restaurants

Birthday [Weekend] Wrap Up

/ Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / 2 Comments

Monday was my birthday! I know, Happy Birthday to me : ) Missed it? It’s okay, I’m still accepting belated gifts, flowers, fruit arrangements, etc. And it’s easy to remember next year – 1-23!

Naturally, I decided to celebrate the birthday (it was a big one – I’m no longer in my mid-twenties… I’m in my mid-late twenties!) the whole weekend throughout Cleveland. It was a great time and involved a lot of food, surprises and more food.

Friday

Friday began the celebration! Our building had an event so B and I spent the evening enjoying Happy Hour drinks and free bowling at the Corner Alley. I didn’t take any photos because I really didn’t need any evidence of my poor bowling skills (I scored a 48 first round) or sexy bowling shoes (I got them a size up just so I could wear them comfortably with the swollen toe). Friday for dinner B let me choose what I wanted, so we enjoyed a simple feast of cheese (goat, brie and chipotle cheddar), meat (two types of salami) and bread!

Friday also brought the first of my gifts, cards from my parents and Uncle Mike and packages from Jane and my brother arrived. Jane’s gift ended up being a belated wedding gift and one of my favorites thus far – a homemade wedding photo scrapbook. Seriously, this thing is legit and includes our wedding photos, some bachelorette party and shower photos, our invitations, and more. Jane is amazing. My brother also got me an incredible package of a book, a homemade CD with specially-picked tunes (already loaded on my iTunes!) and TWO packages of my favorite ginger candies which I can’t seem to get here.

Saturday

Saturday morning and afternoon involved two of my favorite activities – shopping and a manicure! I woke up early and got my nails done a fun navy blue color and then dragged B along shopping so I could find a perfect outfit for our dinner date that evening, which ended up being a fun plum colored sparkly dress!

After shopping, B went for his 6 mile run outside while I moped that I couldn’t run did the elliptical and got ready. When B got home from his run he excited me with #1 of the 2 surprises of that night – a new necklace, one I’d been eyeing for some time! Then we headed to Blue Point and enjoyed an amazing dinner dinner. I got the My Blue [Pointe] Heaven, a plate full of scallops (yum), shrimp (double yum), lobster tail (yum yum yum!) and lobster mashed potatoes. Jealous?

For dessert, I decided I wanted Ben & Jerry’s. So we walked to Constantino’s to pick up some ice cream to enjoy on our couch at home … or so I thought!

We walked back toward our apartment and decided to take a shorter, warmer route through Tower City. The next thing I knew, we were in the Ritz and heading up to our own room that B had secretly booked, checked in AND stocked with an overnight bag (including workout clothes!) for me AND champagne (all done while he was on his run). That was Surprise #2 in case you didn’t figure that out.

Sunday

Sunday included a short workout (elliptical, still no running) in the Ritz’s pretty nice hotel gym/spa area, followed by brunch at the Diner on Clifton. I enjoyed a pretty awesome ahi tuna club sandwich and sweet potato fries (not the only fries of the day). After lunch involved relaxing and watching some Luther episodes (a new favorite show of mine!), afternoon mass (we got chosen to bring up the gifts … they must have known it was my birthday) and then the Greenhouse Tavern for the Chef Sawyer Iron Chef America episode watch/tweetup!

The Tweetup was great. While Chef Sawyer didn’t win :(, B and I enjoyed a night out, fun people and of course, great food. Being neighbors to the restaurant, it was really cool to see the Chef in person and even shake his hand. The chefs had specially prepared some of the food from the show and handed them out as the show aired. The secret ingredient was mint and we enjoyed a mint salad with lamb (I love lamb!) some zucchini – mint fritters and an amazing dessert, the Stoner Sandwich – a mint ice cream sandwich made with a waffle. We may have also splurged on some of the famous gravy frites before the event.

Monday

Monday was my real birthday! Finally, right? Monday involved work and then a homemade requested dinner by B. We tried out our pasta attachment for our KitchenAid (B made the dough, I just had fun putting it through the attachment) and B made sauce and turkey meatballs, one of my favorite meals by him.

