Scene December 1, 2021

December 1-14, 2021 | clevescene.com |

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To say that without you Scene wouldn’t be where it’s at today, or possibly around at all, isn’t hyperbole.

Our entire team is beyond grateful that when the world changed in 2020, you helped ensure that Cleveland’s 50-year-old altweekly was going to be around to cover it.

Reader support has become a crucial part of our financial survival, and we are ever thankful the city has supported us, whether that’s come in one-off donations or recurring monthly contributions.

It’s meant a year of insightful political dispatches from Senior Writer Sam Allard on the mayoral and city council races, another year of Doug Trattner’s essential coverage of the dining scene, the lowdown on the best music and events in town courtesy of Jeff Niesel, Christine Howey’s incomparable critiques of the theater scene, weekly drop-ins from Shawn Mishak from around the visual arts community, special projects like Cid Standifer’s feature on Cleveland police use of force data, and much, much more.

We’re heading into 2022 with optimism and ambition for telling more Cleveland stories, and gratitude that you’re helping us do that.

Cheers, Vince Grzegorek Editor-in-Chief Cleveland Scene 2

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December 1-14, 2021 | clevescene.com |

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CONTENTS DECEMBER 1-14, 2021 • VOL. 52 NO 11

Upfront .......................................7 Feature ..................................... 12 Get Out ..................................... 17 Art ............................................ 19 Dedicated to Free Times founder Richard H. Siegel (1935-1993) and Scene founder Richard Kabat Publisher Andrew Zelman Editor Vince Grzegorek Editorial Music Editor Jeff Niesel Senior Writer Sam Allard Staff Writer Brett Zelman Dining Editor Douglas Trattner Visual Arts Writer Shawn Mishak

Eat ............................................ 21 Music ........................................ 25 Savage Love .............................. 26

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| clevescene.com | December 1-14, 2021

Photo courtesy Cleveland Guardians

UPFRONT

11 THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT THE PROGRESSIVE FIELD DEAL, WHICH CLEVELAND CITY COUNCIL PASSED MONDAY AT ITS MEETING MONDAY night, Cleveland City Council passed legislation greenlighting the Progressive Field Deal, a 15-year lease extension with the Cleveland Guardians that includes roughly $285 million in public subsidies for ballpark maintenance and improvements. Council voted 13-3 in favor of the ordinance, with Ward 8’s Mike Polensek, Ward 11’s Brian Mooney and Ward 15’s Jenny Spencer dissenting. Ward 14’s Jasmin Santana was not in attendance and did not cast a vote.

The city’s portion of the deal will include roughly $8 million per year over 15 years, sourced from admissions tax revenue at the ballpark, (revenue that would otherwise go to the city’s general fund), a sports facility reserve fund created as part of the Q Deal, revenues from the Gateway

East parking garage, and about $350,000 per year that remains unsourced and will likely be taken out of the city’s general fund.

Cuyahoga County Council has already authorized its portion of the deal. The county agreed to pay $9 million per year over 15 years, which includes substantial annual contributions from the general fund. It also authorized a $202.5 million bond issue to finance what are referred to as “ballpark improvements.” These are the proposed dramatic upgrades at the stadium like the re-imagined Terrace Club and upper deck; not the humdrum capital repairs on escalators, HVAC and plumbing, which the public will also pay for now.

Despite the buoyant, demented rhetoric from a few county council members earlier this month —

Marty Sweeney said he thought the deal should be considered the “prototype” for negotiations with pro teams moving forward — most voted in favor of the legislation more reluctantly. The impression was that they were doing so on pain of death, imprisoned by an economic reality in which the teams made all the rules and called all the shots. Councilman Dale Miller said the national system of stadium financing was broken, but that paying $200 million for upgrades seemed more prudent than paying a billion or more for a new stadium down the road.

(The fact that the public, not the team, issues the bonds for these mega deals, and must therefore service the debt on them, is one of the big reasons why they’re so lopsided, by the way. Remember that the Q Deal was billed as a

50/50 split between the public and the Cavs at the outset, and in fact it’s now customary for leaders to say that owner Dan Gilbert paid much more than the public because he personally financed additional upgrades in 2018. But once you account for the interest payments, the public is paying far more. The enormous debt load the county took on to finance the Q Deal was one reason why Moody’s downgraded its bond rating, leading to higher interest rates and higher costs for taxpayers.)

Prior to Monday’s meeting, city council committees met twice – nearly nine total hours of hearings – to vet the deal. Council members questioned Ken Silliman of the Gateway Economic Development Corporation, (formerly Mayor Frank Jackson’s Chief of Staff), and reps from the Guardians legal, strategy

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UPFRONT and community impact teams to determine whether or not it was in the city’s financial interest to vote yes.

Though a number of questions lingered, the majority ultimately agreed with the consensus: that unsavory as it may be to give hundreds of millions of public dollars to a billionaire team owner, that’s just the cost of doing business.

Here are 11 key takeaways from the committee hearings.

1) The deal was done long before it arrived at City Council. No further “negotiating” occurred.

Though council was eager to zoom in on minority employment numbers as proposed by the city’s standard community benefits agreement, and to express reservations about the exposure of

DIGIT WIDGET 17.27% Percentage of Cuyahoga County children ages 5-11 who have started their Covid-19 vaccination, as of Monday.

8,000+ Total employees at MetroHealth, up from 6,200 in 2013 when CEO Akram Boutros took the reins.

Boutros announced this week that he’ll be stepping down at the end of 2022.

$541 million Combined public spending on the Opportunity Corridor ($256 million) and the Progressive Field Deal ($285 million).

$511 million City of Cleveland’s total allocation from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA).

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general fund dollars, the deal’s main structure—with the public paying for 2/3 of ballpark improvements and the team paying for 1/3, and the public paying for 100% of capital repairs—is final and unshakeable, evidently.

Ken Silliman said that this ratio of public vs. team contributions was arrived at after intense negotiations.

(We’ll have to take his word for it!) In response to questioning from Collinwood councilman Mike Polensek, a hardened skeptic of these deals, Silliman affirmed that this was the best the public could hope to achieve. It was therefore folly for council members to suggest lowering the public contribution somehow, or attempting to modify the deal with safeguards for the general fund. As with the Q Deal, council has only two options: vote yes or no.

2) No one from the City of Cleveland’s law department participated in “negotiations.”

No one from the City of Cleveland’s law department was present during two years of meetings on the Progressive Field deal, it was revealed at the second committee hearing.

Jim Gentile, the city’s interim director of finance, was representing the Frank Jackson administration. He told council that both he and Sharon Dumas, former finance director and Jackson’s current chief of staff, had been present at a number of the meetings. Gentile estimated that he was physically present at seven or eight total meetings, but said no one from the city’s law department was ever present when he was there.

The Greater Cleveland Partnership, the city’s chamber of commerce, was more directly involved than the city’s legal staff.

In response to some wide eyes, Gentile stressed that both he and Dumas regularly briefed the law department after their meetings.

And he assured council that the law department had indeed read the term sheet, which outlines the city’s contributions. But the law department appeared to play no part in the authorship of the agreement.

3) An awful lot depends on the Gateway East parking garage Of the city funding sources, the diciest by far is the revenue from the Gateway East parking garage, which the city owns. The deal’s term sheet projects that the garage will generate $2 million per year over 15 years. But if the garage falls short of those projections, the city’s

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general fund will have to make up the difference. That’s almost guaranteed to happen, given that in 2019, the final year before the pandemic, the garage generated only $1.6 million in net revenue.

Ken Silliman said that City Council has the authority to increase parking rates there and that with “inflation,” the garage can be expected to surpass its projections in the future. Those guesstimates mean jacksquat.

