Stacie Collins
With last year’s self-titled demo, Stacie Collins, born in Oklahoma but raised in Bakersfield, California, put out one of the best country records to come out of any smokestack city in the North. But because it clocked in at less than 28 minutes, it made local country music fans feel a bit cheated. With its…
Best Atmosphere
This rambling restaurant in Cleveland Heights — one part Irish pub, one part museum, and another part music showcase — has a little shrine to James Joyce in the dining room. It’s fitting: After all, Nighttown was named after the red-light district in Joyce’s Ulysses. Owner Brendan Ring’s immense collection of vintage posters, oil paintings,…
Best Nontraditional Casting
There were those who said it couldn’t be done — Shylock played as a rather fierce lesbian. Yet Bruml, with eyes flashing, made Medea look like June Cleaver in Red Hen’s The Merchant of Venice, proving them wrong. Audiences lucky enough to experience this apparition considered it a theatergoing epiphany.
Best Bike Path
It’s difficult to take the scenic route in the gym. Instead, why not guide your gluteus maximus down something a little more natural and picturesque? The Ohio and Erie Canal Towpath Trail gives bicyclists that chance by providing more than 30 miles of historic and gorgeous wilderness along the canal banks. Locks, marshes, museums, railroads,…
Best Debut Exhibit
This artist, whose work was debuted at the Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art, has her finger on the pulse of contemporary women’s issues and the way these intersect with broader currents in popular culture. The art that emerged from such concerns was fresh, surprising, and multilayered.
Best Greek Restaurant
Someday we will take a tour of Greece to see the little whitewashed houses, with their sky-blue doors opening out onto the sparkling Mediterranean. We shall climb the hill to the Parthenon. We shall study ancient sculptures. And then, come twilight, we shall toast the night with anise-scented ouzo and dance beneath the stars with…
Best Place to Feed the Ducks
They’re bald, billed, and bold. Accustomed to being fed delicacies such as stale cereal, stale bread, and stale crackers from their adoring fans (every four-year-old in a six-mile radius plus hand-holding couples giddy in love), the ducks living by the Clague Park pond will sideways-waddle practically right up to you. If you get tired of…
Best Ballroom Dance Teachers
A student in the Warings’ class can forget that he was born with two left feet. Something about his teachers puts him at ease. Perhaps it’s the slow, graceful way that Ed and Mitzi demonstrate each waltz, without any unnecessary movements. Perhaps it’s the funny way that diminutive Mitzi grabs a student and expertly leads…
Best Newspaper Columnist
It’s a pretty sad state of affairs when the best columnist in town doesn’t even have a column. But a little hurdle like that hasn’t stopped Phillip Morris — that bald guy with the horn-rimmed glasses who pops up on The Plain Dealer’s opinion page — from producing the best stuff of any local opinion…
Best Catfish Dinner With a Soul Food Flavor
Owners George and Sandra Dixon know how to cook up a great batch of melt-in-your-mouth catfish. But what makes their dinners so good goes beyond the “secret” seasonings they add to the fish. Their real secret is the touch of soul they throw in for good measure.
Best Torpedo
No one would imagine a torpedo to be particularly photogenic (save CNN), but the U.S.S. Cod submarine/museum has one worthy of a snapshot. Sure, it’s just another gray warhead painted for service, not decoration, but some enterprising whip placed a sign on it that reads “Please Do Not Touch the Torpedo.” Good advice, but it’s…
Best New Club
An old Croatian social hall that co-owners Mark Leddy and Cindy Barber have transformed into a concert venue, the Beachland has already attained a reputation as an artist-friendly venue since opening in March. In just a few months, the club has started to attract bigger and better bands, among them Guided by Voices, Jimmy Dale…
Best Deli
Pregnant women have been known to deliver their babies at nearby Fairview Hospital and then stop at Joe’s Deli on the way home for lunch. Their loyalty is no surprise — just look at the number of people who patiently wait at the hostess’s stand almost continuously during the deli’s hours of operation. To say…
The Who
Only Who drummer Keith Moon made good on the anthemic line, “Hope I die before I get old,” although guitarist Pete Townshend, who had his own struggles with drugs and alcohol in the late ’70s and early ’80s, did his best to join him. While the group never officially called it quits, even after Moon’s…
Best Dance Club
With Latin music burning up the charts, Latin clubs are hot, too. Clevelanders are shaking their hips to a salsa and merengue beat at Belinda’s, where local bands like Sammi Deleon and his Orchestra, Grupo Fuego, and the Son Alegre Orchestra play on weekends. For those whose dancing is a little rusty, Belinda’s offers tango…
Best Theatrical Newcomer
Since his electric debut as a bad-boy seducer in Bad Epitaph’s Sin, this charismatic young actor has smoothly traversed the emotional landscape. From the child-killer in Never the Sinner at the Jewish Community Center to the last angry cockney in Charenton’s Look Back in Anger, he has demonstrated an ever-broadening range of capabilities.
Best Place to Rent a Scary Movie
Your one-stop shop for candelabra-and-pipe-organ movies, monsters-made-out-of-old-quilts movies, and tap-dancing-transvestite movies. Plus cannibal flicks, an entire Bigfoot/Yeti section, all the more obscure David Lynch and Jim Jarmusch titles you couldn’t find at the chain stores, and a few thoroughly sick, utterly unredeeming things that will stay with you for the rest of your life. On…
Best Retrospective
This was an eye-opener. During her lifetime, Lee Krasner always seemed to labor in the shadow of her husband Jackson Pollock, but this exhibit at the Akron Museum of Art proved that she was a force to be reckoned with all on her own. Especially impressive was a series of abstractions she created in the…
Best Bowling Alley
There’s something about Moran’s that makes it worth the trip out west. Perhaps it’s the old-school factor: This isn’t some 62-lane bowl-o-plex family fun center with a 127-foot IMAX theater in the back. There are no disco balls, no rock-n-bowl — just eight lanes and a healthy respect for the integral relationship a certain malted…
Best Place for a First Date
Sounds crazy, but what could be a better icebreaker than selecting a horse together and uniting to cheer it to victory? Even picking the horse is a good way to get to know one another. The atmosphere is casual, and it includes food and entertainment, but it’s not as restrictive as going to the movies.…
Best Fresh Chef
Former triathlete, experienced vegan chef, and fan of all things fiery, Steve Parris’s passion for fresh and flavorful foods appears to know no bounds. In his role as executive chef at Fulton Bar & Grill, Parris is doing more than his fair share to support small-scale sustainable agriculture and the intimate connection between the earth…
Best Sports Bar
Even without such amenities as pleasing decor and an extensive menu that goes beyond the usual game-day munchies, this place would be No. 1 in the hearts of sports fans. The 40 TVs situated around Shula’s Steak 2 contribute to its popularity, but no doubt so do the lively atmosphere and clever seating arrangements. The…
Best Tabletop Adventure
Sometimes, eating is the best way to travel. That’s certainly the case at the Empress Taytu, a welcoming Ethiopian restaurant that serves what is undoubtedly the most exotic food in town. Sit at a traditional mesob — a low basket table surrounded by carved wooden stools — and breathe in the incense of the East…
Best View With a Beer
Unpretentious little Major Hoopples — a good old-fashioned, noisy neighborhood watering hole — has been blessed with an absolutely gorgeous view of the city. From its perch on a hillside near the western bank of the Cuyahoga River, the bar provides a perfect perspective on the maze-like tangle of bridges crisscrossing the Flats. As if…
Best Afternoon Tea
Before we had consciousness raisings, Prozac, and psychotherapy, there was afternoon tea, a female ritual so soothing and mood-enhancing that it took nobility (the famished Duchess of Bedford) to invent it. Now, when we feel our spirits flagging during the long hours of the weary afternoon, we pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and head…
Best Local Beer
It’s a safe bet that Cleveland’s competitive microbrew market is turning out cool ones that far surpass the piddling pilsners of the city’s Glory Days of Beer. But for our money — and yours, if you’d like to get together sometime — the Crooked River Brewing Company’s ESB (né Settlers Ale) tops the lot of…
Mike Watt
If true punk rock had any sort of hierarchy, singer-bassist Mike Watt would probably be its Johnny Cash. Often overlooked, Watt is one of rock music’s finest spokesmen and punk rock’s legendary Man in Flannel. Watt has crossed musical boundaries dozens of times since he, D. Boon, and George Hurley made the Reactionaries (their first…
Best Strip Club
What guy hasn’t ended up on the doorstep of a nudie bar? Well, if you’re gonna go, why not do it with class? That’s the attitude of Tiffany’s Cabaret downtown. If the pursuit of the near-perfect female body is one of your major aspirations in life, Tiffany’s is your place. Make a stop in for…
Best Reason to Stay Home Saturday Nights
Bill Rudman’s erudite musings on musical minutiae and the ins and outs of Broadway and Hollywood lore have enchanted radio listeners for 17 years. Footlight Parade, which originates from Cleveland’s WCLV-FM/95.5 but airs in at least 60 markets around the country, is the radio equivalent of touching silk. Tune in at 7 p.m. Saturdays and…
Best Italian Grocery Store
Ah, the aroma! You’ll think you’re in heaven — or at least Rome. Customers drool in front of the glass-encased lunchmeats, cheeses, salads, and olives, clutching their numbered paper slips and waiting for their turn to tell the nice man in the red polo shirt to please slice their prosciutto thin. Make a quick stop…
Best Bartender
This 86-year-old has spent 65 years working behind the bar at Jerman’s Café, which her family has owned for 92 years. Jerman, who generally tends the bar from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily, will often sit and make conversation in the evening, and she’s easily the most pleasant bartender in town. Perhaps her mild-mannered…
Best Cinematic Hero
The founder of the Cleveland Cinematheque and programmer for the Cleveland Art Museum fills Cleveland’s nights with the most interesting and esoteric films. An added bonus is Ewing’s boyish and charming intro speeches to “some kind of a classic.” Without him, local moviegoing options would be limited to the multiplex.
