The Boston-based quiz show Says You recently came to Cleveland to record a series of programs at the Capitol Theatre in the Gordon Square Arts District. Host Richard Sher and the Says You panel played their game of words and whimsy, bluff and bluster, with the help of two Northeast Ohio panelists, culture critic Charles Michener and writer-director Murray Horwitz. Award-winning local blues man Austin “Walkin’ Cane” Charanghat provided the musical accents for this holiday special Says You, which was recorded in front of a live audience at the Capitol Theatre on December 5th, 2010. It originally aired on 90.3, WCPN, ideastream December 19th , 2010 at 12:00pm.
Jeffrey Moreau had always envisioned opening a sweet shop upon retirement. He just didn’t realize that retirement would come so soon.
The former creative director of a Cleveland ad agency is putting the finishing touches on Sweet Moses, a 1920s-style soda fountain that will open in late January in the Detroit Shoreway neighborhood west of downtown. “This will be unique not only for the Gordon Square area, but for all of Cleveland,” he says.
Lamenting the loss of the neighborhood soda fountain, Moreau hopes to revive the tradition in grand style. The 2,500-square-foot space at 6800 Detroit Ave., just down the block from the Cleveland Public and Capitol theaters, will be filled with authentic equipment and furnishings. The focal point of the room is the actual soda fountain, featuring antique mirrors, back-lit stained glass, a restored dipping and soda station, and Tennessee-marble countertops, all rescued from defunct shops.
Moreau describes the feel as less ’50s-style malt shop and more ’20s- and ’30s-era soda fountain.
“I didn’t want this to look like a Disney version of a soda fountain that you’d find in a lifestyle center,” he explains. “I wanted it to look and feel authentic, like it belongs in the neighborhood.”
Moreau will stick to “classic, traditional American favorites,” made with quality ingredients, he says. “It’s amazing the things you can do with just sugar, butter, cream, vanilla, and cocoa.” Ice creams, fudge, chocolates, and caramel popcorn all will be made on-site. Turtles will be made with Belgian chocolate and sundaes topped with homemade caramel, fresh hot fudge, and house-roasted nuts. From the soda fountain will flow root beer floats, chocolate phosphates, and ice cream sodas.
Moreau settled on the name Sweet Moses, he says, because of its Cleveland — as in Moses Cleaveland — connotations. “I wanted a name that is grounded in old Cleveland, one that you wouldn’t find anyplace else.”
Seth Kaspy has taken over as executive chef at Hudson’s North End Market (7542 Darrow Rd., 330-656-1238, northendwinefoodfun.com), replacing outgoing chef Jeff Jarrett. Formerly chef at the Chagrin Valley Hunt Club, Kaspy is busy instituting a menu of his own.
YOU’RE CORDIALLY INVITED
to an evening at XYZ & CPT to benefit GSAD
in the heart of the Gordon Square Arts District
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2010
The evening kicks off at the District’s newest establishment:
5:30 p.m. XYZ Tavern
6421 Detroit Avenue (next to CPT)
Cocktails & hors’ d’oeuvres
and continues to Cleveland Public Theatre
6:30 p.m. More cocktails and seating at CPT
7:00 p.m. “Connie’s Avant Garde Restaurant”
for a five-course dinner and theatre
This uproarious musical performance is a unique theatrical-culinary event mixing the ingredients of fine food, wine and ensemble theatre together in a hilarious parody of avant garde grandiosity. Comedy, death, violence and a five-course meal!
Individual tickets: $75
Reservations: Call Maria Asher @ 216.961.4242 x222 or masher@gordonsquare.org
RSVP: by Friday, December 3, 2010
Five-Course Menu
(With local produce subject to availability)
Roasted chestnuts and mushroom tartine
Curried butternut squash soup
Herbed apple and fennel salad
Maple-glazed ham with cranberry compote
Brown-buttered radishes
Sage-roasted sweet potatoes
Drunken chocolate Bundt cake
Dietary restrictions: Conni’s Avant Garde Restaurant is able to accommodate food allergies and vegetarian needs. Please contact the box office to communicate dietary restrictions in your party. (216) 631-2727 or rcole@cptonline.org.
