f: Flat Iron

FLAT IRON in the FLATS... oh my
Oh, East Bank of the Flats. You really used to be something. Remember the concerts at the Odeon? Remember the Beach Club? And who could forget when there was a Dick's Last Resort down there? It sure has been awhile, Flats. The GoodTime III still tries to show off your nonexistent splendor...hopefully one day soon you'll be back in business.

Despite the lackluster state of the East Bank, choosing the Flat Iron for our F bar was the obvious choice once we went through our list of options. It was a day full of F, as we stopped by Walnut Wednesday for lunch and enjoyed the cuisine from the Fired Up Taco Truck.

Special welcome to Tom for braving the trek to Flat Iron with two chicks. His first of hopefully many appearances!

NOT AS CREEPY AS WE THOUGHT
The first thing we noticed was that the atmosphere inside of the bar was remarkably different from the outside. Not much going on out there, but once you get through those doors it felt very comfortable and inviting. We found out that they opened in 1910 and they still have the original bar!

THE BEER
Connie desperately tried to order a beer that started with an F, but despite the fact that the cooler had a good variety and was alphabetized (a perfect detail for us to notice on our alphabetical bar crawl), not a single one could be found.

No problem, she started with The Wright Pils from Great Lakes while Mel took advantage of the $6 Bud Light pitcher special, which we shared as the evening went on.

THE PEEPS
Now might be a good time to mention the gentlemen that we encountered when we walked up to the bar. A group of four guys, all in Indians garb who told us that they had been there since 11 a.m. and had gone back and forth to the Tribe game for a couple of innings at a time. They spent the majority of the night trying to guess our first names...then we guessed theirs...then we had to guess middle names...and then that ran out even our PETS' names! It was a really fun game. Even the bartenders joined in!

SPEAKING OF THE BARTENDER
Frank.. err.. we mean Dave was great! He was super friendly and even answered to Frank all night so we'd have an F named bartender.

We asked him to mix us up a shot that started with an F so we all joined in on a Froot Loop...looked like a strawberry milkshake but tasted just like a bowl of that crazy toucan's breakfast. And yes, we even invited one of the crazy Indians dudes to have a shot.

THE FOOD
Special tip, Wednesday is forty-five cent wing night! Sticking with the F tradition, we couldn't help but order some with the special Flat Iron wing sauce, as well as some Flat Iron Fries to go along with them.

Apparently their specialty is the Angel's Lake Perch because they get their perch fresh from the local fish market across the street every morning. Will definitely have to stop by this place again to try more from their menu. Everything sounded delicious!

PUTTING IN TIME

As we hung at the bar, we noticed a few plaques placed in front of a few different seats at the bar. Ironically, Mel sat in front of the plaque for Franklin. And how did Franklin get this honor you ask? By "putting in time." According to his plaque, he has been a regular at Flat Iron since 1984! Turns out, he's a local artist and will sit at the end of the bar some nights and draw on cocktail napkins. We tried to wait so we could meet Franklin, but unfortunately he didn't show.

A LOT OF ALLITERATION
One random thing. We couldn't stop saying words that started with F. We said so many that we even kept a list—it ended up being pretty long. Check this out:

Fun

Fried

First 

Fourth

Flatiron French Fries

Food

Fresh

Fffin

Freakin -> ala Frank

Five 

Facebook Feed 

Frankenmuth

Fire 

Forgetting 

Fantastic 

Freebies 

Frankly 

Family 

Flats 

Flavor 

Fox 

Found 

Funky 

Fancy 

Foo Fighters (Played on the jukebox by Tom. He's seen them FIVE times) 

Fingers 

Fabulous 

Fruity 

Favorite 

Free

Finish

Fart

We'll let your imagination determine how you think our conversation went with these words.

PARTING GIFT
Dave (aka Frank) gave us SHAMROCK CLE coozies to take home - awesome!




After dinner, Connie had to shuffle off to a volleyball game at Whiskey Island, Mel to Cleveland Browns Stadium (for Family Night .. another F!), but both left the Flat Iron agreeing that it was a successful F happy hour!

Now, onto G...where will #CLEabc take us next? Leave a comment, tweet #CLEabc... we need help. Our G list is not all that impressive.