Back in the ‘70s, Cleveland got a bad rap. It’s time to take another look.
The wine and conversation are flowing in the buzzy candlelit dining room at L’Albatros on a frigid November evening as happy diners tuck into the French classics. Heads turn as a waiter wends his way between tables deftly balancing a bountiful cheese platter. And my teenage daughter, a Parisian born and raised, is lapping up the last winey drops of her coq au vin with crusty bread. But this is not Paris, this is Cleveland, Ohio, and we are dining on hearty French brasserie fare at the decidedly un-French hour of 6 p.m. before heading a few blocks away to hear one of the world’s greatest orchestras. The perfect finale to a four-day trip so packed with pleasures that I’m left scratching my head in wonder: Why is this many-splendored city so under-appreciated?
A burning river in the late ‘60s, Midwest urban decline, and what seemed like a decades-long curse on Cleveland’s sports teams tethered this industrial town to a hardscrabble, down-on-its-luck reputation that has proven hard to shake. Even T-shirts popular among Clevelanders in the ‘70s read, “Cleveland, you gotta be tough.”
No doubt it’s the decades of adversity that engendered in Clevelanders their sense of determination, modesty, and pride. But Cleveland’s revival has been long in the making, drawing on the city’s rich historic legacy, peerless cultural treasures, world-renowned medical and research centers, prestigious universities, exciting food scene, and plum location on the shores of Lake Erie. Cleveland’s once-fringe neighborhoods are quietly thriving, and the committed chefs working their magic here are a sure sign of its revival.
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“We are the most humble, down-to-earth place on this planet,” said Doug Katz, the owner and chef of two of Cleveland’s most popular restaurants, Zhug and Amba, plus an elegant café in the Cleveland Museum of Art and a brasserie on the way. “Cleveland is a gem and I love telling people how great it is. Before, I had to say how great it was because people were bashing us, but I don’t feel that anymore.”
Katz, who cooked in Boston and Portland before returning to his hometown, has been a motor in Cleveland’s culinary scene for more than 20 years, straddling both the monied East and grittier West Sides of the city and embracing the locavore farm-to-table movement that inspires so many of Cleveland’s chefs. Katz’s dishes draw on far-flung culinary influences—primarily Mediterranean at Zhug, and Indian at Amba—where the focus is on shared plates. Both restaurants are wildly popular, as much for a palpable feeling of warmth and conviviality as for the food.
In the early 2000s, Katz and his longtime friend and fellow chef, Karen Small, found inspiration and a bounty of local fare at the East Side’s Shaker Square farmers market for their trailblazing restaurants: Katz’s Fire Food & Drink at Shaker Square and Small’s Flying Fig in Ohio City on Cleveland’s near West Side. “Without the collective of local producers the organization has put together it would have been very hard to obtain the products we are committed to using,” said Small. Both of these beloved Cleveland restaurants closed after COVID-19, as Katz and Small felt ready to shake things up and start anew.
Small opened Juneberry Table in spring 2022, highlighting the state’s indigenous foods, like sorghum, cornmeal, and home-cured meats, and regularly sees crowds snaking down the block. Her Pearl Street Wine Market and Café—opened with her partner Jill Davis the following fall across from the Great Lakes Brewing Company, another Ohio City pioneer—brings together the best of American and European low-intervention wines (biodynamic, organic, sustainably grown) paired with small gourmet plates to share. Patrons can sample the wines in tasting size or full glasses and then stock up on favorites from the on-site wine shop.
Now Small and a coterie of Cleveland chefs, Including the wildly creative Athan Zarnas at Alea, a few steps from Amba in Hingetown (between Ohio City and the Detroit-Shoreway neighborhoods), source their ingredients at the Ohio City Farm, almost their backyard. The sprawling six-acre plot—the largest contiguous urban garden in the United States—is run by Re:Source Cleveland, whose mission is to empower refugees to become self-sufficient by providing jobs and training.