View full sizeGus Chan/The Plain DealerCars line up to be valet parked at the Capitol Theater for a “Sex and the City” Girls Night Out party and screening in May. The Gordon Square Arts District is being recognized by the National Endowment for the Arts and the National League of Cities.
Gordon Square, the emerging art district in the Detroit-Shoreway neighborhood on Cleveland’s West Side, has won big time kudos from the National Endowment for the Arts and the National League of Cities.It has also pulled down $2.7 million in recent federal, state and local grants, which will be used to build or renovate community theaters that are central to its vision of using the arts to revive a city neighborhood. “Lots of good stuff is happening,” said Joy Roller, the district’s executive director. “To me, it’s an acknowledgement that what we’re doing is not only successful, but is a novel approach, a unique approach on how to revitalize an urban core.”
The NEA announced earlier this month that Gordon Square is one of 14 case studies in a new publication, “Creative Placemaking.”
Co-authored by arts advocates Ann Markusen and Ann Gadwa, the document is a project of the NEA’s Mayor’s Institute on City Design. The mission of the agency is to educate U.S. mayors to become the “chief urban designers” of their cities.
The case studies are intended to encourage mayors to think creatively about how everything from loft housing to art galleries can build economic value and encourage investment.
The chapter in the case study on Gordon Square praises the project for helping to leverage an estimated $500 million in related investments on the West Side of Cleveland over the past eight years, much of it in housing, even though Gordon Square is only halfway through a $30 million revitalization.
The goal of the district is to renovate two historic theaters — Cleveland Public and the Capitol — and to build a new home for Near West. By using the arts as an anchor for related retail, restaurant and housing development, the district is sparking new life in a 15-block corridor from W. 58th Street to West 73rd St., with Detroit Avenue as the spine.
The Capitol Theatre, located in the historic Gordon Square Arcade at W. 65th Street and Detroit Avenue, reopened in 2009 as a movie theater after a renovation. Work on Cleveland Public Theatre is ongoing. And the arts district has raised roughly half of the $6.5 million it needs to build a new Near West Theater, designed by Cleveland architect Richard Fleischman, Roller said.
“Creative Placemaking” said the district has ” revitalizing the area’s commercial core with arts offerings and new retail businesses while preserving and adding low-income housing units.”
Echoing the praise from the NEA, the National League of Cities has invited Roller to represent Gordon Square as one of 26 programs from the across the country that will be showcased in its upcoming National Congress of Cities in Denver, starting Tuesday.
In addition to the outside attention, Gordon Square announced it has received a $1 million matching grant from the Fowler Family Foundation and a $500,000 matching grant from the Gund Foundation, both for the Near West Theatre project. Roller said her organization has another $3.5 million to raise before it can build the theater.
“With Near West, we are inching closer to realizing our dream of building a new home for that theater,” Roller said.
A separate grant of $1 million in federal stimulus funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act’s State Energy Program will be used immediately to air condition Cleveland Public Theatre for the first time, which means it can be used year round, Roller said.
The State of Ohio has also kicked in $200,000 for asbestos removal at Cleveland Public, which will make the theater safer to use, Roller said.
The national attention focused on Gordon Square shouldn’t create the impression that the project has gone unnoticed locally. In June, the district won a Cleveland Arts Prize.
The national recognition for the district offers more proof that “Cleveland should be very proud of this model we’ve created in the Gordon Square Arts District,” Roller said. “It’s good news for Cleveland.”
Published: Friday, November 05, 2010, 4:42 PM Updated: Friday, November 05, 2010, 4:55 PM
Cathy Brown with, from left, the Latitude Attitude Sicilian, sweet and russet potato fries, the Island of Lesbos pizza, fried dough with honey-cinnamon butter, and the Twisted Cobb salad. Latitude 41 gallery (5 photos)
Cathy Brown is a believer in business begetting business, and as the owner of Latitude 41 N, she is in the right place.