Council has reason to be suspicious, in fact, given that the deal includes a team-friendly provision which allows the Guardians to purchase the garage from the city for $25 million if and when they determine that it’s profitable to do so. (The team’s legal counsel was upfront that they simply aren’t confident in the benefits of acquiring the garage currently.) If they ever do proceed with the purchase, the proceeds would be stashed in an account and then simply paid back to the team as a $2 million annuity. The city will lose 100% of the proceeds from this revenue-generating asset either way.

To be fair, it’s not like revenue from the garage has been going to the city’s general fund until now.

Quite the contrary. The entirety of that revenue has been paying down debt on bonds the city took out in the 90s to construct the Gateway garages for the teams in the first place. Those bonds are scheduled to be paid off in full in Sept. of 2022, after which the revenue will be encumbered through 2036 or else gone forever.

4) The Gateway East parking garage could soon have a corporate sponsor. In fact it better.

The deal’s term sheet includes $330,000 per year in city contributions generated by “naming rights” for the Gateway East garage.

No naming rights have yet been secured, but Silliman made it seem like tracking down a corporate sponsor would be no big deal. As projected, these naming rights would have to net about $5 million over 15 years—all of which would go directly toward the deal—and if the city can’t find a sponsor to foot the bill at that rate, it’ll be the general fund forced to make up the difference once again.

5) Speaking of naming rights ...

At least one council member was keen to point out that it was the Indians, not the public, profiting off a much more lucrative naming-rights deal: the one with

Progressive Insurance that nets the Guardians $3.6 million per year for stadium naming rights and sponsorship agreements therewith.

Both Ken Silliman and the Guardians General Counsel, Joe Znidarsic, explained that when the team’s lease was renegotiated in the early 2000s, the team agreed to pay for the operating costs of the Gateway Economic Development Corporation, and in exchange received the right to pursue naming rights deals. Silliman argued that “when the dust settled,” the public, (or at any rate Gateway) came out ahead.

That’s certainly subject to interpretation, as in the term sheet for the current deal, the team agrees to pay about $1.4 million per year towards Gateway operations, $1.1 million toward Gateway property taxes— NB: the teams pay taxes only on the land, not on the value of the buildings, one of the most generous subsidies of all—and $656,000 in “rent” (lol). That’s about $3.1 million total. Incidentally, the team includes these payments as part of its contribution toward the deal. But it will only contribute $4.5 million per year toward ballpark improvements. And it will no longer be covering capital repairs under $500,000, (an expense estimated at $2 million per year.)

6) The deal includes $42 million to renovate the team’s administrative offices.

Guardians Senior VP and Chief Information Office Neil Weiss presented the scope of work for six major ballpark improvements that should dramatically change the Progressive Field experience when complete. It is these six projects that will be funded by the County’s $202.5 million bond issue. Among them are the total re-imagining of the left field Terrace Club restaurant, a new upper deck concourse experience, a transformed dugout and press box, and significant modernizations of the clubhouse and service areas.

The final project, euphemized as a “dramatic new front door to Gateway Plaza,” is essentially a massive renovation of the team’s administrative offices, which the public paid to construct and lavishly outfit in the original Gateway deal.

This project would include the construction of a fifth floor atop the existing structure, updates throughout the building, the construction of a “community space” between the administrative building and the stadium, and, if history is any indication, no shortage of high-

end furnishings.

Weiss said that the Guardians have 3.5 times as many employees as they did in 1994 and have simply run out of places to put them. Sad! The team’s $4.5 million annual contribution to ballpark improvements is rendered especially paltry when you consider that they’re getting a brand-new office space in addition to the stadium improvements.

One risible defense of these socalled “Gateway plaza” renovations, in terms of public benefit, is that the “community space” between the team offices and the ballpark will include a conference center that could be available for public use, perhaps as a meeting space for CSMD or Cleveland City Council.

7) West Park Councilman Charles Slife is still “salty” about the Flats East Bank 60-year TIF. Councilman Slife had a number of marquee quotes from the first committee hearing, and in general asked questions that got to the heart of the deal and its imaginary public benefits. He wondered, for example, whether admissions taxes were intended to be invested back into the sports facilities that generate them.

Silliman admitted that no, admissions taxes were designed as revenue sources for the general fund. Parking taxes, though, Silliman said, were designed to fund the Browns stadium as part of the “Save the Browns” campaign.

Come to think of it, the Gateway East parking projections bothered Slife, he said, because the recent ludicrous 60-year Tax Increment Financing arrangement granted to the Wolstein Project in the Flats was still fresh in his mind. That subsidy was handed to Wolstein to help with his cash flow problem, in part because parking revenue on the East Bank had fallen short of projections.

Had things like rideshare been considered when creating the Gateway East Garage projections, Slife asked (as it hadn’t in the Flats East Bank projections)?

And shouldn’t City Council be encouraging alternative transportation modes, from a sustainability perspective?

“It’s like we’re saying, ‘drink and drive, we’ve got a stadium to pay for,’” he said. “That’s a joke, but I’m trying to understand how we’re defending against that mixed messaging.”

Slife voted in favor of the 60-year TIF back in December and voted along with his colleagues to approve

the Progressive Field legislation Tuesday, but he nevertheless voiced the concerns of residents who, after decades of stadium deals, have failed to see a return on investment.

“We’re like a corporation that keeps buying shares but never pays the dividend,” he said. “We need to show that we’re more than just a microloan bank. Residents are frustrated. They’ve seen deal after deal after deal, and it’s not resulting in better city services.”

8) Bad arithmetic leads to bad logic.

Many council members leaped at the prospect of absolving themselves for what will be yet another morally bankrupt vote by pretending the math of the deal was in the public interest. In a typical year, Silliman said, the team generates $9 million in tax revenue. And in the term sheet for the Progressive Field Deal, the city contributes $8 million per year.

“So that’s a one million dollar benefit to the public!” Councilman Kerry McCormack all but yelped.

No. In the first place, a $9 million benefit to the public becoming a $1 million benefit to the public is another way of describing an $8 million deficit.

In the second place, the $9 million that the team “generates” is not money that the team pays directly. The largest portion it does, via the admissions tax, but the city will now be foregoing half of that to pay back to the team. The other tax revenue comes from income taxes, parking taxes, and hotel bed taxes. A percentage of the parking tax revenue will be paid back to the team now as well, given that 100% of the Gateway East garage revenue will go toward the deal.

9) The team intends to create a “peer review equity group” to ensure that the team adheres to minority hiring targets throughout the process.

Neil Weiss said the team had met with both Norm Edwards of the Black Contractors Group and the Cuyahoga County Citizens Advisory Council on Equity. He said the team intended to form an equity group, consisting of perhaps 4-6 members, that would theoretically hold the team accountable on hiring goals, prevailing wages, apprenticeships and the like. Beyond the city’s standard memorandum of understanding on hiring, there is no additional community benefits agreement included in the deal.

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UPFRONT 10) Demolition for ballpark improvements could start within a year.

Assuming the legislation passes, as it almost certainly will, Neil Weiss said that the team would like to be underway with the first of its major improvement projects by this time next year. The re-imagining of the left field Terrace Club looks to be first on the list.

11) Tom Yablonsky got got.

The neighborhood development guru Tom Yablonsky, who recently retired from his perches at the Historic Gateway Development Corporation and the Downtown Cleveland Alliance, gave a familiar presentation about the splendor and vitality of downtown since the arrival of the Gateway complex.

Downtown was an empty wasteland before the arenas, he pronounced.

Just look at the images!!!‹ Councilman Mike Polensek advised Yablonsky—though Yablonsky surely knew—that the photo used to illustrate the desolation of downtown before Jacobs Field had been taken after the demolition of a number of buildings to make way for the ballpark.

-Sam Allard

Felony Charges Dropped in “Outrageous” TownHall Megaphone Assault Case Cuyahoga County prosecutors have, at last, dismissed one of the more outrageous felony indictments in recent memory. Twenty-twoyear-old Sydney Yahner had been charged with felony assault and menacing for using a megaphone at a protest in July of 2020 at the TownHall eatery in Ohio City and for allegedly causing permanent hearing damage to a manager there.

