About Town

For my birthday this year, I told a few of my friends I would like to walk around downtown for the day and see some new sights. Here are highlights from our day:

I'm not Catholic, but I do appreciate a beautiful cathedral. This is St. John the Evangelist, completed in 1852. I often wonder how churches downtown survive, but this one has a morning, afternoon, and evening mass every week day.

Opened in 1908 when Cleveland was at its height of prosperity, the Cleveland Trust bank featured a rotunda and other stunning architecture. After merging with other banks, the building sat empty until a local grocery chain took over the space a few years ago.

People living and working downtown now have a marvelous, three level grocery store, complete with elevators and small, narrow carts to navigate the unusual space. The second floor even has a self-service wine tasting department. You purchase a card and insert it into the machine holding the wine you want after you choose the number of ounces to taste. They rotate the 20 choices weekly. We didn't try it, but it was interesting! Many people come here for lunch, as there is a café area to sit down.

Though I've walked past it many times, I had never been inside the Soldiers and Sailors monument, dedicated to the Civil War.  It had the names of every person who served from this county, along with various memorabilia.

 I took this photo overlooking a small section of public square. If you are looking from high above, the entire 'square' is in the shape of a butterfly (I just recently learned that!)

Probably the most famous church downtown is the Old Stone Church. I don't really know much about its history, but everyone and their brother seems to want to get married there.

For lunch, we visited this new brewery for wood-fire pizzas and beers. This was my line up: Ethiopian Coffee Stout, Raspberry Espresso Torte Stout, Mango Rotunda IPA, and Falling Fruit. My favorite was the Raspberry Stout.

Not a great picture, but this is inside the Cleveland Public Library. It's a classical Renaissance design with marble staircases and elaborate ceilings. Again, it was the first time I had been inside.


Here I am with a few friends posing in front of Tower City Center. It connects hotels, shopping, casino, and offices. I actually have been there, many times!

We then got into the car and went just east of the city to Gordon Square, which has a number of art studios and restaurants. We finished off the day at Stone Mad, an Irish pub. Here is the parking lot, so that you can pretend you are in Ireland.

This is the gate to their patio area, where we sat and had some drinks. Like the name suggests, everything is carved from stone, including the tables and benches. So nice to be able to sit outside.

Rounding out my downtown adventures, my husband and I went to a Cavs playoff game over the Memorial Day weekend. As you can see by the seats, everyone got a white t-shirt with this year's motto, "Whatever It Takes." My husband and I been using the phrase sarcastically whenever the opportunity presents itself.

The following evening, we went to an Indians game. My kids thought it was hilarious that I went to games two nights in a row, since I'm really not much of a sports fan.

 

Truth be told, I wouldn't have gone except for they were suite tickets. My husband was then able to tell my kids, "Whatever it takes!"