Eat On Edgecliff

Felice Urban Cafe and Town Hall

We went to two new hot eating spots in Cleveland this past weekend. Friday evening we went to hear the Cleveland Orchestra perform Mozart’s Requiem with the Hiti’s and Monroe’s. John was able to get his firm’s box at the last minute so we had superb seats right above the action. The concert was amazing as always. The first Friday at Severance is always early at 7:00PM followed by another band in the lobby. This Friday it was a full gospel choir. There were several bars set up throughout with the Hall beautifully lit and cocktail tables all over. Very nice. We then hopped over to Larchmere to Felice which is a converted house made into a nice restaurant. There was a nice big porch, the bar was on the second floor and we sat up on the 3rd floor. It was still totally full at 9:30 when we go there. Courtney and I split an order of mushroom crostini, I had a really good cheese burger and a side order of sauteed Brussels sprouts and Courtney had a pasta with butternut squash and mushrooms. While the service was a bit spotty, I felt sorry for the poor girl as she had to run up three flights of stairs the whole night. Definitely a place to go back to in the summer as they have a great patio.

On Saturday we all went to Town Hall on West 25th for brunch. We have been meaning to go here forever and had a great time with Claire, Sean, Jack, Rachel, Grace, Nicole and Sophia. The place was hopping as all places on W25th are these days. I had a draft from a brewery in California that I forget the name of that was very good, Jack and Courtney had Bells Oberon. The girls all got crepes from the crepe bar, I had grilled cheese and tomato soup and Courtney had a veggie burger that was very good – made mostly with beets. Everyone’s meals were great and we really liked the vibe – again they have a great patio that will be great in a few weeks if it ever gets warm here in C town.

The Cleveland Orchestra and Chorus right before they started

stopping at the Market afterwards to buy some bacon from our favorite women butchers: The Pork Chop Shop

Cincinnati: April 25-27, 2014

Uncategorized

Friday, April 25th, 2014

We spent a fun filled weekend last week in Cincinnati celebrating Jack’s graduation from University of Cincinnati… hurray! Sophia, Mom, Dad and myself took off from Euclid on Friday around 12:30, following Courtney and Grace who departed the previous day on a two-day college visiting trip to Wooster, University of Dayton, Miami of Ohio and University of Cincinnati. Claire and Sean also hit the road about 30 minute after us after working for a half of day. It was an awful drive through Ohio with nice weather but several standstills due to accidents and heavy traffic in Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati. We were happy to arrive at the Embassy Suites across the river in Kentucky around 5:45 just in time for Manager’s Reception cocktail hour – everyone’s favorite part of staying at an Embassy Suites – where Jack, Courtney and Grace were already chilling out. We had a great time imbibing for almost two hours celebrating with Jack and happy that everyone was together. We decided to bring a picnic with us for dinner that night as it is a bit of college graduation tradition and it worked out great as we booked an extra large suite again for one of the rooms that comes with a bar and a large table. Mom and Dad brought brisket and fixings that we warmed up in the microwave and I made and packed cole slaw for the brisket, a tortellini salad with roasted peppers and peas, a tabbouleh salad and a fruit salad. It worked out great and everything was superb. After dinner around 9:00 I talked the kids into walking across the beautiful Roebling bridge and walking a few blocks to Fountain Square in downtown Cincinnati to get Graeters for dessert. It was a beautiful warm evening, the Ohio River was calm and the Graeters was good as always… although the line was crazy long. We managed to stay up a bit longer and play black out – our usual vacation card game.

Dad and Sophia enjoying our little corner in Kentucky.

group portrait getting ready to go over the bridge

The Roebling bridge is a beautiful suspension bridge almost 140 years old. It predates the Brooklyn Bridge, which it closely resembles, by 30 years.

