April 21st, 2011 §
When Jeffrey Moreau promised that his dessert shop would be unique, exceptional, and authentic, only he could truly comprehend the meaning of that pledge. Now that Sweet Moses has opened in the Gordon Square Arts District, we can all appreciate what he meant.
“It came out exactly as I had envisioned,” Moreau says via a post-launch phone call.
That vision — a 1920s-style soda fountain — had been percolating in the former ad man’s mind for decades. Over the past year, he and his team molded those mental images into reality, transforming an old Detroit-Shoreway storefront into one of the happiest places on Earth.
The heart of the elegant shop is the ornate soda fountain, made up of a handsome backbar, dipping and soda stations, and a marble-slab counter. Dating back to 1910, the backbar measures 10 feet tall by 12 feet wide, and features glowing stained glass and the original ice-chilled base cabinets. The true workhorse of the room, the 1940s dipping station is a shimmering sea of stainless steel, with chilled compartments for ice cream, sundae toppings, and sauces.
Moreau spent hours hunting, repairing, and restoring the graceful wire-backed parlor chairs that furnish the two rooms. Elsewhere, brightly drawn chalkboards, historic prints of Cleveland landmarks, and an old-timey root beer barrel complete the vibe.
But who gives a clap about the hardware, right?
It’s the software that matters, and this place is wall-to-wall with ice cream, chocolate, shakes, sodas, and malts — with a handful of crunchy popcorn tossed in for good measure. Sweet Moses sticks to traditional American favorites like hot fudge sundaes, chocolate malted milk shakes, root beer floats, and strawberry phosphates. Also on tap are chocolate cups, chocolate barks, and caramel corn — with or without nuts. Everything from the ice cream to the marble-slab fudge is made in house.
“It’s amazing the things you can do with just sugar, butter, cream, vanilla and cocoa,” says Moreau.
Order a root beer float ($4.50) and watch the well-trained soda jerk fill a frosted mug with root beer syrup, fizzy soda, and housemade vanilla ice cream. Cold, creamy, sweet, and bubbly, the drink satisfies all major food groups. Banana splits ($6), a popular item regardless of the decade, feature bananas topped with three scoops, hot fudge, whipped cream, and the requisite cherry.
Sweet Moses’ addictive caramel corn is a toffee-coated diet destroyer sold by the bag ($6). A late addition to the lineup, says Moreau, but surprisingly popular are the peanut butter sandwiches ($3.25), gilded with toppings that range from sliced banana to crisp bacon. The perfect pairing? Ice-cold whole milk, natch.
To say that folks have embraced Sweet Moses is like saying Augustus Gloop is fond of chocolate. Lines formed on Day One and have barely relented. “This isn’t McDonald’s,” Moreau points out. “These old-style methods take time.” But unlike McDonald’s, there is plenty of eye candy (and real candy too) to keep customers visually stimulated. Free samples don’t hurt either.
Moreau says he chose the Sweet Moses name because of its strong Cleveland — as in Moses Cleaveland — connection. Rather than build a franchise-ready unit suitable for globalization, the owner wanted to create a place that belonged nowhere else but right here.
And that’s the wonderful thing about Sweet Moses. Despite being worm-holed here from another millennium, the shop feels as though it has always been a part of the neighborhood: like there is no more natural thing in the world than to leave the Capitol Theatre or Luxe Kitchen and stroll down the block for a chocolate malted and two straws.
If that isn’t the true measure of a successful vision, what is?
[Original Cleveland.com Article] [PDF]
April 21st, 2011 §
April 15th, 2011 §
JOHN PETKOVIC, THE PLAIN DEALERIt’s a wonderful life: Jeff Moreau plays the role of soda jerk in Sweet Moses, a newly opened but utterly old-fashioned spot that looks and feels like a black-and-white movie.
It looks like a 1940s flick. Feels real. And tastes like summer.
Woohoo on all three counts.
