PKT25: Eating Out
I covered at length the various bars we hung out in college. I thought it would be fun to do a corresponding summary of the restaurants we hit as well.
First, there were the late night places, briefly alluded to here. All of these required a car. In fact, aside from the Euclid Tavern and a few places in Little Italy, pretty much everything required a car. Going from east to west:
- Our Denny's of choice was all the way down Monticello out near I-271. Like most late night Denny's a lot questionable behavior went on there, and not just from us.
- Chuck's was a late night American diner in the Cedar Lee district of Cleveland Heights. It was also the only restaurant in the Cedar Lee area that I really recall going to during college. Chuck's closed a few years after college.
- On the west side of Cleveland was the Big Egg. This was a scuzzy, borderline disgusting late night diner that had decent food and questionable clientele. It felt like it was always about to be shut down due to health code violations, and on at least one occasion we saw two police officers going to town on someone in the parking lot with night sticks. This was the establishment where a woman asked if her date could borrow my glasses to read the menu, and got really, really offended when I said no. Glick gave them both barrels, verbally, and that's the closest I got to a real fight in college.
A few years into college the Big Egg closed and did a complete remodel. It then closed shortly thereafter. Many, many years later it was reborn as a daytime diner, but it wasn't the same.
- With the death of the Big Egg, we went farther west to My Friends late in college. We took Mike there at the end of his bachelor party back in 2005. My Friends is still there today.
- When My Friends was really crowded, which was not uncommon, we occasionally crossed the street into Lakewood to go to Diana's. Diana's was a little more breakfast oriented but otherwise pretty much equivalent, and still is.
- A year or two after I graduated they opened a late night diner right on campus. I feel like it was originally and briefly a Denny's or something. I've never set foot in it, but I suspect brothers younger than me have stories.
There were also a few late night drive through fast food places that we'd hit with regularity.
- The most infamous of these was Taco Bell, which was indelicately called Ghetto Bell for the neighbor it was in. Although I ate Taco Bell back then, I hated how it made my car smell, and I refused to drive there in those years when I had a car.
- On the other hand, I was happy to drive to either the Rally's on Euclid or the Rally's down Mayfield. I never quite trusted their sandwiches, but their curly fries were great. I once took Gina and Joy there late at night when they were drunk or possibly stoned, and that was a fun time.
On campus, there were a few restaurant dining options that weren't the (loathsome) cafeteria. All of these were chains. I'm 100% certain I ate more chain food in five years of college than in the rest of my life combined.
- Thwing (aka, the student center) had a little food court area in what is now the Jolly Scholar brewpup. There was a Pizza Hut and a Taco Bell and I think something else. I ate a LOT of Pizza Hut and Taco Bell in college.
- Tomlinson had a food court in the basement. I ate at the Subway there with some frequency.
- Over in the med school in the BRB building (I don't recall what BRB stood for) there was another food court with another Taco Bell.
Within a short walk of campus along Euclid were a few more places that I mostly didn't eat at. This included a Mr. Hero's; the sign confusingly shared marquee space with a military recruiter so it said "Mr Hero's Armed Forces Recruiting." I've never eaten at a Mr. Hero's to this day. There was also a McDonald's, which was widely held to be the worst McDonald's in the world.
Nearby was the storefront for both Little Caesar's and Domino's Pizza. None of us ever actually called Domino's though. The delivery guy would routinely show up at our house with what he claimed were pizzas that couldn't be delivered and sell them to us for less than they'd cost to order. We assumed it was some sort of scam, to the point where people would yell "the pizza scam guy is here" whenever he turned up, which was usually at least once a week.
Also on Euclid was the Boarding House Tavern, a jazz club with a good lunch menu that was a little pricey for me. I went there with my father a couple of times, including on my freshman visit.
If you wanted slightly classier places there was Sergio's and a nice restaurant that was variously called That Place on
Bellflower and then Flower and is now today L'Albatross. These were more expensive and typically the domain of people going to the orchestra or on high end dates. I never went in any of them as a student.