Saturday, April 26th, 2014

We woke up kind of late and had a leisurely Embassy Suites breakfast – myself perfecting the bagel and bacon and cream cheese combo. We went on a mid-morning field trip to Party Source about a mile down the road. It is a huge liquor store with aisle after aisle of party supplies, wine, beer and liquor. It was pretty amazing. We got a case of wine, Dad got a case of Black Velvet and a case of wine and Sean and Claire loaded up also. What a place. We then went back to the hotel and got ready to go to the commencement at UC. Jack was only able to get five tickets so Claire, Sean and Sophia spent the day at IKEA and Jungle Jim’s – a huge specialty grocery store that they ended up spending two hours in. We dropped Jack off at his house at 12:30 and parked on campus. We walked around a bit as it was an amazingly beautiful afternoon – high 70’s and sunny – and avoided going into the Arena where we knew we would be sitting for a long time. We ended up going in at 1:00 to get seats as it was filling up. The spring commencement was Cincinnati’s largest ever so it was packed to the rafters. The ceremony was almost three hours long… very long. The speakers weren’t very good either and they handed out several thousand diplomas. Yikes. We were happy to be there though. We hung out on the green outside after the ceremony taking pictures. Claire, Sean and Sophia met us there so we were able to take family pictures. We met Rachel’s family afterward outside also. We had dinner at a place called Bella Luna on the south east side of Cincinnati. I researched places about a week ahead of time and it looked good… and they took a reservation for 15 at 6:00 so it was a keeper. We had a really nice three hour long dinner eating lots of good food and celebrating the graduates. The menu was Italian and we splurged and all ate lots of good stuff. We said our goodbyes to Rachel’s family and Jack and Rachel as we were driving straight home after breakfast.

At the Party Source for our morning field trip

University of Cincinnati has a beautiful campus and has many great buildings and spaces

soaking in the sunshine procrastinating going into the field house.

Jack is one of the ones walking into the row

I was taking a picture of the screen in the background as they were posting everybodys #UHGrad2014 twitters and mine was on the screen

The Invention of Wings; Sue Monk Kidd

Books

Historical fiction novel about two sisters who grew up in a slave owning Charleston family in the early 1800’s and eventually became abolitionists in the North. The novel goes back and forth between the point of view of the older sister, Sarah Grimke, and the slave, Hetty, that was given to Sarah as her personal slave on her 11th birthday. Enjoyable book to read that I would recommend, yet another awful example of the history of our country.

PJH rating: ****

Silent Wife; A.S.A. Harrison

Books

A seemingly oblivious wife sits in her Chicago penthouse as her as* ho$# husband sleeps around and gets another woman pregnant. Murder ensues. I’m not sure why or how I finished this as it was trash. Supposedly this year’s Gone Girl but it was just awful.

PJH rating: **

Chicago: 2014

Eat Out

Long time no post. Bring it on Spring.

We were in Chicago for a few days last week visiting colleges, visiting family and of course eating. A few of the fun places we went:

Farmhouse. I was looking around for somewhere good to go a few weeks ago and made a reservation here for our first night as it looked casual but good. Located a bit farther than I thought it was – about a half hour walk – but it is always fun to walk in Chicago. Farmhouse bills itself as a farm to tavern concept with a local seasonal focus on craft beer, food and liquor. It was the hip and happening place to be at 8:00 on a Wednesday night. I’m glad we made a reservation as we got a table right away amongst the crowd of hipsters. I had a New Holland Brown ale (I think?) that was really great. They also had several different wines on draft which was pretty cool. We split an order of deep fried cheese curds which were the star of the night – lightly crispy with nice gooey cheesy inside. I had a leek and mushroom risotto, Courtney had kale and sausage soup, Grace had the fish and chips and Sophia had some mac and cheese… all very good. I’m happy to say the walk back seemed much quicker on a full and happy stomach.

Shout out to chick-fil-a where we wolfed down a whole tray of fried goodness in 2 seconds after spending all morning on Michigan Ave.

