Cleveland Rocks! Part 7

Find Part 6 here.  You really should read these in order.

After we finished up at the Cleveland Museum of Art and wished Uncle Jim and Aunt Kim safe travels, it was back to the VRBO for Mom, Leigh, Chris, and I.  Jim and Ethan finished dropping off our Sunday travelers and then headed back as well.  We pawned off the vast majority of our leftovers on Ethan ("here's a bag of three leftover bagels, half a jar of salsa, four squares of breakfast casserole, and 2 apples!"  It's like a really boring episode of Chopped), and then he headed home as well, leaving just Mom, her kiddos, and their spouses to hang around.

We spent some time pre-packing; while we'd all be leaving the next day, Jim and Leigh had a painfully early departure time of 6am, and we'd follow just a few hours later, so it was a good idea to get some things taken care of.  Around 6:30pm, we headed out (in just one car this time!) to downtown Cleveland to meet our 7pm dinner reservation at Lola, Michael Symon's flagship restaurant.

On the way, we wandered just a bit through the downtown pedestrian area near 4th Street, which was quite lovely.

Thanks, internets, for the picture!

The interior of Lola.

Also not my picture.

Eating at Lola was absolutely fantastic.  Symon is known for being big on meat, and the menu was meat-heavy, accordingly.  However, all of our items were prepared perfectly, and we really appreciated the time our waiter and the kitchen spent working on Leigh's dinner.  Leigh has been having significant health issues over the past few years, and doctors are still trying to diagnose the exact problem (it seems to be GI related, but that's as close as they've come so far); what she's found that works for her is an extremely limited diet, and if she deviates from this, she has nasty flares that really put her out of commission.  This diet includes having to think about things the rest of us take for granted, including what spices and oils something might be marinated in, what it's cooked next to on a grill, what else it might touch, and so on.  During our time in Cleveland, we found places that were happy to help her out, but they still might serve her a hamburger patty touching a side of fries, all on one plate, for example.

Well, not at Lola.  They (our fantastic waiter, the kitchen staff, and everyone in between) were truly more than willing to bend over backward to make sure she was taken care of, and as someone who cares about her, it was awesome to see.  Not only was the ambiance classy and calming (and most of all for me, quiet), the food and wine were spectacular, and the staff was amazing.  I can't recommend Lola highly enough, and a big shoutout goes to this dude, who was the driving force behind it all:

Merci, Chef!

We didn't get any shots of the dinner itself, but Mom grabbed one of our dessert, a deconstructed S'more:

Fancy!

 After dinner, we were all up for a short stroll, so we did a quick lap around downtown, finding ourselves at the public square that housed the Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument.  It was a cool building with neat architecture, and I wish we would have had time to visit it while it was open during the day.

While we were standing in the square, taking pictures, we all realized that things were starting to look somewhat familiar.  Remember in Part 2 of the Cleveland blogs, when I mentioned the Jack's Casino spire, and how we'd revisit that?  Okay, well here it is, all lit up at night:

The casino occupies the old Higbee Department Store building, which is where the Santa scenes took place in A Christmas Story.  

Remember this?

And this?

According to our guide at the house a few days earlier, Higbee's was the only store in Cleveland that was willing to leave its holiday decorations up until March, so the movie could shoot there.  However, since Higbee's was really big on its family-friendly image, they insisted that the movie could shoot there, as long as no profanity was used in the film.  This didn't present too much of an issue, but it is why the "Only I didn't say Fudge" scene was added (in the original, Ralphie actually dropped the real f*** bomb).

So, take a gander at the Higbee's shot in the movie, keeping a close eye on the clock near the right of the shot:

See the glowing circle, way on the right?

That's it.

See it here?

The park obviously looks a bit different these days.

Given that we were so close, we figured we had to take the chance to pop inside, to honor the memory of Ralphie and the gang.

That's a mirror reflecting the ceiling.

As you can see, it's historic

and gorgeous.

By this point, we were more than a little pooped, so we reclaimed the car and headed back to the VRBO for the night.  We wished Jim and Leigh adieu as they'd be leaving before we woke up, and they got off and then home safe and sound (before we even left on our own journeys - told you it was early).  Chris, Mom, and I headed to drop the rental car back off, and then it was on to the terminal for all of us, grabbing some caffeine along the way.  We hugged Mom goodbye to hop on our plane, and after a quick break in Denver, it was back home to see our kiddo.  Mom also made it home just fine, and we all swapped quick texts to verify everyone arrived okay.

Although I don't know that we would have ended up in Cleveland if not for Ashley's wedding, we had a wonderful time on the trip.  The food was great (if a bit on the heavier side at most places), the brews were tasty, and people were truly kind everywhere we went; I wouldn't hesitate to visit there again (well, maybe not in February - I'm a wimp in the cold), and I'd highly recommend it to everyone, too!

Later!

Amy