out of curiousity, what were the other 2?

Well it was a tie for 1st with Indies in the Colonial Marketplace - and it was a ten-way tie for third place depending on my daily cravings (Octane's black and tan smoothie, Sausalito's Sausalito salad, Teahouse... you get the idea).

Bummer about One Walnut. It has been a while since I have been there but I once had a soup there that was so good my reaction embarrased the rest of the table.

 

The closing was certainly hinted at in articles after LUXE opened.  It is one place that I unfortunately never got to try, but in the past couple years I think it wasnt given the attention that it was known for.  Ive read some very inconsistent reviews of the place.

We went there once - I had the pork tenderloin, which was very good, but I had one at Disney World (seriously not kidding) that was far superior........

I saw the lights out on Sushi 86 on Ontario, and "restaurant space available" signs posted - does anyone know if they're relocating, or have they called it a day? They were in my top 3 lunch spots downtown. :-(

 

I just had lunch there today, not closing.

I saw the lights out on Sushi 86 on Ontario, and "restaurant space available" signs posted - does anyone know if they're relocating, or have they called it a day? They were in my top 3 lunch spots downtown. :-(

 

Those restaurant signs have been up for a while at Sushi 86 and For Goodness Jake's (deli next door) for a while now.  I think it is more in relation to the vacant space between these two.

^yes.

Does anyone have a listing of E. 4 St restaurants. ( names & phone numbers) if possible. I once remember reading an article about e.4 but I failed to save it

Does anyone have a listing of E. 4 St restaurants. ( names & phone numbers) if possible. I once remember reading an article about e.4 but I failed to save it

Have you looked at the east 4th street website?  www.east4thstreet.com

Thanx MTS  that is what I'm looking for

Thanx MTS  that is what I'm looking for

 

Sure.  Thank goodness for the internet and google search.  ;)

I saw the lights out on Sushi 86 on Ontario, and "restaurant space available" signs posted - does anyone know if they're relocating, or have they called it a day? They were in my top 3 lunch spots downtown. :-(

 

Those restaurant signs have been up for a while at Sushi 86 and For Goodness Jake's (deli next door) for a while now.  I think it is more in relation to the vacant space between these two.

 

Oh thank god; the owners are great people and I saw those signs and was worried sick. Glad to hear they're sticking around :-)

Update- La Boca is saying they are only closing for about a month to redo their menu. They want to go heavy on Tapas and wines by the glass. I hope this is true...

 

This is true is anyone is wondering! La Boca is only closing to renovate! My boss is best friends with the owner, so if you have a coupon, you can still use it. Unfortunately, she didn't tell me what kind of renovations but I am sure I can get it out of her. haha. They will be opening back up sometime in July :)

cool, glad I can use the coupon, I kept forgetting about it even up until the second to last night. Anyway what makes this even better is the operator from One Walnut(closing) and Luxe (thriving) is involved. Can't wait. La Boca does need a better wine list though. I am not saying I like high end wines, but a much better selection of $20-30 bottles

I saw a "coming soon" sign in the colonial arcade saying there was a Cambodian sandwich shop coming.  Anyone have any deets?

 

Edited to add: I thought I might try Zinc today but it was so dark I thought they were closed.  I got up to the window and looked in but there were basically no customers (1 table) and it looked kind of more dressy/formal than I thought - I thought it might be a good place to get takeout but it seems more of a sit-down type place. has anyone been? I'd like to know what's on the menu.

Zinc begins serving lunch on June 23.  here is the website, which shows the dinner menue (no prices)

 

http://www.zinccleveland.com

 

This restaurant was apparently inspired by balthazar in New York / soho.  Maybe my favorite restaurant in NYC.

I love Balthazar!  I'd really like to see a lunch menu of course, but perhaps since they haven't started serving it yet, that's why nobody was in there and why it's not on their site :)

^Hope the people at Zinc as just as "pretty" as Balthazar (and the food just as good).  Once had a waiter spill a glass of water in my lap at Balthazar (an accident...I didn't say anything to get him mad).  He didn't get too worked up about it.

I saw a "coming soon" sign in the colonial arcade saying there was a Cambodian sandwich shop coming.  Anyone have any deets?

 

Oh man- that would be awesome!  I've grabbed several sandwiches from one in NYC over the last couple years and have loved them.  Right up there with banh mi.

