February 5, 201510 yr i heard a few months ago that Coventry was their lowest revenue producer out of all the locations in the city. Ral big bummer abour Golden Gate. The sprawl continues. Why is it a bummer about a new Golden Gate location? Do you know where Golden Gate is? It's a very dense shopping center on Mayfield, actually one of the oldest shopping centers in the NATION. The new Lizard location is going into the dead Mexican joint along 271. Not sure any of that qualifies as sprawl It's a giant strip mall with a giant parking lot right off of a highway onramp. How aren't you sure that all of that qualifies as sprawl? it's a not a giant strip mall at all. by comparison to a lot of other suburban developments, it's pretty small. There's no large big box tenant like a walmart or target, it's mostly smaller shops of 3,000 sf or less. And the parking is actually at a premium in that place. Go out there today and see how many open spots there are, esp with the large snow piles... in fact, the limited parking is why they dont have a big box anchor. And the shopping center was there before the freeway connection was, so... it was built to serve the mass of dense post-war housing that surrounds it. The shopping center actually predates the word "sprawl"
February 5, 201510 yr Limited parking? We're talking about Golden Gate in Mayfield Heights, correct? I suppose the Empire State Building's small stature is why it does not have an anchor tenant? ;)
February 5, 201510 yr Winking Lizard is relocating from a 100+ year-old, urbanized, dense, ped-friendly mixed use area within walking distance to University Circle, among other areas to a 60s-built, sprawl-influenced strip-shopping center that sprung up next to Cleveland's outer-belt freeway... For anyone who cares an ounce about Cleveland and smart growth, it's a negative move.
February 5, 201510 yr I don't think I've ever seen that parking lot more than half full. That is really disappointing about Winking Lizard leaving Coventry, but hopefully something nice moves in.
February 6, 201510 yr Winking Lizard is relocating from a 100+ year-old, urbanized, dense, ped-friendly mixed use area within walking distance to University Circle, among other areas to a 60s-built, sprawl-influenced strip-shopping center that sprung up next to Cleveland's outer-belt freeway... For anyone who cares an ounce about Cleveland and smart growth, it's a negative move. For a suburb, Mayfield Heights is fairly dense. It's on par with Euclid and South Euclid. Much of that is due to the large number amount of apartments in the city although most of the housing is on top of each other except for a couple neighborhoods largely off of Cedar. I lived in MH for a few years without a car, walking everywhere. It can certainly be done if you live in the right part of the city. When you look at how much Cuyahoga and NEO have sprawled, Mayfield is virtually inner ring. Most of its housing stock is pretty dated and who knows how much longer it will be attractive. The area has attracted a ton of Asian immigrants so it's added lots of new ethnic businesses which makes me think MH has a decent future. Getting back on topic, Winking Lizard has been scoping out MH for years. They couldn't find a suitable location. There's not much space in the city to build a new restaurant, especially a large one like the Lizard is. This is about the best you can find in the city. The locals will know how to get there and that's all that matters. Bucca di Beppo died because the food sucked and it was surrounded by local Italian places that have been around for decades. The Lizard will thrive especially with the amount of young people who are living in the nearby apartments.
February 6, 201510 yr Winking Lizard is relocating from a 100+ year-old, urbanized, dense, ped-friendly mixed use area within walking distance to University Circle, among other areas to a 60s-built, sprawl-influenced strip-shopping center that sprung up next to Cleveland's outer-belt freeway... For anyone who cares an ounce about Cleveland and smart growth, it's a negative move. For a suburb, Mayfield Heights is fairly dense. It's on par with Euclid and South Euclid. Much of that is due to the large number amount of apartments in the city although most of the housing is on top of each other except for a couple neighborhoods largely off of Cedar. I lived in MH for a few years without a car, walking everywhere. It can certainly be done if you live in the right part of the city. When you look at how much Cuyahoga and NEO have sprawled, Mayfield is virtually inner ring. Most of its housing stock is pretty dated and who knows how much longer it will be attractive. The area has attracted a ton of Asian immigrants so it's added lots of new ethnic businesses which makes me think MH has a decent future. Getting back on topic, Winking Lizard has been scoping out MH for years. They couldn't find a suitable location. There's not much space in the city to build a new restaurant, especially a large one like the Lizard is. This is about the best you can find in the city. The locals will know how to get there and that's all that matters. Bucca di Beppo died because the food sucked and it was surrounded by local Italian places that have been around for decades. The Lizard will thrive especially with the amount of young people who are living in the nearby apartments. As I said in the other thread, back in the early days of the Lizard there were only two, and since me and a couple friends were basically paying his light bill at Twin City Tavern I got to know John Lane reasonably well. He's a suburbanite. He was the spearhead of moving outward (at the time Twinsburg was the hot new sprawl area). He is also the one that moved that location to Macedonia where it is now. Moving rather than expanding is nothing new for them.
