Cleveland feels strange. It feels like a city that should be larger or was larger at some point. SO it’s the bones of a large city. The buildings have an importance that I didn’t really get from the population, like maybe the population of Providence should be moved there to help fit the vibe of the buildings better. I stayed at the Embassy Suites—score Hilton Honors points. The room was nearly as big as my condo and in good repair, so that was kind of great. Embassy Suites can be pretty cool (though occasionally ghetto in décor and upkeep) because of the made to order complimentary breakfast; though being a night person, I almost never get there to eat it before my training sessions. But my trainees thought it was the bee’s knees, so there you go. This particular Embassy Suites…I would recommend it, but there were occasionally smells. Like a sewer smell emanating from the bathroom area near the training room. And the training room was too hot every day despite calling engineering about it…every day. There was a sketchy underground mall with a sports bar and grocery store right outside the hotel, so that was fine for trainee lunches. And the smells of the Subway sandwiches next door waft through the front of the building. The best lunch find was this tiny little deli in the IMG building a few blocks away. Cash only, run by one woman who makes everything herself, it seems, and tries to be organic in her offerings. It was some of the best chicken salad and chicken and dumpling soup I have ever had. So unexpected from the look of the place. And you owe it to your life to get one of the chocolate pecan cookies if she has them. Holy God.
The food word of the trip was pierogies, which can apparently be attributed to the large Slavic population in the area. There is even an area called Slavic Village and there are onion-domed churches visible from the freeway to the airport, which is a treat, onion domes being one of the all-time best architectural features. For dinner one of my trainees found a place called Melt that does grownup grilled cheese sandwiches. The one I chose was a grilled cheese sandwich with pierogies on it.
Crazy right? I dug it, though the textures were funky and there was a celeryish flavor on the lettuce that was overwhelming. Also, crazy enough, the chili cheese on the fries--made the fries worse. This has never happened to me, but seriously, the chili is like too high class to be put on fries and it sucked. But the tofu with bbq sauce was delicious. And I actually dug the enormous pierogies on their own. Now, the hour and a half wait on a weeknight? yeah I probably wouldn’t do that again. The place that I ended up loving most (well, maybe tied with the little deli in the IMG building) also had a pierogie element to it; Tucky’s, which was a few doors down from the hotel. They have some great hot dogs, one of which is the Cleveland dog, which is served with stadium mustard and fried pierogies on top. YES! Super good. Also tantalizing was the pretzelogna sandwich, a garlic bologna and cheese grilled sandwich on a soft pretzel. Wow. So awesome (for me but maybe not my neighbors afterward!). But that pretty much sums up the best part of Cleveland to me. In my job as ambassador to friends and family everywhere I went to Ethiopian food with my friend Karina’s parents at a place called Empress Taytu. It had some decent food. I sort of loved the juxtaposition of the Ethiopian huts and sunken straw basket tables that was all built up in a 1920s building with white crown molding. The Ethiopian music videos were also hilarious and sort of hypnotic in their homemade way. Also interesting was the empty corridor of road we drove getting from the hotel to the restaurant. There were lots of empty, sad buildings and factories.
I was going to go to the rock and roll hall of fame, and then I didn’t because I had a good book to finish. The Hall stays open til 9pm on Wednesdays. But I hear that it really deserves like 5-6 hours and I had 2 hours and it’s a 22 dollar admission fee. SO maybe it isn’t the best after-work activity. My trainees thought it was great, though. The building was designed by IM Pei to look both like a record player and the neck of a guitar. I went by it and also went to see the infamous Cuyahoga River, which once caught on fire because it was so polluted. Burn on, big river. Makes me want to watch Major League!
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