Best Putt-Putt
Miniature golf almost gets lost in the litany of attractions at Swings-N-Things, but the park’s sprawling course remains a noteworthy attraction. Thirty-six holes of immaculate greens, inventive scenery, and confounding obstacles yield a consistently delightful experience that’s not so difficult as to be frustrating. Never you mind the boneheaded lugs proving their mettle in the…
Best Crackpot Preacher
As leader of the Church of the Subgenius, the Reverend Ivan Stang keeps a shiftless schedule that includes making appearances at devivals (the church’s answer to rock concerts), hosting the Hour of Slack radio show, and occasionally guest-lecturing. He does it all in the name of Bob Dobbs, a salesman from the ’50s who’s become…
Best Tapas
You know the feeling. You’re hungry, you go to the happenin’ place, and everything on the menu looks so gosh-darned good you can’t decide what to order. Well, friends, there’s no need to suffer the humiliation of menu paralysis any longer. Next time, just go to sleek, energetic Mojo, Michael Herschman’s hot spot in Tremont,…
Best Seat at Jacobs Field
Offering a panoramic view of the field from between third base and home plate, this perch is not only prime game- and people-watching territory, it’s also under cover, sparing its occupant the effects of swirling storms and searing sun. Restroom convenience and vendor availability — at one time during a recent game there were three…
Best Place to Take Out-of-Towners
Sure, if your old college buddies come in for some booze, you head to the Flats, but what if your old college buddy arrives with his family? You not only need something to entertain adults, but also children — which is where the Science Center comes into play. Whether you’re old or young, there’s something…
Best Jukebox
Besides being a great spot for seafood, Lancer’s is also known for its jukebox. Every selection is a gem: not just the unusual variety of classic soul and blues, but the modern soul-stirrers as well. From Denise LaSalle to Luther Vandross and Maxwell and everything in between, Lancer’s jukebox has the perfect aural wallpaper for…
Best Neighborhood Bar
Pimps, prostitutes, potentates, and politicos all belly up at Whatley’s to gossip, confront a cheating spouse, or discuss the news as it flashes across one of the two TV screens. Whatley’s is a no-frills kind of place: just an oval counter surrounded by barstools, wood-paneled walls, and a jukebox. There are hot dogs for sale…
Elastica
God bless the B-52’s. The irrepressibly boppy, absurdly coiffed outfit that gave us “Love Shack” and “Rock Lobster” wields tremendous influence on the girl-punk heavyweights of today. Sleater-Kinney merely beefed up its surf-punk party vibe with vitriolic feminist politics; Elastica, on the other hand, ditches the soapbox- stomping in favor of ribald, unadulterated noise. A…
Best Weekly Gig (Sundays)
In a little corner of the 5 O’Clock Bar, this two-brother act resurrects the spirit of ’50s rock, rockabilly, and Elvis in his prime. One guitar, one crooner, a beautifully stripped-down sound, and a passion that makes 40-year-old songs sound dangerous and new.
Best Bookstore Imported From the Middle of Nowhere
A year ago, the bookshelves of 84 Charing Cross filled three floors of an old building in the small harbor town of Munising in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Now, to be closer to book sales and family, the owners have relocated to Cleveland’s West Side, right by Cleveland Public Theatre. Named for a book about a…
Best Pick-Up Basketball Courts
A jump, hop, and a dribble off Euclid Avenue, two basketball courts always sit lined with would-be players. Any Joe can walk up to these two faded red courts and finagle his way into an up-and-coming match. Just make sure you can handle the rock, because your mates plan on running on the court for…
Best Grassroots Politician
Whether he’s talking to homeless people, senior citizens, or (we would suspect) space aliens, Kucinich knows how to relate. Ironically, the idealism that destroyed his mayoralty has served him well in Congress. No one else could have single-handedly ignited the effort that saved St. Michael Hospital and Mt. Sinai Medical Center-East from closure. Kucinich has…
Best Restaurant That No One Ever Goes To
Owner Mark Duraney may have gotten a good deal on a storefront on meat-and-potatoes East 185th Street, but the problem is, few are taking note of the fabulous food at this airy eatery decorated with twinkling lights and pop-art posters. If you call ahead, the friendly Duraney will probably ask, ‘What time can we expect…
Best Women’s Clothing Store
The oldest women’s clothing store in Chagrin Falls and one of the oldest in all of Cleveland, Find Me! has spent the month of September celebrating its 25th anniversary. The secret to its longevity? Great service and great clothes that are fashionable but not trendy, timeless but not stodgy. With the enthusiasm of owner Julie…
Best Political Newcomer
In her freshman year in the Statehouse, Shirley Smith jumped right from her East Side district into the death penalty debate. Her bill calling for a moratorium on the death penalty had a wrongly accused Texas man’s chance of getting passed in the staggeringly Republican legislature. But we admire her dogged pursuit nonetheless. At a…
Best Homecoming
When Bob Simon returned to his native Lakewood for a break from seven years on the road, playing Frank N. Furter in The Rocky Horror Show, the last thing he expected was to find himself back in the tights and fetishwear. But when he heard that Beck Center for the Arts was producing the play,…
Best Advocacy Group
This isn’t one of those nonprofits that give lip instead of services. Whatever the homeless need — food, shelter, Internet access — NEOCH tries, usually successfully, to provide it. Its newspaper, The Homeless Grapevine, nourishes the soul of the homeless community. Its volunteers nourish its dignity. NEOCH, led by no-nonsense Executive Director Brian Davis, also…
Best View From a Cemetery
After President James Garfield died of a gunshot wound in 1881, his admirers set out to built a sandstone tower, now blackened with age, that rises above the trees of Lake View Cemetery. Climb the 64 steps of the half-chapel, half-fortress, past the balcony where you can peer down at the statue of the ex-president,…
Best Museum
The art museum does so many things so well — like its current Master Drawings exhibit, for example. The drawings are superb, the curatorial work is outstanding, and the show breaks new ground for this institution. The photography exhibits have been consistently rewarding as well, and this year’s blockbuster — Faces of Impressionism — was…
Best Wine by the Glass Selection
This intimate bar may be tiny, but it offers up big-time fun to wine lovers who appreciate an intimate atmosphere and knowledgeable, good-humored service. Then there are the wines — more than 70 available by the glass, including a deliciously creamy Sileni Estates Chardonnay from Hawkes Bay, New Zealand, and a tasty Wild Hog Carignane…
Amy Rigby
Amy Rigby couldn’t be any more of a pop diva if she changed her name to Eleanor and prepped for her own VH1 special. Her musical lineage goes all the way back to the mid-’80s, when the Pittsburgh native and her brother formed a countryesque combo called the Last Roundup and released an album on…
Best Reemergence on the Theater Scene
For decades Bianchi, one of Dobama’s founders, has been one of Cleveland’s most cherished renaissance men. He has done it all, but then he went into a cocoon period. He emerged triumphantly last year and demonstrated his ability to spread his noble wings among the best. Ensemble Theatre’s Mornings at Seven and Dobama’s The Drawer…
Best Place to Buy a Sack of Stephen King Novels for a Buck
Cleveland ain’t all sports, rock and roll, and bratwurst — there are real lit-er-ary folks in these parts. You can see some real live ones at the used book sales that Lakewood Public Library holds in its basement two times a year (three, if you count the Saturday-only sale in August). It’s hard to say…
Three Best Desserts
Battuto: 12405 Mayfield Road, Cleveland; 216-707-1055.Century: 1515 West Third Street, Cleveland; 216-902-5255.Mise: 10427 Clifton Boulevard, Cleveland; 216-651-6473.Isn’t it about time we stop equating desserts with moral decay? Sure, the three major food groups are not “sweet,” “salt,” and “fat,” but when you consider the positive impact a tasty dessert can have on our attitude, we…
Best Under Fire
The temperature at 601 Lakeside started rising at about the time of the Ku Klux Klan rally. Branded a Klan-coddler, a cop-hater, and a dictator, the mayor still managed to keep his cool. He refused to deviate from his plan to let the hatemongers say their piece in peace. Ironically, White was the only victim…
Best Place to Take a Night Hike
The wooded area behind Rocky River Nature Center is no singles bar, but to thousands of male grasshoppers and cicadas, it may as well be. On sultry summer nights, they begin their slow, rhythmic chirping at dusk. By 10:30, they go crazy with their full-blown, staccato catcalls. Attending a naturalist-guided night hike in the cold…
Best Place to Spot Celebrities
Where else in Cleveland are you guaranteed to see at least nine bona fide celebrities every time you go? The Jake, of course. Besides the players, local celebrities come to cheer the Indians on. If people-watching is your pleasure, this is the place to be.