Next to the That Place / Flower building was the Arabica Coffehouse. That was a major Cleveland chain at the time with 20+ locations which has gone under since I graduated. That location became the University Coffeehouse, but it's basically unchanged. If you wanted a hot drink and a place to sit and read in relative peace, it was a great place to go. It also had occasional open mic nights. In the back of the lot was the Greenhouse Tavern.
Little Italy was also a short walk from campus. There were a ton of restaurants there, but the only sit down place I ate in regularly was Mama Santa's, which technically had non-pizza food but I never saw anybody order it. There was an Italian place called Trattoria on the Hill that a lot of students liked, but I thought it was terrible and never ate there but the once, even the year I lived next door to it. One year we had our pledge dinner at Guarino's, which is (was?) one of the oldest restaurants in Cleveland, but I wasn't feeling great and didn't even eat anything.
There were a few places in Little Italy that I got takeout from. First, there was Corbo's Bakery, which had a mean pepperoni bread. Then there was the Day Presti's and the Night Presti's. The Day Presti's is a coffeehouse with pastries. I usually just went to the Arabica, but if you wanted some variety in your coffee break this was the next closet place. The Night Presti's was a late night donut place. Making a Presti's run was a popular way to procrastinate from studying. It was a short dark walk through a Little Italy that was usually completely closed down, including a stretch under the RTA bridge that was completely unlit at the time. Looking back, I can say with honesty that I've had many better tasting donuts in my life, but I've never had a better donut experience. Due to some family drama, the Night Presti's briefly changed it's name to Gilly's and then went out of business. They'd invested heavily in a location down by the Flats, and when the Flats abruptly died circa 1999 it took both locations with it. Alas.
Speaking of The Flats, there were a few restaurants there in its heyday. My first or second week at college I was with a group that took the train down there to eat at a Max and Irma's on the east bank. I don't recall eating in that area again. It was also somewhat common for people to take the train down to Tower City to see movies (it was the only commercial movie theater you could get to without a car or bus), so I probably ate a time or two at the Tower City food court.
A short walk from the south side dorms was the Cedar Fairmount district. There was an Aladdin's there (Dawn waitressed there for a while) which was my first major introduction to middle eastern cuisine. In that general vicinity there was also the Mad Greek, which wasn't bad. Night Town was out of my price range as a student, but I once had a group dinner interview there.
Finally, there was Coventry. This block full of restaurants was starting to transition from "charmingly locally owned places" to "chains" (at least in the eyes of locals). It was a long walk or a very short drive from campus, and most of the time that we went to eat out it was in Coventry.
My freshman year there were two Chinese restaurants on Coventry, Hunan on Coventry and Royal Dragon. Both were better than any Chinese food I'd had living in North Dakota, but I greatly preferred Royal Dragon. Naturally, that closed my sophomore year to make way for the first Chipotle in the area. While I was upset initially, somebody (Nick maybe?) managed to get their hands on a giant pile of free burrito cards for Chipotle. I ate don't think I spent my own money in that restaurant the first two years it was open.
Of course, if it wasn't for the free burritos I probably never would have gone to Chipotle at all because Que Tal? was also in Coventry, and Que Tal? was fantastic. They had the best nachos I've ever had in my life there, to the point where I almost never ordered anything else. Other of my fraternity brothers loved their burritos. Of all the places on this list that since closed, Que Tal? is the only one I really miss.
Que Tal? would have been my favorite restaurant on Coventry except that Tommy's was and is there. If I added up all the times I've eaten in any restaurant in Cleveland, I suspect Tommy's would either be first or second on the list. I had so many milkshakes and plates of french fries in college, not to mention after college.
There were other Coventry locals that I ate at occasionally, like Grum's, the Winking Lizard, or the Coventry location of Arabica Coffehouse (now the "new" Grog Shop), but those were rare experiences compared to Tommy's, Que Tal and Chipotle.
