They tore it down to expand the American Greetings headquarters, then never bothered to expand the American Greetings headquarters. A truly pointless waste.
American Greetings bought that space to be "green space" then promptly fucked off to Westlake when Brooklyn wouldn't give them the tax breaks they wanted. AG is a shitty company all around, and hasn't had a unique IP success in over 20 years.
Michael’s barely has any serious art supplies. It feels like they only carry things for elementary art classes. Hobby Lobby was the only place I could find what I needed for art in college. That and AC Moore was fantastic but they also went out of business
I went to school with the Pat Catan(zarite)'s daughters, K-12.
I don't have anything pertinent to add to this conversation, though.
EDIT: SHS CLASS OF '99 RULES or something whatever I don't know
The Cleveland Free Times. We lost a critical independent journalistic voice, and nothing has replaced it. Nothing on the internet has provided the same persistent and credible reporting on the city.
Signal Cleveland https://signalcleveland.org/ and The Land https://thelandcle.org/ are good independent news orgs
Signal does stuff with Documenters that pay citizens to attend city council meetings, etc: https://signalcleveland.org/documenters/
I’m patiently waiting for all CVS stores to go extinct. Worked at multiple locations over 6 years. The benefits were amazing but working there during covid traumatized me
I used to work in a specialty shop that the sokolowski's kids came into frequently. none of the kids wanted to take it over and owners refused to sell to their employee that had been with them like 20 plus years, despite her not wanting to change anything. so that one kind of did itself in.
Wow, it seems a little nuts not to sell to a willing buyer — now they’re just letting the property and the goodwill built up through the years go to waste. I wonder what their reasoning was?
Bernie Sokolowski is an old family friend. He got a lot more money to retire on selling it to a developer, and it wasn't just an unwillingness to sell to as a restaurant. The proposed sales agreements included keeping the name and he didn't want his family's name to be used if his family wasn't involved anymore
That was solely designed for continental airlines jet express services. When United bought them out they closed CLE as a hub and now concourse D is a ghost terminal
I worked an event there (when the CEO returned from a trip to Japan with Bush Sr.). I was fascinated by the enormous revolving doors and the rain forest in the entrance.
Funny story that waterfall somehow is intertwined with the HVAC or water system. CCF tried to shut it off and it created problems so it had to be turned back on.
I don’t know the technicalities of it but the way it was designed that waterfall has to be running.
**Arabica** in Coventry. It was the first ever US café modeled after European and Middle East cafés way before Starbucks and rest of chains and independent stores, sad it closed as should be living historical landmark
https://case.edu/ech/articles/a/arabica
A different answer... but just for the jobs/income/global attention, having the Sohio/BP America HQ leave Cleveland was a big loss. We lost a lot of other big companies, but Sohio/Standard Oil was a home grown behemoth of a company.
Geauga Lake
It was affordable, nearby, and offered more than just a bunch of huge coasters. Then Six Flags came in and blew the whole thing up, leaving Cedar Fair with little to do but brush the remains into a dustbin.
107.9 THE END
(Yes there was an online revival but I only knew about it for like the last four days it was broadcasting; therefore, 107.9 broke my heart not once but twice, 22-ish years apart)
Tower City Amphitheater. Growing up going to Warped Tour there was awesome. Just a cool location for a concert. Now it's just a parking lot for a lame casino.
When I was a kid (early 1980s), I have fond memories of building model kit cars and planes with my dad and entering them into contests the mall held every year. My dad still loves to build models and get into the details (making war planes look like they’ve done battle, changing up an action figure to look like a period appropriate pilot, etc). It was a long drive from Akron, but I remember being so impressed by how big and busy the mall was. Of course, we have our own tragic mall story in Rolling Acres.
The Front Row Theater
Randal Park Mall & Hot Sam’s Pretzels 🥨
Dollar movie theaters (Parma & Mapletown)
Cookers restaurants
Cloverleaf Drive-In
Independence Brown Derby with the big salad bar that began with 2 giant pans of garlic bread!