The Berghoff. We met Courtney’s friend Chris at Berghoff’s downtown for lunch. I have never been to this Chicago institution before but have heard many stories. It is a German restaurant over 100 years old. It used to be a men’s only institution with beer and sausages served by good German fraus… but of course has modernized… a bit. It was good to see Chris as we haven’t seen him in quite a while. We had a nice big table, shared some beers and bratwust and enjoyed the German hospitality and Chicago history. Will definitely make this a permanent stop when in Chicago.

I didn’t take any pictures. This is sort of where we sat.

Homeslice. We visited George and Carrie in Lincoln Park on our last night and went out to their local favorite Pizza place. Like everywhere, the place was packed. Lots of young people relaxing on a beautiful Friday night. Windows raised wide open. I drank Goose Island Green that I have never tried before and it was very good. We wolfed down three really good thin crust pizzas and it was great spending time with them. Also stopped at Floriole bakery on the way back to get some dessert. I had a tasty lemon cupcake, Sophie had a slice of s’more pie, and they had a ranger cookies – just like Dairymens.

I copies this picture from the internet… the bathroom walls and floors were tiles with pennies. cool.

Where’d You Go, Bernadette; Maria Semple

Books

Bernadette is a reclusive ex very famous architect who lives in Seattle as part of an uber couple with her high powered Microsoft husband and their teen aged daughter. Bernadette goes missing after a great series of events involving her past history and her present craziness. I have avoided this book as I thought it was trashy chick lit… but I loved it and read it straight through all last Sunday. It would be a great beach book. Chick lit I suppose… but a great, fun, satirical story told in an original way. Highly recommend.

PJH Rating: ****1/2

We Are Water; Wally Lamb

Books

A woman is getting remarried to another woman sets the present time for the story of a family told from the viewpoints of the different family members. The mom, who grew up an orphan after a flood killed her mother and sister and turned her father into a drunk; her ex-husband who is a psychologist but recently retired early; their three children etc etc. Lots of different stories. I have enjoyed all of Wally Lamb’s books, I thought this novel was OK, but found it a bit forced at times.

PJH Rating: ***1/2

The Interestings; Meg Wolitzer

Books

Six teenagers make a pack at their performing arts summer camp in the early ’80s to always be friends. The novel centers around Jules, one of the six who isn’t quite as “interesting” as the others and follows her and the other six throughout the following decades. I enjoyed it but felt it was a bit long and boring in parts – especially the end. It would have been better if edited down a bit.

PJH Rating: ****

Pittsburgh – 3/1-3/2/2014

Travel

Courtney and I were watching a show on Showtime on Thursday night called “Another Day Another Time – Celebrating the Music of ‘Inside Llewyn Davis'” that was a concert with all different groups playing music from the film and other music of that genre. We saw the film in December and I would give the film a B-, just OK. The Showtime special however, was REALLY good with many of our favorite artists and some new ones that I have already been checking out on Spotify (love our premium Spotify subscription). We really were digging the Avett Brothers on the show – real standouts – so while we sitting watching we were checking them out on our tablets and found out that they were playing in Pittsburgh that coming Saturday along with Old Crowe Medicine Show who we saw in Troy this summer and really liked. So…. then and there we decided to road trip to Pittsburgh – bought our tickets and booked a hotel while sitting on the couch. A+ for spontaneity Patrick and Courtney. Saturday was also my Birthday so we were looking for something to do I must say.