Best Comeback
The comeback wasn’t planned. At least Forbes won’t concede that it was. But when the opportunity to reenter the firestorm of Cleveland politics arose, Forbes leaped back into the fray. He wouldn’t let Mike White roll out the red carpet for the Klan. Instead, Forbes brought his legacy, as well as the weight of the…
Best Park
A Rust Belt original, the latest bauble in the Emerald Necklace merges nature and the architecture of heavy industry, demonstrating how two seemingly disparate entities can come together to create a postindustrial oasis. The five-and-a-half-mile stretch joining with the Cuyahoga Valley National Recreation Area offers the usual park amenities — biking, hiking, picnicking, and fishing…
Best “Nutty” Artist
If, 18 years ago, someone had told Corlette Baylock that his future was in pistachios, he would have said that person was a little, well, nutty. He never thought that doodling faces on pistachio shells for children would turn into a business — but it did. The artist and owner of Dots to Nuts, in…
Best Corned Beef
Sure, there are a lot of places to find good corned beef, but for the best, the line forms outside this decades-old institution. Slyman’s sandwiches — big, thick, and flavorful — keep the faithful coming back for more.
Best Burger
There are few things more tantalizing than a thick beef patty swimming in its own blood, but most restaurants grill the hell out of burgers. Not Herb’s. They still make hamburgers the way God intended: tender, juicy, a little red inside, and topped with everything from your standard cheese to pizza sauce and mozzarella. Sure,…
Best Ribs
When George Webb was five years old, he used to spend warm summer evenings in Alabama, watching his grandfather roast hogs on a plantation. The secrets to good barbecue weren’t lost on him. The ribs and sauce he’s been serving to Clevelanders for 15 years are examples of Southern-style cooking at its best. Webb’s Alabama…
Interest Rates High
You wouldn’t know that the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland still has a “stockpile of cash” leftover from Y2K. In fact, after a tour of the bank, you wouldn’t be sure the Fed even deals in currency. Yes, there are people working the machines used for counting greenbacks on the public viewing level, but the…
Best Place to People-Watch (Domestic)
Public Square at 9 a.m. is like a high-school hallway right before the morning bell rings. Crowds of bodies rush down the sidewalk in unison, like a wave, and eyes stare in blank anticipation of that first-period World History lecture (or an interminable 9:15 staff meeting). People walk shoulder-to-shoulder, clutching briefcases or tote bags. The…
Best Reasons to See a Musical
Lori Scarlett has specialized for years in portraying neurotic waifs. She mesmerizes audiences with her water-lilylike fragility. Craig Rico recently burst on the Cleveland theater scene like a Roman candle. In three crackling performances, he has made audiences perspire with his natural sex appeal and musical bravado. United, they turned Violet at Cain Park into…
Best Used CD Store
Need to feed that musical monkey on your back, but your billfold is barely dealing with gas prices? Break out the bike and pedal to the Record Exchange, where thousands of used CDs, tapes, records, and video games range from 50 cents on up.
Best All-Night Diner
This restaurant has been a regular after-hours stop for years, no doubt because of its great mixture of good food and quirky people. Those who have found their way to My Friends include Trent Reznor, Moby, and a woman swearing she was Spiro Agnew. And where else can you get such fine desserts at 3…
Best Place to Buy New Books
They have books, lots of books. But that’s not why this particular Borders is the best place to snag some new reading material. ‘Cause having books isn’t enough. Going to a bookstore is pretty much a religious experience, as far as we’re concerned, and as any churchgoer knows, worshiping at St. Peter’s and worshiping at…
Best Place to Buy a Slice of Pizza at 7 a.m.
