Drinking, Eating, and the Subsequent Workout

There was a time there in between getting over a cold and getting the flu where we felt good enough to go out on the town and enjoy the holiday season in Ohio City with my brother John and his puppy loving girlfriend Brooke. We started out at Great Lakes Brewing Company which now a days is seen as being as iconic in this city as the Guardians of Traffic or the Terminal Tower... especially at Christmas time. Growing up as a suburban beer connoisseur, like John, this was like visiting Mecca. Big city, regional beer powerhouse, tastes of home for the holidays... It's like if you could drink the Browns followed by a shot of the Cavs and a chaser of the Indians.

Now Great Lakes, if you've never been, is a strange hodgepodge of buildings and areas. I haven't been to all of them but I'm getting there as time goes on. There's the brewery area where you eat in front of large metal brewing/fermenting tanks which is there to remind you that you are in an actual brewery. There's the old school pub area as you walk in which is usually so busy, you never get to penetrate the wall of people to even get a good look at  it all. There's the cottage like upstairs area which reminds me of the Victorian I grew up in. It's tables but in your grandma's upstairs where she knits. There's the patio area where you feel like you're eating off an enclosed back deck. There's the medieval basement area where my friends and I usually wait to be seated while we throw back a flight. Then there's a gift shop with all sorts of fun Great Lake apparel. It's a strange collection of rooms and floors and areas to say the least but it's what you think of when you think of drinking in Cleveland. It's our home base... our local bar. Too small to be ignored and too big to fit into 1 old building.

Now I could go into great detail about the beers and the food but I won't. I will tell you that the menu is Cleveland food and Cleveland food long before Iron Chefs came to town. It's old world and comforting... and by comforting I mean delicious and filling. The beers are the gold standard in these parts but when you actually come here, you get to try fun new brews and twists that you won't find at the gas station or grocery store.

It's the nucleus of the West 25th revival. It's one of the reasons why every store front on that block has brewery somewhere in the name. It's a destination all to itself. I should know. My friends from back home have made a the pilgrimage once a year for as long as I can remember. We stop nowhere else and leave when we're done. One small change this year though... I get to walk home after... which will allow me to try to talk others into either bar hopping or gambling!

Being on West 25th we had the luxury of being able to bar hop to some amazing places and more than enough breweries, macro and micro. From Great Lakes we went to Market Garden Brewery, Bar Cento, and then to McNulty's Bier Markt. I did get a glimpse of Sam McNulty at Bar Centro but by that time our group was much too rowdy for me to break away and introduce myself as a fan and local blogger. If you don't know who he is, read this, this, and this. Now see why it was like seeing Elvis for me? There are people in this city who do great things and then there are people like Sam who put a neighborhood on his angel-winged shoulders and, at the same time, lift it and the city up to a new level... a respectable level. From what I read he a nice approachable guy so maybe someday when I'm not on scotch #4 and in the middle of a loud complaint-fest, I'll get the courage to say "Hi". Hell, he may be talking to Mike Polk and I'll get kill 2 birds with one stone! I'm such a pansy. Oh and if you're wondering, those 3 places we stopped at were awesome! Next time we're starting at Bar Cento because their menu looks amazing and I kinda felt bad about being a bit rowdy there. It had a real swanky vibe to it and deserved us being a bit more classy. Gina's new Wednesday hang out is Market Garden since her friend Kat and her co-workers go there after work when they come up here. We loved the place when we were there for dinner during a Cleveland Skylift presentation we went to awhile back. Beir Market deserves a sober revue so I'll have to go there again. If I was 10 years younger, I could have made it further down the street and maybe even had a 1:30 am 4th meal... but I'm not that spry anymore especially when transitioning from a cold to the flu.

We now finally feel better in the old Riley Vozar half a household and that meant that we could finally start going to our holiday planned outings again! The first one we were able to attend was at the Urban Farmer with Gina's cousins Kerry and Helene. Urban Farmer is a steakhouse in the newly renovated Westin hotel downtown. As their name states, they bring food to your urban area straight from the farm and they even tell you what farm... and how it was raised... and what it was fed... and if it had a name. There are no curve balls with this menu. You know what it is, what's in it, and where it came from. You have to really deal with this almost overwhelming refreshing feeling when you sit down and get the gist of what their trying to do.  I mean compare it to a Chicken McNugget or a Taco Supreme... Urban Farmer really cares about what's going on your plate and that is conveyed in the detailed menu and in the staff that you interact with.

The decor on the inside is interestingly artsy for a steakhouse. It's a great atmosphere with many eye-catching pieces to ponder while you take it all in. We sat underneath 4 TVs with ever changing scapes of Cleveland's shoreline. Every once in awhile you'd get a computer animated wind surfer or balloon or something that would interact with the video. The seating had spaces between booth seats which are usually back to back. The spaces allowed the servers to put things in front of you with out having to reach across you. I love this idea and hope more adopt it. There's nothing worse than constantly having to shuffle food from one end ot the table to the other while you're trying to eat a quickly cooling meal.

So how was the food? Top 3 steaks I've ever had. Seasoned perfectly and not so much that it overpowers the flavor of the meat like you're eating a brick of Mrs Dash. I got the bone-in ribeye and it was a lot of steak... I was happy that it was because I savored every last drop and almost ate the bone under the table like a dog. It's amazing how when a piece of meat is well taken care of that care comes out in the taste. The sides we ordered were good but if you do go small on your steak and need a side, go with anything that has potato in it. You can't miss. They have a large and expensive wine selection, if you feel like drinking with your pinky out. The white was pretty great but the red was a bit thick for my taste. If you're a better, more self controlled man than I, you will get to try the dessert. I was much too full. Everyone at the table seemed very happy with their food choices.

Being on mend gave us an excuse to pretty much skip the gym and eat take out for most of our vacation. Now that we're back at'em, we need our gym, the Tremont Athletic Club, more than ever. TAC is in the basement of the beautifully renovated Fairmont Creamery building just on the other side of the highway from us. A nice short walk, if it's not -2 outside like it has been. It's not only brand spanking new but in these new year months when gyms are like a rabid monkey circus on crack, this one is pretty tame. I've never had to wait for a machine and it's a gym so there are yoga pants... God's gift to all mankind. If you're in the area and you don't want to go downtown or to the dreaded burbs to work out, check it out! Gina even has a trainer that she works out with a couple times a week. I've never heard someone talk about their sore muscles so much... but she loves it!

The holidays were quite adventurous for us this year. Happy new year Cleveland and get ready for the year of construction in preparation for the RNC! It's gonna be wild! <3 U CLE! I'm looking forward to trying the beer named "Nighty Night" since that's how I like to end these... 

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