Another farm patron, master forager, and fermenter, Jeremy Umansky doesn’t limit his foraging to land but plumbs the depths of nearby Lake Erie to supply his Jewish delicatessen Larder, housed in an 1854 firehouse. Whitefish caviar featured on a plate of house-cured charcuterie, alongside beef-heart jerky, pork coppa, exquisite pastrami, and a range of fermented vegetables, including a tangy hen of the woods mushroom Umansky plucked “from a tree across the street,” served with homemade fermented rye crackers. Co-owner Allie La Valle-Umansky makes divine pastries and breads, including a stellar cheesecake and chocolate babka.
In 2024, Ohio City Farm will open its own market, a companion to the landmark West Side Market, a soaring century-old covered market that unites Cleveland’s assorted Eastern European cuisines, along with German, Italian, Mexican, Greek, Middle Eastern, and others. Leavened Bakery, just down the street, supplies the city and local chefs with artisanal bread and baguettes that easily rival top Parisian bakeries.
Taking sustainability a leap further, Edwin’s Leadership & Restaurant Institute in Cleveland’s Buckeye-Shaker neighborhood pairs fine French cuisine with a social mission. Founder and chef Brandon Chrostowski, who trained in top kitchens in Paris, New York, and Chicago, provides former inmates everything from employment and living space to legal aid and healthcare. His ever-growing campus includes a bakery, diner, and butcher shop. Chrostowski, a finalist for the 2023 James Beard Award for Outstanding Restauranteur, has also created a culinary curriculum that’s taught in prisons nationwide.
Cleveland’s very own vineyard also has a social conscience. Chateau Hough vineyard and winery and its affiliate nonprofit Neighborhood Solutions, offer education and “community engagement opportunities” to aid marginalized residents.
But Cleveland’s riveting dining scene is just one facet of this culture-centric city. On downtown’s Euclid Avenue—nicknamed Millionaire’s Row in the city’s 1920s heyday, when the Rockefellers (who founded Standard Oil here in 1870), Carnegies, and other titans of industry resided here and the street was likened to the Champs-Élysées—the Playhouse Square theater district is second only to New York’s Lincoln Center in size and the quality of its productions. In the ‘70s, its five historic theaters, built in 1921 in an extravagant neo-renaissance style, were slated for the wrecking ball. A rallying cry to Cleveland’s arts community raised $40 million to save the landmark theaters. Now Playhouse Square’s 11 performance spaces host everything from Broadway shows to rock concerts and the Cleveland Ballet.
Strung like pearls around University Circle’s Wade Oval, the Cleveland Botanical Gardens, Western Reserve Historical Society, Museum of Natural History (soon to open a state-of-the-art 50,000-square-foot addition) and the Cleveland Museum of Art form the city’s cultural beating heart. A massive endowment and priceless contributions from Cleveland’s millionaire collectors catapulted the art museum to world-class status. There’s no entrance fee to access masterpieces in every genre, ranging from its stellar Egyptian and Islamic wings and Chinese collection (the best in the United States), to so many American and Impressionist masters. A $350 million modern expansion to the 19th-century neoclassical building added wide halls, soaring volumes, and stunning scenography. Lively Friday night soirées at MIX recently featured the country’s youngest DJ. Renowned for its groundbreaking shows, CMA’s current “China’s Southern Paradise: Treasures from the Lower Yangzi Delta” and “Degas and the Laundress” map out uncharted territory.
A few blocks away, the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) showcases local and international contemporary artists in a striking mirrored geometric building designed by the Iranian-British architect Farshid Moussavi, her first in the United States.
Severance Hall, a masterpiece of art deco architecture across from CMA’s reflecting pool, is home to the Cleveland Orchestra. Widely considered the finest orchestra in the United States, for decades the orchestra has held its place among the great symphony orchestras of the world. Under the direction of Franz Welser-Möst, the orchestra travels the world dazzling audiences near and far.