Since opening the casual restaurant in 2008, the Detroit-Shoreway neighborhood and Gordon Square Arts District that surround it on Cleveland’s West Side have seen dramatic growth. It is now one of Greater Cleveland’s destinations, offering everything from live theater at Cleveland Public Theatre, to movies at the renovated Capitol Theater, to live bands at the Happy Dog. There are also many spots to grab a drink or get a good meal.
This is all music to Brown’s ears.
“I have always been watching this neighborhood,” she said, and her restaurant is now a solid part of it.
Latitude 41 N follows Brown’s last restaurant venture, Snickers, a popular spot also on Cleveland’s Near West Side that she opened in 1994 and sold in 1998.
The attitude at Latitude 41 N is laid back. Customers order and pay at the counter, and food is then delivered to the table. The staff makes regular passes through the two dining areas to top off your coffee and keep your table clean. It’s a system designed for expediency, but things can get a little slow and confused when the restaurant is exceptionally busy.
Note, too, that Latitude 41 N offers free Wi Fi, and Brown has no problem if you want to spend the afternoon there updating your Facebook profile and enjoying a glass of wine.
“I have had people tell me that this place feels like home,” she said. “That’s what I am going for.”
Latitude’s busiest hours are during breakfast, lunch and Sunday brunch, but Brown hopes to make dinner just as popular with the upcoming addition of new pastas and other Italian fare.
The menu, however, is already interesting and extensive, comprising breakfasts, soups, salads, sandwiches and calzones, pizzas, and pasta bakes.
“This is very Cleveland-American, this restaurant,” Brown said describing the food.
The fact that breakfast is so popular is easily explained by offerings like the Cure for a Hangover pizza ($10), a winner no matter what state you are in. The 10-inch pizza’s herb-y crust is topped with tangy red sauce, potatoes, house-made sausage, tomatoes, fresh mozzarella and two sunny-side-up eggs. The pizza can serve two diners of even the heartiest appetites. Easily.
The Menage a Trois breakfast ($3.95) is the classic combination of two eggs, bacon, sausage, home fries, toast and a cup of coffee. Little wonder that it is Latitude’s most popular breakfast.
Those looking for omelets will find no shortage. Latitude’s menu features five (each $8.50), all huge, and all served with breakfast potatoes and toast. The Midwest omelet is stuffed with ham, sweetened fried apple, and cheddar cheese. It’s a creative combination of ingredients that prompted a friend to say, “I am not even hungry anymore, but I can’t stop eating this.”
Ever popular, pizzas at Latitude are no exception. A favorite is the Island of Lesbos ($11.50 four-cut, $16.50 “polite” eight-cut, $20 “sloppy” eight-cut). The pie is topped with pesto; mozzarella, provolone, parmesan and feta cheeses; oven-dried tomatoes; grilled artichoke hearts; spinach; and Italian seasonings.
Latitude 41 N is at 5712 Detroit Ave., Cleveland. Hours are 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday, until 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday. Call (216) 961-0000 or log onto eatatlatitude41n.com.
Midnight Syndicate FilmsZombies and vampires, oh my! “The Dead Matter” is one of seven films in the marathon.
PREVIEW Horror Movie Marathon What: Melt Bar & Grilled Late Shift presents “12 Hours of Terror,” a seven-movie marathon. Where: Capitol Theatre, 1390 West 65th St., Cleveland. When: 10 p.m. Saturday through 10 a.m. Sunday. Restrictions: No one under 18 admitted. Tickets: $25 in advance; $30 on Saturday. Available at any Cleveland Cinemas theater.
We’re talented sitters. We sit through those dopey ads and endless trailers at movie theaters. All summer, we sit at Progressive Field and watch the Indians lose. In the fall, we sit on our couches to watch the Browns lose.