Two eyes peer out of a small interior window on the far wall of the pizza shop, speakeasy style. A moment later, a plump and warm foil packet slides through to you. So it goes with the modern-day “breakfast of champions,” Cleveland-style. The Guzzos, owners of the mostly carry-out pizza parlor, have been serving up…
Best Shoe Repair
Can’t bring yourself to throw away those super-comfy sandals or perfectly broken-in pumps, even though they’re worn, torn, or falling apart? Wish there were some trustworthy tread on those gorgeous boots you just couldn’t resist — the ones with the paper-thin soles? Have we got the shoe doctor for you! A Lakewood landmark for 40…
Best Used Bookstore
Okay, it’s not the most contemporary, well-lighted place in the world. There is a sort of Aunt-Millie-with-all-the-cats sort of feel to it. But shopping for used books shouldn’t really be a goal-oriented activity, anyway. It should be an adventure, a hunt. And nowhere is the hunting more interesting than at the aptly named Bookstore on…
Best Health Food Store
This locally owned company brought the concept of a health-conscious supermarket/café to Northeast Ohio. Now with two locations, the original in Montrose and the 57,000-square-foot Solon store, the Mustard Seed continues to tantalize shoppers with an abundance of everything, from organic produce and hormone-free meats and poultry to more decadent offerings, like chocolate, wine, and…
Best Singles Mixer
This fund-raiser for the American Cancer Society has women from all over the area vying to win a date with one of Northeast Ohio’s eligible bachelors. This year, more than 1,000 people attended the event, and $78,500 was raised for cancer research. Not only that, but since its inception in 1990, 15 marriages have come…
Best View of Cleveland’s Underbelly
If you take a wrong turn at the boarded-up castle in the Flats, you’ll end up on Canal, a road at the bottom of a cliff that seems to stretch on and on to nowhere. Tower City’s parking ramp looms, ugly and green; the hairpin turn, littered with garbage, hides under a dark overpass; the…
Best Coach
The WNBA Rockers posted a pathetic 7-25 record in 1999, clearing a seat on the bench for Ohio native Jim Hughes. With Hughes at the helm, the 2000 Rockers reminded Northeast Ohioans what a basketball arena should look and sound like (cheering fans! lively play! passing!). The Rockers went 17-15 before losing in true Cleveland…
At Home on Stage
Glenn Vinson has turned his life around since homelessness left him considering the drop from a bridge near East 123rd Street. He and the four other Y-Haven Players — all formerly homeless men — are now working to educate the public on the reality of homelessness by performing Reconstruction of a Man, a one-act play…
Best Place to People-Watch (International)
If Public Square is like a high-school hallway, the airport is like the cafeteria. The constant buzzing of conversation hardly wanes during the many P.A. announcements. Small clusters of people sit or walk together, some laughing and some fretting. Those sitting alone with their nose in a book, or leaning back pretending to sleep, steal…
Best Sporting Goods Store
What would the true outdoorsman do without accessories? Well, Appalachian Outfitters in Peninsula is making sure that we never have to find out. This outdoor gear and clothing store is stocked with everything a mountain man (or woman) might find handy in the wilds: Outstanding selections of tents, kayaks, canoes, sleeping bags, shoes, and climbing…
Best Bread Bakery
Whether it’s homey whole wheat, crunchy corn and cranberry, or rustic basil focaccia, we love a dense loaf of handmade bread. And lately, whenever the craving hits, we have found ourselves turning to the cheerful folks at the Breadsmith to help us meet our needs. The bakers here create a magnificent array of daily breads,…
Best Hiking Trails
Okay, we’re sounding redundant, but this time we’re not talking about the Towpath Trail. It’s really the 125-plus miles of “off-road” trails in the CVNRA that allow hikers to glimpse just about any natural (and man-made) habitat Ohio has to offer: marshes, beaver ponds, quarries, caves, and even an Indian mound. Just pick your poison,…
Best Celebration of Natural Foods
It’s not just a great place to buy organic produce and foods, bulk whole grains, and natural cleaning products. From the time Nature’s Bin opened its doors as The Bin in June 1975, the folks there were committed to providing a worksite for people with disabilities to learn real work skills in a real-world store.…
Best Use of a Greenhouse
It isn’t just a coffeehouse. It’s a coffee greenhouse, where tranquility abounds. Drown out the Lake Road traffic by concentrating on the trickling water cascading into the goldfish pond in the corner. Plants sprawl along the walls, and the scent of blossoms mixes with mocha. This is the place to combine coffee with meditation and…
Best Beach
Whoever once theorized that bigger isn’t always better probably spent some time sifting through sand, soaking up sun, and savoring the serenity of Bay Village’s Huntington Beach. Sure, it can get a little crowded on weekends and holidays, but the narrow strip of sandy shore sprawling at the base of the pronounced cliff affords summer…
Best Bookstore for Literary Readings
A mainstay of the Coventry neighborhood for 18 years, this independent store consistently hosts a mix of eclectic and distinguished writers, often on Friday and Saturday nights. Recent readers have included Jeffery Smith, winner of a PEN Award for memoir for his book on coping with cyclical depression, Where the Roots Reach for Water; Catherine…
Best Restaurant
A squat little building on a gritty street corner, jammed with leopard prints, candles, and a bustling bar, wherein performs an award-winning chef and high-school wrestling champ with a grin that can melt granite: This is Lola, Michael and Liz Symon’s tremendously hip little Tremont restaurant. People are often inclined to describe the place as…
Best Place to Walk Over Traffic
Ever sat in bumper-to-bumper traffic, wishing your zcar could sprout a propeller to lift you up and fly you to your destination? The view from this wide, windowed skywalk, which leads from a Clinic parking lot to one of its medical buildings, is the same as it’d be in your airborne Skylark. You can peer…
Best Late-Night Hangout
Get drunk and wash your clothes at the same time at this crossroads of chores and entertainment, a bar/coffee shop/laundry that’s open until 1 a.m. Co-owner Justin Clemens, 28, came up with the concept six years ago while planning to expand Video 101, his video delivery service that serves the college crowd. The light bulb…
Best Sports Talk Host
Mike Trivisonno is an obnoxious, unpolished, boorish slob, which makes it a surprise that he stands out from the pack in Cleveland’s sports community at all. But it’s his bitchin’-from-the-barstool style that elevates his show beyond the rote drivel that occupies the airwaves elsewhere in town. Deride him if you will for meandering into more…
Gender Bent
It takes a special mindset to celebrate castration, and audiences confusing feminine empowerment with the crude hacking off of seemingly oppressive huevos are certain to get a bang out of Girlfight, the gritty debut from writer-director Karyn Kusama. Metaphorical or otherwise, there’s already a movie about deballing to suit just about any taste, and while…
Best Place to Watch the Planes Land
Positioned between I-480 and Hopkins International Airport, the One Hundredth Bomb Group restaurant sits like a shelled European cottage overlooking the plane-filled runways of the next century. Ask for a window seat, then watch the puddle jumpers, 747s, and — if you’re lucky — government-apprehended spacecraft head for the horizon (note: UFOs are seen only…
Best Martini Selection
If the divine mixture of vermouth and gin is your poison, the Mercury Lounge is your watering hole. This downtown lounge has the style and atmosphere of a new wave speakeasy and a bigger martini selection than you can shake an olive at. Just saunter across the hardwood floors, pull up a chair to the…
Best Vegetarian Food
The Cleveland area is home to a handful of noble eateries forwarding the vegetarian cause. But it’s impossible to ignore the city’s glut of fabulous ethnic eats, and the unassuming, inexpensive Pyramid gets the nod for its fine Middle Eastern fare. Order the creamy hummus — and grin and bear it when they ask, “Would…
Best Blues Club
A small bar with a big blues sound, the House of Swing will transport you back to an old-style juke joint from the 1920s. It may be called the House of Swing, but if you want to hear some of the best blues music Cleveland has to offer, this is the place to be. Owned…
Best Historic Landmark
In 1820, a good half-century before Public Square got its first taste of the modern world with the installation of electric lights, the Old Stone Church was founded and soon stood as an outlet of faith amid the secular city. Somehow, though the face of Public Square has changed many times throughout the last two…
Best New Restaurant (Downtown)
As sleek and sophisticated as its namesake, the famous New-York-to-Chicago Twentieth Century Limited, the Ritz-Carlton’s new restaurant on the Avenue at Tower City is ever so much more than an elegant homage to the Golden Age of Railroading. In fact, the glorious deco decor soon takes a backseat to the impeccable ingredients, delicate textures, and…
Best Place to Buy a Mattress
Bed-hopping takes on a whole new meaning when shopping at the Original Mattress Factory. The salespeople don’t merely allow customers to test the goods, they actively encourage it. After rolling on a half-dozen beds or so, mattress shoppers can have a good look at the innards of their potential new bed partner — thick-wired coils,…
Best Mind/Body Experience
Ooooooommmmmm your way to mental mellowness, spiritual strength, and physical flexibility with various yoga skill levels and styles, from “gentle” to “vigorous.” Meditation classes, retreats, teacher-training programs, and guest lectures on topics such as diet, disease, and determination are among myriad offerings of Bhumi (a.k.a. Harriet Russell) and her centered staff. Check your stress at…
Best Cleveland Success Story
What were the odds that this year’s Sundance Film Festival would include two movies by female filmmakers who grew up in Shaker Heights? Jamie Babbit’s But I’m a Cheerleader, a bright satire of groups that claim to “rehabilitate” young gays, and Jenniphr Goodman’s The Tao of Steve, the sharp-witted story of an overweight, unemployed ladies’…
Best Place to Play Fetch-the-Stick
Is there a doggie heaven? The closest thing to a canine paradise in Greater Cleveland is the small beach at Rocky River Park. On a fair-weather day, any number of bandanna-wearing pooches bring their owners to this seaside patch of land. After an invigorating run along the narrow strip of shore, Fido can gallop into…
Best Local Politician
It’s been a good year for the county’s top lawyer, both in politics and in court. Not only has Mason helped steer the feared and revered D-2000 group, he’s led his office deftly and with refreshing openness. Mason has been smart enough to make himself accessible to the media, strategic enough to surround himself with…
Best Wielder of an Electrified Needle
Electrologist Jean Adkins has had her share of famous clients. “Mostly local personalities,” she says, “and they’d kill me if I said their names.” It turns out that Greater Clevelanders (women and men) from all walks of life have sought her expertise in banishing those stubborn hairs from places on the body that, well, don’t…
Clash of the Titans
Remember the Titans — based on a true story about how a football team brought together the segregated town of Alexandria, Virginia, in the early 1970s — is the first film from producer Jerry Bruckheimer’s Technical Black production company, which is meant to offer more contemplative and slower-paced films than his hollow, slam-bang filmography (Flashdance,…
Best Strip Mall
While most strip malls do wallow under the weight of bad 1970s architecture and empty storefronts, there are still a few open-air shopping centers worth the land that’s been paved over. If you’re looking for dietary supplements or a bad haircut, the best could be any strip mall in Ohio, but if you’re after a…
Best Movie Theater
We can hear you Cedar Lee fans arguing already. But the category is best movie theater. And there isn’t any doubt in our minds that the googolplex in Valley View is the most luxurious place to kick back and enjoy the best Hollywood has to offer. The imposing yet inviting behemoth has a feeling of…
Best Fast Food
They’re big, they’re buff, they’re spicy. They are the two-fisted superburritos at Chipotle’s, a Denver-based “quick serve” restaurant with a gourmet twist. Despite the chain’s phenomenal national growth over the past few years, ingredients and preparation techniques remain closely regulated by founder and professional chef Steve Ells, who ensures the fresh quality and robust flavor…
Best Local Productions With Homegrown Talent
A musical based on a camp cult film about a couple who take up homicide as a money-making diversion (Eating Raoul at the Beck Center) and a wordy Shakespearean romp stripped to its barest essentials (Love’s Labours Lost, Cleveland Shakespeare Festival) both turned out to be the surprise feel-good propositions of the year.