Connoisseurs of a different stripe flock to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, set in I.M. Pei’s massive glass spaceship on the shores of Lake Erie. Why Cleveland? In 1951, disc jockey Alan Freed coined the term “rock and roll” during a radio show here, and in 1952 organized the nation’s first rock concert at a Cleveland arena. Watch rare film clips of rockers (most lately of the Beatles’ last recording session) from the dawn of rock ’n’ roll to today, and get an up-close look at everything from the Supremes’ sequined dresses and Elvis’ motorcycle to Notorious B.I.G.’s leather jersey. Visitors can also play an instrument in a sound studio and get a feel for mixing.
If all of this puts you in the mood for a night out, head on over to the cobbled Flats, a former fisherman’s shantytown and industrial area on the Cuyahoga River (yep, the one that burned), now all spruced up and host to lively bars, seafood restaurants, cruise boats, and promenades.
For nature lovers, the river is also the lead-in to Cleveland’s Cuyahoga Valley National Park, a lush nature reserve complete with waterfalls, forests, and miles of hiking and biking paths. Cleveland’s Metroparks system is one of the nation’s oldest and most extensive city parks, an emerald ring of more than 24,000 acres, with 325 miles of trails and still growing. Its projects in progress include an ambitious plan to unite Cleveland’s lakefront parks and neighborhoods.
Where to Stay
Kimpton Schofield: Set in a landmark red terra-cotta building in the heart of Cleveland’s downtown Historic Gateway District, the Schofield upholds the Kimpton brand’s commitment to warm and convivial gathering spaces, with spacious contemporary rooms (immense compared with the average guest room in Paris), and views of the city. Fully equipped upper-floor apartments are great for longer stays.
Glidden House: On the campus of Case Western Reserve University, the former Glidden family mansion (yes, that Glidden) is a five-minute walk to the heart of Cleveland’s culture hub: Severance Hall, the art museum, the Museum of Natural History, botanical gardens and the historical society. It’s also a stone’s throw from L’Albatros restaurant, Mitchell’s Ice Cream (a Cleveland institution), and close to shopping and dining on Cleveland’s East Side. Antiques, oriental rugs, and a notable modern art collection give way to classic-modern rooms.
Other Dining Choices: Where to Eat
There are scores of notable tables around Cleveland, to name a few more: Elegant Jaja, across from the West Side Market is a favorite among Cleveland foodies; Cordelia, whose imaginative dishes (and motto, “Midwest nice”) delighted me from start to finish; Dante in the West Side’s Tremont neighborhood adjacent to Ohio City; Flight wine bar and shop at Gordon Square; and for pizza head to Cent’s in the West Side’s Detroit-Shoreway neighborhood, and on the East Side, Vero in Cleveland Heights.
Where to Shop
Your best bet in the East Side is around Shaker Square, but charming boutiques in the chic Gordon Square neighborhood, include Océanne Studio & Boutique, where owner Anne Harrill, born and raised in the South of France but a Parisian at heart, designs and creates her own jewelry line, including personalized and forever designs. You’ll also find her “empowered” French clothing, hats, and housewares collection along with a hand-picked selection of other super-chic brands. At Fount, you’ll find an irresistible collection of super-chic and classic Cleveland-made bags in top-quality leather, including sleek bucket bags, totes, and wallets.
I have come full circle on Cleveland, growing up in Northeast Ohio, living in 5 other states and having traveled to over 45 countries. Initially family drew me back to live here, but the transformation of Cleveland continues to reinforce my choice. Gastronomy - check. Outdoor adventure - check. Sports and recreation - check. Diversity - check, check. Innovation - check, check and check! No city is perfect, but come spend a weekend here and you'll enjoy high value (affordable and world-class) experiences and hopefully stay longer.
Just where does the Midwest begin and end anymore? Cleveland is closer to New York City on the east than it is to Minneapolis/St Paul on the west... and it's almost three times closer to NYC than Denver, and FIVE TIMES closer than LA. Pure and simple, Ohio (and Indiana, for that matter) should not be considered a part of the Midwest.
wow ty, I only drove through cleveland did not get to experience the greatness!