 

And yeah, Zinc is definitely not a takeout spot.*  I peered in the windows this past weekend and the interior looks pretty sharp- better than I thought it would.  The outside bar looks pretty nice too (as shown in McC's photos), even if the surrounding brick surfaces aren't the prettiest. 

 

*I think the bakery aspect to Zinc is opening in July, and I suppose that would include takeout.

cool, glad I can use the coupon, I kept forgetting about it even up until the second to last night. Anyway what makes this even better is the operator from One Walnut(closing) and Luxe (thriving) is involved. Can't wait. La Boca does need a better wine list though. I am not saying I like high end wines, but a much better selection of $20-30 bottles

 

Haha! Agreed! I have a coupon too and I was going to use it this month until my boss told me they were renovating. I've been asking her questions about what they are going to be doing too. She did tell me they are going to def. switch the menu up because a lot of people don't really "appreciate" or "understand" Argentinian food. But redoing the wine menu is on the to do list too!

 

:)

I saw the lights out on Sushi 86 on Ontario, and "restaurant space available" signs posted - does anyone know if they're relocating, or have they called it a day? They were in my top 3 lunch spots downtown. :-(

 

I love Sushi 86! It's one of the best little sushi restaurants I've been to! Their seaweed salad is delicious :)

Anyone heard anything about Somers Diner on 40th and Prospect closing?  Its not open today and the rumor around the office is it has gone out of business.

Anyone know what's going on two storefronts over from the new Melt along South Taylor? It's obvious that something is going in there!

 

And also - a new middle eastern restaurant has opened at Van Aken-Chagrin called Middle Eastern Grille. It's an upscale place and I had a chance to go the week it opened and met the owner. If you like Aladdin's and Taza, this is another great place for hummus and falafel!

My mom told me that Table 45 installed giant TVs so that diners can watch the games!

 

:whip:

this true. Saw them there a couple weeks ago. If I recall the volume was pretty slow through. Still. Can't people go an hour without tv?

Anyone heard anything about Somers Diner on 40th and Prospect closing? Its not open today and the rumor around the office is it has gone out of business.

 

Its restricted hours are a huge problem.  I lived a couple blocks away and, with effort and timing, was only able to eat there once.  I tried countless times, only to find them inexplicably closed.  What's the point of having a diner that's only open four hours a day?  Penny wise, pound foolish.  You can't develop a customer base that way, no matter how much you may save on operating costs.  This point applies far beyond Somers.

this true. Saw them there a couple weeks ago. If I recall the volume was pretty slow through. Still. Can't people go an hour without tv?

 

I'm so disppointed!  I know they have a lot of international guest, but jeez.

There have always been TVs in the bar area.  So, are there now TVs in the dining area?  I haven't been there in months.

well actually I only recall them in the bar area, cannot remember the dining room-may or may not be there.  BUT still...come on.

My mom told me that Table 45 installed giant TVs so that diners can watch the games!

 

:whip:

 

yep you can now watch that game that looks like reverse tag with a ball.

 

Oh and there is a patio coming soon, hopefully mid July!

^ Absolutely cheapening! There is a pervasive social disease these days and it involves being waaaaayyy toooo visually and acoustically overstimulated to the point of addiction. Where is the balance. Just walk around and count the people you see with I-pod speakers growing out of their ears like cysts and cannot go 5 minutes without filling their ear canals with sound. (this is an actual addiction) That's one place I will not be going. I was there one time. Now looks like they will join this stupid trend of imposing noise on their patrons. Count me the restaurants where those did NOT walk in because it was not noisy enough...versus those who will walk out and never come again because the ambiance is too blaring and obnoxious. I think "boring" will eventually be the new "hip" ...a place where you can actually go have a nice intimate dinner and have a real discussion with a partner without SHOUTING OVER THE NOIIISEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!! No wonder we're so GD loud!

C'mon....  I generally hate TV--but this is the world cup--it's once every four years--and has a giant global following. I know Americans in general aren't that interested in it compared to other sports (despite our having a team in RSA right now), but given its location by the Clinic, perhaps Table 45 has a large international customer base, in which case, its not such a bad idea.

 

Now if the TV's stick around after the world cup, then that's another story, but I doubt that that would be the case.

My mom told me that Table 45 installed giant TVs so that diners can watch the games!

 

:whip:

 

yep you can now watch that game that looks like reverse tag with a ball.

 

Oh and there is a patio coming soon, hopefully mid July!

 

Is this temporary?