But here’s the Halloween-season question: Can you sit still and be scared for 12 hours straight? It will be fun to see how many survive Saturday night. Cleveland Cinemas is hosting “12 Hours of Terror,” a horror movie marathon that kicks off at 10 p.m. Saturday at the Capitol Theatre and runs through 10 a.m. Sunday. It’s seven movies for $30 ($25 if you buy your ticket today).
“If it goes well, hopefully this will be the first annual of many,” said David Huffman, Cleveland Cinemas’ director of marketing. “Or maybe we’ll try for 16 hours next year.”
Huffman cooked up the idea after attending a Bad Movie festival in Chicago last winter. “I was so underwhelmed,” he said. “There was bad projection, cacophonous noise, people talking the whole time. I just thought, ‘Oh, we could do this so much better.’ ”
He wants the audience to have fun, but constant chatter will be discouraged. “This isn’t ‘Mystery Science Theater 3000,’ ” he said.
The Capitol’s main theater holds 422. There will be a 10-minute break between films. RJ the Movie Critic, from WKNR AM/850′s “Really Big Show,” will be hosting and awarding door prizes including haunted house passes and movie tickets. Much to the delight of the surrounding Gordon Square Arts District neighborhood, there will also be a “Loudest Scream Contest.”
If the blood and gore proves too much for some folks, one of the Capitol’s upstairs theaters will serve as a “Coward’s Corner,” showing cartoons and goofy TV shows. Before the last film screens, they’ll serve a free continental breakfast. The one restriction is that you must be 18 or older to attend.
Here’s the fright festival lineup (times approximate):
• 10 p.m. : “A Nightmare on Elm Street.” Wes Craven’s 1984 original introduced the world to Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund), the slash-meister who gets you in your dreams.
• 11:40: “The Dead Matter.” Shot in Ohio in 2008 by director Edward Douglas, who decided to balance his blood-sucking vampires with a bunch of zombies.
• 1:20 a.m.: Mystery Movie. No one will know which scary film it is until the opening sequence flashes by. The horror!
• 3:00: “Night of the Creeps.”At this point in the evening (morning?) you’ll appreciate Fred Dekker’s sense of humor with his 1986 flick that includes alien creepy crawlers, frat boys, sorority girls, and, of course, zombies.
• 4:40: “The Devil’s Rejects.” Speaking of zombies, Rob Zombie wrote and directed this hard-core 2005 sequel to his “House of 1000 Corpses,” so we could learn about the unique crime-fighting methods of Sheriff Wydell (William Forsythe).
• 6:00: “Splinter.”One of the better porcupine-zombie-torn-flesh movies, from director Toby Wilkins in 2008. Two couples get trapped in a gas-station quickie mart with spiky things. Note the superb dialogue: “I’m nothing like your white-trash, drugged-out girlfriend!” and “It’s OK, we’ll cut off your arm!” Followed by the breakfast break.
• 8:00: “Child’s Play.”Before Jon Gruden, before “Bride of Chucky,” there was Tom Holland’s decidedly non-children’s movie, from 1988, about a doll with crazed eyes and a menacing mind of his own. And sharp objects.
To get you in proper Halloween-scream mode, here are five favorites for your renting and viewing pleasure. Don’t watch them alone!
• “Night of the Living Dead”(1968). George A. Romero’s wonder of independent filmmaking was a cult classic that became a much-imitated standard-bearer of scares. Not just zombies, but flesh-eating zombies. A new twist at the time.
• “Psycho” (1960). Alfred Hitchcock brilliantly broke his own rules of suspense, inserting totally random violence into a motel bathroom. “Mother” Bates still creeps me out.
• “Halloween” (1978).John Carpenter made life hell for baby-sitters, especially ones who think they’ve already killed the bad guy. You’d think Laurie (Jamie Lee Curtis) sticking a bent clothes hanger into Michael Myers’ eye would surely do the trick. Think again.
• “The Exorcist”(1973). Twelve-year-old girls can act rather devilish, but Linda Blair takes the concept to new lows in William’ Friedkin’s nightmare-provoking shocker. To paraphrase Roy Scheider in “Jaws,” “Father, you’re gonna need a bigger cross.”