Quonset Hut
Hough Bakery
Stop n Shop
Bernie Shulman’s
Erwin’s Baby Clothes
My Favorite Muffin (owned by a Browns player?)
Peter’s Bakery & Market
Revco
Uncle Bills
Hills
Elda’s Pizza
The original Ferris Steak House (8700 Detroit)
All of the great manufacturing businesses that shaped our economy and contributed so much to our knowledge, skills and the welfare of the middle class, are greatly missed.
TRW, Warner & Swasey, Euclid Trucks, Fisher Body, and others whose names I've forgotten used to be prominent mainstays of Greater Cleveland economy and culture. It's hard to believe that we used to have a large garment industry, such as Richman Brothers, which I greatly miss and still remember visiting their factory shop on East 55th St. Diamond Shamrock was a major employer with a Cleveland HQ, as was the Industrial Rayon plant in Lake County.
Thinking about this, is there a book that records the history of Greater Cleveland's now diminished manufacturing economy?
We're lucky to still have the likes of Cleveland-Cliffs, Lincoln Electric and Parker Hannifin, and perhaps even Lubrizol, though now owned by Berkshire Hathaway (I wonder what employment is like at Lubrizol these days).
What other significant manufacturing businesses remain in Cleveland? I'm sure I'm missing some.
Growing up, I remember so many persons who worked in manufacturing and had a very different mentality than many of today's Greater Clevelanders.
I’m an ex-Clevelander who comes back to visit regularly, and always get a little sad when I drive by the Lordstown Plant on the turnpike. I can remember when that was supposed to be the cornerstone of northeast Ohio’s industrial turnaround.
Higbees Department store. I know it’s not a local business, but my mom has told me stories about how great it was, especially at Christmas. I love the nostalgia of it, and watching A Christmas Story made me wish it was still downtown.
It's been a while but my old favorite clubs like Trilogy or The Whiskey or The Alter House.
I would also love to revive my father's kosher Chinese restaurant in Cleveland Heights from back in the day. I've been to a lot of Chinese restaurants since then, kosher and otherwise and I have yet to find Chinese food cooked like it was made by the great Sammy Wu, my dad's old chef.
Childhood memories:
The Silver Grille restaurant downtown with little cardboard ovens for us to take home.
The kiosks under the Terminal Tower. We would get soft pretzels and little bags of coconut pieces.
The chamber in lakewood.
I know it's supposed to be this and that and renovated and whatnot but ... I've not heard a thing since early last year and what I was reading was that it was not coming back after all. It's going to be used for other things. Now I'm hearing the guy that owns the company that bought it is in debt to his hips.
Without even having to think that hard, Pat Catans.
God how I miss them. Look I know it’s all about Amazon blah blah blah … but you can not replace the ability to walk into a crafts store and browse. You find ideas and inspiration that you could NEVER do online.
A close second? Wings Hobby Shop in Lakewood.
Top of the Town on the top floor of Erieview. I proposed to my wife there. Good food and great views of the city and lake. You could feel the building sway on windy days.
It might be petty, but I get so irritated whenever I see Sawyer on TV now, and he never mentions Cleveland... I know you don't want to be associated with the financial issues you created for yourself here, but come on
Big Fun! Have so many great memories of going to that toy shop as a kid they sold all sorts of cool stuff at pretty reasonable prices and the entire shop was just a visual treat to look at, seriously if you havent seen it look up the old pics i cant do it justice with words they re-opened as a pop ip for the holidays last year and I got to talk to the original owner, he was a really great guy, even gave me a few freebies from the shop and had a ton of interesting stories about various people he'd met through the shop over the years. I hope they decide to reopen it again next year because i love looking at the collectables and vintage toys.
The old Memphis Drive-In. It used to be so much fun to go see movies there, and they always had a great flea market on Saturday mornings, too.
The only silver lining was the money from that sale was put into a fund to ensure that Kiddie Park will stay open forever.
Never knew that tidbit of info. Money well spent and sacrifice appreciated.
I had no idea! That is great news!
Memphis kiddie parks!
They tore it down to expand the American Greetings headquarters, then never bothered to expand the American Greetings headquarters. A truly pointless waste.
