Cleveland Ohio (September 2013)

My spouse and I visited Cleveland during the Labor Day weekend of September 2013. Our long weekend originated in Cleveland but ended in Pittsburgh, where we attended the home opener game for the University of Pittsburgh Panthers. On Saturday, we drove from Allentown to Cleveland, checked into the Doubletree, then walked around the town, had lunch near the casino, and dinner at Michael Symon's Lola Bistro, which we had looked forward to for some time. I had a "small world" experience when I ran into an ex-coworker outside the hotel in the evening. I had read her Facebook post that she was in town, but to find her at the same hotel was amazing!

On Sunday, we visited the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and then the Cleveland Art Museum, where we ate lunch in their museum restaurant, Provenance. For dinner, we planned to dine at Greenhouse Tavern, which we had heard so many good things about, but we had trouble getting served, and so we ended up eating at nearby Hodge's.

On Monday, we drove from Cleveland to Pittsburgh, where we watched the evening game.

Hotel:
Doubletree Guest Suites Cleveland Link to My Review

Restaurants:

• Lola Bistro and Wine Bar Link to My Review
• Hodge's Link to My Review
• Greenhouse Tavern Link to My Review
• Provenance Link to My Review

Activities:

• Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Link to my review
• Cleveland Museum of Art Link to my review

 

Cleveland: Provenance (September 2013)

My spouse and I dined at Provenance at the Cleveland Museum of Art for Sunday brunch in early September 2013. The full-service restaurant is located adjacent to the self-serve café. Brunch is served on Sundays from 11:00 am to 3:00 pm. Lunch is available on Tuesdays through Saturdays from 11:00 am to 3:00 pm, and dinner is served on Wednesday and Friday only from 5:00 pm to 9:00 pm. The bar area serves a light menu during the hours between lunch and dinner. The restaurant accepts reservations. The restaurant space is stark and modern, and provides a nice oasis compared with the serve-yourself café next door. The restaurant overlooks a field/garden, which was disappointingly barren despite the season.

Sunday brunch consists of a chef's table with appetizers that you serve yourself, including fruit, green salad, granola, nuts, yogurt, muffins, scones, and pastries, followed by a served, made-to-order entrée, such as a Waldorf salad (excellent!), quiche, hash, croquet madame (not so great!), benedicts, French toast, and savory crepes. Most brunch items were in the $18 to $20 range, which included both the main course and the buffet appetizer table.

Our meal at Provenance was satisfactory, but nothing to rave about.

Cleveland: Greenhouse Tavern (September 2013)

My spouse and I ATTEMPTED to dine at Greenhouse Tavern for dinner on a Sunday evening in early September 2013. We arrived about 20 minutes prior to our reservation time, and the hostess seated us immediately at the worst table in the house, where we were ignored for the next 20 minutes. If no server was ready to serve us, we would have preferred that the hostess either direct us to the bar, or leave us standing at the hostess podium, rather than have us sit down only to be ignored for 20 minutes. We made our reservation 3 MONTHS PRIOR to the date that we dined, and yet we were given the worst table in the restaurant. When we asked the hostess if another table might be possible, she said that our only other option was to sit in the window (amidst the VHS tapes and on display for all to see). So do not think that by reserving early, your business will be valued in any way - ours certainly wasn't! The menu sounds fantastic, but sadly, we cannot comment on the execution of the dishes before we were forced to leave. One observant busboy filled our water glasses about 15 minutes into our wait, but he did not speak to us, and no server ever acknowledged us until we were walking out the front door from the rear of the restaurant. Afterward, the restaurant was even so kind as to deduct our Open Table points, calling our reservation cancelled. Our experience at Greenhouse Tavern was an epic failure!

Cleveland: Lola Bistro and Wine Bar (September 2013)

My spouse and I dined at Michael Symon's Lola Bistro in early September 2013 on a Saturday evening. (The restaurant is not open for lunch, nor is it open on Sundays.) We made a reservation a few months prior using the Open Table reservation system. (Without a reservation on a Saturday night, diners were quoted a wait time of 2 hours and 45 minutes.)

This restaurant has both indoor and outdoor seating. There is a large roomy bar and entry area towards the front of the building, with tables and the open kitchen to the rear of the building. Had we know ahead of time that the kitchen was open, and that patrons could sit at the chef's bar to watch them work, we would have definitely reserved two of those spots, but they were all reserved on the night that we dined. As it was, we were seated at a regular table adjacent to the bar service area, which was a bit disappointing because we had made our reservation SO far in advance (3.5 months ahead of time), so we doubt any other diners beat us to the more preferable tables. The restaurant space is large and cavernous and a bit noisier than we would have liked, but the atmosphere is chic and sophisticated. The restrooms are located on the basement level, although there is a small elevator to assist those with mobility issues. The basement level also contains a small private-function room. On the night that we visited, a wedding reception was being held there.