^ Absolutely cheapening! There is a pervasive social disease these days and it involves being waaaaayyy toooo visually and acoustically overstimulated to the point of addiction. Where is the balance. Just walk around and count the people you see with I-pod speakers growing out of their ears like cysts and cannot go 5 minutes without filling their ear canals with sound. (this is an actual addiction) That's one place I will not be going. I was there one time. Now looks like they will join this stupid trend of imposing noise on their patrons. Count me the restaurants where those did NOT walk in because it was not noisy enough...versus those who will walk out and never come again because the ambiance is too blaring and obnoxious. I think "boring" will eventually be the new "hip" ...a place where you can actually go have a nice intimate dinner and have a real discussion with a partner without SHOUTING OVER THE NOIIISEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!! No wonder we're so GD loud!

 

Before you ban a place to your mythical list perhaps you should actually visit.  While places may install TV's that that does not mean they will automatically become obnoxious noise makers.  This is just you making another sum all fallacy.

 

I can't speak to this personally, but I hate the way that this is what you jump to.  They very well could have crazy noisemaker TV's, but at least have some anecdotal evidence before going into rant mode.

Tried Zdara for lunch with a couple of companions.  Though their banner said "now open," there were only 2 other tables of diners the whole time we were there.  They were putting up a "grand opening" sign when we left, so perhaps they're only "soft" open right now and we just happened in during that time. 

 

It was strange, but overall more positive than negative.  The space is gorgeous and weird at the same time. Odd lighting fixtures and decor, but interesting and kind of cool.  Nice looking bar, with the ubiquitous and unfortunate TVs.  Our server did not impress me as a professional/experienced server.  She did not know what a particular dish came with, did not know where to set our appetizer dish down (there was plenty of room, just not smack dab in the middle where she wanted to put it, so we could see she was trying to put it there and had to quickly move everything out of her way.  "That's why I hate these tables," she said, "You never know where to put the dish."  Um, you could just put it on the edge of the table and let the diners figure out where they want it?) and gave a couple of weird explanations about when the food was coming.  "Your entrees will be up in....just about three...minutes."  That just struck me as odd.  A few minutes, 5 minutes, where did 3 minutes come from? 3 mins is something you make up when the chef is demanding your food.  "HOW LONG ON THOSE WELLINGTONS!?" "3 MINUTES, CHEF!"  3 minutes came and went and she came by again in a little and said oh, the chicken pieces in the chicken kabob are just really, really big and thick and are taking a long time to cook.  Ok.  WEIRD thing to say.  And it's not like anyone else was holding anything up, there were only 2 other tables, right?  And guess what, the chicken wasn't done all the way through and my companion left the majority of it on her plate.  But the rice that came with it was good.

 

The falafel popcorn app is a great idea, but nothing is served to spoon the tahini over the falafel balls, so you had to dip them, which didn't soak up very much as it was very thin. The balls were small and hard, crunchy and a little gravelly and very, very spicy, so much so that we had to ask why they were so hot - cayenne pepper (which the server mispronounced, but that's but a small detail). Too spicy for one of my dining companions to eat.  However, the panini sandwich I had was good, as was my other companion's veggie panini. Both were listed as coming with "pomme frites" and they came with curly fries that I swear were right out of Arby's, complete with paprika coating.  I kind of doubt those were made from scratch.

 

3 lunches, 3 iced teas and one app came to almost $50 for lunch for 3 people, which, with tip, is pretty steep for Cleveland lunch, about $18 apiece. 

 

I wouldn't rush back as there are too many other choices, but if someone asked me to go there, I wouldn't say no, either.

^RR...not familar...where is this located.  Thanks.

This is a new place on W 9th, right next to Mallorca

it took the place of sunset lounge. I was out for a Sunday walk a couple weeks ago and wandered in (it was not open yet) and they said they are going to do a happy hour at some point.

http://zdara.com/

They did have a happy hour menu they gave us, with $5 drinks and wine 2 for $8, and some $5 food things.

yummm, "food things"!

LOL.  You know what I mean.  Hummous, the falafel rocks, I mean popcorn, I think a grilled cheese was on there, can't remember what else.

falafel popcorn? That sounds like a bad idea,

can anyone get some photos up of zinc? thx

it sounds great -- fingers crossed the outdoor bar may just make up for the loss of the dollar bank building.

can anyone get some photos up of zinc? thx

it sounds great -- fingers crossed the outdoor bar may just make up for the loss of the dollar bank building.