We left Euclid around 8:00 AM on Saturday entrusting the girls to Claire for the evening and made our way to Steeler country. The drive to Pittsburgh was nice and easy, only a bit more than two hours. Our first stop was to the Frick Museum which has been on our list for a long long time since going to the Frick in Manhattan which is one of our favorites. The museum is the preserved estate of Henry Clay Frick, a 19th century Industrialist and one of the founders of US Steel – a real bastard after reading about him, but he did have good taste in houses and art. We bought tickets for a tour of the house and while waiting for 30 minutes for it to start we checked out the car and carriage museum that is part of the complex. While I’m not one for car museums, they did have some beautiful old cars and carriages that have been beautifully maintained. The tour of the house, Clayton, was really amazing though. We happened to be on a special tour that focused on Frick’s art in the house and his early collecting. Everything in the house is original and is beautifully maintained. Beautiful wood, furniture, plaster… everything. Our tour guide was really knowledgeable and we learned a lot about 19th century American art. We would like to go again and go on the “regular” tour to hear more of the history of the house and the architecture. After our hour and a half tour we checked out the greenhouse and the separate art museum that Helen Frick – Henry Clay’s daughter and fellow art collector – built on the property when she moved back to the estate in her later years.

A few pix from the internet:

Courtney in the greenhouse. Beautiful swiss chard.

We then made our way to Downtown Pittsburgh, just 10 minutes away, to explore and find somewhere to eat. After creatively finding somewhere to park downtown we ended up at a nice Italian place on Market Square called Il Pizzaiola that was really great. We had “Its Vacation So Lets Have Beer For Lunch”, an order of super fresh calamari, and then we split a pizza Margherita and a big salad. perfecto. I had some sort of Italian draft porter that was brewed in oyster shells or something like that that was superb. I asked our waiter to write the name of it down as it was so good but of course I lost the piece of paper. After lunch we walked around a bit, checking out the old buildings, walk down to the river where an old Fort was and you could see the stadiums across the river and then walked back up. I don’t think I have ever been in downtown Pittsburgh before. Reminds me of both Cleveland and Cincinnati… maybe not quite as downtrodden?

We found our car and made our way to our hotel, Hilton Garden Inn Pittsburgh University Place on the University of Pittsburgh campus as that is where the concert was going on. Nice recently re-done hotel, hopping place full of concert goers. We relaxed for awhile, walked across the street to the IGA to get some pre-concert beers and snacks, and then walked to the concert around 7:00PM. The arena was up a long steep hill and then once we got there, will call was up about 4 levels of steps. We eventually made it in, found our seats and enjoyed the show. Both groups were great. It looked to be pretty much sold out. We had bizarre seats that were one row of seats in some sort of club section. There was nobody behind use so we were able to stand up, use the tables there and watch the show. It was nice. The concert lasted until about 11:00 and we walked back, stopped at McDonalds on the way for a quick cheeseburger and made it back to the hotel. Tired but happy.

The next days a blizzard was on it’s way to Pittsburg so we decided to hit the road right away at 7:30AM and not risk it. It was already snowing a bit but not too bad. As we made our way north the snow got heavier but was never too bad. We were going to stop at the IKEA outside of Pittsburgh but we decided not to risk it. We did stop at the Original Pancake House on Chagrin though on the way home and had a nice breakfast, stopped at the Whole Foods for some stuff and made it home before 11:00.

The Goldfinch; Donna Tart

Books

A teenage boy’s mother dies when they are in the Metropolitan Museum of Art and a terrorist bomb goes off. The boy ends up taking “The Goldfinch” – a priceless 17th century painting- in his dream like escape from the museum. The novel follows Theo for the next few decades and his adventures that are always haunted by his possession and obsession with the Goldfinch.
A top novel on most fiction lists for 2013. It is quite a hefty one, 900 pgs + on Overdrive, but I enjoyed it and have been pretty wrapped up in it all week long with my week long cold. It is completely amazing to me the talent someone has to come up with a story like this out of thin air and to write it in such an eloquent way.

I love the last paragraph:

“That life – whatever else it is – is short. That fate is cruel but maybe not random. That Nature (meaning Death) always wins but that doesn’t mean we have to bow and grovel to it. That maybe even if we’re not always so glad to be here, it’s our task to immerse ourselves anyway: wade straight through it, right through the cesspool, while keeping eyes and hearts open. And in the midst of our dying, as we rise from the organic and sink back ignominiously into the organic, it is a glory and a privilege to love what Death doesn’t touch.”

PJH rating: ***1/2