Raise a cone for Sweet Moses Soda Fountain & Treat Shop, located at 6800 Detroit Ave., Cleveland. The just-opened but utterly old-fashioned ice cream and soda shop doesn’t just trot out retro-looking neon — it re-creates a scoop of long-gone America.
“I didn’t want to just do another ’50-style malt shop with hokey decor,” said owner Jeff Moreau. “I wanted to create an experience that feels like a special neighborhood place from way back when.”
As in, the ’30s and ’40s, when drugstores served refreshing elixirs using soda fountains.
One problem: Where do you find soda fountains these days?
“They don’t make them anymore,” said Moreau. “So I got a restored one from the 1940s.”
Sweet Moses is open noon-10 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays, noon-11 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and noon-10 p.m. Sundays. It will stay open later starting in June. Call 216-651-2202.
Whoa, what a time machine. Check out the marble countertop from the 1930s, not to mention the classic ice cream menu that includes 10 vintage flavors.
But it’s that old soda fountain that piqued my eyes and lips.
Sweet Moses serves 17 fountain syrup flavors — more if you count the various combinations. I chose ginger and lime during a recent stop.
“The idea of mixing the syrups started in old drugstores,” said Moreau. “That’s where drinks like Vernors or Dr Pepper were born.”
Moreau mixed the syrups with carbonated water, then delivered it on the counter.
“Oops, forgot the doily,” he said, pulling one out to place under the glass.
Mmm, the taste wasn’t medicinal by any means. But it hit the spot — and not just because it was refreshing.
It signaled that summer is around the corner.
Perfect timing — because this whole drinking-vodka-to-stay-warm thing is getting old.
Vinyl solution Every day is Record Store Day at Blue Arrow, 16001 Waterloo Road, Cleveland. The record store rolls out a timeless selection of vinyl amid the bins and stacks.
Saturday, the record store will also roll out bands and DJs. It’s celebrating national Record Store Day. The party starts at noon. The bands — Library Time, Terminal Lovers and Tinko –hit the stage at 5 p.m.
Blue Arrow isn’t the only one participating. Here are some others: My Mind’s Eye, 13727 Madison Ave., Lakewood; Bent Crayon, 11600 Detroit Ave., Cleveland; Music Saves, 15801 Waterloo Road, Cleveland; This Way Out, 15711 Waterloo Road, Cleveland; Loop, 2180 West 11th St., Cleveland.
[Original Cleveland.com Article][PDF]
March 30th, 2011 §
Then there’s the bookseller I met one afternoon in a run-down section of the West Side that has recently transformed itself into the hopping Gordon Square Arts District. The shop (which has since closed) had an intriguing name—84 Charing Cross Bookstore. Inside, I discovered a wall of volumes devoted to Cleveland history: books about the Connecticut surveyor Moses Cleaveland who founded the city in 1796; the 19th-century colony of Shakers who imbued the region with its value of industriousness; and “Millionaire’s Row,” a stretch of 40 mansions along Euclid Avenue that once housed some of America’s richest industrialists, including John D. Rockefeller.
Read the entire article here:
March 25th, 2011 §
10:09 am, March 24, 2011
The already-bustling Gordon Square Arts District is getting a little busier with the addition of three new retail businesses.
Wednesday marked the official opening of Sweet Moses, a soda fountain and treat shop at 6800 Detroit Avenue, one block west of the Gordon Square Arcade.
The owner is Jeff Moreau, who’s offering a turn-of-the-century soda shop experience. Sweet Moses serves homemade ice cream dishes and handmade confections. Coming soon will be peanut butter sandwiches that can be topped with options including bacon, marshmallow cream, Nutella, sliced bananas and potato chips.
In addition, two women’s boutiques soon will open at the West 65th Street and Detroit Avenue intersection.
One of the businesses, Turnstyle, will sell a mix of vintage and contemporary items. The other business comes from “Project Runway” fashion designer Valerie Mayen, who is creating a “pop-up” store of her fashions next to the Capitol Theatre on West 65th Street.
