j73

Update on Mint Cafe: It re-opened this past week under a new name (High Thai'd - ugh, sounds like a cheesy chain restaurant name) and new management. Some of the former employees of Mint Cafe re-opened the place. The menu is nearly identical to Mint's old menu, with only a few additions here and there (Pho, for one). We ordered from there over the weekend, and the food seems just as good as before (other friends who ordered felt the same way). Website's up and running at www.highthai.com. Good to see this place back up and running in the nieghborhood. Like others, I've heard that the former owners just got tired of running back and forth between their restaurants and decided to just go with the Pepper Pike location.

Very true. According to CalTrans the top four issues for prospective rail travelers: 1. Cost; 2. Reliability; 3. Frequency of service; 4. Speed. But only those on expense accounts or those who have read the AAA's report on the true cost of driving understand how much it really costs to drive. First, congrats on getting this funding. I really hope it works. Re:the expense account/AAA bottom line number of $0.52/mile. This isn't the appropriate number for this calculation, since it includes a bunch of costs that don't vary with how many miles you drive, like insurance and finance costs. The marginal cost of driving is about $0.14/mile, which means the cost for a single passenger is about the same rail vs. car. If you have more than one person going, a car is much cheaper. Additionally, while in our dream world everyone would arrive and then walk or take public transportation to their destination, the reality is many won't and in some cases practially speaking, can't, b/c there's no mass transit connection available. So, they're stuck with the added expense of a rental car or a taxi. Add to this being beholden to the train schedule itself and slower service (and potentially extra time getting from the station to your house that having your own car could shorten) and for many people the currently planned offering is just going to be unappealing. While I hope you're right, KJP, that it starts modestly, but grows, I worry that a half a loaf will be worse than none at all. Even if it does attract some riders it seems like there are many, many more people who would be interested in rail if it offered advantages over driving. But, right now, about the only advantage the rail seems to provide is the ability to get something done while you travel instead of having to pay attention to the road. On every other important dimension it will just seem inferior, turning off many riders, and keeping it from reaching its full potential.

Chinato is now listed on OpenTable for reservations, but won't let you make a reservation except for Jan 26 or later.

Found these photos of Chinato on flickr. Don't think they've been posted before:

From Crain's today The wide West (Sixth) City to begin work to spruce up street, accommodate pedestrians and diners; if pilot works, more could follow By JAY MILLER 4:30 am, July 13, 2009 A widening of the sidewalk on a block of West Sixth Street that eventually might be carried through to the rest of Cleveland's Warehouse District is expected to begin this week, sprucing up a restaurant row that has lost its claim to the title of hot entertainment district to the rising East Fourth Street. At street level, the strip of century-old office and warehouse buildings between St. Clair and Frankfort avenues is home to six eating places — from Metropolitan Café on the north end to Johnny's Downtown on the south end — all of which have space for outdoor eating and drinking. City traffic engineering commissioner Robert Mavec said last week he expects construction workers will begin today, July 13, to tear up pavement and sidewalk on the west side of the street to extend the sidewalk space by five feet. “It will allow for a clear walking space for the pedestrians and allow the businesses along West Sixth Street to expand their patios,” Mr. Mavec said. “We're trying to accomplish one block to see how it works” before extending the streetscape design to the rest of the Warehouse District. The work “will give a whole different aesthetic to the street,” said Steve Schimoler, chef/owner of Crop Bistro & Bar on West Sixth. “It will give it more of a pedestrian feel.” In addition to five feet more of sidewalk, the strip will be dressed up with planters and benches. It's all part of a plan developed by the Historic Warehouse District Development Corp. and approved by the city Planning Commission two years ago that established a design plan for the district's streets and sidewalks. The work on the block from St. Clair to Frankfort will cost the city $60,000. The money comes from capital funds set aside for each City Council district that are spent at the council member's discretion. Councilman Joe Cimperman, whose 13th Ward includes the district, said he hopes the whole project can be done “in a couple of years.” No money has been allocated for the rest of the work. Mr. Cimperman acknowledged that the Warehouse District, which began a transformation over 20 years ago from an ignored commercial district to a place with about 3,000 residents living in rehabbed historic buildings and a few dozen restaurants and bars, needs to stay fresh. “The idea is to make (the restaurants) more competitive and say, "We're going to continue to reinvest in downtown,'” Mr. Cimperman said. Tom Starinsky, associate director of the Historic Warehouse District Development Corp., said his group's “public realm plan” also envisions a better link to what one day is expected to be a revitalized Flats area to the west of the district. East Fourth envy Several of the restaurateurs welcome the redo, because they are feeling left behind in the rush to the next new thing on East Fourth Street, where the city created a pedestrian walkway by closing off the street between Euclid and Prospect avenues. The New York Times, in a long, nicely illustrated story that ran last Tuesday, July 7, called East Fourth “the jewel of Cleveland's entertainment district.” “They've done a great job of consolidating a lot of activity in one little space,” said an envious-sounding Mr. Schimoler of Crop Bistro. “The pedestrian-mall kind of feel promotes walking around.” Mr. Schimoler said he hopes the work on his block will capture some of that same energy and fill the 12 seats he plans to add to his 22-seat patio. A few doors north, the Metropolitan Café also plans to expand its patio and give the restaurant interior a new look at the same time. “It's going to double our patio,” said Bryan Delisio, manager of the Metropolitan, which has seating for 18 outdoors. “It'll do the same thing for the whole street.” Mr. Delisio said the restaurant, which is owned by the Hyde Park Restaurant Group of Beachwood, also will undertake an interior rehab. “It's due,” he said. “We've been here eight years; it's time to freshen up the place.”