Prosecutor Michael O’Malley’s office dismissed the charges this month before the case was scheduled to go to trial. Yahner could have faced up to eight years in prison if convicted.

Her defense attorney Peter Pattakos described the indictment as a retaliatory legal maneuver undertaken by a wealthy and politically influential family, the Georges. Bobby George, with whom Scene has had prior legal disputes, owns and operates TownHall. The

manager who alleged that her hearing had been permanently damaged by Sydney Yahner’s amplified voice is Jacqueline Boyd, Bobby George’s first cousin.

“Every decent citizen of this state should be terrified by the fact that their government would charge protesters for committing felony assault with the soundwaves issued from megaphones, based on nothing but facially ridiculous and easily disprovable lies by politically influential multi-millionaires who admitted that they didn’t like the speech that was coming through those megaphones and would do whatever was within their power to muzzle it,” said Pattakos, in a statement. (Pattakos provided legal representation to Scene in its dispute with Bobby George.)

Yahner was initially indicted alongside another protester, 24-year-old Josiah Douglass, but charges were dropped against him in the weeks following the indictment. Both were members of the activist organization With Peace We Protest.

The TownHall demonstration was the third of three staged outside restaurants owned by Bobby George and/or his father, Tony George. These were organized during a summer of widespread racial justice protests in the aftermath of the death of George Floyd.

Prosecutors dropped the charges against Yahner after two experts confirmed that Boyd suffered no permanent hearing damage. The weaponization of the megaphone had been the basis of the felony indictment.

Yahner expressed gratitude and relief in an official statement posted as part of the Pattakos Law Firm’s press release.

“There are so many people trapped in the criminal justice system because they didn’t have the support and resources that I’ve had,” she said. “Without the fearless and generous efforts of my attorneys and the outpouring of support I received from my family and community, I could have easily been scared into taking a plea for a crime I didn’t commit. I will forever stand in solidarity with those who have been falsely charged of crimes and will work to advocate against the blatant abuse and misuse of public resources represented by my prosecution.”

-Sam Allard

scene@clevescene.com @clevelandscene December 1-14, 2021 | clevescene.com |

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FEATURE

ON THE FLY

Tech solutions that helped Cleveland restaurants survive the pandemic are also driving long-term benefits for both owners and diners

By Douglas Trattner

RESTAURANT OWNERS HAVE been notoriously slow to adopt new technologies, preferring instead to cling to time-tested practices like hand-written guest checks, mechanical cash registers and analog reservation books long after better options were available.

But that all changed on March 15, 2020, the day that Ohio bars and restaurants were ordered by the Department of Health to shut down their dining rooms. To cling to any hopes of survival, restaurant operators were compelled to put all their eggs into the take-out and delivery basket. While many continued to man the old landlines, others scrambled to establish online ordering, digital payment processes and expanded delivery. Before long, Cleveland diners were experiencing their first ghost kitchens, attending pop-ups they learned about from Instagram and pre-paying for meals using Venmo.

If there is a silver lining to the pandemic, it is this burst of technological advancements that diners have been demanding and desiring for years. According to the National Restaurant Association,

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a full one out of two diners want restaurants to adopt more, not less, technology, mainly in the order and payment process.

“I will emphatically say that this is here to stay,” says Drew Winick, senior district sales manager with digital point-of-sale (POS) system provider Toast. “As bad as things have been, it’s moved the restaurant industry at least five years forward for something that was coming. A lot of this technology is only going to improve and advance, but it is certainly not going anywhere.”

Online Ordering for Pick-Up and Delivery It’s difficult even to recall a time when everything wasn’t a few taps of a smartphone away, but pre2020, online ordering, payment and delivery still was extremely rare in the independent restaurant space.

UberEats had an inauspicious local launch in 2016, DoorDash didn’t land here until 2018, and GrubHub routinely earned censure for adding non-partner restaurants to its roster.

In July of 2020, just months after the Governor shut down indoor

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dining, Doug Katz launched Chimi in Cleveland Heights, one of the first ghost kitchens in the area. The thenforeign concept relied exclusively on online ordering, curbside pick-up and delivery. The novel, seamless and satisfying technology allowed diners to view the current menu, order a complete meal, pay for it via the web and pick it up at a designated time with almost zero face-to-face interaction. The format proved so successful that Katz introduced a second ghost kitchen concept, Amba, just four months later.

Ben Bebenroth took the ghost kitchen concept even further when he launched Keep the Change, a “virtual food hall” with multiple concepts under one roof. The robust technology behind the curtain makes it possible for customers to choose from four different “restaurants” when placing an order for pick-up or delivery. Because no money was invested in brandspecific menus, furniture, interior design or tableware, Bebenroth could easily mothball an underperforming concept and replace it with something else. The real-time tech also makes it possible to test out new

concepts – like Boom’s Pizza – on a trial-run basis.

For restaurant operators who want to leave all those complex technological details (and startup expenses) to someone else, there are options like CloudKitchens.

When the Cleveland facility opens soon in MidTown, it will have 29 rentable kitchens available to local, regional and national food brands. Leases come not just with gas hook-ups, sinks and a hood, but also proprietary restaurant management technology that streamlines everything from order taking and kitchen fulfillment to partnering with third-party delivery services like Uber Eats, Grubhub and DoorDash.

“It’s a much smaller investment and that’s what’s attractive about the whole thing,” explains Bac Nguyen, who dropped a mini–Ninja City into the Columbus CloudKitchens. “You can get up and running in a matter of months with far less money than you would if you were trying to open your own ghost kitchen.”

Pop-Ups and Takeovers

Without apps like Instagram and Venmo, Jordan Lakin would still be saving his pennies in hopes of launching a Detroit-style pizza shop.

But when the whole world decided to stay home, Lakin saw a window of opportunity open as wide as the Montana sky. Without so much as a storefront, website or marketing budget, he launched Corner Spot, a pick-up-only pizza concept that went viral.

“There’s no doubt that the ability to generate the interest and the energy – and also to let people see your product – has been helped greatly by social media,” he explains.

“Up until now, I haven’t even had to pay for a website. Being able to operate in such a lean way has been helpful.”

Lakin quietly launched Corner Spot in the summer of 2020, when he sent an email to a small group of friends advertising his pizza. As his social media following grew, so too did the orders, which were prepaid through Venmo and picked up within a short two-hour window on weekends.

“The best part of that is it’s a prepayment system, which allows me to run the business in a way that’s unique because people pay for their pizzas before they get them,” Lakin says. “That’s super helpful for cashflow.”

More importantly – at least back in the summer of 2020 – was the speed and efficiency of the pick-up process. Because the pies are all prepaid, there is no person-to-person interaction save for the church parking lot handoff.

Other pop-ups fueled by social media, online ordering and prepayment systems include Martha on the Fly, a quick-serve breakfast concept that takes over Good Company on weekends, MarMar’s Pizza, which utilized a sidelined restaurant kitchen in Beachwood, and Roaming Biscuit, the peripatetic breakfast biscuit outfit.

Bouncing Back While Scaling Back For more than half a century, Bialy’s has been the place to go on the East Side of town for hot, fresh and steamy bagels. And while the price of a baker’s dozen of fragrant mish-mosh might have climbed from $1.50 to $16 over the years, the accepted method of payment had never wavered: cold hard cash or bust. Bialy lovers have relatively new owners Rachel and Sarah Gross to thank for moving the shop into the modern era when they replaced the mechanical cash register with a newfangled POS system that accepts

Corner Spot pizza, which launched using Instagram and Venmo.