February 6, 201510 yr In my opinion, Winking Lizard offers nothing exciting food-wise. The lizards are a neat touch and they have a good beer list. Aside from that, it may as well be Applebees. I used to live essentially right on top of the one downtown and never went. There were too many other options.
February 6, 201510 yr In my opinion, Winking Lizard offers nothing exciting food-wise. The lizards are a neat touch and they have a good beer list. Aside from that, it may as well be Applebees. I used to live essentially right on top of the one downtown and never went. There were too many other options. I agree. Food is passable. If you've had one too many of said beers, it tastes good. Otherwise I would never choose to eat there.
February 6, 201510 yr In my opinion, Winking Lizard offers nothing exciting food-wise. The lizards are a neat touch and they have a good beer list. Aside from that, it may as well be Applebees. I used to live essentially right on top of the one downtown and never went. There were too many other options. I almost called it a harder drinking local version of Applebee's....
February 6, 201510 yr Winking Lizard is relocating from a 100+ year-old, urbanized, dense, ped-friendly mixed use area within walking distance to University Circle, among other areas to a 60s-built, sprawl-influenced strip-shopping center that sprung up next to Cleveland's outer-belt freeway... For anyone who cares an ounce about Cleveland and smart growth, it's a negative move. I've walked from CWRU to Coventry. It's possible, but difficult. "Walking distance" may be an exaggeration especially with the hill involved.
February 6, 201510 yr Would we still be complaining about the new Mayfield Hts location if it didn't also include the closure of the Coventry location? I don't have a problem with the expansion, but the closure of a neighborhood institution stinks. From what I recall, there are three storefronts put together in the Coventry lizard space, maybe they could have just gone down to two? I'm also interested to see how it will be having two Winking Lizards downtown so close to each other. I think that the Winks location is able to survive on profits alone made on browns game days, and they seem to do a solid weekday lunch business. I hope they keep their beer menu tv's!
February 6, 201510 yr ^Not me. I don't have any issue whatsoever with the closing of the Coventry location. Those storefronts will be filled relatively easily, I suspect...... perhaps with something more appealing to me. I have an issue with this location for just about any joint. It is a totally car centric/dependent location. You are not going to walk to any of the other stores at Golden Gate from this spot. It's essentially a truck stop off 271
February 6, 201510 yr In my opinion, Winking Lizard offers nothing exciting food-wise. The lizards are a neat touch and they have a good beer list. Aside from that, it may as well be Applebees. I used to live essentially right on top of the one downtown and never went. There were too many other options. Having superior food to Buffalo Wild Wings will only get you so far, I think. I like Lizard for watching sports, usually a good atmosphere. And great beer list. They've got those aspects covered.
February 7, 201510 yr The food at Winks was far superior to that of regular Wink food. I would love it if they were to include some more upscale items on the regular Wink menu too, although I doubt that would happen.
February 9, 201510 yr Is the downtown Winking Lizard closing? I was downtown earlier and there was a sign in a window across the street on Prospect from whoever is in the building - Ohio Medical Mutual? Mutual Medical? Something like that. Anyway, the sign said something along the lines of "Winking Lizard please stay" or "Winking Lizard please come back." Something like that.
February 9, 201510 yr It's not closing, I don't know what the sign is about. My guess is they changed health plans or something.
February 10, 201510 yr The sign is almost directly across from the entrance of the lizard, I assumed it was an advertisement to get people to turn around and go back inside the lizard for more food and drinks, something like, 'thank you, come again'
February 10, 201510 yr No, it was MMO's attempt to lure back their business for health insurance, which incidentally worked. They do cash-mob type activities with their employees to try to lure in business or retain current customers.
February 12, 201510 yr FYI, Local West (74th and Detroit) and Graffiti Social Kitchen (old reddstone) both open next Wednesday in the Detroit Shoreway neighborhood. Both places have done really impressive upgrades to the previous space. Local West SOMEHOW made the old NIkos look like a respectable place to get a meal.
February 13, 201510 yr I noticed that "Gabe's Deli" will be taking over the old MoCa space on Clifton between W 104th and W 105th in Edgewater. I saw that MoCa had closed a few months ago.
