Readers Poll Winners: Arts & Entertainment
Best Bar for Hooking Up
Velvet Dog
If four floors of dancing, DJs, and drinking don't improve your chances of finding that Saturday-night special someone, you've got problems even the Velvet Dog can't fix.
1280 West Sixth St., Cleveland, 216-664-1116, velvetdogcleveland.com
Best Movie Theater
Cedar Lee Theatre
This venerable Cleveland Heights art house mixes up the best mainstream offerings with the most sought-after independent films. It's clean, it's welcoming — and its concession stand is beyond reproach.
2163 Lee Rd., Cleveland Heights, 440-564-2030, clevelandcinemas.com
Best Blog
Cleveland Foodie
The Cleveland Foodie is Michelle V, an amateur cook, enthusiastically eclectic eater, and prolific writer who pens unapologetically engaging entries about her encounters with food all over the city, as well as recipes, chef interviews, and reports on her vacation food adventures.
Best Dance Club
Velvet Dog
The world was made for platonic booty-shaking too. If that's your calling, then the Dog of the Warehouse District is still your best bet for quality music and a packed dance floor every weekend.
1280 West Sixth St., Cleveland, 216-664-1116, velvetdogcleveland.com
Best Place to Drink Cheap
Now That's Class
Every day from 6 to 9 p.m., Now That's Class offers $1 cans of Rolling Rock and Miller High Life. Show up early for a show or leave before it gets loud. The place isn't fancy, and that's precisely the point.
11213 Detroit Ave., Cleveland, 216- 221-8576, nowthatsclass.net
Best Local Theater Company
Cleveland Public Theatre
If your theatrical tastes are 180 degrees from community-theater interpretations of Joseph & the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, catch one of CPT's boundary-breaking productions, which grapple with important issues in offbeat ways.
6415 Detroit Ave., Cleveland, 216-631-2727, cptonline.org
Best Hip-Hop Club
B-Side Liquor Lounge
The sleek but comfortable lounge under the Grog Shop serves up a menu of dance music that includes electro, soul, and indie rock as well as hip-hop. Its Tuesday-night spoken-word event attracts a chic adult crowd.
2785 Euclid Heights Blvd., Cleveland Heights, 216-932-1966, bsideliquorlounge.com
Best Radio Station
100.7-FM WMMS
In the rock & roll capital, nothing sells quite like straight-up rock & roll. The Thundering Buzzard still reigns supreme.
Best Art Gallery
Cleveland Museum of Art
Not a "gallery" in the classic sense, Cleveland's world-class museum is a classic in every other sense, so who are we to argue here.
11150 East Blvd., Cleveland, 216-421-7340, clevelandart.org
Best Concert Club
Beachland
Formerly a polka hall, the Beachland offers great sight lines, crisp acoustics, reasonably priced drinks, and most important: reasonably priced tickets for just about every type of show you can imagine.
15711 Waterloo Rd., Cleveland, 216-383-1124, beachlandballroom.com
Best Club for Underground Sounds
Now That's Class
Rocking seven nights a week, Now That's Class has some of the aura of a D.I.Y. punk club, but with a liquor license and a packed calendar of loud underground bands — some local, some from around the world — booked well in advance. And it serves vegan food.
11213 Detroit Ave., Cleveland, 216- 221-8576, nowthatsclass.net
Best Drag Performer
Shari Turner
Already crowned Miss Gay Black Ohio, this stunning beauty from Cleveland's West Side is a cosmetology student when the lights of the stage don't beckon.
Best Bar for Smokers
Spitfire Saloon
In a world gone smoke-free, this refuge on the Lakewood-Cleveland border gets the nod for best place to park your butts.
1539 W 117th St., Cleveland, 216-226-7748
Best Gay-Lesbian Bar
Bounce
Nestled between Detroit Ave. and the Shoreway on Cleveland's near West Side, Bounce is the epicenter of Cleveland's gay nightlife.
2814 Detroit Ave., Cleveland, 216-357-2997
Best Karaoke Bar
Tina's Nightclub
An anchor of the burgeoning Detroit-Shoreway neighborhood, Tina's is the place to loosen the belt and belt out the hits.