DOUG TRATTNER

“It’s crazy how fast things have changed, but the client dictates what we do as restaurateur. Ten, 15 years ago, everybody wanted that sit-down, white-tablecloth experience. Now, people want something that’s still really good, but they want it quick and to not take up their whole night.” alternate forms of payment.

But we have Covid to thank for ushering in the next big advancement. After shutting down production in March of 2020, the sisters elected to fire up the ovens one month later. But the kitchen is small and the retail storefront even smaller, so in an effort to minimize the risk of transmission, the business launched an online pre-order and payment system.

Knowing what and how much to bake days in advance allowed the shop to scale back staff. Customers were not permitted inside the store, instead retrieving their orders out front at a designated time.

“It sounds really simple, but it was a lot more timeconsuming,” Rachel Gross says of the progression. “When we first implemented Toast, we were just ringing out the total number of bagels that people bought, we weren’t ringing out that it was three mish-mosh or four plain or whatever. When we wanted the online ordering to be a thing, we couldn’t just have people order 12 bagels, we needed to know what 12 bagels they we’re ordering.”

Even a company as contemporary and forward-thinking as Choolaah was caught ill-prepared for the Covid-inspired digital revolution.

The fast-casual Indian BBQ concept launched in Orange Village six years ago but had been so obsessively focused on food quality and

restaurant expansion that they failed to develop the sort of robust tech that customers would begin demanding in 2020.

“We did not have an app, we did not have delivery, and our online ordering was weak,” says CEO Randhir Sethi. “We fixed all of that in the first week because it was already in the works. Without that we wouldn’t have made it.”

The Return to Dining Rooms As diners began returning to restaurant dining rooms, the focus shifted to cutting-edge health and safety protocols like surface sanitation, air filtration and germicidal UV lights. At the same time, printed menus were jettisoned in favor of QR codes that conjured digital versions on diners’ smartphones. These “touchless” menus provide benefits beyond just peace of mind for guests; they allow the restaurant owner to be more responsive to mounting problems like supply chain issues. Instead of having to print up new menus – or have servers apologize to diners – when a vendor runs out of chicken wings, a manager simply can remove them from the digital menu.

Andy Himmel cut his teeth in fine dining, so he’d be the first to admit to being slow to adopt new technology at his restaurants, especially if it hinders the guest experience. But the pandemic

did accelerate the transition to a handheld POS system at his company’s three Paladar locations and four Bomba Taco shops. The devices carried by servers reduce the number of trips staffers need to make to service stations, bars and kitchens, thus making the whole process more efficient. A positive side effect, notes Himmel, is better paid servers.

“I do see real value in the handhelds,” he reports. “At the end of the day, it comes down to reducing steps, and there’s no question that when someone has a handheld, there is the ability to reduce steps that the person has to take. As we’re looking to find a model where we could have a few less servers that make more money, I think that’s better for retention long term.”

Himmel adds that while there is a minor learning curve for employees at the outset, the system cuts down on mistakes, mix-ups and omissions between servers and the bar and kitchen. What’s more, the ability of the servers to accept payment anywhere in the restaurant means never having to hand over your credit card.

“Like everything with Covid, the idea of taking and keeping a credit card and then bringing it back, with the guest not knowing where it’s been and who touched it, it almost seems old-fashioned overnight,” adds Himmel.

When diners walk into ETalian in Chagrin Falls, they can elect to stand in line at the register or head over to the self-ordering kiosk. The iPad-like device allows customers to view the menu, place orders, make modifications and pay with the tap of a credit card. That order gets immediately transmitted to the kitchen, ahead of customers still standing in line. When the order is ready, you’ll receive a text.

“It’s crazy how fast things have changed, but the client dictates what we do as restaurateurs,” says owner Eddie Tancredi. “Ten, 15 years ago, everybody wanted that sit-down, white-tablecloth experience. Now, people want something that’s still really good, but they want it quick and to not take up their whole night.”

The Future of Dining In Walk into Butcher and the Brewer downtown on a game day and you might encounter a bar three-deep with thirsty guests. But thanks to GoTab, a mobile point-of-sale system, a customer can order a beer from anywhere in the building and receive a notification when it’s ready and waiting at the bar. For those seated

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Amba, one of Doug Katz’s pandemic ghost kitchens.

at a table for a meal, the QR codebased system lets food runners know precisely where to bring the grub when it’s ready.

“This has vastly improved our ability to get food and drink to you in a quicker time so you can get out the door and head to your event in a timely manner, even when we are short staffed,” says partner Jason Workman.

Butcher and the Brewer is the first full-service restaurant in the region to employ the technology, which means there’s a slight learning curve for guests initially to summit.

After starting a tab, customers must input their personal and payment information. The process is not unlike opening an account with a scooter-sharing service like Lime: after setting everything up the first time, subsequent uses are quick and painless.

“The biggest hurdles we are facing is changing behavior,” adds Workman. “This flips the service model upside-down; usually you deal with credit cards at the end of the meal. We’re asking you to do this stuff up front. But then you’re done, and the next time you come in, you don’t have to do any of that.”

Benefits for the diner include the ability to order what you want when you want it, splitting tabs with tablemates and walking out the front door without ever having to flag down a server. If you forget to close out your tab, it will happen automatically at closing time.

Benefits for the restaurant include the ability to serve more people with fewer staff, increase pay (and thus retain employees) and operate a cashless business, which is more sanitary, eliminates end-of-shift drawer counts, and kills dodgy latenight bank deposits.

DOUG TRATTNER

Old-Fashioned and Proud of It Of course, restaurants are as individual as the people who operate them and when it comes to technology, not everybody is on the same page.

Chef Jeremy Umansky says there are practical reasons why diners will not find Larder, his Ohio City deli, on third-party delivery apps like Uber Eats, DoorDash and Grubhub.

“None of the technology companies have a solution for a business like ours that changes in real time,” he explains. “They’re designed for restaurants that maybe change their menu twice a year or not at all. The amount of work I would have to do on my end to change the menus and update the counts, it’s not worth it for us.”

Umansky says that in addition to staple menu items like pastrami and fried chicken sandwiches, the freestyling deli might offer a half dozen specials, 10 fresh bakery items, and a deli case packed with pickles, slaws and salads that might not come together until that very morning. That same spontaneous approach also is why Larder doesn’t offer online ordering for carryout.

But truth be told, even if there was some magical tech that transmitted the day’s menu straight from the chef’s brain to the cloud, Umansky would kindly pass.

“We decided that we wanted to emulate an Old World concept with the style of our delicatessen,” he says. “Part of that culture, especially in a major metropolitan area, is the rite of passage of being in that line to get that sandwich. Part of the fun of going to Katz’s [deli in New York] is walking through that line and seeing them making the sandwiches and being in it for that experience.”

clevescene.com

scene@clevescene.com t@clevelandscene December 1-14, 2021 | clevescene.com |

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GET OUT

Everything to do in Cleveland for the next two weeks

WED 12/01

THU 12/09

Light It Up! Cleveland Play House presents this brand new, family-friendly musical set in Cleveland that, as it’s put in a press release, “illuminates the power of love, kindness and each person’s ability to make every day brighter. The world premiere musical features original pop, rock, gospel and jazz holiday tunes as well as new arrangements of Christmas favorites by Tony Award-winning composer Jason Michael Webb.

Tonight’s performance takes place at 7:30 at the Allen Theatre. Check the Playhouse Square website for information about more upcoming shows as well as ticket prices and COVID protocols.

1407 Euclid Ave., playhousesquare. org.

Sebastian Maniscalco Sebastian Maniscalco is one of the few comedians who can fill arenas.

Expect a capacity crowd to be on hand tonight at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse for his brand-new Nobody Does This tour. Long-time opener and fellow Chicago native Pat McGann will continue as the opener on the cross-country trek. Not one to let a pandemic knock him down, the comedian held down a two-night run last year as guest host of Jimmy Kimmel Live! and has kept acting and performing as much as possible.

