Review: Vegan Brunch at Beachland Ballroom

At times, my social life is a little ridiculous. In between work travel and running and a million other things I like to do, it can be hard to make time to do all of the things I want to do. Like go to brunch.

My boyfriend and I share a Google calendar to assist with plan making. Otherwise, I think we'd be quadruple booked instead of just double booked some weekends. Months ago, we'd talked about going to Beachland Ballroom for brunch. But it just finally happened.

It was a lazy Sunday afternoon. Around 12:45. We pulled up to the restaurant and easily got parking on the street. We walked up to the restaurant and opened the door. Inside, the lobby area and the restaurant was jam packed with people. And all different kinds of people. Tattooed hipsters. Suburbanites. Older women in sweater sets. Bikers. It was neat to see so many different kinds of people intermingling.

We told the hostess we were starving so she seated us at the bar. A 10 top had just been seated before us in the dining room and she said it would have taken forever for us to get our food. I appreciated her honesty.

We sat down at the bar and Barb the bartender took good care of us. Got us water right away. Quickly took our orders. While we waited for our food, we enjoyed some people watching. The guy sitting next to me was ridiculously hung over...but still drinking. The guys on the other side of my boyfriend were old, grizzly biker looking dudes who orders shots for breakfast. But what really kept my attention were the delicious looking plates of food that kept coming out of the kitchen.

The Vegan Special

I ordered a vegan special - a combo of potatoes, scrambled tofu, veggies, and greens. (one of many vegan and vegetarian items on the menu) The tofu needed a little something so I added some sriracha. (Isn't everything better with a little sriracha?)As I was gobbling down my breakfast Barb the bartender stopped by to check on us. She asked me how I liked my vegan meal and I told her I liked it. She proceeded to tell me that she loves her meat but really thinks that Beachland Ballroom serves up some good vegan food. It was kind of a cool moment. I wouldn't have expected Barb the bartender to be down with vegan food. 

The only bad part of brunch was when the AC kicked off. Based on the looks of the inside of Beachland Ballroom, you might not even expect them to have AC, so I wasn't all that surprised when it stopped working. But what's a little sweat among friends and strangers eating brunch?

I think my boyfriend was a little skeptical about how our meal was going to be based on the location, interior, etc., but he absolutely loved his sausage biscuit and pancakes. He said the coffee was also pretty good, too. 

I really need to start making more time in my schedule for brunch. Especially if I can find more vegan and vegetarian friendly brunch spots!

Review: Vegetarian Tacos at Barrio in Tremont

There are few things I enjoy more in life than margaritas and a good vegetarian or vegan taco.  So when I heard about Barrio in Tremont - a new taco joint where 806 Martini Bar used to be - I was pretty excited.  I was even more excited once I read some Yelp reviews that said they have vegetarian refried bean tacos and tofu tacos.  So despite my rule of not going to a restaurant if it doesn't put its menu online (it's a drag to go somewhere only to discover they have nothing for vegetarians), I guilt tripped my boyfriend into going with me last Thursday. 

I really liked 806 so I was interested to see how the place looked as a Mexican restaurant.  Basically it looks exactly the same with some new "day of the dead" murals and decorations.  Interesting. 

When I walked in the door there was a small sign that said to ask a bartender for a table if there wasn't a hostess available.  There was no hostess in sight so I had to elbow my way to the bar. There were two very overwhelmed looking bartenders and it took me about 10 minutes to get their attention and ask for a table.  Luckily there were a few empty but dirty tables but a bus boy was able to wipe one down for us pretty quickly.  And sadly, that was the only "quick" part of our evening.

Not sure how the servers are assigned tables, but our waitress showed up a good 10-15 minutes after we'd been seated - with no menus.  She plunked down the extensive drink menu on the table and gave us taco order sheets.  She promised that we'd be getting water and free chips and salsa shortly.  And then she dashed off.   

taco order sheets

When our waitress returned, I decided to order a citrus-y specialty margarita.  The name escapes me now. (and the drink menu isn't online).  My boyfriend got a beer and we tried to order a queso dip appetizer but they were out of it, so we ordered some guacamole.  We had a couple questions about how the taco ordering system works, so our waitress broke it down for us.  All of the tacos are $3 each.  First you pick a type of taco shell - flour or hard or soft corn.  Then you pick a protein, salsa, toppings, sauce, and cheese.  Easy peasy.  You fill out what you want on a nice little order sheet and your order is whisked away to the kitchen.  If you don't like tacos, this really wouldn't be your kind of places because they pretty much only serve tacos, salsas, a couple sides, and a salad and soup.  