Best Collection of Publicly Accessible Occult Books
The John G. White Folklore Collection is a boon to any budding magus or occult scholar. Boasting over 47,000 volumes in the broad “folklore” heading, the catalog reveals countless books on the occult sciences, magic, and witchcraft, including Agrippa, Crowley, and a 1768 work on vampires. The collection does not circulate, but members of the…
Best Seafood Restaurant Decor
A few fathoms off I-90 lies the next wave of seafood dining, complete with bubble lighting, huge fish murals, a postmodern tiki bar, booth backs that shoot to odd and atypical heights, and a monstrous white Styrofoam sea creature. The best part: Big Fish pulls it off with style, without the camp and sea chanties…
Best Collectibles Shop
This is one of the few collectibles stores that can keep women happily occupied while the men in their lives fawn over action figures. Collector’s Warehouse boasts an extensive array of comic books and trading cards, as well as role-playing supplies and boy toys of the ’70s and ’80s. Meanwhile, the store’s assortment of movie…
Best Bet at the Mall
The mall, for the most part, is where we go to shop, not to eat. And if we should happen to inadvertently bring our appetites with us, the dismal lineup of boring, unhealthy food court offerings leaves us cold. So it was with more than a little enthusiasm that we welcomed Richard Baribault’s new venture,…
Best Jogging Path
Just south of Valley View’s light industrial wilderness is a runner’s bliss. Go to the trailhead off Rockside Road where it meets Canal Street, lace up your shoes, head south, and tell your knees to thank you later. The Towpath Trail is damn near perfect when it comes to running: There are plenty of bucolic…
Best Place for a First Date, Country Style
Even if you aren’t a hard-core country fan, you will still find this an adventure. There’s upbeat music, action on the dance floor, and plenty of people-watching entertainment. If you’re feeling brave, you can join the crowd attempting some new steps together. Whether or not one of you is experienced, it’s a great icebreaker to…
Best Makeout Spot
Naturally, the mere mention of a top makeout site marks that site’s immediate removal from actual consideration. If nothing else, the flaming lust of young lovers is likely to cool during the inevitable waiting in line once the word is out. But the little bench at the end of Lakewood Park’s shoreline path makes for…
Best Athletic Club
Feel like you have to get a facial, a manicure, and a new wardrobe before you go to the gym? Maybe it’s time for a change. State-of-the-art without being pretentious, this is the place to go for urbanites on a budget. The membership fees, though slightly higher than other Y’s, are still less than many…
Wild About Hairy
This season, all the well-dressed Bigfoot hunters are wearing satin blouses, rhinestone hair clips, and the ultimate wilderness accessory: a purse-sized spray can of Bear Guard, sold by the case. For Peggy Stilman and her sister, Veronica Burchette, such timely attire tells the world: I want to find Sasquatch, and I want to look good…
Best Shopping Mall
If shopping is life, existence must be cradled in the shop-lined corridors of SouthPark. With over 150 places to relieve yourself of that hard-earned paycheck, this Strongsville palace sits like a shopper’s mecca. There’s everything from Ann Taylor and GapKids to Brookstone and Radio Shack — not to mention the four mainstays, J.C. Penney, Dillard’s,…
Best Free Outdoor Movies
Being able to enjoy a beautiful summer night under a starry, black sky is what makes Lakewood’s Friday Night Flicks so much fun. About a half-dozen times a year, people set up lawn chairs and spread old blankets in front of the big outdoor movie screen at dusk. Little kids run around in the half-darkness…
Best Burrito
Nothing radical here; no fancy, new-age ingredients or anything like that. But there’s something to be said for knowing when you’ve got something right, and Mi Pueblo Taqueria has definitely got the burrito down: the basic burrito infrastructure of beans, cheese, lettuce, and tomatoes thrown in with your choice of steak, shredded beef, chicken, veggies,…
Best Local Productions With Out-of-Town Talent
The Cleveland Play House’s A Kiss for Cinderella and the Great Lakes Theater Festival’s Twelfth Night were haunting productions with exquisite imagery. Both managed to remove the cobwebs from old scripts and render them worthy of note, but neither featured Cleveland talent.
