouldn’t even be a race, but those nostalgic sentiments are still overriding common sense in some folks. Not Josh Mandel’s family however. Below, an open…
Concert Review: Tenacious D at House of Blues
For close to 20 years now, singer-guitarists Jack Black and Kyle Gass have pushed rock parody to the limits with their duo Tenacious D. You would think the joke would have run its course by now. But the two always find a way to breathe new life into it. Last night before a sold-out crowd…
Forget Sandy – Remember the Restaurants
Wind damage, never-ending rain, flooded streets and continuing power outages — Hurricane Sandy made our lives in Northeast Ohio pretty miserable. Being a food guy with a lot of respect for the industry, my heart has gone out to our beloved restaurants. Granted, they’re only a small part of much larger losses inflicted by the…
Letters We’d Like to Get
Dear Scene: If I did empty a 55-gallon drum into a storm drain in Strongsville, it definitely did not contain cyanide. And no way was it the same punctured drum that investigators found at my home. Besides, I’m an invalid in a wheelchair, how could I push around a heavy drum full of toxic chemicals?…
Hurricane Sandy Brought Pieces of Old Municipal Stadium Out of Lake Erie
That debris on the shores of Bratenahl in Cleveland isn’t any normal debris. Those bricks are remnants from old Municipal Stadium, parts of which were used to build three reefs in Lake Erie after the cavernous former home of the Browns and Tribe was demolished. Hurricane Sandy’s sweep across our Great Lake brought the bricks…
Exotic Animal Owners Aren’t Registering Pets with the State (Updated)
Just make sure you keep it street legal. Update: So, how’s the exotic animal registration progressing as the deadline to notify the state and fill out the proper paperwork approaches on Monday? Not good. Via the Zanesville Times Recorder: Officials at the Ohio Department of Agriculture think at least 500 private individuals own animals on…
Video: Kyrie Irving’s New ‘Uncle Drew’ Commercial
You youngbloods have no idea what’s coming. Part two of Kyrie Irving as Uncle Drew.
My Bucket List of Chefs
The West Side Market’s Centennial Gala is just a few days away, and it will feature some awesome culinary talent. Cleveland is fortunate to be one of the top culinary destinations in the country, and this event will feature some of the city’s finest chefs, starting with the co-chairs, Michael Symon and Jonathan Sawyer. They…
Lorain Student Arrested for Threatening Mitt Romney
Here at Scene we’re always open to the occasion hatchet-job, smear, and/or humiliating dig at a public figure. But, hey now, there is a limit to these things. Physical violence is something we’d never advocate; once you get all belligerent in a potentially felonious fashion, shit gets real. A local college student is learning that…
Folk Implosion
When the Indigo Girls first formed in 1985, singer-guitarists Amy Ray and Emily Saliers were students at Emory University in Georgia. At that time, they didn’t think they’d continue to perform as a folk-rock duo for over 25 years. After all, they were essentially just a cover band, playing obscure Elton John and Dire Straits,…
Once a Hellion, Always a Hellion
When Integrity first formed in Cleveland nearly 25 years ago, few bands were combining hardcore punk with heavy metal. The band brought those two genres together and would subsequently inform an entire subgenre of music. Somehow singer Dwid Hellion, who moved to Belgium several years ago, has kept the band going, despite having a constantly…
Savage Love
Dear Dan So I was innocently browsing the personal ads on Craigslist and saw one from a dude who was looking to try “saline balls” for the first time. Having no idea what this was, I googled it. Even worse, I google-imaged it. I pride myself on being unshockable, but I was completely and utterly…
Culture Jamming
TOP PICK The Coup Sorry to Bother You (Anti=) This San Francisco hip-hop group sounds revitalized right from get-go. “The Magic Clap,” the funky opening track of the band’s first studio album in six years, simultaneously recalls Outkast and Rage Against the Machine. The Velvet Underground & Nico (45th Anniversary) The Velvet Underground & Nico…
The God of Retail
There’s something profoundly depressing about the job-site rooms where employees go to relax during their work days.These supposed havens are called “break rooms,” with no apparent irony. But that ambiguity, plus a lot more Sturm und Drang, is on display in the break room that is the dominant set element for A Bright New Boise…
Opening: Brooklyn Castle
This inspiring documentary by Katie Dellarmagiore is a portrait of the Brooklyn, N.Y. junior high school I.S. 318, a formerly troubled school now ranked as one of NYC’s best, in large part because of its championship chess team, which is the best in the country, consistently winning at nationwide tournaments. Chess is a healthy obsession…
Sandy Live!