Tonight’s concert begins at 7. Check the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse website for ticket prices.

1 Center Court, 216-420-2000, rocketmortgagefieldhouse.com.

THU 12/02 Pete Lee The first standup comedian to get a standing ovation on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, comedian Pete Lee likes to joke about how he’s such a huge people pleaser, he even hugs Uber drivers goodbye and offers to drive for them. The nerdy comic is currently a cast member of TruTV’s Greatest Ever and hosts NFL Rush on Nickelodeon’s Nick Toons. He performs at 7 tonight at Hilarities, where he has shows scheduled through Saturday.

2035 East Fourth St., 216-241-7425, pickwickandfrolic.com.

FRI

featuring performances by Aura Tannen, Ryder Slowly, Tayanna Sins and Lady Dumpster from Rupaul’s Drag Race Season 5 and the Boulet Brothers. Tickets cost $12 in advance, $15 at the door. VIP tickets which include a photo opportunity, a meet-and-greet prior to the show and seating, cost $16.

2785 Euclid Hts. Blvd., 216-321-5588, grogshop.gs.

SAT

12/04

Season’s Bleedings The Capitol Theatre gets in the holiday spirit today by hosting a marathon of scary movies such as Silent Night Deadly Night, The Thing and Frankenstein 3-D. It all starts at 4 p.m.; check the Capitol website for ticket prices.

1390 West 65th St., 216-651-7295, clevelandcinemas.com.

12/03 SUN 12/05

GlamGore GlamGore is Cleveland’s newest monthly addition to LGBTQ nightlife. Each month, GlamGore features a variety of performance artists under one roof, ranging from beauty queens to drag monsters.

One of few all-inclusive and all ages productions that incorporates themed performances to elevate artists and audiences alike, GlamGore features well-rounded drag entertainers of all shapes, sizes and styles from all over the country.

The theme of tonight’s event, which starts at 9 at the Grog Shop, is “Unholy Night” and you can expect to see sinfully spooky holiday frights

16

Comedian Sebastian Maniscalco comes to Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse.

See: Thursday, Dec. 9.

Peggy Sirota

Cavaliers vs. Utah Jazz Led by star guard Donovan Mitchell, the Utah Jazz were one of the best teams in the NBA last year. Led this year again by Mitchell, the Jazz promise to still be one of the best teams in the NBA this year, and they’ve played well so far in a highly competitive Western Conference.

They come to Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse today at 3:30 p.m. to take on the Cavs. Consult the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse website for ticket prices.

One Center Court, 216-420-2000, rocketmortgagefieldhouse.com.

| clevescene.com | December 1-14, 2021

MON 12/06 Monsters vs. Grand Rapids Griffins The Monsters play a rare Monday night game as they take on the Grand Rapids Griffins tonight at 7 at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.

Consult the arena’s website for ticket prices.

One Center Court, 216-420-2000, rocketmortgagefieldhouse.com.

TUE

12/07

Open Turntable Tuesday Tonight from 7 to 9, the Winchester hosts its weekly Open Turntable Tuesday. Jason Gokorsch will book guest DJs and offer slots to people who want to bring their own vinyl and spin their favorite songs or deep tracks. First time DJs are encouraged, and equipment is provided. Patrons can also bring records for the night’s DJ to add to their set. Sign up on Northeast Ohio Vinyl Club’s Facebook page.

12112 Madison Ave., Lakewood, 216-600-5338, facebook.com/ TheWinchesterMusicTavern.

WED 12/08 Amy Grant & Michael W. Smith Christian pop singers Amy Grant and Michael W. Smith team up for this special show that takes place at 7:30 p.m. at E.J. Thomas Hall.

Expect to hear some Christmas classics in addition to each singersongwriter’s own hits. Check the E.J. Thomas Hall website for more info.

198 Hill St., Akron, 330-972-7570, ejthomashall.com.

FRI

12/10

The Uncle Louie Holiday Variety Show The Uncle Louie Variety Show that features two Italian-American comedians, Carlo Russo and Lou Greco, comes to the Hanna Theatre tonight at 8. For many years, these guys have delivered their unique brand of comedy about what it’s like to grow up as an Italian. Consult the Playhouse Square website for ticket prices and more info.

2067 East 14th St., 216-241-6000, playhousesquare.org.

SAT

12/11

The Nutcracker 2021 This weekend, the Beck Center for the Arts will present a limited engagement of The Nutcracker that’ll take place in the Recital Hall in the Music & Dance Building at 4 and 7 p.m. today and at 1 and 4 p.m. tomorrow. Tickets for the live, in-person performances are $10 for children and $12 for adults. Tickets for the streaming performance only are $15 for one person, $30 for two or more, $50 for two or more for those wishing to make a donation. Patrons attending The Nutcracker 2021 over the age of 2 must be masked at all times inside Beck Center buildings, and patrons over the age of 12 must show a vaccination card or proof of a negative COVID-19 test prior to entering the theater.

17801 Detroit Ave., Lakewood, 216-

GET OUT 521-2540, beckcenter.org.

SUN 12/12 Brunch with Santa Santa will be on hand today from 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. for brunch at StoneWater Golf Club. All seatings are one hour and 30 minutes, and reservations are required. Igloos are available for reservations for up to eight people. There will be letters to Santa and pictures with Santa can be taken with your smart phone.

Brunch is served family style with a dessert buffet. Adults cost $36, kids 12 and under cost $18 and kids under 2 are free (beverages not included).

1 Club Dr., 440-461-4653, stonewatergolf.com.

MON 12/13 Cavaliers vs. Miami Heat The Miami Heat got off to a hot start at the beginning of the season but have since cooled down after injuries to Victor Oladipo and Markieff Morris, both of whom might be back in action tonight when the Heat play the Cavs at 7 at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. Check the venue’s website for ticket prices.

One Center Court, 216-420-2000, rocketmortgagefieldhouse.com.

TUE

12/14

Wicked Wicked, the Broadway musical based on The Wizard of Oz, has been through town a few times already. Yet every time it comes back around, it puts up huge numbers.

While it might seem better suited to Halloween, the play, which details how the Wicked Witch of the West came to develop her deepseated hatred for Glenda the Good, appeals to the entire family. So with some free time over the holidays, why not take the whole brood to Playhouse Square to check it out?

Tonight’s performance takes place at 7:30 at the State Theatre, where performances continue through Jan. 2. Consult the Playhouse Square website for more info.

1519 Euclid Ave., 216-241-6000, playhousesquare.org.

scene@clevescene.com t@clevelandscene December 1-14, 2021 | clevescene.com |

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| clevescene.com | December 1-14, 2021

ARTS CURIOSITY TAPPED

The latest enthralling works by David King now on view at Hedge Gallery

By Shawn Mishak ARTIST DAVID KING’S LATEST series of works draws inspiration from unearthed family movie reels transferred to DVD and old photos found in thrift stores. He pulls from moments in these images then subtracts elements and injects his subjects into an abstract world of color, breathing a new life into them while nostalgically connecting with the past.

“It’s about remembering the past and respecting our time on this earth,” said King. “We are all moving through our lives and are only here for a short time. My children are young adults and my mother is 88. I feel like I’m in the middle looking back and looking forward at the same time. This body of work is related to my ‘Time Travel’ series but because the figures are not immediate family members, the situations are more ambiguous and allow for multiple interpretations.”

The works are included in “David King - Transience and the Gift of Curiosity,” which runs through Dec. 31 at the Hedge Gallery.

Beginning in late 2020, King began experimenting with materials using oil paint on aluminum panels, doing monotypes and incorporating mirrors. These materials and processes allow the artist more versatility to cut, bend, scratch and engrave where canvas and board have their limitations. Seeing an artist in the middle of their career pivot their use of materials demonstrates continued fascination with process and the intrigue necessary to grow and learn.

