dwirthwein

With a well known CLE family running the show at AG for many years, I couldn't fathom them going to CHI either... Office Max, started here, was sold off to a corporation by the time they moved. BP - different story, too..

Several posters said as little as $3 for some beers, up to $5. That compares to $5-$8 at most restaurants I go to.. so in my mind $3-$5 is cheap.

If you want a real laugh - check out the casino's Facebook page - and you'll see posts from the world's biggest whiners ---high parking cost, slots "too tight", no free drinks, no smoking, food court too expensive, buffet too expensive, too few Wheel of Fortune slots (or fill in your favorite...), too-high mins on table games, "good number of 2 cent slots - but not enough 1 cent slots", etc... It's RIDICULOUS....

And Jonathon Sawyer is in Italy (apprenticing?) for a bit - wonder if he's trying to get some pointers for his Uptoen Italian place?

Casino opening spinoff: Michael Symon tweeted this morning that Lola had its best week ever last week...

If possible, that Pizza Hut building was even worse looking when occupied...

Hodge's was offering $7 valet when I was there a few weeks ago... That's still just a long block away to the casino.

My default parking location in downtown in recent years has been the E 4th valet... Has been $8 on non-game nights and $8 (actually $15 w/$7 rebate if you show them E 4th restaurant receipt) on game nights... Convenient and cheap... though wonder if pricing or rebates will be altered due to casino being only a block away.

Gia Lai restaurant - an independent, regionally owned "Rice. Pho. Bistro" spot opened today at Legacy Village, in the old Talbot's Kids spot (another retail chain that closed all stores, leaving Legacy with a 2-3 year vacancy in that spot...). My wife and daughter went and like it very, very much - but found it surprising in that it is a full sit-down Vietnamese restaurant - not the quick service (Noodles & Company, etc..) type they'd assumed... competing directly with long-standing Asian-themed Stir Crazy - mere feet away. Strange that Legacy would lease it that way, that Stir Crazy would allow it, that Gia Lai owners would want it that way. Also, said the menu was mostly in Vietnamese - so ordering required phonetic butchering of item names to the Vietnamese server - which might be expected in Asia Town - but which won't necessarily give all suburbanites the warm and fuzzy...

Madewell, the casual brand owned by J. Crew, will be opening a Beachwood Place store this year, based on info I found on the General Growth site... Another one gets crossed off my "retail gaps" list... Container Store and Tiffany - help me "x" some more out, please...

And Pier 1 seemingly moving from that white elephant, University Square, at Cedar and Warrensville, as is JoAnn. Pretty soon not much left there other than Macy's, TJ Maxx and Target, which seems to do well.

And apparently a sign is up saying that Pier 1 is going into Legacy Village in the just-vacated Viking space, in the rear, that I thought might never get leased. Now THAT's a surprise..

Recently was in UC and saw some marking/pre-construction stakes in the ground on parts of what will become the Veale University Center at CWRU... Supposed to break ground this Spring - though haven't heard more details. That will be another nice addition... http://blog.cleveland.com/architecture/2011/10/architect_ralph_johnsons_new_t.html

Hopefully, the street light poles, which now are too close and obstruct the view of the Guardians in many cases, will be move for better viewing - or else the lighting of them won't matter.

Would MRN be the logical choice to re-development strip mall land? Or McNulty!

on 2nd thought, MRN has probably been too busy choosing the color scheme of the apartments to tweet...

So anybody heard firmer dates on the Uptown opening of Chipotle, Panera, and Sawyer and Kim places? I thought some of the sit-down places were to open mid/late Summer??? MRN has been leading edge in their actions to transform two key neighborhoods in our town - and thanks to them for that - but their PR/web/social media work to keep us informed and get us excited has been anything but - a big turnoff... I'd expect more - especially with a young Mr. Maron helping to run the show....

My surprise at the $19 hotel rooms was that they were $19 - at the Ritz-Carlton (which is probably, what, $225-$250ish on a weeknight - even in CLE?). Even 3x that would have been too low to pass up...

Strip mall: fingers crossed for an owner who's happy to make a little $ selling property for the greater good of the neighborhood... though in reality we all know they'll hold out for every last dime and daily a project for years.

That strip center's got to go

Casino just launched a Facebook promotion - $19.00 rooms at Ritz-Carlton... "tonight only" - and I checked and this was bookable for tonight. A friend says her relative booked Saturday night for $19, too. Crazy...

Corian and white appliances are sort of '80s, aren't they?

The activity is good news. And there are tens/hundreds of thousands who won't venture down for weeks/months 'til they feel it will be saner... And layer convention, baseball, basketball, hockey and concert crowds on top of that - folks who might drop by before or after the game or meeting... And the crowds who will already be on E4th/WHD anyway... and who just add it to the evening. And then add the convention center in a year, just when the novelty of casino wears off - and you have a whole new influx of visitors.. I think this is all a % game... both in and out of casino... - and that % adds up. If even 5% of casino patrons (and hope it is more) - venture out onto streets each day - then that's 500 more people at restaurants and in shops, etc... than before. If only 5% of people going to games, dining, etc... drop by casino - then that's 500-1000 more each game day/each Sat night.. If only 5% of convention attendees go to casino or eat in WHD/E4th, then that's 250-500 more people a day, etc... Even at a 5% rate - you just added hundreds of thousands of related visits a year to other downtown venues..

The 3D video clips I saw were very impressive. D I S N E Y parks do a similar nightly show that's even more spectacular but it took them years just to laser map the building/castle they project the show on - plus untold millions from their nearly unlimited resources. For a one-off show that surely took less time and cost less they did a great job at casino.

From my many years working in Mentor, Cleveland Heights might as well have been Alaska to most of those I worked with - so I'm also guessing Melt CH isn't going to take a hit from a Mentor location.