g: Greenhouse Tavern

AIN'T NUTHIN BUT A "G" THANG
Thought a little shout out to the Dr. Dre single seemed appropriate to get us going with our G bar. And, for the record, this little ditty is classified as "g-funk" or "gangsta rap." Can you believe that song was released in 1992?! Oye vey.

Anyways... our G thang for #CLEabc turned out to be Greenhouse Tavern located on E 4th Street downtown. Owned and operated by local chef Jonathon Sawyer (you may have heard of him), this place has quickly become a Cleveland favorite. It is the first certified "green" restaurant in the state and is also considered a "gastropub." Dropping G's all over this biznitch! (Okay, gangsta officially out of system. Promise.)

Our G adventure started on Greenhouse Tavern's rooftop patio, truly awesome, warm weather spot. And if you've ever seen "aerial views" of E 4th St. pop up in your Facebook, Twitter or Instagram feed...9 times out of 10 that pic was taken from this patio.

GIN, GHT & GENESEE
We have to make a small confession. We kind of fumbled on our first drinks. Connie started out with the "Not Your Dad's Vodka Tonic" and Mel got excited because she saw a Steven's Point pale ale in a can.

We recovered though. Connie moved on to a gin drink (Swingin' 75) and Mel ordered a GHT Smartees. Both are cocktails special to Greenhouse.

Then we spied green-labeled bottles of Genesee beer. Don't ask why it took us so long to make that perfect connection...

Observe Alexa's stellar iPhone photo skillz

EASY BEING GREEN
Once we made the G connection with green... Mel suddenly realized she was wearing a neon green bracelet the whole time and Connie conveniently had green in her dress. And a green iPhone cover! We documented it.

GETTING GROUPIES
We quickly realized our initial goal of increasing our group by one at each bar was a little ambitious. Good intentions, but tough when you're as last minute as us. That being said, we did have two newbies join us! Alexa (aka Cleveland's a Plum) and Tim hopped aboard for our wild adventure.

GREAT BARTENDER
Don didn't really know what to think about us at first. But once he realized how serious we are about our little pet project AND as we started getting crazy with the "G" drinks, Don came around. Even posed for this pic with a bottle of Goslings dark rum.

Not only that, Don created a special "G" shot just for #CLEabc deemed "Gosling's Storm." A little Gosling's dark rum, a little ginger beer...add a splash of lime and voila! Very gratifying.

GRUB
Item of note, Greenhouse Tavern does not serve food on the rooftop patio. (One thing we wish they would revisit.) We were really digging our bar seats and hanging with Don, but we surrendered to our need for food and grabbed a table inside. Here's a nifty view walking down from the rooftop looking down at the restaurant bar.

The nice host people sat us at a window seat just inside the front door. This made for some of the best people watching of ever.

Somehow the encased glass area backed with old VHS movies lining the walls behind us also created some sort of echo chamber. Or we were just really that loud... either way, super fun. And look! Ghostbusters!

GRAVY, GARLIC and SALAD?
Before we walked down to the restaurant, Don the bartender told us two things we had to try: Gravy frites and the chicken wings. We indulged. Gravy frites = awesome. Chicken wings = out of this world! Seriously, fall of the bone type of amazingness. (And there was garlic...meeting the "G" requirement.)

Alexa stuck with the "G" theme with the Grilled Ohio Lamb Burger while Connie had a salad. Don't ask. She was already reprimanded.

GREENHOUSE PRO TIP
One of the most unique and fun things about Greenhouse Tavern is the kitchen coffee. Yeah, doesn't sound too fancy but basically this means you buy the kitchen a round of canned beer. That's not even the best part. They let you take the beer down to the peeps in the kitchen equipped with A LARGE BELL! We scooped up our tray and rang the bell all the way from our seats down the steps to the kitchen (sorry to those other patrons). The kitchen staff greeted us with whoops, hollers and big grins. They even took a second to snap this pic.

More Plum photography

When you visit Greenhouse, get in the spirit and take care of the staff. You'll be glad you did!

GARAGE BAR... oh wait
After dinner we spontaneously decided to head over to the soft opening of Nano Brew, Sam McNulty's new spot in Ohio City. We weren't sure if we were going to mention this in our G post, but we'll allow it since technically the bar used to start with a G. Yeah... it's a stretch but it's our bar crawl and we don't care.

The atmosphere is pretty cool, definitely ditched the old Garage Bar biker vibe and we're excited to have another great patio option. Unfortunately, their own brews weren't ready for consumption yet so we continued with our Genesee trend. We were also fortunate enough to have a convo with the brewmaster himself, Andy Tveekrem. This place is definitely worth checking out.

SAVE THE DATE
Yes, we know that "H" comes next in the alphabet, but we're already planning an epic LMNOP. After consulting with our new groupies, we settled on Saturday, Oct. 6 to tackle LMNOP all in one night AND we're getting a limo to haul our drunk asses around. (Gotta be safe kids!) This means we can go anywhere we want... so let the LMNOP suggestions begin!

We also haven't forgotten H. Our list includes: Hodges, Happy Dog, Hotz, Hooples & Horsehoe Casino. Where should we go? Any favorites?

c: Clevelander

Okay, so we deserve a little bit of heckling. Yes... we did visit our C bar five days ago and yes we are just now publishing the blog post. Let's get past it. Anyways...on to the Clevelander!

