Blogs

Whether you drive a Prius or a Hummer, prices have gotten so wicked that would-be restaurant-goers sometimes have to choose between filling their tanks and filling their tummies. While it’s no cure, here’s a little bit of gas relief from Local Heroes (2217 E. 9th Street, 216-566-8100), the good-looking sports bar across from Progressive Field.

Just bring in a gas station receipt to prove your damages, and staffers promise to not only feel your pain but, more importantly, give you a $5 break on any food purchase of $10 or more.

Of course, there are rules: The offer expires on Friday, May 16. Only one $5 discount is allowed per table. And alcohol isn’t included. Still, when even that 20-cent coupon on a gallon of milk looks good, every little bit helps.

Local Heroes is open for lunch and dinner daily. --- Elaine T. Cicora

Read Elaine Cicora's restaurant reviews, food news, and comprehensive dining guide on the restaurant page at clevescene.com.

So this is what you get when you Google-image "fetish bar."

I’d never been to a fetish bar until last weekend, for the grand opening of Daddy’s in the rehabbed basement of the rustic gay club, Cocktails Cleveland. But thanks to a dominatrix named Glamazon and her intimidating cat o’nine tails, I was given a grand tour of the new leather-rubber-and-jeans club, where revelers marked the occasion with a burger-and-hot-dog barbecue on Cocktails’ patio.

The club is the brainchild of leatherman Brian Lyons, who also owns the original Cocktails -Daddy’s combo in Akron. To enter, you need to pass inspection by the burly doorman in Cocktails. Once he gives his nod of approval, you walk to the back door and through the smokers’ patio before steadying yourself on a rickety flight of steps to the basement. (How the 6-foot-3 Glamazon managed not to fall in her five-inch black stiletto boots still baffles me.) ...

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In recession-wracked Lorain, blue-collar saloons and upscale discos have come and gone on the main drag of Broadway Avenue. But there’s a new oasis near the corner of 9th Street that patrons say has a fighting chance to survive this flagging economy because of its target market: Lorain’s burgeoning Latino community.

But you don’t have to be from south of the border to chill at the recently opened La Sala. ...

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Lakewood’s Winking Lizard masquerades as a mini-Quicken Loans Arena tonight, when the Cavs take on the Washington Wizards in Game 3 of the NBA playoffs. As host of the post-season’s first official “Cavaliers Watch Party,” the bar will broadcast the game on its widescreen TVs while the Cavs Girls dance troupe and mascots Moondog and Ahmaad pump up the fans for the 8 p.m. tipoff. ...

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You have to admit that karaoke is so ’80s. Put a bunch of lyrics on a prompter, try to sing them on pitch, and act like you’re the rock star that you aren’t. But Time Warp owner Rob Rogers is tossing in an incentive to make his club’s karaoke sessions a little more palatable: Money. And lots of it. ...

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So your ripped six-pack has turned into a bloated keg over the winter. And West Park Station nightspot is feeling a tad guilty about it. That’s why the club is helping to recruit patrons who’ve put on a few pounds over the holidays to compete in the West Park Six-Pack Challenge. Think Celebrity Fit Club meets Cheers.

Here’s how it goes down: ...

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Win or lose, John Elway, you still look like a horse.

Every Friday, Scene calendar editor Cris Glaser provides a random but reliable sampling of things to do this weekend. But this Friday, Cris is off, so we let Vince the Polack do it, which kind of explains the precipitous drop off in class. For more options, log onto entertainment.clevescene.com. And check back Monday for C-Notes' Picks of the Week.

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Add Collinwood’s Grovewood Tavern & Wine Bar (17105 Grovewood Ave., 216-531-4900) to the long list of joints that offer a bargain-packed Happy Hour, featuring select $5 wines and ‘tinis, $3 pints, and a rotating collection of $5 noshes. ...

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"Hey bartender! Can I get your autograph?"

Shaun Smith has made a career of knocking down quarterbacks in his four-year NFL career. But tonight, the Browns’ defensive tackle will watch you knock down cocktails as he guest-bartends for his 91 Ways Foundation at Lakewood’s Around the Corner.

Starting at 7 p.m., the 6-foot-2, 325-pound Smith – who was signed as a restricted free agent with the Browns last offseason -- will work the bar to collect tips for his charity, which is named after his jersey number. The foundation’s goal is to help build safe havens for teens in both Cleveland and his hometown of Brooklyn, New York. ...

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Last month, at a town hall meeting in Ohio City, 150 residents showed up to voice their concern over a proposed plan to move Heaven & Earth nightclub from the Flats’ east bank to the former home of controversial nightspot/cocaine emporium Moda. Owners of the building were stabbed repeatedly, Councilman Joe Santiago was tarred and feathered, and the night ended in West Side Market, where a ravenous mob of Ohio Citians broke through the chain locks and feasted till dawn in a bacchanalian orgy that would have made Nero blush.

