happy in CLE

in under a week i have successfully been able to knock four things off my the-things-i-still-need-to-do-to-consider-myself-a-true-clevelander-list.

1. eat a pierogi at sokolowskis
2. visit the great lakes science center
3. see a show at the beachland ballroom
4. visit the cleveland museum of art
5. go to a christmas story house
6. visit the cleveland natural history museum
7. eat a cone from east coast custard
8. dine at a restaurant in little italy
9. purchase a weeks worth of groceries from the west side market
10. eat a slice of pizza from mama santa's

#1 was achieved this past wednesday when the t::t accounts teams had our monthly lunch outing to sokolowski's where brats, pierogis and coconut cream pie was consumed. this place lived up to the hype and i'm fairly sure i wasn't hungry for a solid 24 hours.

thursday night brought happy hour at lava lounge in tremont with lzone, toohey and moe where happy hour cocktails and delicious food was enjoyed - try the pork slider, you won't be disappointed. next i headed over to battery park wine bar to meet CK for a night cap. nice 'lil thursday.

friday night i got to cross #3 off my list by attending the martin sexton show at the beachland ballroom with muffin, MOB, drew and nicole. we all met at brennan's colony in the heights before the show for a dinner of blended wings and a BLT. martin sexton nailed his acoustic one man show and i'm constantly impressed with how much song comes out of one man - powerful stuff.

saturday #6 and #10 were checked off as my east side of cleveland weekend continued. me, CK, seanski, nugget, lzone and some little ones ventured to the cleveland museum of natural history where dinosaurs, fossils and extreme mammals were a plenty.

seanski posing with something even older than me

who knew?!?!

after the museum the group headed to mama santa's in little italy for an early dinner. we drank sangria and mauled cavatelli and meatballs, fried chicken, chicken and veal parmigiana and not to forget, their famous pizza. having never tried the pizza i'm pretty sure i have a new favorite in town when it comes to the traditional pizza pie.

the night was still young though so i headed to ABC the tavern with seanski and nugget to help my friend laura celebrate her 30th in style - it was so good to see her!

next stop we went from ABC to the soft opening of XYZ the tavern, gordon square art districts newest addition on detroit ave to meet up with muffin and jesse. i've been waiting so anxiously for XYZ to open and i'm so happy that it's finally here. the grand opening is this thursday - check it out!

over 60 varieties of scotch/whiskey/bourbon at XYZ the tavern

a new favorite, eagle rare bourbon, that i tried on general manager dave hridel and jesse's recommendation

24 craft beers on tap at XYZ the tavern

a trip to the big egg even occurred post bar - what a saturday.

sunday brought a viewing of the king's speech at capitol theater with CK then dinner at deagan's kitchen where CK and i put on an eating clinic - gawd that place is so good. AND they're now open for sunday brunch, check it out!

that's what one calls a loooooooooooooooooong weekend.

happy in CLE people, happy in CLE.

have a good week, kids!