Best Spot to Feel Incredibly Cool
The bustling one-block stretch of Market Avenue that runs from Lorain Avenue to a nearby city-owned parking lot has become a short-but-sweet spot for area hipsters and foodies who enjoy the wide sidewalks and seasonal outdoor dining opportunities. The avenue’s pleasantly hip vibe only intensifies when you step through the doors of Karen Small’s sophisticated…
Best Trade
When he arrived in Cleveland three years ago, Shawn Kemp was a skywalking power forward who had nearly denied Michael and the Bulls one of their precious NBA titles. The Cavaliers traded for Kemp and signed him to a huge contract, which he seemingly devoured with a pint of blue-cheese dressing. The NBA’s leading sperm…
Best Place to Get in Touch With Your (Bohemian) Roots
Recognizing and honoring the polka elite has been a Cleveland tradition for decades, and no one has promoted that rich tradition more than the Cleveland Polka Hall of Fame. Here, you can follow the evolution of this eastern European folk staple, take in the sounds of Frankie Yankovic and the Eddie Habat Orchestra, and in…
Best Scenic Drive
For a no-sweat way to enjoy beautiful scenery, try this drive, which starts and ends in Peninsula. Going west on Route 303, turn left on Akron-Peninsula Road, past the Brandywine Country Club and continuing on until you reach Ira Road. Turn right, then right again on Oak Hill Road. You’ll catch glimpses of the meandering…
Best Music Store
In a city that lacks the best of the national chains (Tower and Virgin Records, specifically), you gotta rely on the indie stores. Record Revolution might not have the best selection, but it does have a knowledgeable staff (which includes former Pere Ubu drummer Scott Krauss), a basement full of vinyl, a good selection of…
Best Putt-Putt, ’50s Style
Not just for the wee-uns, this 18-hole wonderland looks just like it did in the 1950s, with Snow White and Bambi figurines peeking out from behind the trees. This course stands out because it’s so well maintained: the greens free from chuckholes, pockmarks, and cigarette burns, and the kitsch freshly painted. During a close game,…
Best Thrift Shop
Run by the National Council of Jewish Women, Thriftique has been serving the Cleveland community since 1936, offering great buys on both new and used items. Customers look forward to its annual “Silver Sale,” held for three days during Thanksgiving weekend. All proceeds go to the council to support programs that improve the lives of…
Best Golf Course
The first shot at Fowler’s Mill is to your wallet — $55 to $65 for 18 holes — but you’ll step onto the Chesterland course’s first tee and know it was money well spent. Fowler’s Mill is no ordinary public golf course, and you can’t go wrong with any of its 27 holes — the…
Surgenor Gets a Spanking
Striking a blow for nonviolent reprimands: While fear and anger are powerful emotions, they do not absolve parents of culpability when they hit their child. While the “brainwashed” parents Mr. Surgenor discusses in his interview [“One-Man Swat Team,” by Laura Putre, September 21] may have to spend time actually thinking about and talking with their…
Best Import Shop
It was the winged dragon in the window that stopped the Christian woman from Puerto Rico. “You take that into your house, and you’ll have trouble,” she warns, her blue eyes aghast. It’s a rare window display indeed that spooks passersby. You get the eerie feeling at City Buddha that the thing you’ve found has…
Best Radio Station
“Are you the girl who’ll play almost anything?” a caller asks a WRUW DJ who’s just played Dinosaur Jr. right after Kraftwerk. The caller asks for an old Sheila E. song, and the DJ is happy to oblige. In a city where corporate radio fills the airwaves with mindless repetition, Case Western’s radio station is…
Best Rave Promoter
CEO and president of Sphere Productions, Brian Conti runs both a local record label and promotions company. He’s recently brought a number of excellent DJs and rappers to town, including the Jungle Brothers and Mephisto Odyssey. Some of the best local DJs — Sleepy C, Tigger, and Tik-Tak — have released mix tapes on his…
Best Theater in Which to Experience Yesterday’s Treasures
We who worship theater tend to regard the Canadians with envy for their Shaw and Stratford festivals, forgetting that right here in our own backyard, merrily chirping away, is the Ohio Light Opera. Located in the College of Wooster, it is the only festival in America dedicated to presenting operetta, particularly works by Gilbert and…
Best Comfort Food
If there is one reason to welcome fall, it’s that maybe then we can score another braised lamb shank at Yorkville Café. Slowly simmered in a pinot-noir reduction sauce, smothered in a layer of well-seasoned vegetables, then settled on a cushy bed of basmati rice pilaf, this lamb shank is one of the few really…
Best Seafood
It wasn’t so long ago that there wasn’t any really good seafood in Cleveland. But with the city’s recent culinary development, high-quality seafood, shipped in fresh daily, is catching on at upscale restaurants all over town. While we have had some stunning salmon, groovy grouper, and tantalizing tuna at a number of the region’s top…
Best Ruin
Ivy obscures the windows and blankets the elegant brick of this beautiful former factory, where crickets chirp in broad daylight. Built in 1907 to produce women’s coats and suits, home to a printing company for years, the Tower Press Building has been vacant since 1987. The dark tower, which used to hold a water tank,…
Best Restaurant Wine Selection
Nestled on the banks of the Vermilion River, this quaint French restaurant reminds us of why we might never need to visit France. Its wine cellar — with 300 regular selections and a cellar list of 500 — offers one of the biggest selections of vintage wines in Northeast Ohio. Try the first-growth Bordeaux, and…
Best Canoe Paddle
You know the routine: A few words of advice about paddling mechanics and how to fasten a lifejacket, then it’s a quick spin and back to the dock for the next load. But what happens if you throw an ax-wielding French Canadian into the mix? Why, you get jaunty songs, bad jokes, and trivia about…
Best Men’s Clothing Store
We like shopping at the Eton Collection because we find everything — the piped-in music, the color scheme, even the fountain — so soothing. Well, maybe not everything: The prices can be a bit of a shock. But we get so much style in return. That’s also how we feel about Kilgore Trout, that 21-year-old…
Best Hip-Hop Station
Cleveland had been lacking in a station that played real hip-hop music until May 1999. That is when WENZ changed its format to hip-hop/rap/urban contemporary. Before Z107.9, really slamming hip-hop could be found only on college stations. True fans of rap now have a station where they can jam to such artists as DMX, Eve,…
Best Toy Store
Northeast Ohio’s best is getting better in the coming months: The Toys Time Forgot is slated to move down the street in Canal Fulton to a spot that will allow owner/Batman fetishist Dan Hare to display more of the treasure that’s relegated to his basement at the current store. Find a vintage copy of the…
No Hop to the Top
Dilated Peoples’ rapper Rakaa (who also answers to Iriscience) describes the meaning of The Platform, the group’s debut, as “our stage,” “a soapbox,” and “a street corner.” “We’re coming together and working and improvising and doing these things,” he explains. “We’re able to express ourselves individually and find a way to do so in a…
Best Power Lunch
The men and women in the gray flannel suits flock to this sophisticated downtown dining room, with its tufted walls, sleek deco bar, and precise service, to fling back martinis (“Shh . . . don’t tell the boss. Hey! I am the boss!) and feast on Marlin Kaplan’s sometimes-quirky, always-celebrated, great American cuisine. Whether they’re…
Best Blues and Bayou Treats
There’s no cheaper way to travel down South than to stay in Cleveland and spend an evening at Fat Fish Blue, where Southern-style cuisine commingles with the brooding strains of the blues. There, you can hear the likes of Koko Taylor, R.L. Burnside, or local favorite Robert Lockwood Jr. Sample the N’awlins style jambalaya and…
Best Chili
Next to the issue of prayer in public school, nothing is so likely to spark debate as the matter of what goes into “real” chili. In Texas, it’s a simple, fiery blend of coarsely diced beef and chili peppers. In certain enclaves on the Ohio River, it’s a mellow assemblage of ground beef, chocolate, tomatoes,…
Best Married Couple in Cleveland Theater
Greg Violand’s portrayal of golden-voiced sharpies has for years blended with Maryann Nagle’s elegant pixieish scrappers. Their charms reached a zenith in a recent production of A Little Night Music at Lakeland Community College.
Best Coffeehouse
Despite the slew of coffeehouses popping up all over the city, the oldest local chain remains the best. It’s the place to meet for yummy desserts and a café mocha topped with a mountain of whipped cream. If you’re studying or just meeting to chat, they all offer a great environment, with plenty of space…
Best Sportscaster
In 11 years behind the Tribe’s radio microphone, Tom Hamilton has matured from excitable sidekick to the Voice of Summer in Cleveland. As if liberated by the retirement of Herb Score, Hamilton has enough confidence to throw the occasional dagger as well as one of the best home-run calls in the biz (A way back…
Best Overall View
They don’t make it easy for you to visit the 42nd floor of the Terminal Tower. It’s only open on the weekends from 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., and to get there you have to navigate a confusing bank of elevators, circle the 32nd floor, and take a second elevator to the cramped, drab observation…
Best View With Wine
The rippling, roaring Chagrin River pours itself down some fairly impressive falls right beyond the big windows of Blake’s Seafood Grill. Thanks to a multilevel design, nearly every table has a scenic view, and for the lucky few who score a table on the outdoor patio, the sensation of hanging out over the river is…
Best Ambient, Techno, and DJ Vinyl Selection
In the digital age, fans of electronic, ambient, and techno still embrace vinyl. Filling this store are stacks of wax, in categories like jungle, house, electronica, techno, and experimental. Air to Pillow, S.R.I. to U.N.K.L.E, and Seafood to Red Snapper are all lined up in plastic, aching for the turntable.
Best Road Trip to the Middle of Nowhere
On the outskirts of Bowling Green, nestled between Route 6 and some fields, is a complex of 19th-century buildings that used to be the Wood County Home for the poor and infirm. When it closed in the 1970s, it didn’t take long for the Wood County Historical Society to take up residence and salvage the…
Best Place to Entertain Great-Aunt Tilly
On the outskirts of Akron, Carousel is a haven where one can always count on the shows to be wholesome and the drinks served with a cherry on top. Its current show is The Sound of Music. Can’t get much more wholesome than that.
