PeterGriffin

For the life of me, I can't remember! I was always there on Sunday mornings...but more in the 2am range. They don't have any hours posted online, but their number is easy to find so I would just suggest calling. I always remember them being open for lunch by 11 on the weekdays, but I'm just not sure about Sundays unfortunately.

Mayday. Mike's Bar and Grill has some really good food, and a bunch of really good craft beer both in bottles and on draft. The owner (Mike...obviously) even gave me a free bottle of Hop Stoopid upon my graduation from B-W. They have great burgers, a homemade black bean veggie burger which is amazing, and some of the best sweet potato fries anywhere. It's in downtown Berea on Front Street, and is always a good choice. Upper Deck blows.

Got it. Sorry, I misunderstood the way you phrased your sentence. I have a guitar student who also works in that big silver building, and I hear there are some decent restaurants in there as well. (I hope you caught my sarcasm when saying "decent" restaurants, seeing as how 2 of the 5 three star Michelin rated restaurants currently reside in that building...if you are actually showing a picture from Time Warner Center and not the Trump International next door, since I don't want to get a location wrong again haha).

Which tower do you live in?! I only get near those when I'm running in Riverside park, and along the way I'm stopping at the cat hospital to say hello to Optimus Prime...Damn this musician's paycheck!

MTS...I know I technically live in the Upper West Side, but if you were in my actual 'hood, you would see how it resembles Hell's Kitchen much more than it does the typical UWS that everyone thinks about when they watch You've Got Mail. It is strangely isolated from either neighborhood because of Lincoln Center and the housing projects that surround my apartment complex. Plus, we're all artists and chefs so I like associating myself with Hell's Kitchen a lot more anyway haha. PS. Sorry for the strange size of the pictures...Photobucket has changed since I last uploaded any pictures, and now it looks like the photos themselves were exposed to radiation or something.

I live on the cusp of Hell's Kitchen. I'm at 64th and West End...not the brand new Trump Towers haha. Living behind Lincoln Center has its perks though.

Hello everybody! I moved to NYC from Cleveland in August, and while I absolutely love it here, the holiday season is making me a little homesick. I was just looking around on my computer and I found a TON of old photos that I took while I was still living in the land of the Cleve. They're between 1 and 2 years old, but they're a nice time capsule showcasing my time in the city. Enjoy! Let's start with Little Italy... And a little downtown... Like I said...a LOT of pictures. I hope you all enjoyed!

"PeterGriffin" Likes this! ^

Hello everyone! I used to post here much more often, but a recent move to NYC has limited the time I've had to actually write things down. I just wanted to share a nice anecdote about what happened to me on the subway today, and I couldn't find the *I love Cleveland* thread or the "Today I Overheard Someone in My City Say" thread. I teach guitar here in the city now and I was riding home after a lesson when this conversation began... Some guy- "I think it's admirable that you are making a living as a musician." Me- "Thanks a lot man, it's difficult but it is definitely rewarding" Some guy- "It's difficult in this city because everyone is always looking out for themselves, and they can't share their work." Me- "Yeah, I just moved from Cleveland about a month and a half ago..." Some guy- "Cleveland, that's a great Rock and Roll town..." Me- "Yeah, and it's different there because there is so much work for musicians, that you can always get your friends in contact with people who will give them jobs." Some guy - "There's a real sense of community there...I remember I had to go to Cleveland to buy a van and I ended up staying there for about 4 days longer than I was supposed to and just checking out all of the blues and rock clubs." Me- "There is some real hip stuff happening there right now." Some guy- "Oh Cleveland is really hip, I had a great time out there!" Just figured I'd share since it was in New York, with a working musician, and there was no mention of a burning river, LeBron James, layoffs, foreclosures, or anything else negative. Artists understand that Cleveland is a hip, underground, and respected city.

This is the first of the Cavs' new promotional posters for the 2010 season! (I still love them, but please...throw the city of Cleveland a bone once in a while)

I noticed the "Asiatown" thing too when I went to the Ante Up Studios Christmas party. The neighborhood restaurants were all packed on Superior, and it felt very alive.

The Cadillac Ranch definitely isn't draining people from the Warehouse District. Friday and Saturday nights are just as crazy as they always have been, and the people who live in the WHD seem to stick around for night life, or go into the neighborhoods like my girlfriend and I do. We always try and stay away from W.6th street by going to Ohio City, Tremont, or Gordon Square.