[Original Crain's Cleveland Business Article][PDF]
March 23rd, 2011 §
Published: Tuesday, March 22, 2011, 10:59 AM Updated: Tuesday, March 22, 2011, 11:19 AM
New enterprises keep adding to the unfolding tapestry of the Gordon Square Arts District. And it’s especially cool that the latest opening brings something sweet to the mix.
Sweet Moses Soda Fountain & Treat Shop, 6800 Detroit Ave., Cleveland, is holding its grand opening Saturday. And it is just the right addition to Gordon Square. Vanilla-colored walls hung with vintage posters and oversize postcards, handsomely restored booths and dozens of other old-time touches — including a vintage root-beer barrel and a grand 1940s-era Bastion-Blessings soda fountain fronted by a 16-foot marble counter — lend a welcoming throwback feeling to the place.
“I really wanted to create an experience here, and I knew the feeling I wanted guests to take away — a multigenerational experience,” says Jeff Moreau, who operates Sweet Moses with his wife, Ellen.
“I want people to walk in here and feel glad that it’s in the neighborhood, happy that it’s in the city,” says Moreau, a veteran of the advertising business who wanted to try his hand at something different. “I want my 83-year-old mother to walk in with her friends and say ‘Wow, this reminds me of my childhood,’ but also have a 20-year-old appreciate the fact that it’s cool, it’s not a chain and it’s not in a ‘lifestyle center.’ It’s something that a lot of them will be experiencing for the first time.”
With treats like these, there should be plenty of smiles and memories in the making. House-made classic flavors of ice cream, cookies, brownies and chocolates — barks, fudges and filled “cups” — made with Belgian dark, milk and white chocolate are among the treats. By the way, don’t miss the great white cheddar popcorn and caramel corn.
Those confections and others were showcased during a pre-opening party this past weekend. Guests were invited to sample traditional fountain fare that shares names with area landmarks, such as the Gordon Square (a large homemade brownie topped with house-made Bananas Foster ice cream, hot fudge and warm homemade real-butter caramel), the Shoreway Sundae (hot fudge-topped coffee ice cream showered with almonds and toffee pieces) and the $25 Terminal Tower (a scoop of each of Sweet Moses’ 10 classic flavors, draped in a landslide of marshmallow cream, hot fudge, warm caramel, pecans, candy sprinkles and cherries).
The Moreaus intend to eventually maintain late closing hours, making the shop a stop for after-theatergoers and others who “want something sweet but don’t want to eat it out of a cup in a parking lot,” Jeff says. If you want a sneak peek before Saturday, the shop will be open noon to 9 p.m. through Thursday, and noon to 5 p.m. Friday. 216-651-2202.
[Cleveland.com Article] [PDF]
March 19th, 2011 §
Published: Thursday, March 17, 2011, 11:25 AM Updated: Thursday, March 17, 2011, 11:26 AM
View full sizeGus Chan l The Plain DealerRobert “J.R.” Easterly says a state-supported program at Cleveland Public Theatre has played a big role in helping him give up a life of drugs and crime.
CLEVELAND, Ohio — The street was his home. Crack cocaine made do for an occupation. Six prison stretches and a dishonorable discharge from the Army defined his career.
That was all before Robert “J.R.” Easterly got involved in 2006 in the Y-Haven Project, an annual program at Cleveland Public Theatre.
Now Easterly, 53, has a home and works as a theater technician. He’s got his sobriety and a measure of dignity, too.
But the future of the Y-Haven Project — which in the 12 years of its existence has helped more than 200 men in similar straits — is uncertain in the wake of Gov. John Kasich’s proposed 19.5 percent cut in the budget of the Ohio Arts Council.
Kasich’s proposal could create a “perfect storm” for Ohio cultural organizations that depend on both state and federal funding. The latest proposed OAC cuts were announced Tuesday as some in Congress want to eliminate the National Endowment for the Arts.