The food was fantastic! The bone marrow appetizer, although at $25 is twice the price as what we have ordered in other restaurants, is totally worth what they charge! Lola presents the most interesting plating and presentation of bone marrow that we have ever seen - it is actually removed from the bones (so you don't need to go digging with a tiny spoon), and the marrow is presented on a wooden cutting board accompanied by at least six different garnishes (two were sauces such as buttermilk and bacon), and the other accompaniments included sea salt, red onion, lemon, and herbs, along with thin slices of bread. The pork belly and crispy pigs ear appetizer was also outstanding - the amount of both items were plentiful, and were served atop a watermelon and feta salad. For entrees, we ordered the lamb heart and the corn agnolotti (filled with corn, light corn broth, and fresh-cut corn kernels), which were both delicious! We shared the deconstructed key lime pie for dessert - as beautiful as it was tasty!

Our waiter was terrific, as was most of the staff that we dealt with on the night that we dined (everyone except one female bus girl, who was surly and sullen and made us uncomfortable just looking at her unpleasant face. It was clear that our waiter loved his job and that he loved food, and he was excited to explain the menu options and choices to us.

We had an excellent meal at Lola Bistro, and next time we are in town, we will have to try Chef Symon's other restaurant, Lolita.

Cleveland: Hodge's (September 2013)

Hodge's - We Visited on an “Off” Night

Hodge's is part of the Driftwood Restaurant Group, which also owns Washington Place (in Cleveland), 87 West at Crocker Park (in Westlake), The Orchard House (in Brunswick), and the Welshfield Inn (in Burton). The Group currently offers a little passport-like book in which you can collect visas (stamps) after dining at a particular restaurant. If you receive enough stamps, you can earn rewards like free appetizers and desserts. It seems like a fun way to encourage dining around. Hodge's is open for lunch and dinner Monday through Friday and serves dinner on Saturday and Sunday. This restaurant occupies the space of the former Zinc Bistro. Chef Chris Hodgson also owns the food trucks called Dim and Dem Sum and Hodge Podge. The restaurant accepts reservations through the Open Table system.

The restaurant space is large, with seating indoors on two levels as well as at the long bar. The kitchen is open, so you can watch the chefs work. The bathrooms are not within the restaurant; you must navigate the office/residential building to reach them. The outdoor space is lovely, with another large bar, table seating, and lounge seating, including a firepit. Unfortunately, it was both rainy and humid on the night that we dined, so we ate indoors, but the patio looked fantastic if the weather is right!

Our food was not impressive. Our snacks (hanky pankies [chorizo and cheese atop a crostini] and deviled eggs) arrived at the same time as our appetizers (salad and corn bisque). The restaurant serves complimentary amuse bouche of potato puffs with aioli, as well as cornbread served in a skillet. Our entrees took well over an hour to arrive, despite the restaurant being rather empty. (The kitchen staff seemed overwhelmed and/or inexperienced.) One entree of johnnycakes was inedible (basically raw pancakes), but the other main dish (pork shank with crispy onions and baked beans) was fantastic! Service was terribly slow, but our server was pleasant and did all she could to give us a good experience there. The bill arrived in a little red envelope entitled "THE DAMAGES", which we thought was cute.

We wish that we had a better experience at this restaurant, but we seem to have visited on an off night, perhaps because of the holiday weekend.

Cleveland: Doubletree Guest Suites Cleveland (September 2013)

Doubletree Guest Suites Cleveland - Close to Rock Hall, Science Center, Browns Stadium

My spouse and I stayed at the Doubletree Guest Suites Cleveland for 2 nights in early September 2013. Self-parking (with in/out privileges) is available for $16 per day, and entitles you to keep your car parked in the garage until 6:00 pm on the day of your departure. The parking garage is several floors high, with stairs and elevator access on every floor. The elevator from the garage leads right into the hotel lobby, although it is not the same elevator that guests use to access their rooms. The parking garage has two spaces prior to entering through the gate/arm where you can unload your car. If those spaces are occupied, just take a ticket, enter the garage, and park your car. The front desk will destroy the paper ticket and provide you with your room key, which you will then use to enter and exit the garage. Upon check-out, there's a box to return your key right next to the access box. The elevators at this hotel work extremely slowly.

Although there are four elevators in the bank, do not expect to get anywhere quickly. The indoor swimming pool was closed for renovations during our stay, a fact that was noted on their website when we made our reservation. We also received a personal email from the hotel manager to make sure that we were aware that the pool would be unavailable while we were at the hotel, although the initial dates quoted seemed to stretch a few extra days. We were unable to see into the pool area; however, the back of the pool area seems to open onto a courtyard shared by the event rooms, so it is possible to get some fresh air before/after your swim (there were not chairs in the courtyard, though).

The hotel restaurant/bar is called the Stadium 3 Bar and Grille. The restaurant area is fairly small, and this is the location of the breakfast, if one is provided with your room rate (not all rates include breakfast). The breakfast was acceptable, although not any fancier than what is provided at a Hampton Inn (we had expected something slightly more extensive because this category of hotel is a bit better). The hostess had great difficulty managing patrons waiting to be seated. The dining room area is totally separate from the bar area. The bar seems to close early - before 10:00 pm on the weekend that we visited.