In retrospect, I clearly must have spent a ton on eating out in college. As a percentage of my income, it must have been ridiculous. On the other hand, my freshman year the cafeteria was almost literally inedible (recall, I lost a LOT of weight in Fall 1996) and without a car there was no easy way to get to a grocery store. The fraternity meal plan provided solid dinners five nights a week the rest of my time in college, and when I had a car (spring 1998, fall 1999 through spring 2001) I would sometimes buy some limited groceries, but mostly it was scrounge whatever was available. It's a good think I was walking all over campus and had that youthful metabolism, or I would have gotten fat(ter) in a hurry.
The Ohio Alpha Beta Chapter of Phi Kappa Theta
The House Tour
Outside,
Main Floor Bedrooms,
Main Floor Public Rooms,
Basement Public Areas,
Basement Private Areas,
2nd Floor Big Bedrooms,
2nd Floor Small Bedrooms,
3rd Floor First Hallway,
3rd Floor Second Hallway,
Attic & Errata,
House Tour Commentary: Joe & Laura & Astrid,
House Tour Commentary: Jackal,
House Tour Commentary: Susan,
House Tour Commentary: Assorted
The Pledge Program
Bid Night, Schedule, Curriculum & Black Books, Big Brothers & Pledge Pins, Paddling, Initiation
Semesters
Fall 1996, Spring 1997, Fall 1997, Spring 1998, Fall 1998, Spring 1999, Summer 1999, Fall 1999, Spring 2000, Summer 2000
Events
Detour, Blackout, Boo at the Zoo, Chapter Meetings, Serenading, Greek Week, Rush Events, Formal
Other
Full Series, My Rush Experience, Chapter History, Family Trees, National, Greek Life at CWRU, Fraternity Offices, Part 1, Fraternity Offices, Part 2, Fraternity Offices, Part 3, Demographics, Seniority, Bars, Ponding, Video Games, Restaurants
Additional Commentary
Black Books, Boo at the Zoo & Blackout, More Boo at the Zoo & Blackout, Chapter Meetings
First, there were the late night places, briefly alluded to here. All of these required a car. In fact, aside from the Euclid Tavern and a few places in Little Italy, pretty much everything required a car. Going from east to west:
- Our Denny's of choice was all the way down Monticello out near I-271. Like most late night Denny's a lot questionable behavior went on there, and not just from us.
- Chuck's was a late night American diner in the Cedar Lee district of Cleveland Heights. It was also the only restaurant in the Cedar Lee area that I really recall going to during college. Chuck's closed a few years after college.
- On the west side of Cleveland was the Big Egg. This was a scuzzy, borderline disgusting late night diner that had decent food and questionable clientele. It felt like it was always about to be shut down due to health code violations, and on at least one occasion we saw two police officers going to town on someone in the parking lot with night sticks. This was the establishment where a woman asked if her date could borrow my glasses to read the menu, and got really, really offended when I said no. Glick gave them both barrels, verbally, and that's the closest I got to a real fight in college.
A few years into college the Big Egg closed and did a complete remodel. It then closed shortly thereafter. Many, many years later it was reborn as a daytime diner, but it wasn't the same.
- With the death of the Big Egg, we went farther west to My Friends late in college. We took Mike there at the end of his bachelor party back in 2005. My Friends is still there today.
- When My Friends was really crowded, which was not uncommon, we occasionally crossed the street into Lakewood to go to Diana's. Diana's was a little more breakfast oriented but otherwise pretty much equivalent, and still is.
- A year or two after I graduated they opened a late night diner right on campus. I feel like it was originally and briefly a Denny's or something. I've never set foot in it, but I suspect brothers younger than me have stories.
There were also a few late night drive through fast food places that we'd hit with regularity.
- The most infamous of these was Taco Bell, which was indelicately called Ghetto Bell for the neighbor it was in. Although I ate Taco Bell back then, I hated how it made my car smell, and I refused to drive there in those years when I had a car.