Best Athlete
In a sport appreciated more for its finesse than its athleticism, second baseman Roberto Alomar exudes surpluses of both. He can be counted on for the diving stop, the sacrifice bunt, the acrobatic double play, the pivotal stolen base, the double down the line, or the late-inning home run more than any player in Indians…
Soundbites
Sporting a goatee that hangs from his face like a small shrub and wearing camouflaged cargo shorts and a black Bounty Killer T-shirt inscribed with the numerals “666,” Slayer guitarist Kerry King could pass as an escaped convict — only his cell phone gives him away. In town to visit some friends and donate a…
Best Outdoor Dining
Your soulmate just called you by your best friend’s name. That page was the school, telling you your kid has been suspended — again. And you would swear that right here is where you parked the Lexus, but obviously it isn’t here now. Does that about sum up your life in the fast lane, Bunky?…
Best Weekly Gig (Wednesdays)
One of the last living links to the roots of the blues, but still thoroughly modern, 85-year-old Lockwood plays Wednesday nights at Fat Fish Blue with a powerful, horn-dominated band. Lockwood learned guitar from his unofficial stepfather, the legendary Robert Johnson, and to blues aficionados in other towns, his performances are a rare treat –…
Best Student-Cooked Lunch
Under the close supervision of their instructors, high-school juniors and seniors in Polaris Career Center’s chef and foodservice programs prepare and serve gourmet lunches Wednesday through Friday afternoons during the school year. A typical $4 lunch is Beef Wellington, steamed vegetables, and a thick slab of cheesecake. Everything is prepared on the premises, and it’s…
Best Portrayal of a Married Couple
Rollison and Holsinger’s equally intense performances as Mr. and Mrs. Antrobus in Cleveland Public Theatre’s The Skin of Our Teeth blazed like piercing beams through a fog.
Best Seasonal American Cuisine
The menu at this beautiful Western Reserve restaurant has been changing with the seasons for more than a decade. The chefs — some of the best in the region — have changed, too, with the passage of time. But what has never changed is owners Todd and Brad Buchanan’s commitment to excellence: The food never…
Best Sunday Brunch Buffet
In a world of Sunday brunch buffets featuring sodden French toast, white-sauced mystery meats, and rubbery scrambled eggs, it is a joy to discover the sophisticated and well-prepared offerings at the beautiful RiverFront Restaurant. Nestled among the big bouquets of fresh flowers, ice sculptures, and fountains are choices like New England spoonbread, velvety Nova Scotia…
Best View From a Cliff
You don’t have to eat dinner at this seafood restaurant, perched atop Lakewood’s shoreline cliffs, to enjoy the best view on the West Side. Walk under the blue awning that leads you to the restaurant’s door, veer right, and step out onto the roof of the restaurant. All of Cleveland’s skyline is laid out before…
Best Chinese Comfort Food
Oh, sure, trendy Asian-fusion fare is fun. And Californian Pacific Rim stuff rules. But sometimes we find ourselves craving the basics: a crisp-skinned, well-packed egg roll with sinus-clearing Chinese mustard; a platter of soft and comforting veggie-studded fried rice; or even simple, saucy pepper steak, with lots of beef, bell pepper, and onion. These are…
Best Place to Run Through the Sprinkler
This is the kind of mammoth sprinkler you dreamed about every summer when you were a kid. A stone’s throw away from the kids’ playground, the ground-level fountain was made for carefree fun. It’s a concrete hexagon about 20 feet wide with nine spouts built into the concrete. The Neptunian Nine rhythmically spray up water…
Best Place to Get an Old-Fashioned Flat-Top Haircut
They don’t take appointments, they don’t subscribe to GQ, and they don’t do “hairstyles.” Guys, this is the place to go if you want a no-nonsense “regular men’s haircut.” Sicilian-born Tony, or one of the three other pale-blue-smock-wearing barbers, will comb, cut, and clip your hair, then finish off with a neck shave — with…
Best Concert Venue
It might not be the prettiest place in town, but the Agora has the flexibility of two spaces — a 700-capacity ballroom and an 1,800-capacity theater — and that means that larger acts such as the Deftones, Slipknot, Travis, and Ween can play in the theater, and smaller indie bands like Modest Mouse and the…
Best Hair Salon
In the world of hairstyling, practice makes perfect. After 17 years in the business of expertly cutting, dyeing, and shaping the coifs of everyone from tots to great-grandmas, Rometrics One is darn near perfect. Together with eight other stylists, Rita blends just the right shade of hair color, Pearl coaxes curls into a client’s ramrod-straight…
Sun Ra
For proof of extraterrestrial life, tune in to the music of Sun Ra, an exotic, brilliant keyboardist who began his jazz career as an arranger for big band leader Fletcher Henderson under his earth name Herman “Sonny” Blount. Over the past four years, Evidence Music, a suburban Philadelphia label, has been preparing a follow-up to…
Best New Restaurant
If you were going to write an instruction book on how to create a top-notch restaurant, Mise could be your case in point. A nearly mystical confluence of the classic and the contemporary, the precise and the reckless, the stylish and the timeless, Mise is that rare spot where the food is thrilling, the service…
Best Club on the Water
Stop by for lunch and get a view of working life on the water, or stop by at night for an eyeful of the youngsters gyrating on the deck. Either time, Shooters is a reliable refuge for breathtaking scenery, and its lengthy stretch along the western end of the Cuyahoga’s mouth makes it a prime…
Best Peanut Butter Shake
In this quickie mart’s hodgepodge of stop-and-go goods, peanut-butter-and-chocolate lovers will find a frozen treat that’s potentially habit-forming. Try it in any of three sizes — 16-, 24-, or 32-ounce — and settle on whether you want chocolate or regular milk. Then enjoy. It’s like lapping up a Reese’s Cup.
Best Theatrical Surprise
No one expected that Cleveland Public Theatre could so well produce such a difficult and unknown opera, or that an opera of such beauty could have been created in and survived a concentration camp. And the biggest surprise was the theater’s exquisitely wrought interpretation. Musically, it sounded like Kurt Weill, and physically, it resembled a…
Best Newsmaker
Since seizing the council leadership in November 1999, Polensek has captured the drama of City Hall past and returned it to City Hall present. Sometimes the once peaceful seat of local government resembles West Side Story. Sometimes Cabaret. Never The Sound of Music. The first thing Polensek did when he took the presidency was make…
Best Local Football Grudge Match
Watching Catholic boys ripping each other to bits is quite a thrill for the folks in the bleachers clad in blue and gold (Iggie’s) or green and gold (Ed’s). Even during a full-blown snowstorm, the cheering never stops — it just goes back and forth from one side of the gridiron to the other. Afraid…
Best Education in a Restaurant Bathroom
Whether to brave the bathroom in any restaurant is a mighty choice we must all face at some pivotal moment in our lives. The Macaroni Grill not only provides a sanitary sanctuary, but tries to help the time pass with a little classwork. Learn a few key phrases of Italian along with a little something…
Best Sushi
How times change. Used to be you could count the sushi bars in town on the fingers of one hand; now, they are popping up all over. Still, for service, style, and of course, freshness, it’s hard to beat one of the originals: Shuhei, Hiroshi Tsuji’s serene sushi bar in Beachwood. We like the friendly…
Best Wine Shop
Choosing among the vast variety of wines at Cheese & Wine Unlimited is like being in a candy store. Once you’ve settled on a bottle — from France, maybe, or Chile, or even Japan — you might want to start the selection process all over again with the 100 different imported cheeses and pâtés that…
Best Weekend Getaway
For around 50 bucks a night, you get a newly renovated cottage that sleeps six, located in one of Ohio’s most secluded (and oldest) state parks, a forested area that was the site of a vast iron-processing furnace at the turn of the 20th century. Built to last in the 1930s, the rustic Iron Furnace…
Best Club to See Regional Musicians
Steelworker bar by day, indie rock club by night, Pat’s is a great small club despite its inconveniences (located in the depths of the industrial Flats, it’s hard to find, and getting to the women’s restroom requires walking across the makeshift stage). The sound isn’t great, but the drinks are cheap, and Pat’s provides the…
Four Best Dining Rooms for Romance