So, I'm drinking my second Indigo Imp Winter Solstice Ale and I have to say...this beer is great! It tastes like a cross between a spiced holiday ale (not too dissimilar from GL Christmas Ale, or Southhampton's French Country Christmas Ale) and a Flemmish sour. Really nice notes of tart cherries, and the orange peel really comes through in the aftertaste. If anyone has had Jolly Pumpkin's La Roja, picture that with a Christmas Ale added in for good measure. I highly recommend anyone who enjoys beer (and beer from Cleveland) to try it out as soon as possible.

mrnyc...My girlfriend lives in New York and we were just at the Blind Tiger! What a great place. New York beer bars are generally more fun than Cleveland ones because of their ability to have beers with more than 12% abv. Those Dogfish Head World Wide Stouts at Hop Devil really did me in.

I think MOMO was supposed to be MOCA? Maybe?

P90x actually makes it a point to warm up/cool down, and do a TON of Yoga and stretching. The whole purpose is to increase core strength, and be good to your joints. The Plyometrics workout, which is all jumping and squatting, is the only one that could potentially be bad for your joints. But, throughout the entire thing the trainer, Tony Horton, is constantly telling you to land on your toes as softly as possible, and that if you have knee issues you should modify the moves so as to not harm your joints. You can end up doing well over 200 (cumulative) push-ups in a single workout, as well as over 100 (cumulative) pull-ups. Just going on youtube and looking up P90x can give a lot more information. Once you do it though, you're hooked.

P90x. Seriously. This is probably the single most intense set of workouts I've done since wrestling conditioning in high school. Anyone who thinks they're in shape just needs to do the plyometrics workout to have their world turned upside down. I originally did it to lose weight (30 extra pounds ago :) ) but now it is just to build strength and lean muscle as almost no weights are used. If anyone wants to have an amazing workout they can do at home in a little over an hour a day, this workout really needs to be checked out. I swear I don't work for them, it's just an awesome program that was introduced to me by a good friend of mine. www.p90x.com

There is actually a place in Valley City (Medina County) called Jilbert's Winery. They also make their own Mead on site. I've always wanted to go, since I grew up in Brunswick, but I have never been. Apparently the mead there is really good, but alas I don't have an opinion as I've never tried it.

I just took my first sip, and I must say that it has a very different character than last year. I feel like the brewing in 2008 has gotten BETTER at Great Lakes, and this is no exception. All of the different flavors are much more pronounced, especially the honey and cinnamon. Very similar to what I had in 2005. This is great stuff indeed!

Ummm...I resurrected this thread because as of Saturday...The Christmas Ale has landed...ellipses...

Is there something going on in the Arhaus Furniture building? The old window signs were taken down, as well as a for sale sign i believe. It seems as if the cliche nightclub Earth has helped instill life back into that stretch of the Flats (Earth is in the old Odeon space). People were outside in packs last night, so there is some semblance of life down the hill again. I just was kind of reluctantly excited at the prospect of the Arhaus building being bought for a new purpose.

Hi everyone. I couldn't find this in a search (maybe I just missed it), but the old Clothing Brigade store on W. 9th is being converted into a Phoenix Coffee. Seems like a fairly large space, and it's a closer walk for me than the Starbucks on 6th. :)

Great Lakes is the BEST! I have taken every single Great Lakes Beer (that I can get in bottles mind you) to my friends in NYC, and they simply cannot believe how good it is. So much so that when I brought a Nosferatu to a friend who was drinking Arrogant Bastard, he just couldn't muster up the strength to finish Stone Brewery's flagship brew. Go Great Lakes, and please bottle the Pilsner!

What frustrates me is that I just wanted to show a downtown that had life, vitality, activity, and investment. This was never meant to be a pissing match between the other C's in Ohio as compared to Cleveland. Columbus and Cincinnati weren't on the list of dying cities last time I checked. It's very difficult for me not to make comments in the same vain as WalkerEvans or David when comparing the 2 cities. But that isn't what this thread was about. We all know that Cleveland has problems, and that we've lost a lot of people. We weren't able to annex them back in or force them to put our city's name on the mailing address regardless of the zip code. I was just trying to point out a fact that Cleveland is doing the opposite of dying, and the people who live here know better than people who don't. I'm not going to say that Cleveland has more foot traffic or a better urban environment than another city I either a.) haven't been to since I was a lot younger, or b.) only went to for a gig and then immediately left. Please, this thread is about CLEVELAND, and it would be nice if it stayed that way. Sorry for creating something that was supposed to be light-hearted but took a strange left turn along the way.

Thank you everyone for the nice responses! I took those pictures today (minus the baseball game obviously) because I was just so fed up with the portrayal of Cleveland by people who have never been to the city. Moving downtown was the best thing I could have done and I just wanted to vent some frustration by proving a point. We're alive and well.