 

If I walk by there today, I definitely will take some pictures! Also, has anyone eaten at Zinc yet? I want to stop by because the outside looks so nice, but I have yet to go or to find someone who will go with me :(

Finally tried Bar Symon today out in Avon Lake. We rarely get to try many new places anymore, and esp this far away, but it was our first time with a babysitter so we thought we'd give it a whirl.  It REALLY is in the middle of nowhere. Avon Lake is still very underdeveloped; I'm only familiar with the area right off the 83 exit off 90 where costco is as that's where I used to go to costco before we got one in strongsville, and I assumed it would be right in/around there but it wasn't. It was a few miles away in an even more remote strip mall.  They were surprisingly VERY light on patrons; not sure what was up with that as we overheard another server say to his table that they're usually on a long wait by this time (8pm on a saturday).  We didn't have to wait at all for a table either inside or outside. 

 

The food started out fantastic, out of the park good and got progressively just kind of ok.  We got the wings to start, you get a choice of citrus-cilantro or srciracha hot so we went with the citrus. They were VERY good, probably best wings I've ever had for non-traditionally sauced wings, and NOT sweet like I was afraid they would be.  I could have eaten 5 baskets of them.  We both got a burger, I got the Lola burger and mr. RNR got the Fat Doug.  The burger was good, but was topped with an egg that was so "sunny" the whole thing was really runny.  I like a runny yolk, but the white was pretty gelatinous and most of it dropped off the burger when I picked it up as it wasn't cooked/solid enough to stick together.  But it was very tasty and I liked that you could get it on a bun or an english muffin; I got the muffin as I like less/thinner bread than a big bun.  mr. RNR said the fat doug was good but something just didn't work, like too much cheese or pastrami or something.  He's also not a big fan of the skinny, double-fried Lola fries but I like them.  We ordered a side of the brussels sprouts with walnuts to split but they never came; the server quickly took them off the bill later on when she found out they never arrived.  Not quite sure if we wanted dessert or not, we split a hot chocolate cake topped with a small scoop of vanilla and a hint of cherries.  There were only 2 actual cherries and the sauce was very thin, and I didn't think the cake was particularly wow; I would rather have gotten the sprouts and skipped the dessert in retrospect but you never know unless you try.  I got a beer flight which was well poured for $9 (3 big glasses) and very tasty.  Service was very good and prompt, table cleared regularly, waters refilled, etc.

 

I didn't care much for the clientele and we won't be moving to avon lake anytime soon, that's for sure.  To our left was a big group of richie-riches, the men in salmon colored shorts, polos and loafers or in bermudas and hawaiian shirts and the women with a lot of jewels, makeup and hairspray.  The people on our R had a big discussion with the server about how important they were as they used to live in Connecticut and how they really knew good food and boy, what they had was very good, and oh, we live in the new gated community and blah blah blah.  Self-important boobs, all of them.

 

All in all, we probably wouldn't go so far out of our way to make the trek back for quite awhile, but if we were in the area, we would definitely stop for wings and beer.

 

 

nice review. We went there on Sunday afternoon after a beach day. We made the effort to rinse off and change before going.

Anyway we had quite the opposite experience with regard to the clientele. Almost w/o exception, people looked as if they were dressed to clean out the garage as opposed to go to dinner. They had happy hour and the choices were great-Lola Burger, the wings (agree awesome) a sausage plate were what we tried as well as fried pig skins. Beer selection if great, but stuck with wine. I will go back under the same circumstances-after an afternoon at the beach up off Lake rd, but prefer the Lolita vibe  more. too bad they don't have those wings..

I wonder what could have kept people away so much tonight (and ending up in such a different mix of people, LOL). I was glad to see that there wasn't a big crowd at the neighboring BW3 either, so they weren't shunning it in favor of chains at least.

^This weekend is the big Greek festival at st. "whatever' church on Center Ridge in Rocky River.  Every year it tends to have an effect on restaurant business on a good portion of the west side as it is hugely attended (and the food is great).

 

Also this is a big high school grad party weekend.  One of my employees who just graduated from Westlake high was going to seven house parties today.

 

Also, while father's day is really not that big a deal for restaurants (especially compared to mother's day), the people who do go out for that probably did not go out tonight.

It's St. Demetrios' festival.  We'll be there today for sure.

can anyone get some photos up of zinc? thx

it sounds great -- fingers crossed the outdoor bar may just make up for the loss of the dollar bank building.

 

There are some pictures of ZINC in this forum:

http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php/topic,14701.1380/topicseen.html

 

I hope they help :)