“I’m excited to see what else it can do,” said King. “Incorporating mirrors allows the viewers to insert themselves in the narratives, creating another dimension. The viewers are now voyeurs, peeking into private moments and seeing secret lives from the past. The displaced figures removed from the original pieces can appear anywhere as we often find ourselves in unlikely and surprising places.”

Since retiring from being a full time educator at Chagrin Falls High school in 2014, King over the last several years has put more of his time into and focus on his own body

King taps into a controlled abandon, which is at the pinnacle of artistic achievement. It flows with graceful precision exemplary of masters.

“Phishing,” by David King.

of work. The time has allowed him the freedom to delve deeper into his curiosity and allow for the creative process to occur organically. In this series, the works imply unplanned narratives verses relying on any formula which might lead an artist towards stagnation. In King’s case, there seems to be a renewed connection to his imagination and a profundity towards exploration into what drives his work.

“I don’t have a formula for creating a painting,” King continued.

“One thing leads to another and my curiosity drives me to investigate various narratives. Regarding the “gift” component to the series, the scale of time has shifted and upon my retirement as a full time educator, I am able to now focus on

my personal body of work. This truly feels like a gift as I am able to spend my time being curious.”

Even though King seems to be steering away from specific familial reference material, his family and the innate human need for connectedness propels his work in a down to earth way, which presents as unpretentious and accessible. King’s brush work is intently masterful and expressively uninhibited. His knack for gradation, pulling colors and tones through his subjects to express light and shadow seems effortless and leaves an impressionistic resonance impressing upon the viewer King’s mastery of the pigment.

King taps into a controlled abandon, which is at the pinnacle

of artistic achievement, and King’s work comes forth as unforced, natural and pleasing to the eye.

It flows with graceful precision exemplary of masters. His subjects in their casual compositions contrasted against dream-like backgrounds offer the viewer an escape into the psyche of the artist.

In the piece “Phishing,” which depicts an older man wearing a fishing hat in a rolling chair holding a rod with an expression of fascination at what’s at the end of it, a woman dressed in pink, a ball cap on her head looking intrigued as another man bends down to pull something out of what we assume is water.

The subjects are consumed in rainbow colors and what looks like abstract waterfalls pouring around them, overwhelming the subjects.

It is an interesting contrast of abstraction and impressionism and makes the viewer imagine what they might pull out of the water and what the artist is trying to convey.

“We’re all family and we have stories to tell,” said King. “The juxtaposition of the figures from the past and the ambiguous landscapes feel almost futuristic and bypass the present. The pandemic has slowed us down, allowing us time to be present and reflect on what is truly important in this life. Many inequities in the world are being addressed for the first time and there are attempts to level the playing ground. I hope this progress will unite us, allow us to see the world through one another’s lens and truly feel as though we are all family.”

scene@clevescene.com t@clevelandscene

December 1-14, 2021 | clevescene.com |

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| clevescene.com | December 1-14, 2021

EAT LIKE FAMILY

Refugee-owned and operated, Café Everest is sharing homestyle Nepalese food with Clevelanders AFTER MAKING A QUICK detour on our way to Columbus a few years back, my wife and I landed at Saraga Grocery, a sprawling international foods market just north of town. It was there, at a cramped food stall pushed to the perimeter of the building, that I tasted my first momo. Ever since, I have made a point of tracking down these delightful Nepalese dumplings wherever they appear.

In Northeast Ohio, that includes Himalayan Restaurant near West Park, a few spots in Akron and now Café Everest, which arrived this past summer. The restaurant was opened

by Tarah Baraily, a refugee from Nepal who landed in San Antonio in 2011. A few years later he made his way to Cleveland, where he continued to pursue his passion for home cooking. It was a lifelong dream of his, he says, to one day be able to share his food with a larger audience.

“I like cooking,” Baraily shares. “I always wanted to have a restaurant where I could give people authentic Nepalese food because we don’t really have many Nepalese restaurants here. I’m not a pro cook or anything; it’s what I cook and eat at home.”

That homestyle approach to cooking is making an impression on Northeast Ohio’s large, but dispersed, Nepalese community. The restaurant’s takes on dishes like jhol momos, chicken chow mein and goat sekuwa offer wistful emigrants a comforting taste of home.

“Nepalese people love jhol momos and chow mein,” Baraily reports.

“When they come, they don’t even look at the menu.”

Guests who elect to dine in the attractive little dining room are treated to a wide bowl of steaminghot lentil soup. The complimentary brew, made with red, yellow and green lentils, is pureed until smooth and packed with hints of cumin, curry and coconut milk.

“I was thinking what to give people when they wait for their food,” says Baraily, adding that the conventional free starter is papadum.

“It’s usually cold here so why not.”

For the popular jhol momo ($9.99), the traditional stuffed dumplings

Photo by Douglas Trattner

By Douglas Trattner

served in spicy soup, the kitchen swaps the usual chicken broth base for a vegetable-based one, thus opening the dish up to vegans and vegetarians. But diners can order chicken filled jhol momo as well.

with chicken or lamb.

Like many Nepalese and Tibetan restaurants, Café Everest features familiar-sounding Indian and Chinese items like shrimp fried rice, chicken curry and aloo gobi.

CAFÉ EVEREST 14304 PURITAS AVE., CLEVELAND 216-476-2990 CAFEEVEREST.COM

In the chili momo ($9.99), also stuffed either with ground chicken or vegetables, the dumplings are stir-fried with vegetables in a spicy tomato-based sauce.

Goat sekuwa ($12.99) is a street food-style dish consisting of marinated and grilled meat that is smoky, charred and flavorful, albeit chewy. Baraily says that back home, the cubed meat would be skewered and grilled over a wood fire. It is paired with vivid red and blazing hot chutney for dipping, crunchy roasted soy beans and “beaten rice,” which is toasted, flattened rice flakes. The kitchen also prepares versions made

But even if the names of the dishes sound familiar, says the owner, they will taste completely different.

“We use many of the same ingredients and spices, but the way we prepare it is quite different,” he explains.

Café Everest’s chicken chow mein ($9.99) is a perfect example. The version prepared here stars firm, not soft or flabby, noodles that are just barely coated in sauce. The predominant flavors are garlic, ginger, cumin and chile, with only a few dashes of soy sauce. On top is a garnish of diced red onions and fresh herbs.

To make the chicken biryani ($13.99), the kitchen marinates Halal chicken thighs in a mixture of garlic paste, ginger paste, lemon and yogurt for two days before cooking it, tossing it with long-grain rice and serving it in a hammered-brass serving vessel. The meat is juicy and flavorful, and the rice pops with hits of cardamom and mint.

For dessert, Baraily whips up three classic sweets. The ras malai ($2.99) is almost indescribably tantalizing. Airy cheese dumplings are served in a thin sauce of sweetened condensed milk perfumed with cardamon and saffron. The dish is often described as “crustless cheesecake” but that portrayal falls well short of the mark. Café Everest also offers gulab jamun, fried dough balls tossed in rose-scented syrup, and kheer, a rich and creamy rice pudding.

“It’s too much work,” Baraily jokes of the labor-intensive desserts.

dtrattner@clevescene.com t@dougtrattner

December 1-14, 2021 | clevescene.com |

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| clevescene.com | December 1-14, 2021

EAT

Courtesy Primo

BITES

First look: BrewDog Cleveland, opening this Friday

By Douglas Trattner THE DOORS TO BREWDOG’S newest brewery temporarily opened last weekend for a media sneak peek in advance of the December 3 debut. The lushly appointed brewpub, located in the Avian building on the Scranton Peninsula in the Flats, spreads out over nearly 10,000 square feet of warehouse space.

Outside, through a pair of giant glass garage doors, sits an equally impressive riverfront patio.

“We’re really excited to be in Cleveland,” says project manager Jen Macfarlane. “We’ve been looking for a site in this area for about four years. We’ve got a really good reputation up here so we’re really keen to bring some things to the area where people can come in, sit down and enjoy our beers.”