February 13, 201510 yr I noticed that "Gabe's Deli" will be taking over the old MoCa space on Clifton between W 104th and W 105th in Edgewater. I saw that MoCa had closed a few months ago. Darn I liked MoCa. But they never seemed capable of grabbing any of the rush hour Starbucks crowd.
February 13, 201510 yr I noticed that "Gabe's Deli" will be taking over the old MoCa space on Clifton between W 104th and W 105th in Edgewater. I saw that MoCa had closed a few months ago. Darn I liked MoCa. But they never seemed capable of grabbing any of the rush hour Starbucks crowd. Parking at the Starbucks is tough in the morning. At MoCa it was nonexistent, except for a couple spaces on the side street.
February 14, 201510 yr I'm looking forward to Graffiti. I find myself in Gordon-Square at least once or twice a month and am tired of hitting the usual suspects there.
February 15, 201510 yr I noticed that "Gabe's Deli" will be taking over the old MoCa space on Clifton between W 104th and W 105th in Edgewater. I saw that MoCa had closed a few months ago. That's been a tough building for first-floor businesses. Since the mid-90s, the business that lasted the longest (ironically in the old MoCA space) was Christophier men's clothing which took over and remodeled the gas station at Clifton and Lake about eight years ago. The wine bar has had at least several different owners since I've lived in the area, but was a full restaurant about 15 years ago but I can't remember the name. I was in there several times and it seemed pretty busy, but good restaurants tend to close for the craziest of reasons. "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
February 15, 201510 yr I noticed that "Gabe's Deli" will be taking over the old MoCa space on Clifton between W 104th and W 105th in Edgewater. I saw that MoCa had closed a few months ago. That's been a tough building for first-floor businesses. Since the mid-90s, the business that lasted the longest (ironically in the old MoCA space) was Christophier men's clothing which took over and remodeled the gas station at Clifton and Lake about eight years ago. The wine bar has had at least several different owners since I've lived in the area, but was a full restaurant about 15 years ago but I can't remember the name. I was in there several times and it seemed pretty busy, but good restaurants tend to close for the craziest of reasons. Clifton Wine Bar opened in 2010. From what I understood, it's been one of the longest lasting businesses in that stretch.
February 15, 201510 yr Clifton Wine Bar opened in 2010. From what I understood, it's been one of the longest lasting businesses in that stretch. Yeah, probably among currently operating businesses. "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
February 16, 201510 yr Clifton Wine Bar opened in 2010. From what I understood, it's been one of the longest lasting businesses in that stretch. Yeah, probably among currently operating businesses. Back in the late 90's/early 2000's this was Donna Chriszt's first restaurant, Jeso. She's currently chef de cuisine at Table 45. This old PD article calls this site "the graveyard of Cleveland restaurants" with 6 different restaurants in 15 years... http://blog.cleveland.com/lifestyles/2007/11/velocity_american_bistro_close.html
February 16, 201510 yr Cleveland: Food Capital, USA No shortage of acclaim was bestowed upon our esteemed dining scene in the past year http://m.clevescene.com/cleveland/cleveland-food-capital-usa/Content?oid=4491124 "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
February 22, 201510 yr Cleveland best new hangouts.... http://photos.clevescene.com/8-of-the-best-new-bars-in-cleveland/ "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
March 18, 201510 yr NNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!! Cleveland firefighters battle blaze at Steve's Lunch on West Side CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Cleveland firefighters on Tuesday evening battled a restaurant fire on the city's West Side. The fire erupted about 5:30 p.m. in a commercial building on the northwest corner of West 50th Street and Lorain Avenue. The building is home to Steve's Lunch. A waitress told Northeast Ohio Media Group that a grease fire started in the kitchen and quickly spread. The building was engulfed by the time firefighters arrived. Crews were unable to fight the fire from inside the building. The flames were doused from outside by 6:30 p.m. http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2015/03/cleveland_firefighters_battle_4.html#incart_river
March 18, 201510 yr NNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!! Cleveland firefighters battle blaze at Steve's Lunch on West Side CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Cleveland firefighters on Tuesday evening battled a restaurant fire on the city's West Side. The fire erupted about 5:30 p.m. in a commercial building on the northwest corner of West 50th Street and Lorain Avenue. The building is home to Steve's Lunch. A waitress told Northeast Ohio Media Group that a grease fire started in the kitchen and quickly spread. The building was engulfed by the time firefighters arrived. Crews were unable to fight the fire from inside the building. The flames were doused from outside by 6:30 p.m. http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2015/03/cleveland_firefighters_battle_4.html#incart_river :-(
March 18, 201510 yr My initial, and perhaps naive, thought was that maybe it wasn't that bad and that they'd be able to salvage the building. Alas... Steve's Lunch building leveled as loyal customers despair loss of Cleveland favorite http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2015/03/steves_lunch_building_leveled_1.html Besides the obvious sadness of losing Steve's Lunch, the building was really neat was well. I had noticed a few months ago that the front facade had recently been restored after having been covered up decades ago. Such a shame.