- On the other hand, I was happy to drive to either the Rally's on Euclid or the Rally's down Mayfield. I never quite trusted their sandwiches, but their curly fries were great. I once took Gina and Joy there late at night when they were drunk or possibly stoned, and that was a fun time.
On campus, there were a few restaurant dining options that weren't the (loathsome) cafeteria. All of these were chains. I'm 100% certain I ate more chain food in five years of college than in the rest of my life combined.
- Thwing (aka, the student center) had a little food court area in what is now the Jolly Scholar brewpup. There was a Pizza Hut and a Taco Bell and I think something else. I ate a LOT of Pizza Hut and Taco Bell in college.
- Tomlinson had a food court in the basement. I ate at the Subway there with some frequency.
- Over in the med school in the BRB building (I don't recall what BRB stood for) there was another food court with another Taco Bell.
Within a short walk of campus along Euclid were a few more places that I mostly didn't eat at. This included a Mr. Hero's; the sign confusingly shared marquee space with a military recruiter so it said "Mr Hero's Armed Forces Recruiting." I've never eaten at a Mr. Hero's to this day. There was also a McDonald's, which was widely held to be the worst McDonald's in the world.
Nearby was the storefront for both Little Caesar's and Domino's Pizza. None of us ever actually called Domino's though. The delivery guy would routinely show up at our house with what he claimed were pizzas that couldn't be delivered and sell them to us for less than they'd cost to order. We assumed it was some sort of scam, to the point where people would yell "the pizza scam guy is here" whenever he turned up, which was usually at least once a week.
Also on Euclid was the Boarding House Tavern, a jazz club with a good lunch menu that was a little pricey for me. I went there with my father a couple of times, including on my freshman visit.
If you wanted slightly classier places there was Sergio's and a nice restaurant that was variously called That Place on
Bellflower and then Flower and is now today L'Albatross. These were more expensive and typically the domain of people going to the orchestra or on high end dates. I never went in any of them as a student.
Next to the That Place / Flower building was the Arabica Coffehouse. That was a major Cleveland chain at the time with 20+ locations which has gone under since I graduated. That location became the University Coffeehouse, but it's basically unchanged. If you wanted a hot drink and a place to sit and read in relative peace, it was a great place to go. It also had occasional open mic nights. In the back of the lot was the Greenhouse Tavern.
Little Italy was also a short walk from campus. There were a ton of restaurants there, but the only sit down place I ate in regularly was Mama Santa's, which technically had non-pizza food but I never saw anybody order it. There was an Italian place called Trattoria on the Hill that a lot of students liked, but I thought it was terrible and never ate there but the once, even the year I lived next door to it. One year we had our pledge dinner at Guarino's, which is (was?) one of the oldest restaurants in Cleveland, but I wasn't feeling great and didn't even eat anything.
There were a few places in Little Italy that I got takeout from. First, there was Corbo's Bakery, which had a mean pepperoni bread. Then there was the Day Presti's and the Night Presti's. The Day Presti's is a coffeehouse with pastries. I usually just went to the Arabica, but if you wanted some variety in your coffee break this was the next closet place. The Night Presti's was a late night donut place. Making a Presti's run was a popular way to procrastinate from studying. It was a short dark walk through a Little Italy that was usually completely closed down, including a stretch under the RTA bridge that was completely unlit at the time. Looking back, I can say with honesty that I've had many better tasting donuts in my life, but I've never had a better donut experience. Due to some family drama, the Night Presti's briefly changed it's name to Gilly's and then went out of business. They'd invested heavily in a location down by the Flats, and when the Flats abruptly died circa 1999 it took both locations with it. Alas.
Speaking of The Flats, there were a few restaurants there in its heyday. My first or second week at college I was with a group that took the train down there to eat at a Max and Irma's on the east bank. I don't recall eating in that area again. It was also somewhat common for people to take the train down to Tower City to see movies (it was the only commercial movie theater you could get to without a car or bus), so I probably ate a time or two at the Tower City food court.