The Cleveland location is the Scotland-based brewery’s ninth in the States, joining approximately 100 spots worldwide that include brewpubs, hotels and bars.

For now, all of the house beer is coming from the Canal Winchester brewery, but an onsite 8-barrel brewhouse will soon produce distinctive small-batch brews. The BrewDog pours will be joined by a selection of local and regional beers for a total of 28 taps.

“It’s really good to celebrate local

breweries and to support them too,” adds Macfarlane.

The company did an amazing job of transforming a large, cold space into a plush and comfortable destination with soft seating areas, toasty live fires and a handful of video and bar games. One nook with a large table will be used for educational sessions like beer tastings.

A full kitchen will be preparing “farm to table junk food” like giant soft pretzels, loaded fries, wood-fired pizzas, burgers, tacos, salads and bowls. The brewpub strives to offer at least 50-percent vegan and/or vegetarian options.

The main space also features a retail section for carry-out beer and merchandise.

First Look: Indie, a MusicThemed Eatery on East 4th Street, Opening Soon We here at Scene have been eagerly following the progress of Indie (2038 E. 4th St.) since last March, when owners Gabriel Zeller and Julie Mesenburg announced that they had signed a lease to take over the highprofile Greenhouse Tavern space on East 4th St. The husband-and-wife

team are also behind Char Whisky Bar in Rocky River, Avo Modern Mexican in Ohio City and Lago at Lakeside, a seasonal operation in Marblehead.

Now, some nine months later, the space is nearing completion. To the many diners who have made their way through this iconic space, the changes are dramatic enough to stop one in his or her tracks. And for lovers of independent music, the dining room offers near limitless eye candy in the form of 240 framed concert posters that span the musical spectrum. Thanks to QR codes, guests will be able to dig into the backstory on each of the posters.

The restaurant will seat approximately 100 diners on the main floor and front mezzanine.

The rear mezzanine has been closed to dining and will open as a snug spirits lounge a few months down the road. The final piece of the puzzle comes in the form of the rooftop lounge, which will come online in spring.

When Indie opens sometime in December, it will feature a Southernstyled menu starring appetizers like green tomato hush puppies, spoon cornbread and braised and seared pork belly with slaw. Mains include a shrimp Po’ Boy, chicken and waffles, a seafood boil and Hatch chili mac and cheese. Parties of four or more will want to consider the whole fried chicken dinner with all the fixings or the Country Picnic, a platter loaded with cooked and cured meats, cheeses, pickled veggies, nuts, spreads, preserves and breads.

Brunch fans can look forward to a weekly “Grunge brunch” on Saturdays and Sundays brunches with an evolving musical theme.

The cocktails, all created by Mesenburg, will have a musical tie-in as well. Drink names include Hey Jealousy, Bloodbuzz Ohio and Here Comes the Night Time.

Cleveland Bagel to Open Lakewood Shop in Spring of 2022 Cleveland Bagel, which has locations in Ohio City (4201 Detroit Ave., 216-600-5652) and Midtown (7501 Carnegie Ave., 216-282-7287), will open its third location this coming spring. That location is 16300 Detroit Ave. in Lakewood, formerly the site of Streat Burger.

Partners Dan Herbst, Geoff Hardman and Alan Glazen are in the final stages of the planning and architecture process and are planning for a mid-2022 opening.

Like the other two shops, this one will feature fresh-baked bagels,

schmears, breakfast sandwiches, coffee and juices. There will be limited seating but it will be mostly a grab-and-go affair.

Glazen said that in the search for a new location, Lakewood ticked all the boxes.

“It’s a cross between suburban and urban,” he explains. “It’s very neighborhoody, and Lakewood residents tend to favor walking for their libations. It’s a perfect match for our Ohio City location in terms of our types of customers.”

Cleveland Bagel launched as a cottage business in 2013. After meeting Glazen while filming Cleveland Hustles, the partners opened the Ohio City production kitchen and retail shop in late 2016. In response to overwhelming demand, the team opened the east side shop in early 2019. Despite the challenges of the past two years, Glazen says business has been robust.

“Both stores are doing tremendous numbers,” reports Glazen. “We might be the only business that improved during Covid.”

L.A.-Based Dave’s Hot Chicken to Open Location in Lakewood Last month we shared the news that the L.A.-based Dave’s Hot Chicken group was planting a flag in Ohio City, one of the first national restaurant chains to do so. That location, the former W. 25th Street Furniture, is slated to open this spring.

Also in the works is a second Northeast Ohio Dave’s restaurant, this one bound for Lakewood. The location is the former home of 16-Bit Bar + Arcade (15012 Detroit Ave.). No word on when it is expected to open.

The Los Angeles-based restaurant launched as a street-food concept in 2017. The streamlined menu of Nashville-style hot chicken drew many fans and before long the company secured investors and expanded throughout California, Toronto, Oregon, Nevada, Colorado and Texas. The Cleveland location is part of a big Midwest push for the brand. Columbus alone is expected to net 13 locations.

Diners can look forward to a concise menu of fried chicken tenders and tender sliders, offered in seven different spice levels that climb to the dreaded “reaper.” Those items are joined by sides like crinkle-cut fries, kale slaw and mac and cheese.

dtrattner@clevescene.com t@dougtrattner

December 1-14, 2021 | clevescene.com |

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MUSIC READY TO ROCK

Ohio City Singers to play a series of special Christmas shows this month

By Jeff Niesel LAST YEAR, THE OHIO CITY Singers, a group of local musicians that regularly plays Christmas shows each holiday season in Northeast Ohio, was holding onto one last hope. It booked an outdoor show at the Rock Hall that seemed like it might just be safe enough to go on as scheduled. Then, at least minute, that show got cancelled, leaving the group without a single gig.

Singer-guitarist Chris Allen says it took a minute for it to sink in that the Ohio City Singers wouldn’t play a public show during the holidays.

“The first Saturday of December is when we would normally do our Music Box show,” says Allen one afternoon over beers at Rocky River Brewing Company. “Last year, I was driving somewhere, and a Christmas song came on the radio, and it didn’t hit me until then how bummed out I was. For so many years, we always did a show that Saturday. It was tough. We were slated to do the Rock Hall show outside and then they had to close, and that got cancelled.

Then, it was just darkness.”

Despite the setbacks, the group continued to work on songs throughout 2020.

“We connected heavily with the other band members in that period,” Allen says. “In some ways, it brought us closer. Some bands, you don’t talk to or see, but we got together a lot.”

Since live music has returned, the band has booked a series of shows throughout the month of December (proof of vaccination will be required to attend the gigs). The group performs on Dec. 4 at Music Box Supper Club, on Dec. 10 at Forest City Brewery and on Dec. 18 at the Rock Hall. Some shows are already sold out; check with the respective venues to see if tickets are still available.

The festive live shows typically celebrate the season in grand fashion. Singer-songwriter Don Dixon often dresses up as Santa Claus, and he’s been known to belt out an exuberant rendition of William Bell’s soulful “Everyday Will Be Like a Holiday.” Singer-multiinstrumentalist Doug McKean will lead the crowd in a chant of “E-G-G N-O-G!” during the zydeco-ish “Egg

Ohio City Singers return to playing holiday shows this month.

Nog,” and singer-guitarist Austin Walkin’ Cane often turns in a woozy rendition of “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch.”

The band’s history stretches back to the early 2000s when Allen and his sister Molly teamed up with McKean to work up four Christmas tunes for a big Christmas party to which they invited their musician friends.

They played the four original tunes they had penned as well as a few choice covers, recorded them and delivered them on a CD to their families as a Christmas gift. That signaled the band’s birth.

In 2008, the band released its first album, Love and Hope, which it recorded at the Sachsenheim.