5400 Herman Ave., Cleveland, 216-651-8057
Best Gentlemen's Club
Christie's Cabaret
With three locations in the region, Christie's has Northeast Ohio's adult entertainment needs covered like no one else.
1180 Main Ave., Cleveland, 216-574-6222, 1246 Pearl Rd., Brunswick, 330-220-1888; 4465 Everhard Rd. NW, Canton 330-305-0555; christiescabaret.com
Best Club DJ
DJ Kishka
You'll find this turntable dynamo holding court during the Happy Dog Saloon's Polka Happy Hour. You were expecting hip-hop, perhaps?
Best Club Theme Night
Cleveland Trivia Nights at Melt Bar & Grilled
Not sure what it says about our party scene that grilled cheese and U.S. Military History are our idea of a hot night on the town, but consider it further proof that Melt's twin locations ooze everything Clevelanders desire these days.
14718 Detroit Ave., Lakewood, 216-226-3699; 13463 Cedar Rd., Cleveland Hts., 216-965-0988; meltbarandgrilled.com, http://www.clevelandtrivia.net/
Best Selection of Microbrews
Buckeye Beer Engine
With great beers of their own plus a phone-book sized list of offerings from around the world, there's no reason to come here seeking the ordinary.
15315 Madison Ave., Lakewood, 216-226-2337, buckeyebeerengine.com
Best Neighborhood Bar
Happy Dog Saloon
It's become the latest hot venue for Cleveland's indie rockers, but the Happy Dog's informal atmosphere and inexpensive, simple yet diverse menu — hot dogs with a huge variety of custom toppings — make it an ideal neighborhood hangout for the Gordon Square district.
5801 Detroit Ave., Cleveland, 216-651-9474, happydogcleveland.com
Best Wine Bar
La Cave du Vin
This spacious cellar's dusky romantic atmosphere enhances its large stock of American and international wines and specialty beers. With a plate of craft cheeses and local artisan bread from On the Rise, you can have an evening out that's both simple and sophisticated.
2785 Euclid Heights Blvd., Cleveland Heights, 216-932-6411, lacaveduvin.com
Best Martini Bar
Velvet Tango Room
Food and drink trends may come and go, but the Tango Room continues to be Clevelanders' top place to be shaken and stirred.
2095 Columbus Rd., Cleveland, 216-241-8869, velvettangoroom.com
Best Dive Bar
Now That's Class
Only a martini would be in poor taste at this West Side clubhouse, where punks and metalheads wash down vegan food with cheap beer and listen to thrash on the jukebox.
11213 Detroit Ave., Cleveland, 216- 221-8576, nowthatsclass.net
Best Sports Bar
Winking Lizard
With a dozen local locations and counting, the Lizard has tapped into Clevelanders' top passions like no other place around.
winkinglizard.com
Best Hipster Bar Happy Dog Saloon The Happy Dog has it all: a cool crowd spanning college kids to scene lifers, gloriously overgarnished hot dogs, hot local bands like HotChaCha, visiting stars like Hüsker Dü's Grant Hart, and a polka happy hour every other Friday. 5801 Detroit Ave., Cleveland, 216-651-9474, happydogcleveland.com Best Museum Cleveland Museum of Art Already a world-class institution, Cleveland's glorious art museum is finally emerging from a years-long expansion and renovation that further cements its formidable reputation. 11150 East Blvd., Cleveland, 216-421-7340, clevelandart.org Best Original Musician Hal Walker This Kent-based folkie plays an array of instruments from all over the world to enhance his songs celebrating Ohio's natural beauty. Walker belts them out in area clubs, coffeehouses, and even schools, for which he is often asked to perform. http://www.halwalkermusic.com/ Best Original Band Forged in Flame The metal quartet's brand of dense, precise stoner rock is dusted with prog influences and dovetails perfectly with the region's musical sensibilities. Best Cover Band Tricky Dick and the Cover Ups With an arsenal ranging from Kings of Leon to kings of '80s cheese metal, Tricky Dick keeps parties rocking from East Side to West — and all the way to Put-in-Bay.
