So... one day Connie suggested a place that has Scrabble on the patio (hint, you may see it as our "p" bar), and then Mel was like.. alphabet... bars.. we should hit up a bar each week that coincides with the alphabet! And so the Cleveland Alphabetical Bar Crawl was born. We decided it would be a fabulous way to expand our horizons and experience more bars in the area. This is our blog dedicated to documenting our journey to 26 bars, one for each letter in the alphabet located in the Cleveland area.
It only makes sense that "a" be ABC Tavern in Ohio City. It wasn't a new place for us, but thought it was a great place to kickoff #CLEabc.
If you're a Clevelander and somehow have not been to ABC Tavern, add it to your list. They have a great beer selection, good food, awesome bartenders and a freaking old school bowling game. What else can you really ask for?
The BEER!
What we drank...
Connie
- Brother Thelonious : Belgian Style Strong Dark : ABV 9.4%
- Flower Power : India Pale Ale : ABV 7.5%
Mel
- Le Merle - Belgian Style Abbey Ale : ABV 7.9%
- Western Reserve Cloud 9 : Spiced White Wheat : ABV 4.5%
The BARTENDER!
Chris was awesome. Fun, attentive and just chatty enough. Gave us some sample beers before we made our selections and provided great explanations for our food options. He let us take this pic despite the fact that he HATES photos and thinks it steals his soul or something...
If you go to ABC Tavern, ask for Chris. Tell him Mel n Connie sent ya!
The FOOD!
It's your regular bar food with a twist, and it does the trick.
Connie : Hummus and Cucumber Club (left)
Mel : Gyro Grilled Cheese (right) - As Chris described it "A fat ass bundle of goodness," and it did not disappoint.
New FRIENDS!
What is a good bar without the randoms? Well, we ran into a couple of interesting peeps. One - a dude with "Mel" tattooed on his arm for his daughter Melanie. Truth be told, he was a little scary and also had "Mr. Lonely" tattooed on his arm, but we decided he was harmless and just needed a little convo.
We also had Nate end up sitting next to us. He originated Bogtrotters Doorstep, which is an AMAZING sandwich place. Anyways, apparently he and Connie know each other and we had a great talk with him. Even suggested Iggy's Tavern in Lakewood for our "i" bar (we were struggling with that one.)
Unique TIP - Dollar, Dollar Bills Y'all!
As we're sitting at the bar, we are staring at all these $1 bills taped to the mirror with random messages. We started to wonder how we could get a $1 bill up on the mirror to properly kickoff our CLEabc tour.
So... we asked Chris, "How does one get a $1 bill on the mirror?" He responded, "I'll give you a marker and you write shit on it." Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it's just that easy.
Chris gave us a marker and Connie got to work....
We can now proudly say that we have a $1 bill on the ABC Tavern mirror.
Parting THOUGHTS!
We are super excited to kick off our Cleveland Alphabetical Bar Crawl (#CLEabc)!
Next week... "b"! Any suggestions? And, please feel free to join us! We have a goal to add at least one person to our crawl each week... so by "z" we'll have 28 people.
Just tweet us at @eenokagain or @MelEyerman. #CLEabc
One last thing... Chris makes FANTASTIC Swedish fish shots. CHEERS!!