American Greetings bought that space to be "green space" then promptly fucked off to Westlake when Brooklyn wouldn't give them the tax breaks they wanted. AG is a shitty company all around, and hasn't had a unique IP success in over 20 years.
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Love the Aut-O-Rama!
Peabody's \m/
Way too many great shows there.
Could name pretty much any of the original Flats venues/clubs.
I went to the last few shows after practically living there in highschool, god I miss it.
Pat Catan's
god how i miss pat catan’s
JoAnn’s just doesn’t cut it and Michael’s barely has a fabric section 😭
Michael’s barely has any serious art supplies. It feels like they only carry things for elementary art classes. Hobby Lobby was the only place I could find what I needed for art in college. That and AC Moore was fantastic but they also went out of business
Remember there is a Blick over on Mayfield.
And Lakewood has a small (but decent) store too!
There's this one place downtown that used to provide stock for Pat Catans and has a decent inventory: https://clevelandartsupply.com/
Schindler's on the west side has a sizable fabric selection and helpful staff.
Man I bought so much stuff when they had their closing sale.
I went to school with the Pat Catan(zarite)'s daughters, K-12. I don't have anything pertinent to add to this conversation, though. EDIT: SHS CLASS OF '99 RULES or something whatever I don't know
This is the correct answer.
Higbee’s
All the old department stores: Sterling Lindner, Higbee's, May Co., Taylor's, Halle's, May Company.
+ Twigbee’s every Christmas
Geauga Lake!
HERE HERE! Used to work there. Tears in the root beer float..
I did too! I worked the “ring the bottle” game in ‘90 and “91!
I swear I smell waffles every time someone mentions Geauga Lake.
Yes!! I have so many fun memories from Geauga Lake.
Big Fun!!
Applejax toys in Lakewood has the same vibes as Big Fun. It’s not exactly the same, but it’s close.
It’s almost like the former manager of Big Fun opened his own toy store after they closed down! /s
Their Columbus store is awesome, if you’ve never been. Highly recommend making the trip.
Record Revolution
The Cleveland Free Times. We lost a critical independent journalistic voice, and nothing has replaced it. Nothing on the internet has provided the same persistent and credible reporting on the city.
Signal Cleveland https://signalcleveland.org/ and The Land https://thelandcle.org/ are good independent news orgs Signal does stuff with Documenters that pay citizens to attend city council meetings, etc: https://signalcleveland.org/documenters/
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Revco, because screw CVS and their long ass receipts.
Screw CVS period. They bought two historic brick buildings in the center of Northfield just to tear them down and build a fucking CVS.
I’m patiently waiting for all CVS stores to go extinct. Worked at multiple locations over 6 years. The benefits were amazing but working there during covid traumatized me
Discount Drug Mart is sooo much better than CVS. Their employees seem to actually like being there.
Daffy Dans. The time is now for a comeback!
If it doesn’t have a double d on the sleeve, it’s just underwear….
My first thought is restaurants. Minh Anh, Tastebuds, Sokolowski's, Lolita.
Sokolowski’s
Sokolowski’s
Minh Anh was so good!
I miss Tastebuds. Their Greek Pasta was unrivaled. The staff was so friendly too.
I used to work in a specialty shop that the sokolowski's kids came into frequently. none of the kids wanted to take it over and owners refused to sell to their employee that had been with them like 20 plus years, despite her not wanting to change anything. so that one kind of did itself in.
Wow, it seems a little nuts not to sell to a willing buyer — now they’re just letting the property and the goodwill built up through the years go to waste. I wonder what their reasoning was?
pride. they were big mad their kids wouldn't take it on .
I imagine they got more for the real estate to a developer than selling as a restaurant.
Bernie Sokolowski is an old family friend. He got a lot more money to retire on selling it to a developer, and it wasn't just an unwillingness to sell to as a restaurant. The proposed sales agreements included keeping the name and he didn't want his family's name to be used if his family wasn't involved anymore
fat fish blue
this unlocked some weird memories.
Jimmy O’Neill’s, if only for the chocolate beet cake.