• “The Shining”(1980). What’s creepier, the hatcheted twins or the old lady in the bathtub? Stanley Kubrick’s take on Stephen King not only features rivers of blood and an ax-wielding Jack Nicholson, it’s an elaborate psychological study of what it means to lose one’s mind.
“The marathon sounds extremely cool,” said “Dead Matter” director Douglas.
“It will appeal to people who like the old style of horror movies, the newer style, and we even have ours in there, which is an independent film. I just haven’t seen a lot of these kinds of things. I love the concept.”
Douglas is also one half (with Gavin Goszka) of the Chardon-based band Midnight Syndicate. The band is famous for Halloween instrumentals such as “Haunted Nursery” and “Grisly Reminder.”
The three-disc deluxe edition of “The Dead Matter” ($19.99), released earlier this year, includes making-of extras, music videos, the original motion picture soundtrack, and a Midnight Syndicate greatest hits collection, “Halloween Music.”
The mass appeal of the genre, said Douglas, comes down to escapism, “and for some of the horror films, maybe it’s a little therapeutic, to see those fears that you have up on the screen. But it’s not you, so it’s something you can walk away from.”
Douglas said he really wanted to be at the Capitol to introduce his film, but was already booked this weekend in Morgantown, W.Va.
Brutal and beautiful might appear to be strange bedfellows, but they are apt descriptors for Suzan-Lori Parks‘ engrossing play “The Book of Grace” and the stunning production of it that opened over the weekend at Cleveland Public Theatre.
Parks, who won a 2002 Pulitzer Prize for “Top Dog/Underdog,” has a gift for capturing humanity, in our brutality and beauty, with her glancing dialogue, people talking to each other by talking past each other.
Less cryptic and more narrative than “Top Dog,” “The Book of Grace” turns on the dynamics of a family so dysfunctional and estranged it’s barely a family.
Vet, a veteran of the first war against Iraq and now a U.S. Border Patrol guard, is a brute who says he’s “on the good foot” with his second wife, Grace, but he’s dug a grave in the back yard as a reminder who’s in charge.
Grace is by all appearances his doormat, but she slowly reveals herself to be person of desires and of substance, longing for a red dress in a department store window, and having a voracious sexual appetite and a secret volume of rebelliously poetic observations under the floorboards.
Into this little world enters Buddy, who unlike Grace and Vet, is black. He returns after 15 years, and after serving in Persian Gulf II, with vengeance in mind and a grenade in pocket, to a set right some ancient wrong — but whether real or perceived is never made clear.
What: Cleveland Public Theatre presents the play by Suzan-Lori Parks, directed by Sheffia Randall Dooley. When: Through Saturday, Oct. 16. Where: 6415 Detroit Ave. Tickets: $10-$25; cptonline.org or call 216-631-2727.
These characters are meant to be real people, but they are also symbols for America and its boundaries. Vet sees borders everywhere, on his TV, in the creases he irons in his uniform trousers, and even in that hole.
The CPT production, the first since the play premiered in New York earlier this year, is directed with a haunting touch, but with both feet planted firmly in reality, by Sheffia Randall Dooley.
She gets assists from set and lighting designer Trad A Burns, who encloses everything in fencing and provides a functional utlities, and from a cast that performs as if intent on outdoing each other and eliciting from each other their best work.
Rod Lawrence quivers with pent-up rage as the literally ready-to-explode Buddy. He gets his chance to shine when he faces his own camcorder to document, mass murderer style, what he believes to be his final words before setting off to claim fame and infamy and revenge.
As Vet, veteran Cleveland area actor Chuck Kartali — in a role at polar opposites with the dad in the Cleveland Play House’s long-running “A Christmas Story” — expresses his own rage with simple acts. Kartali tells us more with the spray button on an electric iron and few clipped words than many another actor could with wild gestures and paragraphs of prose.