Which is why it was so surprising that today, three days before a liqupr-board hearing that was to determine the fate of the deal, everything ended so, well, quietly. ...

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Us beer-bellied schmucks may think we’re getting a Hump Day deal by forking over five bucks for a six-glass pitcher of ho-hum Coors Lite. But there are some highfalutin’ import-beer critics who disagree.

Meet the Hoegaarden Draft Club, a loosely knit alliance of beer connoisseurs who meet every Wednesday night in Tremont to sample $2.50 glasses of the Belgian-style wheat beer. ...

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Considering he’s practically BFFs with LeBron James, tonight may be one of the last times you’ll be able to hear Gerry Keating jazzing it up at Lakewood’s Waterbury Coach House.

OK, maybe that’s an overstatement. But last Wednesday, the 6-foot-3 crooner spent 10 hours at the Convention Center for the taping of a TV commercial for Vitamin Water. In the 30-second spot, Keating plays a courtroom judge opposite James’ defense-attorney character. And the Chosen One made an impression on the 60 extras on the set. “He’s a superstar who makes a lot of money, yet he shook everybody’s hand,” says Keating. “The guy was so gracious. He’s real class.” ...

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Our friends in PR might say Johnny Malloy’s is having rough week.

As the PD reported this morning, a recent bar fight at the Lakewood outpost of the chain bar/restaurant resulted in the death of a 30-year-old customer.

Then, on Wednesday, agents from the Ohio Department of Public Safety busted the Avon Lake bar for illegal gambling, and even dragged the city’s Youth Baseball Federation into the mix.

The agency slapped the bar with four citations after a late-morning raid that netted nearly $1,600 in cash and several packs of instant-bingo tickets. It says the club failed to renew a license to raise money for the league. Bar owner Larry Moschner sums up the blunder as “something that slipped through the cracks.”

The baseball group’s president, Ken Milota, says he’s been working with the bar for the past four years to sell instant-bingo cards to patrons to pay off a renovation project of the city’s 11 baseball diamonds at Weiss Field. Some of the cash was also earmarked to install new lights at the park. Nobody’s clear on why the bar overlooked the mandatory paperwork.

The Lorain County Prosecutor’s Office considering whether it will file criminal charges against the club. – Cris Glaser

There’s something to be said about hanging out on Hump Day in a honky-tonk joint, especially if it’s the Hall of Famers Bar & Grill in Brooklyn. In the old Aces nightspot, country-rock bands get their twang on while patrons in flannel shirts and blue jeans belly up to the bar for the requisite shot of JD chased with a PBR. (Paging J.R. Ewing!)

Tonight, the revered Lawless quintet command the stage to crank out tunes from their critically lauded CD, Long Gone. There’s self-taught guitarist Steve Skrant, who’s been nothing short of a local icon to Cleveland’s country-music fans since 1990. He’s joined by singer John Dillon Hardy, who signed on with the six-year-old band in 2003. Ernie “E-Dawg” Arrojo has been handling the basslines since 2005, while drummer Ray Brown has added his vocals to a song or two since the group’s beginnings. Don McGown brings up the rear on his Fender guitar as he channels Chet Atkins and Wes Montgomery on fired-up originals like “Get There From Here” and “Outlaw Ways.” Even if you never hear these dudes on WGAR radio, they make up for the lost airtime in spirited concerts that’ll make you walk out the door with a John Wayne swagger, a faux Dallas drawl, and a dead dog. Showtime is at 9:30 tonight at Hall of Famers, 6600 Biddulph Road in Brooklyn. Call 216-741-4911 for deails. – Cris Glaser

Wear your blue-and-gold today if you plan to root on Kent State on with Mike Abdoo and his ex-college roomies at Brunswick’s Sidelines Sports Bar & Grill. The club’s 12 big screens are going to blare the ESPN broadcast of KSU’s game against Nevada-Las Vegas in the first round of the NCAA tourney at 2:55 this afternoon. “They’re active. They’re athletic. They kick ass on the road,” Abdoo says of the No. 9-seeded Golden Flashes (28-6), who take on 8th-seeded UNLV (26-7). “It’s going to be a fun game to watch.”

Sidelines’ afternoon-drink specials will help make that happen. But don’t call it a happy hour; the club bills it as its “ecstatic hour” by slashing $1 off all drinks and charging $2 for every flavored bomb shot until 7 p.m. every day. By that time tonight, Abdoo and company will be primed for more hoops action as the No. 6-seeded USC (21-11) takes on No. 11 Kansas State (20-11) at 7:10 p.m., and No. 3 Wisconsin (29-4) battles No. 14 Cal State-Fullerton (24-8) at 9:40 p.m. The bar is located at 1165 Pearl Road in Brunswick. Call 330-220-0888 for details. – Cris Glaser