FYI, empty space in Cedar-Fairmount that was incorrectly rumored to be new home of Melt used to house Vixseboxse Art Gallery. See entry in Encyclopedia of Cleveland History here --> http://ech.cwru.edu/ech-cgi/article.pl?id=VG They've closed down the gallery and have become private dealers. Also, the owner of Valerio's (Valerio Iorio) is from southern Italy (although not Sicily), but attended culinary school in Florence in central/northern Italy. With a name like Etna for the new restaurant, you'd expect it to be Sicilian since that's the name of a volcano on Sicily. As for the food, the owner of Il Bacio at the corner of Edgehill & Murray Hill is from Sicily, but makes a very good seafood risotto which is more of a northern dish, so it can be hard to judge what kind of food they'll serve just by where the owner's from.

WTAM had an interview with Fred Nance today: http://www.wtam.com/cc-common/mediaplayer/player.html?redir=yes&mps=WillsSnyder.php&mid=http://a1135.g.akamai.net/f/1135/30263/1h/cchannel.download.akamai.com/30263/1263/richmedia/8-8-Fred_Nance_1.mp3?CCOMRRMID=17926554&CPROG=RICHMEDIA&MARKET=CLEVELAND-OH&NG_FORMAT=newstalk&NG_ID=wtam1100am&OR_NEWSFORMAT=News/Talk&OWNER=1263&SERVER_NAME=www.wtam.com&SITE_ID=1263&STATION_ID=WTAM-AM&TRACK=fn1 Besides the promoting the easy rail access ("you could come to a convention and not even need a coat"), one thing Nance mentioned in this interview that I hadn't heard mentioned before is the speed of getting the Med Mart up in running. The committee felt they could open the Med Mart a lot faster at the TC site since they Higbee bldg is already there and has had some upgrading. At the CC site they'd have to design and erect the bldg from scratch which would take longer (or cost a bunch more to get done quickly). Seems like a reasonable point. Also implies that the MM would likely open separately from the new CC.

MTS - You've mentioned getting rid of the IX Center several times. While I'd like to see that too, was that ever part of the goals of this project, regardless of where it's put? It's not clear that's feasible anyway if you have to replicate the amount of space at the IX Center. I don't have MayDay's graphics skills, but here's what the footprint of the current IX Center site looks like overlaid on the existing CC site. Seems like there isn't room there for something of the IX Center's size.

^^I beleive the article in PD this am mentioned that there were test drillings.

It's called Bodega and it's owned by the same people who own Uptowne Grille in University Circle. They did a nice job renovating the place and it's easily the most upscale place on Coventry (which isn't saying much, but this place would fit in the WHD). They have live music a few nights/wk (jazz when we were there). Food was decent -not the best or most inventive tapas I've ever had, but not bad. It's located just south of Phoenix coffee.

No offense, but why not just pay the two tickets and get on with your life? You've admitted you were speeding. Arguing that you don't quite know how to properly drive your car doesn't seem like a very smart argument to me, especially when you haven't yet gotten your OH license. As for the insurance bit, to find out what your rate might be, you can do some quotes with different companies and just quote yourself with 2 tickets. Not sure if GEICO will let you re-quote yourself if you already have a policy or not, but you can certainly get a new quote with all the other companies.

BTW, Here's a pic of the building on Sumner st from Frangos: http://www.thefrangosgroup.com/1012Sumner.html

See the Random Cleveland Thread p 66: http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php/topic,3594.1955.html Seems like it's some development by Frangos

Perhaps this is related... I was downtown near Progressive Field and saw that they were demolishing the building along Sumner between Erie St Cemetery, and the building with Ginza Sushi. Not sure of the exact address, but this google link should do the trick: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=1101+sumner,+cleveland,+oh&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=43.713406,92.8125&ie=UTF8&ll=41.497232,-81.682341&spn=0.010141,0.022659&t=h&z=16&iwloc=addr

Ferrari - IIRC, I believe the two houses immediately up Cornell away from the train tracks might be for sale, too. Not sure about what issues you'd run into in combining the properties, but might give you more options. I haven't been able to find the properties on any realtor sites, so they may have sold or I might just be mis-remembering. Sounds like you're pretty serious, so I'd imagine you'd be able to check it out in person...