A short walk from the south side dorms was the Cedar Fairmount district. There was an Aladdin's there (Dawn waitressed there for a while) which was my first major introduction to middle eastern cuisine. In that general vicinity there was also the Mad Greek, which wasn't bad. Night Town was out of my price range as a student, but I once had a group dinner interview there.
Finally, there was Coventry. This block full of restaurants was starting to transition from "charmingly locally owned places" to "chains" (at least in the eyes of locals). It was a long walk or a very short drive from campus, and most of the time that we went to eat out it was in Coventry.
My freshman year there were two Chinese restaurants on Coventry, Hunan on Coventry and Royal Dragon. Both were better than any Chinese food I'd had living in North Dakota, but I greatly preferred Royal Dragon. Naturally, that closed my sophomore year to make way for the first Chipotle in the area. While I was upset initially, somebody (Nick maybe?) managed to get their hands on a giant pile of free burrito cards for Chipotle. I ate don't think I spent my own money in that restaurant the first two years it was open.
Of course, if it wasn't for the free burritos I probably never would have gone to Chipotle at all because Que Tal? was also in Coventry, and Que Tal? was fantastic. They had the best nachos I've ever had in my life there, to the point where I almost never ordered anything else. Other of my fraternity brothers loved their burritos. Of all the places on this list that since closed, Que Tal? is the only one I really miss.
Que Tal? would have been my favorite restaurant on Coventry except that Tommy's was and is there. If I added up all the times I've eaten in any restaurant in Cleveland, I suspect Tommy's would either be first or second on the list. I had so many milkshakes and plates of french fries in college, not to mention after college.
There were other Coventry locals that I ate at occasionally, like Grum's, the Winking Lizard, or the Coventry location of Arabica Coffehouse (now the "new" Grog Shop), but those were rare experiences compared to Tommy's, Que Tal and Chipotle.
In retrospect, I clearly must have spent a ton on eating out in college. As a percentage of my income, it must have been ridiculous. On the other hand, my freshman year the cafeteria was almost literally inedible (recall, I lost a LOT of weight in Fall 1996) and without a car there was no easy way to get to a grocery store. The fraternity meal plan provided solid dinners five nights a week the rest of my time in college, and when I had a car (spring 1998, fall 1999 through spring 2001) I would sometimes buy some limited groceries, but mostly it was scrounge whatever was available. It's a good think I was walking all over campus and had that youthful metabolism, or I would have gotten fat(ter) in a hurry.
The Ohio Alpha Beta Chapter of Phi Kappa Theta
The House Tour
Outside,
Main Floor Bedrooms,
Main Floor Public Rooms,
Basement Public Areas,
Basement Private Areas,
2nd Floor Big Bedrooms,
2nd Floor Small Bedrooms,
3rd Floor First Hallway,
3rd Floor Second Hallway,
Attic & Errata,
House Tour Commentary: Joe & Laura & Astrid,
House Tour Commentary: Jackal,
House Tour Commentary: Susan,
House Tour Commentary: Assorted
The Pledge Program
Bid Night, Schedule, Curriculum & Black Books, Big Brothers & Pledge Pins, Paddling, Initiation
Semesters
Fall 1996, Spring 1997, Fall 1997, Spring 1998, Fall 1998, Spring 1999, Summer 1999, Fall 1999, Spring 2000, Summer 2000
Events
Detour, Blackout, Boo at the Zoo, Chapter Meetings, Serenading, Greek Week, Rush Events, Formal
Other
Full Series, My Rush Experience, Chapter History, Family Trees, National, Greek Life at CWRU, Fraternity Offices, Part 1, Fraternity Offices, Part 2, Fraternity Offices, Part 3, Demographics, Seniority, Bars, Ponding, Video Games, Restaurants
Additional Commentary
Black Books, Boo at the Zoo & Blackout, More Boo at the Zoo & Blackout, Chapter Meetings