March 18, 201510 yr ^ I wouldn't be surprised to see some of the Ohio City Businesses raise funds to get it back up and running. Especially since the SOLO district is trying to brand and grow itself and there are so many vacant paces on that part of Lorain.
March 18, 201510 yr My initial, and perhaps naive, thought was that maybe it wasn't that bad and that they'd be able to salvage the building. Alas... Steve's Lunch building leveled as loyal customers despair loss of Cleveland favorite http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2015/03/steves_lunch_building_leveled_1.html Besides the obvious sadness of losing Steve's Lunch, the building was really neat was well. I had noticed a few months ago that the front facade had recently been restored after having been covered up decades ago. Such a shame. I was really saddened by this -- grateful, though, no one was hurt... We used to go by Steve's for late-night dogs years ago. I never paid attention to the building, primarily because we always went there at night... it had this hole-in-the-wall authentic feel about it - it was pure Cleveland, esp pure West Side Cleveland... I just read, though, the building was built in the 1860s!!! I had no idea it was THAT old.... The Google Street Views photo (from last summer) shows it's old, early Victorian appearance and also clearly shows the recent rehab... Damn, what a cool building; a terrible loss just from a historic architectural POV. I sure hope Steve's rebuilds, or at least relocates, to a nearby space.
March 18, 201510 yr Every visit home for the past 15 years included a stop at Steve's lunch. I'm heartbroken
March 18, 201510 yr Agreed and was just thinking that. I mean, it wasn't a new business, they had to have enough money for insurance.
March 18, 201510 yr ^Hard to believe the place was totally uninsured. If there was a place that would likely not be insured, it would be Steve's Lunch.
March 18, 201510 yr ^Hard to believe the place was totally uninsured. If there was a place that would likely not be insured, it would be Steve's Lunch. Reminds me of a few years ago when Lancer Steakhouse burned down as they also were not insured.
March 18, 201510 yr ^Hard to believe the place was totally uninsured. If there was a place that would likely not be insured, it would be Steve's Lunch. Costs a fortune in the inner city and inner ring. Probably more for being open 24-7.
March 18, 201510 yr Also, I think that the people who ran the restaurant were just renting the space, and somebody else owned the building.
March 18, 201510 yr Steve's Lunch (building) as of last summer: https://www.google.com/maps/@41.47752,-81.721339,3a,75y,302.23h,96.93t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sluuBoSY1Bm302ytzGzEkPw!2e0!6m1!1e1
March 24, 201510 yr Restore Cold Pressed organic juice and superfood smoothie bar coming to Gateway District http://freshwatercleveland.com/devnews/restorecoldpressed032315.aspx
March 24, 201510 yr So excited about this one. Now Open: Santorini Brings Greek-Themed Eats to Downtown After months of construction, Santorini Greek Taverna opens today at 4 p.m. Owner Tommy Karakostas has been working since fall to convert the old BRGR 9 spot in the Warehouse District into a breezy Greek bistro. Karakostas also is the owner of the popular Lakewood eatery Greek Village Grille, as well as Greek Village outposts in Broadview Heights and Medina. Read more: http://www.clevescene.com/scene-and-heard/archives/2015/03/24/now-open-santorini-brings-greek-themed-eats-to-downtown
March 24, 201510 yr This is a big award in the culinary world. Sawyer has been in the running for a couple years now. Cleveland chef Jonathon Sawyer named a finalist for 2015 James Beard Awards http://www.cleveland.com/dining/index.ssf/2015/03/cleveland_chef_jonathon_sawyer_4.html#incart_river
March 30, 201510 yr Fast-Growing Food-Focused Pop-Up Firm Dinner Lab Coming to Cleveland http://www.clevescene.com/scene-and-heard/archives/2015/03/30/fast-growing-food-focused-pop-up-firm-dinner-lab-coming-to-cleveland
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