As fine as those two performances are, Sally Groth’s Grace mesmerizing presence here. Seductive, poetic, trembling to make her escape, she is both spell-binding and liberating, completely lost in the moment and yet able to transport us miles from this world to the great beyond of human experience. This is wow time.
The play occasionally makes its argument too neatly (and life is never neat). And the ending, both in the writing and staging, verges toward the mawkish.
But “The Book of Grace” is one of those rare theatrical experiences — a rare experiences of any kind — that leave one forever changed for having had it.
Published: Friday, September 24, 2010, 1:24 PM Updated: Friday, September 24, 2010, 1:42 PM
Into the freshened night life of Cleveland’s Detroit-Shoreway neighborhood alights Roseangel, an upscale taco place calling itself “A Moderne Tacqueria.” The vintage storefront has been redone in a Fashion Week version of a Mexican “Day of the Dead” palette. The room dances in orange and cherry walls in alligator-skin textures and white tabletops with black polka dots. It’s serious, candy-colored fun.
The menu? Tacos. Mostly tacos. And why not? Across the street is Happy Dog, the hot-dog emporium. A few blocks away are notable spots for Vietnamese (Minh Anh), Hispanic (Rincon Criollo) and Irish pub food (Stone Mad). New American joints (Luxe, Gypsy Bean, Latitude 41 N) attract their own loyal crowds.
If any neighborhood can handle fancy tacos, this one can, especially as a dinner-and-a-show stop for Cleveland Public Theatre, the refurbished Capitol Theatre or any one of the downtown venues several minutes away.
It helps that these are out-of-the-ordinary tacos. Chef and co-owner Marlin Kaplan, an artful conceptualist in Cleveland’s dining scene, already is in the neighborhood with Luxe. Portion-size options are one of Luxe’s draws, something tacos wrap around easily, too. Not too hungry? Order one taco. Really hungry? Go for more. Roseangel offers bread-plate sizes of these hand-held specialties, most at $4.25 each, and in slightly discounted trios ($11.75) or a platter of four pairs ($30). It’s up to you and your merry band to mix and match flavors from more than 12 well-selected versions.
WE WANT YOUR REVIEW
Have you been to Roseangel in Cleveland? E-mail us your review of the food, service and atmosphere. Include your full name and where you live. We’ll publish a sampling on Cleveland.com and in The Plain Dealer. E-mail food@plaind.com to sound off.
Tacos come with soft or hard shells, with soft recommended for the neatest sharing. That’s the easy part. The list of fillings is long and sometimes frustrating. We’d go back in a second for the hanger steak taco with crispy onions and chipotle mayo, or the spicy lobster with cucumber and green chile cream (add $2.50). Everything we had was fabulously fresh and nicely matched in texture, making us think the kitchen turns on a dime. Witness the bronzed edges of fried eggplant, plushly crisp breading on the perch and just the right chew for the steak and the grilled pork. Taco choices also include duck confit, potato-crusted chicken and tofu, among others.
What was sometimes missing was a vibrancy implied by the word taco. We don’t mean chile-pepper hot. (When they say spicy on the menu here, they hardly mean it.) But more of a pungent, pepper or herbal counterpoint would do for a younger or more adventurous palate. It’s all there on the menu, with nine different salsas offered. An extra dab of the right one on the plate — or at least a recommendation from the menu — would give an option to customers wanting complexity, not just comfort. That’s true, too, for side dishes of rice and beans, which tasted a little more reserved than necessary.
Nothing is missing from the guacamole, a must-order appetizer with avocado, onions, cilantro, lime and jalapenos in just the right balance. Among salsas, we loved the zesty red picante and enjoyed the sweet aftertaste of the pineapple and roasted chile. To finish, don’t miss the house caramel custard, a cumulus cloud of creamy sweetness ($7).
One confession here. Kaplan knows us and spotted us on the first visit — even when we arrived at the end of the trailing group, wearing sunglasses. Service that night seemed to be provided by a seemingly stressed-out staff. Kaplan wasn’t there for our second try, when everything worked at a fine pace but was marred by a promise of fresh-squeezed lemonade. That substance turned out, we were later told, to be a “mix” that the bartender “dumped” after we complained of an off-flavor. The offending drinks were taken from the bill.