As that grande dame of gastronomy, M.F.K. Fisher, liked to point out, sexual passion and wonderful food are intimately intertwined. After all, don’t we each “have a belly below our heart?” Hence the wise lover woos not just with flattery, but with food. Here, then, are four dining rooms where the combination of sensual foods…
Paul Oakenfold
The most dramatic moment on Perfecto Presents Another World, the latest batch of electronic potpourri from trance titan Paul Oakenfold, is the puree job he does on Led Zeppelin’s “Babe I’m Gonna Leave You.” Dubbed “The Quiver Mix,” Oakenfold shreds, tosses, bends, and forms Zep’s heavy, moldy blues into a spacey trance jam. Not that…
Best Rookie
Couch it any way you’d like, but the Browns’ highly acclaimed quarterback was not the team’s top rookie last season — his primary receiver was. Once lame-duck starter Ty Detmer gave way to Tim Couch, the lame-duck passes were flying everywhere, and Kevin Johnson made the most of his opportunities. Bright futures appear plentiful on…
Best Drug-Crazed Rant
“Jann — I will definitely need speed to get the campaign book done properly & on time,” scrawled Hunter S. Thompson as he frantically compiled Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ’72, a hysterics-and-slander-filled chronicle of peacenik George McGovern’s doomed fight to get Richard Nixon out of the White House. When the counterculture’s dream…
Best Bar Food
The staffers at this tiny retro lounge in Tremont like to pretend it’s just a bar, not a restaurant. But don’t let them fool you: The food here is first-rate. Gorgonzola-topped rib-eye on focaccia bread, peppery cavatelli, cold marinated pork tenderloin, prosciutto-stuffed Mozzarella, and what is, for our hard-earned dinero, the best fried calamari in…
Best Art Visible From the Shoreway
It’s nighttime, and you’re driving into the city on the west Shoreway with someone who’s new in town. As likely as not, the newcomer will look off to the right and wonder about the jumble of red, green, and blue neon rising from the roof of a nearby building. If you look at the neon…
Best Weather Forecaster
Anyone who can cram sarcasm, wit, and an accurate forecast into the 28 seconds between Today show segments deserves more than just a pat on the back. Nolan will probably be featured one day on a “before they were stars” show hosted by Dick Clark — it’ll just take some Hollywood hotshot visiting Cleveland for…
Best Police Blotter
A man keeps an ax on his front porch and threatens to cut off his young neighbors’ heads if they don’t stop bouncing a ball into his yard. A woman gets a beheaded, ketchup-drenched teddy bear in the mail. A man eats leaves off trees in front of a car dealership and tells cops he’s…
Best Vintage Shop
In business a year and a half, Seamonkeys has already earned a reputation as the vintage shop with the most eclectic mix of merchandise. Owner Chris Andrews has created a fun atmosphere in which to shop for everything from period clothing to ’50s furniture and ’70s lava lamps.
Best Bureaucrats
They rule the paper purgatory of human conflict, at least as it exists in Cuyahoga County. And they do it with the kind of laid-back good humor that’s often a shock to people used to the sort of default surliness that’s the norm in most county offices. Divorces, murders, sexual harassment cases — you name…
Best Free Lunch
Honestly, those folks over at Sam’s Club are so nice! At the end of practically every aisle in the grocery section, there’s a friendly employee passing out samples of such tasty foods as pizza bites, burritos, stir-fried rice, waffles with syrup, turtle cheesecake, and fruit juice. These and all the other morsels are served up…
Best City-Wide Garage Sale
The third weekend in July, the third weekend in July, the third weekend in July. It’s the mantra for Greater Cleveland bargain-hunters. That’s the weekend that friendly Avon residents fling open their garage doors, prepared to liquidate those off-the-mark gifts or later-regretted purchases from the previous year. There are so many garage and yard sales…
Best Regional Band
Since forming in 1992, Quazimodo — singer-guitarist Frank Vazzano, drummer Jerry Hentsch, bassist Ed Maroli, keyboardist Lou Vogel, and singer-guitarist Doug Niemczura — has established a reputation as one of Cleveland’s best garage rock bands. The group draws equally from Alice Cooper, the Rolling Stones, and the Stooges, and its drunken performances are just as…
Best Irish Pub
“What nationality was St. Patrick?” demands a guy at the door of the Public House, who isn’t a bouncer, but still wants to enforce certain standards. Because even though there are other fine Irish bars, Price’s Public House is the true center of Irish American nightlife in Cleveland. In the Irish neighborhood of West Park,…
Robbie Williams
Another smug Brit who thinks he’s the second coming of Elton John, English singer Robbie Williams can afford to gloat, but only if you consult the U.K. charts. Since its release there a month ago, Sing When You’re Winning has been the top-selling album, and Williams is so popular in his homeland that he plays…
Best Player Who Got Away
We’ve seen this scenario before: A promising Indians farmhand gets his first look at the big time, but can’t get enough at-bats in a lineup full of stars. Whaddya do? Ship him someplace else, so he can be a star and make the big dollars, just like his former teammates do. But what’s confounding about…
Best Live Theater for Ingenuity
Red Hen has shown the moxie to surmount huge obstacles (a minuscule budget and no permanent home) to produce works of infinite variety and imagination within their feminist agenda. This year’s triumphs include a subversive Nancy Drew parody, a transgendered Merchant of Venice, and a redemptive ghost story. All this demonstrating that a lack of…
Best Agitator
It’s a special kind of advocate who will stand in protest time and again with handmade signs and only a handful of supporters. It’s a rarer sort who will drive a councilman to violence (or even alleged violence, as the case may be). This year Edwards has done both. When members of the Carl Stokes…
Best Gallery
The CCCA has put on stimulating shows all year that have demonstrated awareness of current artistic trends. The work in exhibits such as Minimal Politics may have been variable in quality, but such a show 1) exposed Cleveland to an important slice of the contemporary art scene and 2) encouraged discussion on the issues raised…
Best Radio Personality
Some people like to awaken to a 50-year-old teenager in a dirty undershirt jawing about how he scored the night before. Others might prefer the human version of the snooze button. Baer isn’t either of those, delivering the day’s top stories in a voice that’s sunny, but not too annoyingly bright, and grilling the mayor…
Best Part of Cleveland’s Skyline
This is not a judgment of the new courthouse’s architectural value. In truth, it’s hardly the most interesting building in the world. No, this is more about putting aside our snide cynicism toward our hometown for a moment. There’s something hopeful about tall buildings under construction, a reminder that, for all its faults and setbacks,…
Best Steakhouse
A fine cut of meat (like the Steak Kosar, a nine-ounce filet) coupled with smooth, professional service in a sophisticated and tranquil atmosphere: That’s Hyde Park, where even non-red meat eaters have plenty of delicious choices. So relax, order a drink, listen to vintage Sinatra wafting through the sound system, and feel like a million…
Best TV Personality
Yes, we could have done without Room(mates), that derivative pap offered up by WKYC Channel 3 as news this month, which Chandler hosted. If anything, though, it only served to remind us why we like her so much and why Room(mates) was a waste of her time. Though she’s been doing some weekend anchoring lately,…
Best Decor
Step into the mad swirl of color and light that is Circo and its attached bar Zibibbo, and you will be inclined to agree with (an only slightly paraphrased) Dorothy: “Toto, I don’t think we’re in Cleveland anymore.” From its serpentine bar of shimmering blue-pearl Italian granite to the chartreuse ceiling’s writhing glass sculpture; from…
Best Antiques Shop
This shop specializes in 18th- and early 19th-century furniture, much of which owners Fred and Mary Bentoss acquire at estate sales or during buying trips to England. Items range in price from $150 to $70,000; none date later than 1850.
Best Regional CD
Reviewed in publications such as Rolling Stone, Village Voice, L.A. Times, TimeOut NY, and Alternative Press, Nightlife got more national exposure than any other release by a Cleveland band. And for good reason. Between the theremin theatrics of Chas Smith and the crowd-provoking tactics of singer John Petkovic, Cobra Verde has two of the best…
Best Pizza
This place is so popular with the locals, it had to get two phone lines to handle take-out, the bulk of its business. Not much to speak of, decor-wise, but the slightly sweet sauce and the medium-thick crust keep customers coming back.