Weeks like this bring one of the great benefits of Twitter to the fore: You can track news events as they unspool in real time. It’s like an open market of folks working their heads around what’s going on, and reacting long before the news shows up on a nightly broadcast or in tomorrow’s paper.…
Scaling the Heights
Convivium33 Gallery might just be the perfect venue for The American Institute of Architects Cleveland chapter’s Architects Draw exhibition. Situated in the former St. Josephat’s Roman Catholic Church, the space itself is a celebration of the constructed form’s function as an object of beauty. The AIA exhibition similarly strives to fuse the architectural with the…
Academic Emergency
Joseph Gallagher School on Cleveland’s west side has been in Academic Emergency — the equivalent of receiving an ‘F’ on the State of Ohio report card — for over 10 years. Yet beneath the simple, all-too-easy label of “failing school” is a tough, caring place that refuses to give up on its kids or accept…
Culinary Calendar
Saturday, November 3 Dia de Muertos Celebration This Detroit-Shoreway classic will kick off at the Cleveland Public Theatre campus in the Gordon Square Arts District. An all-ages event, it features live music, dancing, food, and altar exhibitions. The festivities start at 11 a.m., with the Parade of the Skeletons stepping off at 3:30 p.m. For…
The Lizard Goes Upscale
Rumors of a new Rocky River establishment offering a Disney World for beer and whiskey drinkers prompted a visit to Lizardville. Located in the former Donatos, it greets visitors with a number of exterior upgrades that leave only a hint of the former tenant, including a decorative fence offering a welcome escape from the noises…
Opening: Wreck-It-Ralph
This animated movie takes a page out of the <em.Toy Story playbook by imaging what life is like for a group of characters that live inside arcade-style video games. As soon as the lights go off and the games become silent, guys like Wreck-It Ralph (John C. Reilly) go about their daily lives as if…
Russell Simmons, Activist
Russell Simmons — the man behind Def Jam records and Phat Farm fashion line, among many other successful ventures — is the rare mogul not content to sit around and count his millions. The New York native has been a vocal proponent of a number of social causes, from the fair treatment of animals to…
Opening: The Other Son
Lorraine Lévy’s sensitive drama tells the Prince and the Pauper-themed story of two 18-year-old boys whose parents make the shocking discovery that their sons were switched at birth though a hospital error. The interesting twist is that one boy, Joseph (Jules Sitruk) is an Israeli Jew, and the other, Yacine (Medhi Dehbi) a Palestinian living…
Lake Defect
When director Barry Levinson (Diner, Rain Man, Bugsy) debuted his new horror movie The Bay at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, he made quite a splash and came up with a runner-up award in the “Midnight Madness” category. The movie, which opens Friday at the Capitol Theatre (and comes to iTunes that same day),…
Eight Miles High
Twelve years have elapsed since Robert Zemeckis last directed a live-action movie (Cast Away). His return vehicle is Flight, a conventional but engrossing drama about a commercial airline pilot whose heroism in saving a nose-diving plane is tainted by his alcoholism and drug addiction. The story is based loosely on the case of Robert Piché,…
Five Under $10
With the Cavs season underway, East 4th St. is a prime spot to pre- and post-game. But the price of a ticket, parking, and beer at the Q is steep, so we’ve scoured the neighborhood for dining bargains that won’t put a full-court press on your wallet. With all the money you’ll save, a season…
Artist of the Week
Meet the Artist: Sam Brenner (vocals, guitar) From the Bedroom to Band Rehearsal: Currently living in Lyndhurst after graduating from John Carroll University in 2009, the Buffalo native sharpened his writing and playing skills in his bedroom. That situation eased Brenner’s transition into live performances as a solo artist. On his debut, Where We Begin,…
CD Review: Maura Rogers & the Bellows
Singer-guitarist Maura Rogers has spent the last couple of years coping with serious health issues (she just recently underwent a kidney transplant), and in the lyrics here you can hear the emotional toll that has taken on her. On “Cowboy Song,” she sings about getting “caught up in a memory” and her frustrating search for…
Sugar Man’s Second Coming
When Sixto Diaz Rodriguez played the Beachland Ballroom three years ago, the club’s owners had a hard time selling tickets. While Light in the Attic, a small indie label that specializes in reissuing out-of-print and hard-of-find music, had just reissued his back catalogue, that didn’t translate into ticket sales, and the show was only sparsely…