Roseangel has a staggeringly long list of margaritas, specialty drinks, wine and beer. We can testify only to the Rosita, a hibiscus-infused Rosangel tequila with pomegranate, lemon and a great need to be sipped slowly. It was a $9.50 pleasure. And easier than asking for lemonade.
Prices: Starters, $5.50-$12.50; salsas, $2.50; tacos, $4.25 (with discounts for three or eight); desserts, $7.
Reservations: Taken for parties of six or more.
Credit cards: Most major cards accepted.
Cuisine: New American, Mexican
Kid-friendliness: Taco onesies will do it.
Bar service: Full.
Accessibility: Full.
Grade: **
Ratings: One star means fair; 2 stars, good; 3 stars, very good; 4 stars, ex ceptional. Zero stars: not recom mended.) Plain Dealer reviewers make at least two anonymous visits to each restaurant and do not accept complimentary meals. Read past reviews at cleveland.com/dining.
Restaurateur Marlin Kaplan insisted that his latest restaurant would open in July. Apparently, skepticism crept into my voice when I pressed the point — remodeling and openings are capricious undertakings — because Kaplan was all “No, no, watch me.” You win, Marlin. His Roseangel — the down-priced reinvention of partner Rosita Kutkut’s former La Boca, not only opened close to target, it pretty much hits the bull’s-eye. It’s at 5800 Detroit Ave., Cleveland, on the edge of Cleveland’s Gordon Square area, across from Happy Dog, if you need a cool landmark.
Tacos, salsas and a modest selection of sides are the big deals here. Order one of each and it’ll set you back under $11 (though you’ll probably want seconds, and maybe a beer; brews range from $2 to $5.50). Tacos, built on hand-shaped and griddled tortillas, are heaped with tasty fillings, including a hauntingly delicious seared tuna with artichoke hearts and a just-fiery-enough grilled hanger steak version topped with crisp onions and a smoky chipotle mayo — to name just two of the 17 varieties. They are small but hefty hand-to-mouth fare, $4.25 each, but bring along friends and order a platter of eight for $30. There are good chips and really good salsas (one evening a cunning cantaloupe-and-cucumber combo) plus fine guacamole (at $7, a splurge). Oh, and very seductive Sauza and triple sec margaritas.
The rooms are equally seductive, from the sexy bar to the center room tarted up in magenta croc-print wallpaper, and the expanded patio. Tacos, grandparents to today’s “wraps,” are eminently tactile, and Kaplan wanted to carry that sensuous style into the environment.
“I feel there should be a seamlessness between where you eat and what you eat,” he says. “And I was going for a way different feeling here. I wasn’t really building a restaurant, per se. This is a hybrid, a lot like Happy Dog isn’t your usual neighborhood bar.”
True on both counts. Here’s to fitting neighbors. Coolness now reigns at West 58th Street and Detroit Avenue. 216-961-5800.
The Boston-based quiz show Says You recently came to Cleveland to record a series of programs at the Capitol Theatre in the Gordon Square Arts District. Host Richard Sher and the Says You panel played their game of words and whimsy, bluff and bluster, with the help of two Northeast Ohio panelists, culture critic Charles Michener and writer-director Murray Horwitz. Award-winning local blues man Austin “Walkin’ Cane” Charanghat provided the musical accents for this holiday special Says You, which was recorded in front of a live audience at the Capitol Theatre on December 5th, 2010. It originally aired on 90.3, WCPN, ideastream December 19th , 2010 at 12:00pm.
Cathy Brown with, from left, the Latitude Attitude Sicilian, sweet and russet potato fries, the Island of Lesbos pizza, fried dough with honey-cinnamon butter, and the Twisted Cobb salad. 
Midnight Syndicate FilmsZombies and vampires, oh my! “The Dead Matter” is one of seven films in the marathon.
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