It’s regularly released albums and singles ever since.

Earlier this month, the group had its first full-band rehearsal since its last show, a House of Blues gig that

Courtesy of the Ohio City Singers

took place in December of 2019.

“We’ve been working on stuff throughout the last year,” says Allen.

“We were really tight [at rehearsals], and it was fun just to crank it up.”

The band wrote at least 20 new songs in the past two years, though Allen says none of them will make it into the set lists.

“The main thing now is just to get the band back together playing,” he says as he looks through the voice memos in his phone to rattle off the names of a few of the new tracks.

“One of my favorites is called ‘First Falling Snow.’ Austin [Walkin’ Cane] and I wrote it for him to sing it. If we were to do an album, that would definitely be on it. We have a fun Tom Waits-ian song called ‘Midnight at the Mistletoe Inn’ too. That’s a good one. I don’t know if we’ll do an album next year. We have released four or five records, and we have a

lot of songs from those albums that we still never play. Until we start playing some of these other songs, I feel like we shouldn’t add to the fire.”

For the upcoming shows, the group will play a “greatest hits” set, and Allen promises a couple of “deeper tracks” for the Forest City Brewery show.

Allen says he’s thrilled to have a slew of Christmas gigs on the docket.

“I think it’s going to be a blast,” he says of the upcoming concerts.

“It’s going to be super fun. The band sounds great. We’re ready to go, and I think people are ready to be out at concerts and feel good about it. For the shows, you have to be vaccinated, but I think people are ready and will feel comfortable.”

scene@clevescene.com t@clevelandscene

December 1-14, 2021 | clevescene.com |

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SAVAGE LOVE PAST TENSE

By Dan Savage Hey, Dan: So, my husband (42-yearold straight male) and I (38-year-old bi female) have had a closed relationship so far, but we have an active fantasy life. We’ve been together for about four years, and we both had our fair share of partners (casual and serious) before that. We like to talk about fantasies involving other people during sex, be they actual (past partners) or imagined (my beautiful surfing instructor on a trip). Once while he ate my pussy, I asked him about all the pussies he’s enjoyed in the past and he brought up one of his exes — a relationship that ended ten years before we met — and he said he sometimes thought about her when he went down on and/or fucked subsequent partners, including me. This turned me on. A lot. I started bringing her up every now and then while we fucked, I asked him more about her, I fantasized about meeting her and eating the pussy he enjoyed so much. Like other past partners, she became part of the mental/verbal porn reel we sometimes enjoy during sex.

Then one day, in an unrelated conversation, it came out that he’d been engaged to her, that the reason they broke up was because they couldn’t make a long-distance relationship work after he moved to the country where we live, and that it took him years to get over her. This killed it for me. Not only that, but I also now feel weird about all of the times we fantasized about her in the past. It’s not like he did anything wrong — I never specifically asked how serious the relationship was or why it ended — but I can’t shake the irrational feeling there was an omission. I sometimes think about past experiences during masturbation or sex, but never about serious partners — never about men I’ve lived with, been married to or had a child with. Those experiences are too emotionally loaded to mix in with my current sex life in a healthy, detached way. I know my husband may process/feel things differently, but I can’t help but equate what he was doing to me fantasizing about my ex-husband during sex, which I haven’t done and would feel weird as fuck even contemplating. I don’t see her as a threat — they’re not in touch and she lives in another hemisphere — and I believe him when he says he has no significant baggage about any of his exes, including her. But knowing

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she was one of the most significant relationships in his life makes fantasizing about her — out loud, with me — feel “off.” I don’t just have this feeling just about her now, but about his past overall. How do I shake this?

Thoughts?

Turned On Turns Into Turn Off If thinking and talking about your husband’s past doesn’t turn you on anymore, TOTITO, stop thinking and talking about your husband’s past. But if you want to get back to enjoying these fantasies with your husband — dirty talk about your previous sex partners — you’re going to need to reason with yourself.

Let’s give it a whirl …

So, your husband was engaged to this woman and presumably lived with her for a time, but your husband’s relationship with this woman nevertheless meets just one of your three somewhat arbitrary criteria for “pussy it’s not OK to think about during sex with a current partner.” Yes, it was a serious relationship, but they never married or had kids. And if they had wanted to be together, they would’ve found a way to make it work despite the distance. If she had wanted to be with your husband more than she wanted to remain where she was living when they broke it off, she could’ve married him and emigrated.

Likewise, if your husband had wanted to be with this woman more than he wanted to remain where he was living when they broke it off, he could’ve married her and emigrated.

Neither made that choice, TOTITO, and I’m guessing neither made that choice because the serious wasn’t as serious as the “engaged” thing makes it sound. Yeah, yeah: Someone proposed (most likely your husband), someone said yes (most likely his ex).

But words are cheap and “engaged” is a just a word. It’s a promise and a serious one, TOTITO, but in the end it’s just air. And now, since I’m feeling daring, I’m going to risk doing some math …

You say you’ve been with your 42-year-old husband for four years.

His relationship with his former fiancée ended ten years before you two met. So, that means your husband was at most 28 years old when he broke off his engagement with his

| clevescene.com | December 1-14, 2021

JOE NEWTON

ex, and assuming they’d been dating for a few years, he was what? In his mid-twenties when they met? That means his prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain involved in executive functions like decision making, longterm planning and higher reasoning, wasn’t even fully formed when he proposed to this woman.

So, you have a choice. You can attach a lot of significance to the fact that they were engaged, or you can look at the other facts in evidence — that they both chose the place where they lived over the relationship, how old they were at the time they got engaged — and see the relationship as far less significant than the “engaged” label makes it sound.

All that said, if hearing about the pussies in your husband’s past isn’t doing anything for your pussy right now, tell your husband you don’t want to hear about them for the moment.

If you miss dirty talk during sex, instead of talking about hot sex you’ve both had in the past, TOTITO, try talking about all the hot sex you’re going to have in the future.

Hey, Dan: For the past few months, I’ve been hooking up a lot with my coworker (I’m a bi woman, he’s a straight man). Things are going well, we really like each other (we’ve even said “I love you” to each other), but there are a couple of problems.

First, I’m 23 and he’s 40. The age difference doesn’t really bother me

if I don’t think about it too much, but it matters to a lot of my loved ones. Second, I’m not looking for a serious relationship, as I haven’t been single in a while and am kind of going through my “ho phase,” but it seems like he wants to be exclusive.

I’ve tried to break things off or slow things down, but he’s going through horrible shit right now and needs me.

I have improved his life, and he has improved my mental state, but he’s also kind of a bad influence and has gotten me back into bad habits. To make matters worse, the new guy at our work seems to be into me and he’s cute and way closer to my age, and we get along really well, so I might want to give that a shot. I don’t know whether to end things, or even how to end it if I wanted to. Any advice on how to get out of this gracefully?

Pretty Horrible At Something Easy When you say you want to get out of this “gracefully,” what you mean is you want the impossible from me. You want me to tell you how to end this relationship so subtly that the guy you dumped doesn’t even notice or get upset. Sorry, PHASE, but there’s no way to end things with the coworker you’re currently fucking so you can start fucking the coworker you’d rather be fucking without the coworker you’re currently fucking finding out you dumped him so you could start fucking a different coworker. If it was just your family that objected to the relationship because of the age difference, I would urge you to stay in it. But you want out and the relationship isn’t healthy. (You don’t mention the bad habits he’s gotten you back into, PHASE, but I’m going to assume it’s not double parking and public grooming.) You can’t stay just because he needs you.

P.S. I’m supposed to tell you not to sleep with coworkers — it’s right here in my dog-eared copy of the Writing Advice Columns For Dummies — but I’m going to set that aside, seeing as that ship has already sailed, struck an iceberg and sunk to the bottom of the ocean.

mail@savagelove.net t@fakedansavage www.savagelovecast.com

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