We had room 1217, which was a standard room towards the middle of the floor and that overlooked the city (but not the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame). Our room was a decent size, with a king bed abutted by two nightstands, a sofabed, and a glass-topped coffee table. Our room also held a desk and chair, and a bureau on which the flat-screen TV sat. We had an empty mini-refrigerator and a coffee maker, as well as an iron and ironing board. Our air-conditioning worked well; however, it dripped condensation on the carpet, making the floor a wet mess. The bathroom was a bit compact, with a single sink/vanity that did not offer much counter space. Toiletries by Crabtree & Evelyn (Citron) were provided (shampoo, conditioner, body lotion). There were two trash cans in our room that had separations for paper and plastic/glass recyclables.

The hotel has an executive lounge; however, it is only open Monday through Thursday, so we were unable to see it or partake of its breakfast or evening happy hour. It did not sound as if one could even access the lounge area on the weekend, even if you are just looking for a quiet place to relax (without any food or beverage).

The hotel is within walking distance of Cleveland Browns Stadium and the science center, and is the closest hotel to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. The hotel offers complimentary shuttle service to the downtown area, but not to the museum/hospital areas. The hotel is an easy walk to the true downtown area (such as East Fourth Street), but is located on a more quiet side street away from the real action.

We were happy with our stay at the Doubletree Cleveland. As Hilton loyalty members, we looked at the other two options in the downtown area, but feel that we picked the best choice for us. The Hampton Inn has a great location, too - perhaps as good as the Doubletree, depending on what your sightseeing plans are, but we think that the Doubletree was just a bit more luxurious.

Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art (September 2013)

My spouse and I visited the Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) in early September 2013. We spent about 2 hours at the museum, although you could easily spend 2 or 3 times that amount of time if you went slowly and read all placards. A parking garage is on-site, and costs $6 for the first two hours, and $1 for each additional half-hour, up to a maximum of $12 for the day. Admission to the museum is free. The museum is about a 10-minute drive from the downtown area.

The museum space occupies two floors of two separate buildings: the 1916 beau-arts building and the north building. In January of 2014, a new set of galleries housing Southeast Asian, Indian, Chinese, and Himalayan art is scheduled to open. There are two upper-level outdoor balconies at either end of the 1916 building, should you need some fresh air, and the seasonal south entrance leads out to a pretty pond with a fountain. Restrooms and water fountains are spaced throughout the museum, and there is an ATM machine and coat check available near the main entrance. The museum store sells interesting souvenirs. The basement level of the north building holds classrooms, lecture, recital, and exhibition halls. It was easy to move through the museum without feeling like you missed anything, and without needing to do a lot of backtracking to view things that you missed. The artwork was well curated - in addition to just listing the objective information such as the name of the artist and the title of the work, the curator included interesting subjective information about each piece.

We enjoyed the Impressionist collection the most at this museum, although we also found the Chinese zodiac sculptures in the main atrium (and the atrium itself) very intriguing. The CMA owns an impressive number of Picassos for a museum of this size. We are glad that we invested the (slight) effort to travel from the downtown area, because we loved the museum.

Cleveland: Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (September 2013)

My spouse and I visited the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in early September 2013. The cost of admission for adults is $22. The museum opens daily at 10:00 am, and closes at 5:30 pm (except for Wednesdays, when it stays open late until 9:00 pm). The museum is open daily except for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

The museum is wheelchair accessible, with elevators on all levels. (There are also many escalators.) The museum has restrooms located on several floors, as well as an ATM machine and a coat check. You can grab a drink or a bite in the café on the third floor, which also has an outdoor terrace with tables and chairs. The gift shop is on the street level and features lots of clothing, posters, books, and music (CDs and vinyl, including 45s).

We spent about 3 hours at the museum, although you could easily spend twice that amount of time. The museum spans seven floors. You need to wear a wristband during your visit. The museum takes your photograph when you purchase your tickets, which you can view and purchase upon leaving the museum. There are several different shots available - your photo superimposed on the cover of Rolling Stone, your photo on some concert tickets, and so on. The museum posts the Rolling Stone version to the website SharpShooter so that you can share it with others (the photo is accessible and shareable whether you purchase a hard copy or not) and order copies.

Currently, the changing exhibit features the Rolling Stones, and their 50 Years of Satisfaction, on floors 4 through 6. Level 1, which is actually below ground, is a treasure trove of music memorabilia - clothing, music, concert posters, and so on; it felt like being in the world's largest Hard Rock Café. Be sure to enjoy the movie on level 1 at the Mystery Train Theater - you shouldn't have to wait more than 12 minutes for the next viewing to start (because the film is 12 minutes long). We had thought that we could walk around a bit to waste some time before the film began, but it was difficult to navigate our way back to the theatre quickly. Level 3 focused on the Hall of Fame inductees, with a film showing past induction ceremony highlights and signatures of all the inductees. Outside, you can walk through Johnny and June Cash’s tour bus. Only four guests are permitted at one time, and the space is still tight.

Our visit to the museum was acceptable, although it contained mostly memorabilia. We had hoped to learn more about the history of rock and roll, but that was not the case. Still, most guests seemed to be having a great time and enjoying themselves - even making a sort of pilgrimage - so perhaps others did not share our view. We are glad to have seen it, but we would not return in the future.