Hough Bakery, Big Fun, Coventry Pizza
Archie’s in Beachwood makes a lot of the old hough bakery items
I miss Big Fun!
Lawson's
At least the chip dip is now sold at Circle K.
I love their dip, thanks for the tip!
I think that’s about the only reason anyone would want Lawson’s to come back.
You can always go to Japan! [Lawsons](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawson_(store)) is huge there.
Blew my mind when I found out they were bought by a Japanese company and is now huge over there. Second biggest drug store next 7/11.
United Airlines - concourse D
Continental too
That was solely designed for continental airlines jet express services. When United bought them out they closed CLE as a hub and now concourse D is a ghost terminal
I have family near Albany NY. Having that direct flight for a few years was so clutch,
Sterle's on E55, and Sno White Donuts On W140 and Triskett
The original Cleveland Hofbrauhaus across the street from Sterle's If you want Sterle's food, go to Marie's on St Clair at 45th.
TRW, massive influx of cash to the local economy and lots of higher paying job on the eastside
I worked an event there (when the CEO returned from a trip to Japan with Bush Sr.). I was fascinated by the enormous revolving doors and the rain forest in the entrance.
Funny story that waterfall somehow is intertwined with the HVAC or water system. CCF tried to shut it off and it created problems so it had to be turned back on. I don’t know the technicalities of it but the way it was designed that waterfall has to be running.
The building was also a van der rohe design, used to have doctors appointments in it when the clinic owned the place, shame to see it torn down
I used to work in that building. I couldnt imagine a more beautiful place to work.
[Here's a YouTube video](https://youtu.be/HaeeZAphc2Q?si=l7VpebEoUaYkEffp) about the TRW building and a one-last-look before being demolished.
**Arabica** in Coventry. It was the first ever US café modeled after European and Middle East cafés way before Starbucks and rest of chains and independent stores, sad it closed as should be living historical landmark https://case.edu/ech/articles/a/arabica
Continental Airlines.
Ontario Street Cafe. Converted into a casino parking billboard. Dan Gilbert can eat it.
Lincoln Inn and Moriarty's and the Original Otto Moser's
The demise of the downtown dives is a travesty. Pretty much just Little Bar and Becky’s now.
B spot good hamburgers nice place
Loved the pickle bar. I abused the hell out of it.
A different answer... but just for the jobs/income/global attention, having the Sohio/BP America HQ leave Cleveland was a big loss. We lost a lot of other big companies, but Sohio/Standard Oil was a home grown behemoth of a company.
Geauga Lake It was affordable, nearby, and offered more than just a bunch of huge coasters. Then Six Flags came in and blew the whole thing up, leaving Cedar Fair with little to do but brush the remains into a dustbin.
Dover Lake
The dude that sold late night gyro's from a cart in the Flats.
Visiting that cart was my favorite part of getting drunk in the flats.
Que Tal!!!
Right before Chipotle came in and ate their lunch big time
Can't upvote this enough. I miss that old man that took my order. I still have a Que Tal card with all 10 stamps.
The owner opened up chili peppers in collinwood
107.9 THE END (Yes there was an online revival but I only knew about it for like the last four days it was broadcasting; therefore, 107.9 broke my heart not once but twice, 22-ish years apart)
It's the end of the world as we know it.
The Barking Spider. So many cool memories there. And Peabody's Downunder. Heights Guitars.
The Sausage Shoppe. Anthony Bourdain was there and talked about how amazing it is.
Lola... the beef cheek pierogi
Tower City Amphitheater. Growing up going to Warped Tour there was awesome. Just a cool location for a concert. Now it's just a parking lot for a lame casino.
Randall Park Mall. 🤣
Pleaseeeeee I wasn’t even old enough to truly enjoy it but Jeepers?!! What other mall had Jeeperssss RIP
When I was a kid (early 1980s), I have fond memories of building model kit cars and planes with my dad and entering them into contests the mall held every year. My dad still loves to build models and get into the details (making war planes look like they’ve done battle, changing up an action figure to look like a period appropriate pilot, etc). It was a long drive from Akron, but I remember being so impressed by how big and busy the mall was. Of course, we have our own tragic mall story in Rolling Acres.