In the case of the Y-Haven Project, the state arts council contributed $9,100 to the inner-city program’s $54,000 budget for the 2010 fiscal year, and the NEA another $10,000. Together, state and federal money comprised more than 35 percent of the project’s budget last year.
Kasich’s proposed OAC reduction comes as the beleaguered state agency is still reeling from a 47 percent decrease in fiscal years 2010 and 2011.
Under Kasich’s proposal, the OAC budget would fall to $10.6 million for fiscal years 2012 and 2013, down from a high of more than $32 million in the 2000-01 biennium.
Ohio Arts Council grants to cultural organizations in Cuyahoga County dropped from $3.8 million in 2000 to $1.3 million in the current fiscal year. The governor’s proposed cuts could reduce state arts funding in the county in fiscal 2012 to the $1 million mark.
The OAC has been a staunch supporter of the Y-Haven Project, a partnership between Cleveland Public Theatre and a program run by the YMCA of Greater Cleveland that houses up to 133 homeless men recovering from substance abuse.
In August, CPT selected 20 of the men at Y-Haven to work with nine theater professionals for three months in developing a play about themselves.
Last year’s “Taking Care of Business” told the story of Eddie, who surrenders to police in a fencing operation investigation, an act symbolizing the men’s willingness to admit failure in order to get help.
The show played for one weekend at CPT and toured area universities, a juvenile-detention center and a treatment facility.
“It’s an amazing project for the men, and it’s just an amazing piece of theater,” CPT executive artistic director Raymond Bobgan said. “The Ohio Arts Council money is important in itself, and it is a seal of approval that helps us raise other money.”
As for Easterly, the Y-Haven Project awakened an inner thespian.
After appearing in the show twice and stage-managing another two years, Easterly became a backstage regular at CPT, worked with Boston-based lighting designer Trad A Burns on an installation at Cedar Point, and can be found behind the scenes at Cleveland’s annual Ingenuityfest.
“I’ve been acting all my life, doing things I shouldn’t have been doing,” Easterly said this week at CPT. “Now I can get paid to do it, and I can pay something back to this theater that took a big chance on me.”
To reach Tony Brown: tbrown@plaind.com, 216-999-4181
[Original Cleveland.com Article] [PDF]
March 4th, 2011 §
February 25th, 2011 §
More excitement is about to erupt in Cleveland’s Gordon Square neighborhood. Thursday is opening day at XYZ the Tavern, restaurateur Alan Glazen’s latest project, next door to Cleveland Public Theatre.
It’s a great little space. With seating for 70 in the main room and 16 spots at the bar, the brick-lined space is intimate — albeit with four flat-screen TVs. Come warm weather, a pair of glass-paned garage doors will roll up to open onto a sweet wraparound patio (it cozies up to CPT’s neighboring wall) that will handle another 60 guests or so.
XYZ is a sister location for Glazen’s popular ABC the Tavern in West 25th Street’s Market Square area. Partners and operators Randy Kelly and Linda Syrek Kelly are emphasizing a revolving menu, unlike that of ABC, that will feature full dinners along with a standing list of salads, small plates, sandwiches and sides.
“We’re thinking, like, tavern food for the new millennium — comfort food with a twist,” says Randy Kelly, who’ll be in the kitchen with Andrew Reichart and others. “It’ll be good scratch cooking every night, and the price point will be 10 to 15 bucks, with some nice, higher-priced chunks of beef on there every now and then.”
Of course, it’s a tavern, right? Though there’ll be plenty of brews on tap and in bottles, plus a neat dozen or so red and white wines, whiskeys will rule. Sippers will find a nice array of bourbons, a standard selection of single malts and several ryes, blends and Irish varieties.
For now, XYZ and its kitchen will be open 4 p.m.-2 a.m. daily. In a couple of weeks, says Kelly, it will be open for breakfast and lunch on weekends, then, eventually, for daily lunches.
XYZ the Tavern: 6419 Detroit Ave., Cleveland; 216-706-1104, xyzthetavern.com
[Cleveland.com Article] [PDF]
February 8th, 2011 §
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