Thanks so much to everyone who helped make my birthday a great one. I got so many calls, texts, cards, emails, Facebook messages, and so on, and felt so loved. Last year was pretty awesome (moved downtown, got a promotion, got married, went on a honeymoon to Tortola, BVI) and I’m excited about what’s to come. Here’s to another great year!

Krazy Mac’s!

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Onto the pre-existing dinner plans that made me leave Cleveland SMC early. The boy and I were celebrating 4 years of dating (read: wow I’m getting old) and decided to go somewhere new and low-key. We keep hearing all this great stuff about the Detroit Shoreway area, and living on the west side, we decided it was due time to check out one of the places. 

I was given a few choices:

I’d heard great things about all these places, especially Stone Mad a newer Irish pub (with an indoor bocce court!) from various friends or B’s family. I decided that with all the cold weather, I could use some comfort food, and chose Krazy Mac’s. 

The name “Krazy Mac’s” is relatively new and the place has a cool history that I won’t go all the way into. For those of you familiar with the restaurants Cheddar’s or Snickers, that’s what Krazy Mac’s is. According to their website: 

As you know, Snickers opened at our current location at Detroit Avenue and West 58th Street in October 2005. Then in February 2007, we opened Cheddar’s Cafe in the building next door. By October of that year the immediate success of Cheddar’s prompted us to combine the two restaurants, offering the popular menu of 21 kinds of macaroni and cheese served at Cheddar’s as well as some of the well-loved favorites from Snickers.

Apparently the name Cheddar’s was already taken by some restaurant chain down in Texas, so after combining the two restaurants (and changing the name of Snickers to Cheddar’s) they had to change their name once again, to Krazy Mac’s. 

Anyways, back to the best part about the restaurant – our meals! They were out of their seasonal beers (no pumpkin ales or Great Lakes Oktoberfest) so I decided to have a Hoogarden to keep the spirit of summer going strong. B, of course, had Budweiser.

For starters, we shared a Krazy Mac’s Pizza, which is a small pepperoni pizza with mac and cheese on it. AMAZING! For the main dish, B ordered the Fiesta Mac (the menu on their website is not up-to-date as this is not listed), which was mac and cheese with taco meat, guacamole and sour cream. It also came with some really salty tortilla chips. I got the Southwestern Mac, described as “Cheddar & pepper jack with chorizo sausage, green peppers, onions, black beans, in a roasted red pepper sauce.” The portions were huge and I have some leftovers for lunch today! Our entrees each came with some yummy cheesy bread and salad with great italian/balsamic dressing. I took a picture with my phone, but of course I had no flash and the crummy lighting made my food look like a pile of old oatmeal. Rather than disgust you with the horrible picture that doesn’t do my food justice, I’ll let you just imagine the best looking mac and cheese of your life.

I can’t wait to go back again. Our waiter was super friendly. The whole place had an intimate atmosphere (B and I sat in a large booth with plush seating and comfy pillows) and was pretty affordable and casual. 

What are you still doing there reading this? Go to Krazy Mac’s Now! (5800 Detroit Ave, north side of Detroit, just past W 55th, Cleveland)

Restaurant Week!

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It’s Baaa-aack! Cleveland Restaurant Week! After a successful first year, Restaurant Week will be returning to Cleveland with fix priced menus in restaurants all throughout the city. I am SUPER pumped and hoping to go this year! It will take place November 2-7 and 9-14.

For a complete list of participating restaurants (unfortunately the menus aren’t up yet) click here.

Book your reservations early! Last year, Lola booked up right away (I don’t see it on this year’s list though) as did a lot of other popular restaurants. Some of the restaurants with deals include Crop, Nighttown, One Walnut, Moxie and the Metropolitan Cafe. All of the participating places offer a dinner deal, but some are also featuring a fixed-price lunch menu.

A word to the wise- Last year I also heard that some restaurants that weren’t booked preferred to let other idners in before the “restaurant-week”-goers, for obvious reasons. Solution? When you make your reservation, you don’t need to tell them you want the restaurant week menu, unless you have specific questions. I would just wait until that day to see what they have to offer.