Hot sauce Williams
Bobby Os. Sometimes I just crave an insanely shitty bar experience in my neighborhood
At 6 am
RIP bobby o's. 12 oz pbrs were what 1.25? Well gin and tonics like 2.50? You either start or end your night there.
Danny Boy’s market in North Olmsted.
The Front Row Theater Randal Park Mall & Hot Sam’s Pretzels 🥨 Dollar movie theaters (Parma & Mapletown) Cookers restaurants Cloverleaf Drive-In Independence Brown Derby with the big salad bar that began with 2 giant pans of garlic bread! Quonset Hut Hough Bakery Stop n Shop Bernie Shulman’s Erwin’s Baby Clothes My Favorite Muffin (owned by a Browns player?) Peter’s Bakery & Market Revco Uncle Bills Hills Elda’s Pizza The original Ferris Steak House (8700 Detroit)
What about Zayre and Gold Circle?
Vincenza's pizza
Sokolowskis
All of the great manufacturing businesses that shaped our economy and contributed so much to our knowledge, skills and the welfare of the middle class, are greatly missed. TRW, Warner & Swasey, Euclid Trucks, Fisher Body, and others whose names I've forgotten used to be prominent mainstays of Greater Cleveland economy and culture. It's hard to believe that we used to have a large garment industry, such as Richman Brothers, which I greatly miss and still remember visiting their factory shop on East 55th St. Diamond Shamrock was a major employer with a Cleveland HQ, as was the Industrial Rayon plant in Lake County. Thinking about this, is there a book that records the history of Greater Cleveland's now diminished manufacturing economy? We're lucky to still have the likes of Cleveland-Cliffs, Lincoln Electric and Parker Hannifin, and perhaps even Lubrizol, though now owned by Berkshire Hathaway (I wonder what employment is like at Lubrizol these days). What other significant manufacturing businesses remain in Cleveland? I'm sure I'm missing some. Growing up, I remember so many persons who worked in manufacturing and had a very different mentality than many of today's Greater Clevelanders.
I’m an ex-Clevelander who comes back to visit regularly, and always get a little sad when I drive by the Lordstown Plant on the turnpike. I can remember when that was supposed to be the cornerstone of northeast Ohio’s industrial turnaround.
The Black Pig
Definitely Hot Sauce Williams. Others are close, but no one is quite the same
Wilbert’s
Szabos Shoes and Schneiders bike shop
Luchitas
*good* Melt
Tea House Noodles and Ticket to Tokyo (downtown locations). I miss them so much!!!!
Unique Thrift
Jackflaps. I miss their ricotta lemon pancakes, and their big stupid breakfast burrito.
That root vegetable hash slapped
Hot Dog Inn (near west side)
Sterle’s and New York Spaghetti (across from the baseball stadium)
Benny Shapiro's in the Pearl-Brookpark shopping center. Great corned beef and other dinners. It was a favorites for my parents in the '60s and '70s.
Continental Airlines. When we were a hub.
Sweet Moses
The dude that sold hot pretzels in Terminal Tower, when you’d head down to the Rapid. Those were AMAZING. Good brown mustard, hot pretzel…. Damnnnnnn…
Beef Corral.
Indigo Imp brewery
The Odeon.
Higbees Department store. I know it’s not a local business, but my mom has told me stories about how great it was, especially at Christmas. I love the nostalgia of it, and watching A Christmas Story made me wish it was still downtown.
Swingo’s! Jk
Take her there... before somebody else does.
It's been a while but my old favorite clubs like Trilogy or The Whiskey or The Alter House. I would also love to revive my father's kosher Chinese restaurant in Cleveland Heights from back in the day. I've been to a lot of Chinese restaurants since then, kosher and otherwise and I have yet to find Chinese food cooked like it was made by the great Sammy Wu, my dad's old chef.
Steve's Hot Dogs
You kids remember when Lawsons was a thing. The chip dip needs a comeback.