Our drinks arrived first.  My drink was great.  I'd never seen a margarita this color but it was good.  It tasted green if that makes sense.  But I'm a vegetarian and like "green" things, so it was fine by me.  My boyfriend tried it and hated it.   

green tasting margarita

About 15 minutes later our waitress reappeared to check on us.  I asked if we could have some water and she promised it would show up soon.  And it did.  But not before I finished my drink.  And there was still no sign of salsa and chips.  Not sure if this was an accident or they just wanted us to drink faster?  So we ordered another drink.  And waited. It's been ages since I worked in any sort of restaurant environment, but I get the impression that it's pretty easy to serve up chips and salsa, yes?  And I'd think guac would be the same way.  Make a huge batch of it, throw it in a bowl, and boom!

Our second drink arrive before either of those things.  I got a traditional margarita that was ok.  My boyfriend's peach margarita tasted just like my traditional one.  The bartender (there was only one for most of the time we were there) was too overwhelmed to make our drinks so our waitress went behind the bar to make them for us. (which caused a bunch of confusion a half hour later when the bartender finally got to our ticket and tried to serve us the drinks we ordered)

Shortly after that our chips and salsa arrived.  I wasn't expecting green salsa.  It was just ok.  The chips were great, though.  Nice and fresh.  We ate our way through the chips and started to wonder if we'd ever see our guac or tacos.  The next time our waitress showed up we asked about our guac.  She explained that the kitchen was backed up and that it should be at the table soon. 

green salsa

I forget how long "soon" was...but it really wasn't soon.  Tables that were seated when we were had their checks and were leaving before our guac arrived.  And if I'd known how it would taste, I never would have even bothered to order it.  I've never had guac out of a bag in the grocery store (y'know, the kind that has who knows how many chemicals to keep it fresh in the store), but I'd imagine it would taste like this stuff.  Boring, bland, and with a weird consistency.  We were starving by this point otherwise we wouldn't have eaten it.

more green food - guacamole

Thankfully our tacos showed up before we ate too much of the guac.  I had great hope for them.  If you have a restaurant and are going to serve basically one menu item, that menu item is going to be awesome, right?  Wrong.

I had 2 tofu tacos and 1 refried beans taco in flour shells.  The beans were pretty dry and bland and all of the toppings I put on the taco couldn't help to make it taste good.  I didn't finish it.  The tofu tacos were a smidge better.  If you like unseasoned tofu.  (but who really likes unseasoned tofu?!)  The cilantro pesto sauce gave the tofu a little bit of flavor but not enough to make it great, in my opinion.  My boyfriend's tacos weren't much better.  He enjoyed his pork taco, but he didn't finish the other two that he ordered.  Maybe I should have expected less from $3 tacos?  Dunno.  I think my $3 might have been better spent at Edison's for a slice of pizza.

$3 tacos

But...I seem to be in the minority in my opinion of Barrio, based on the other reviews I've read online.  I have no plans to rush back and try it again, so I guess if I want a good vegetarian taco, I'm going to have to go to Deagan's on a Tuesday.  But if you check it out, let me know what you think. 





Review: Cheap Vegetarian Happy Hour Eats at Felice

My apologies for being MIA lately. It's getting increasingly difficult to balance work, 50k training, sleeping, and a social life.  Throw in a couple upcoming work trips, and you might not hear from me again until June.  But it's the quality of a post, not the quantity, right?

Felice's 3rd Floor Lounge

Recently, I had the absolute pleasure of dropping by Felice near the Shaker Heights/Cleveland border for their amazing happy hour.  And before I get into the nitty gritty - I can sum up my review by saying this - why in the heck haven't I gone their sooner?

Located in a big old house on Larchmere, Felice embodies everything that I like about bars set in old houses - it's oozing with character, they've made great use of the space, and someone has spent a lot of time and probably money making this a funky little place for people to hang out.  And I shouldn't really be surprised, since the folks behind Felice also own Lava Lounge, my favorite bar in Tremont, and Fat Cats.

After you walk up the stairs and past the sprawling front porch at Felice, you walk into the traditional dining room.  Like I said, I was there during happy hour, so there wasn't much happening on floor one.  Up a short flight of stairs is the bar and a lounge area.  This was packed when I was there.  While my boyfriend and I looked around for any place to sit, a server asked us if we were interested in eating/drinking for happy hour and directed us to the third floor lounge for seating.  Every three story house should have a lounge like this one.  Some interior designers might cringe at all of the funky angles of what was probably an attic at some point.  Not at Felice!  Every little odd nook and cranny has either built in seating or small furniture that perfectly fits the space.