This is the CLEVELAND Alphabetical Bar Crawl so where else would we go for C? This place is the epitome of the Cleveland sports fan (well, except for the Muni Lot on Browns game day), so we had to go when the Indians were at home. Not sure there is any other way to experience this bar.  

THE PEEPS
Special shout out to the Aber clan, Andrea (@andreaaber) Bob (@AberInTheCleve) and Erica (@ericaaber) for bringing their friends and participating in the bar crawl. They probably just came because they were all going to the game, but we like to think that #CLEabc is just that popular. Yeah.... that's what we'll tell ourselves.

ON THE PATIO
When we first started, we decided we always have to sit at the bar. Well, the patio definitely suited our needs better that day. There was too many of us and it was too crowded pregame, but it worked out. We were right beside the outdoor bar that supplied us with plenty of tallboys. Seriously, we probably could not have built this beer pyramid indoors...

CELEBRITY IN OUR MIDST
Ladies and gentlemen, we had our first celebrity join us for #CLEabc. That's right, our very own celebrity bat girl!

Here's the story: When Erica was 8, she was selected to be an Indians celebrity bat girl (anyone else remember when they did that?). Sponsored by Milk Duds no less... today they would be accused of making kids fat. Anyways, Erica got to meet Jim Thome and even took a picture with him. When she recently uncovered this shirt, she also tried to find the picture because she wanted to send it to him. Maybe get an autograph. Unfortunately the picture was lost forever and now all she has as proof is this t-shirt. Honestly, she should be proud she can still fit into a t-shirt she had when she was 8 years old! (How many of us can say that?)

LMNOP
We've come to learn that people LOVE to give us ideas for bars that fit the letters we have left. At this point, we still have a long ways to go so it turns into quite a long conversation. This time... we came across an idea we cannot refuse. LMNOP... all in 1 night... in Lakewood! That's right folks, we're going on a #CLEabc bender. (Maybe we can even talk the 50 bars in 50 weeks Lakewood dude to join us.) Stay tuned for more details!

Also, spoiler alert... we may have to hit up Rusty Barrel in Westlake for R. The story we were told is just too good to not consider it.

OKAY REALLY... THIS SHOULD BE ABOUT THE BAR 
Once the rest of the crew headed to the game, Connie, Mel & Mike headed inside to sit at the bar and get some grub. FYI, if you want to order food before you head to the game, it's usually a 30 minute wait. Either get there early or plan on eating some peanuts and Cracker Jacks at Progressive Field.

After the game crowd clears out, there is plenty of space to walk right up and get served. Once we sat down, we quickly spotted the chalkboard beer menu. Summer Love from Victory Brewing Company called to us ... so we obeyed. (GREAT summer beer.)

The FOOD!
In honor of our C bar... we decided to order menu items that begin with the letter C. It wasn't too hard. Their menu is very Cleveland-centric and caters to the passionate Clevelanders. Where else will you find menu items like "The Bernie, Bernie" and "The Dutch Oven"?

If you didn't know, Clevelander is known for their burgers (hence the above pic). Mel ordered the Comacho burger while Connie indulged in the Clevelander wrap. For the record, they're not kidding when they talk about their burgers. They are amazeballs!

The BARTENDER!

Unfortunately our bartender's name this week did not start with C (we got lucky with Brendan at Becky's last time), but Tara was absolutely adorable and we love her. That's her... on the left. Our first girl bartenders!

Honestly, it only makes sense that a sports bar has cute girls slinging drinks. Pretty sure they bank on game day. Who wouldn't tip these lovely ladies well? (If you're still wondering, the chick on the right is Alex... the only other bartender brave enough to take a pic for our blog.)

COOKIE DOUGH VODKA WHAT?!
As we're chilling, enjoying some summer love and stuffing our faces, one of the bartenders walks by with these chocolaty looking delicious shots. After further investigation from the help of Tara, we learned that these mysterious concoctions were called Chocolate Frosting shots. MADE WITH PINNACLE COOKIE DOUGH VODKA! Of course we ordered some immediately. Tara was nice enough to learn how to make them for us...

The TUNES!

As you've learned, we are huge advocates of TouchTunes. Mel quickly went to her TouchTunes app to see if she could take control of the jukebox, but it just wouldn't let us check in. Mel went to the wall unit to see what was up, and upon inspection, some guys let us use the rest of their credits to play some songs.

Prior to this point, most of the music was Phish, Push Stars, Dave Matthews, etc. This crowd was a little too classy for "Call Me Maybe," so we opted for Rita Ora "How We Do", Rihanna "Cheers (Drink To That)" ... a little Lady Gaga. Our new friends may have regretted the decision to let us use the rest of their credits...

THE SWEET SPOT
All in all, we determined that Clevelander is definitely the place to be during an Indians game. Yeah, most folks love to hang out pre or post game, but during the game you get a great seat at the bar with a perfect view of the TV, great service, fast food and beers. Can't really beat it.

The only bad part of the night? Our beloved Tribe lost to the Orioles 10-2. But you know what? More beers and shots were just an arm's reach away. There's no cutoff in the 7th inning, and we're surrounded by friends to help drown our sorrows. We should be used to this by now... right?

Couldn't have said it better ourselves....