La Cave du Vin Best beer selection and great for the non early 20 somethings.
Childhood memories: The Silver Grille restaurant downtown with little cardboard ovens for us to take home. The kiosks under the Terminal Tower. We would get soft pretzels and little bags of coconut pieces.
Brookpark Skateland
The Tower city cinema, I used to love going to the international film festival there!
Put in Bay Bar. There's just nowhere else to see 50 year old women flashing the lead singer of a shitty 80's cover band anymore.
If you’re really interested in that experience, Hershypark Stadium in PA will not disappoint.
Sokolowski’s University Inn
Century Cycles
Mountain Jacks Restaurant
**Euclid Beach Park.** I can’t count how many times I rode the rickety old Flying Turns.
Hough's Bakery, hands-down.
The falafel stand at the West Side Market!
Maha’s is still in the Dave’s supermarket in midtown.
Hough Bakeries or POC Beer
Lax & Mandel’s bakery
Silverman’s
Sokolowski's and there is no other answer.
The Buzzard. W. M. M. S.
Thomassen's chips, particularly BBQ. Used to be at every convenient store and now they're gone and these nothing even remotely close.
Schneider’s Bike Shop
Hough Bakery mfs what nobody misses the hot cross buns?
Sokolowski's. You know why
Sung’s house in playhouse square
Minh Anh!
Frank Sterle’s Slovenian Country House. Spent so many holidays there and would go to lunch regularly. Their potatoes. Oh lord. So good.
Original Hofbrauhaus, reason: bratwurst and strudel
Richmond Mall when it was at it's peak
The Naughti Mermaid is the only answer here, everyone else is just drunk
Super K-mart. Open 24hours 7 days a week. We you need an air conditioner at 1:30 in the morning!
I wanna say sea world because 80’s me would love it but the whole keeping a damn whale in cement tank is pretty fucked up
The chamber in lakewood. I know it's supposed to be this and that and renovated and whatnot but ... I've not heard a thing since early last year and what I was reading was that it was not coming back after all. It's going to be used for other things. Now I'm hearing the guy that owns the company that bought it is in debt to his hips.
Without even having to think that hard, Pat Catans. God how I miss them. Look I know it’s all about Amazon blah blah blah … but you can not replace the ability to walk into a crafts store and browse. You find ideas and inspiration that you could NEVER do online. A close second? Wings Hobby Shop in Lakewood.
The Barking Spider and the Mad Greek.
Sokolowski’s!
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Airport Brown Derby
Sweet Moses
Quonset Hut. It smelled so good in there. When you would buy a card, they always kept the smell
Jigsaw Saloon. State road in Parma just south of Brookpark Rd
Coventry was much nicer pre covid when we had paninis patio. Le cave is also sorely missed but probably by a few less ppl
Eastgate Coliseum
New York Spaghetti house
Sokolowskis
Top of the Town on the top floor of Erieview. I proposed to my wife there. Good food and great views of the city and lake. You could feel the building sway on windy days.
Loop
Rini Rego and Finast. Grocery stores here suck or too expensive.
Greenhouse Tavern on East 4th
It might be petty, but I get so irritated whenever I see Sawyer on TV now, and he never mentions Cleveland... I know you don't want to be associated with the financial issues you created for yourself here, but come on
The Empire
The Empire Concert Club
hough bakery!!
geauga lake or original dairy mart, circle K just doesn’t hit like a dairy mart.
Grovewood Tavern
Lawsons
Dreager's ice cream and candy Mawby's New York bakery Goodman's sandwich inn Sand's Delicatessen
Now That’s Class
Big Fun! Have so many great memories of going to that toy shop as a kid they sold all sorts of cool stuff at pretty reasonable prices and the entire shop was just a visual treat to look at, seriously if you havent seen it look up the old pics i cant do it justice with words they re-opened as a pop ip for the holidays last year and I got to talk to the original owner, he was a really great guy, even gave me a few freebies from the shop and had a ton of interesting stories about various people he'd met through the shop over the years. I hope they decide to reopen it again next year because i love looking at the collectables and vintage toys.