BK

CRF just picked up and moved from the old boathouse to the new one. Fundraising is ongoing and the renderings are what the organization eventually envision the facility will look like. I am actually going down to the boathouse tonight for equipment rehearsal, but I left my camera at home. Summer Rowing League starts next week, so that will put hundreds of adult rowers out on the water. The high school teams (St Ignatius, Shaker, and Cleveland Scholastic) as well as the adult Masters group have been going for about a month and a half now. Really looking forward to using the new boathouse and getting on the water!

^ The biggest problem I see with a loft conversion for the Westinghouse building are the railroad tracks that run almost underneath the building. I think those would shake the crap out of it. Otherwise, it is a superb location with an amazing view of the city and lake.

^ Yes, Grumpy's moved to W.14th about a year and a half after the fire. Funny sidenote-- I used to live in that building. Fortunately, I moved out a few years before the fire. The top window on the left was in my bedroom. It looks like they have made the front section of the 3rd floor into a deck while retaining the original facade. Pretty cool, but my bed wouldn't have a roof over it any more. :wink: Good to see this building finally being redeveloped after many years of sitting vacant.

^ I prefer to call them by their original name-- Patagonian toothfish. Much more appetizing, don't you think? ::chuckle::

So I have been debating posting about this for a few days. I would hate to drive away business from the place, but feel it is important to illustrate that there are risks to being urban pioneers. On Tuesday evening, I went to Banana Blossom with my girlfriend. There were two couples and a single man there when we arrived, but they soon left. We ordered appetizers of spring rolls and edamame which were both delicious. Our server took the dishes away to the kitchen and point we were the only two people in the room. A man with a ski mask came in the restaurant, pulled out a gun, and pointed it at my head. After a tense 30 seconds (seemed like an eternity), he left with our wallets. I called 911 and the police arrived in less than 5 minutes. Within 10 minutes, there were half a dozen patrol cars outside. I'm sure the guy was long gone and I couldn't provide a description past mask and a hooded black coat. After giving our statements to the police, our entrees came out. They were both good, but we only nibbled at them and had them boxed up. We did get dinner for free, but then again we had no means of paying. For the past ten years I have lived in Tremont, Detroit-Shoreway, and currently Ohio City and have never had a first hand experience with crime. I feel that while this was an unfortunate incident, it was also isolated and unlikely to occur again. The answer to the problem is not to shy away in fear, but to bring more people into the area so there is less room for the thugs to operate. Keep exploring, but stay safe.

^ Don't forget the B&G. ;-)

I'll be there. I am good friends with a couple of the girls. Their teams are playing each other this time, so it should be interesting watching them beat up on each other.

Marous/Vintage has an option on that building, so I suspect that negotiation should be fairly straight forward given their vested interest in the 73rd St. tunnel.

^ We ate there Friday night and it was really good as well. I had guac/chips and a quesadilla-- quite tasty. I think it may have just been a factor of being the weekend after the holidays and the bad weather, but E4th was DEAD. At 10:30 Saigon and La Strada were closed, there were only a few people in the other places, and we were the last folks in Zocalo at 11:30. On another note, I was in Tremont this afternoon and heard that Dante was having a private opening party this evening and the restaurant will be opening to the public this Monday. Finally we will be able to use the gift certificate my folks bought for us last Christmas-- we came home to find out it had switched back to Lockkeepers again. Though they would have honored it (as well as any of the other Cleveland Independents), we wanted to eat at Dante again!

^ That is a new townhome building. Not sure on the exact number of units, but it will probably be more like 7 or 8 units.

^ Apparently you never saw what was here before the they started building Battery Park. I thought there was a picture floating around somewhere in this thread, but I couldn't find it. It used to be an EverReady Battery plant and they had to do considerable cleanup to the land. They had to truck in topsoil to cover the entire area.

The only time I feel like my place is cookie cutter is when I walk into one of my neighbors places. ::glances over at gottaplan and jmjr:: It actually is kinda weird to walk into someone elses house and pretty much already know your way around. To be honest, the the building pictured above is my least favorite in the development. The ones they finished building earlier this year look a lot better than those and I think the new building will take cues from it.

I can't comment on the interior since I had never been there before, but I am sad to say the old exterior sign has been replaced by a rather bland looking one that says "Happy Dog".

I checked out the Happy Dog a couple nights ago and it was pretty tasty. These are 1/4 lb dogs, so they are pretty filling. They do have a "vegetarian sausage" available, but I did not ask if it was vegan safe. As for what I ordered, I got one with a fried egg, chorizo chili, nacho cheese, and habanero pickled red onions. We also got the tater tots with a few sauces. Since they don't have a functioning website, I scanned a copy of the menu for your viewing pleasure.

^ The new building will actually be immediately south of the new "Alley Townhomes" building on Battery Park Blvd. It will be similiar to the building that is currently sitting by itself on Battery Park Blvd, but some units will have the option for a rooftop deck. Here is a link to the floor plans...it is referred to as the Avenue Building H3. http://www.batteryparkcleveland.com/index.cfm?action=Occupancy