Some Traditions Are Meant to Evolve

Tradition is a funny thing. It allows us to cling to a routine that is comforting and normal. At the same time, it can prevent us from recognizing that the only constant in this world is change and that sometimes we need to adapt our old traditions to new ones while respecting the spirit of what once was. While attending my undergraduate studies at Case Western Reserve in the early to mid 1990's, I discovered that on the first Thursday night of every month a local band, the First String Band, played at a local bar on the north side of campus called the Barking Spider Tavern. The music was an eclectic mix of early Americana, blues, jazz, Appalachian, rag, and country. The name of the band reflected the group's reliance on all stringed instruments to produce their unique sound.

I can remember spending many a Thursday night at the Spider consuming quantities of Labatt's Blue and listening attentively to the performance of the First String Band. In fact, those nights became very popular on campus and you generally had to show up about an hour early just to be able to get a seat. From 10 pm onward, it was a packed, standing room only crowd. The First String Band became so popular, in fact, that they actually released two albums, one a studio album of the songs that I remember hearing on those Thursday nights and another live album recorded right at the Spider about a year after I graduated from Case. Fortunately, I managed to acquire both (even finding one on Amazon.com) and they now occupy a permanent position on my playlist whenever I want to revel in my past just a little bit.

After I moved out of the Cleveland area, returning on a regular basis to listen to the band became problematic and soon my visits stopped altogether. It wasn't until I had returned to the Akron area in late 2004 that I soon became curious and started doing a little digging on the Internet to find out what had happened to the band. As always, there was both good news as well as bad. The bad news is that the band, the First String Band, had officially broken up due to several members moving away from the area. The good news is that two of the band's members were still performing on the first Thursday of every month at the Spider. Information in hand, I called up two of my former partners in crime from my undergrad days and we decided to make a weekend out of it. Fortunately, there is a bed and breakfast type place right next door to the Spider called the Glidden House. And while certainly not inexpensive, if the three of us split a room, it would work out to about $50 per night per person.

We quickly discovered the ill-conceived part of our master plan after we left the Spider when they closed: There was nothing within walking distance around us that was open to grab some grub. The first time we put this plan into action, we stumbled back over to the Glidden House, extremely hungry, at around 2 am or so. I remembered that there was a candy machine on our floor, but the smallest bill I had was a $5 bill. So I went up to the front desk to get change and I don't know whether the woman working behind the counter was scared or annoyed. In the end, she repeatedly stated that she couldn't break a $5. Dejected and hungry, we simply went to bed. Lesson learned.

Nearly two months ago, my two friends and I started talking about doing another Barking Spider visit over the 4th of July weekend. Since the 4th fell on a Saturday this year, all three of us actually had the Friday before off. So, the plan would be to descend on the Glidden House on the evening of Thursday, July 2nd, have dinner on Coventry Road in Cleveland Heights and pick up a "snack" for later on in the evening. Since we discovered the error of our ways from that first stay, we've always stopped by a favorite local sandwich place called Grum's Sub Shoppe located at 1776 Coventry Road, Cleveland Heights 44118. They can be reached at 216-321-4781, but unfortunately they do not have a website at this time.

Grum's occupies a tiny little shop located very close to the intersection of Coventry and Mayfield. Here is a of shot of the exterior of the store:


Once inside, the entire menu is listed on the wall above you:


The important thing to realize about a Grum's sub is that a half sub is actually more filling to me than an entire footlong sub from Subway. That and a hell of a lot tastier. While I've tried many of the subs at Grum's, the one I always return for is the Turkey Ridge. I do think the bread that they use today isn't quite as good as what I remember from college, but it is still far and above a better product than you'll find in other fast food sub chains. The Turkey Ridge comes with sliced turkey, mayonnaise, tomato, onions, provolone, and an Italian dried spice blend.

While we ordered and waited for our subs to be prepared, I asked my friend Mike to walk around the corner to the convenience store and pick up a bag of ice. I had stopped at the grocery store the night before and spent $3 on a disposable Styrofoam cooler that would serve as the refrigerator for our sandwiches. Once we got back to our hotel room, I prepped the cooler:


I added some ice to the bottom, layered in our sandwiches, and filled the rest with remaining ice:


I can only imagine what someone would've thought if they walked into our room and just saw this container sitting there. Were we transporting kidneys or hearts or something? Nope, just Grum's.

Our snack for later now safely stowed away on ice, we headed next door to the Barking Spider for a bit of pre-show drinking. The entrance to the Spider is actually behind the Arabica coffee shop and looks like this:


As there was a particularly large crowd assembled in the main bar area for the act before the one we were there to see, we decided to sit at a table in one of the outer rooms and wait for some space to open up. Once there, we decided to continue the very long tradition of converting our pitcher of Labatt's Blue to a pitcher of Barking Tans. What on earth, I hear you asking, is a Barking Tan? In a tradition based on the Black and Tan, you start with your basic ingredients:


You then pour out one sacrificial glass of Labatt's Blue:


And then create the Barking Tan by adding the bottle of Guinness to the pitcher:


Here is a Youtube video I shot using my camera phone. And, yes, gentle reader, I know that the video is sideways. This was the first time I had used the new video recorder feature on my phone and I didn't realize that it wouldn't rotate the image. So, just kind of tilt your head a little bit and you'll be fine.



And that first glass of sacrificial Labatt's? Don't worry, it is still happily consumed. We simply rotate who drinks the first glass for each new pitcher of Barking Tans we make. Adding the Guinness was a genius move on the part of the person who decided to first try this. It adds a real depth of flavor to the resulting brew and in a strange way actually takes off the hoppy edge of the Labatt's.

As usual, many pitchers of Barking Tans were consumed, the band was simply amazing, the night air was cool and a zephyr gently blew from the one side of the room to the other. If this had to be my last night on earth, I would happily spend it this way. I shut my eyes and happily regressed into my memories of those nights when I was an undergraduate and realized how lucky I am to be able to experience this again.

At 1 am the Spider promptly closed and we left to stumble back to our room for a little post-Spider revelry. My associates immediately went for their Grum's sandwiches, but I had some photos and video to process and before you knew it, the room was dark and my two associates had turned in for the evening. At about 2:30 am, I realized that I, too, was pretty darn hungry, so with all the lights off, I snapped a few final photos before tearing into my Turkey Ridge sandwich. First, the sandwich wrapped:


And finally, unwrapped:


My recollection of this particular sandwich is actually pretty poor. Imagine that. However, I've had this sandwich enough times to know just how good and filling it is. After polishing off my sub, I shut down the laptop and wearily climbed into bed. It wasn't long before I drifted off to sleep and relived the night's experience at the Spider in my dreams.

My friends and I try to get together about twice a year to have this experience. In fact, I wrote about the last time we did this here. But after rereading the older entry, I realized that all I talked about were the restaurants we went to and not the Spider/First String Band/Grum's Turkey Ridge experience that I also cherish so much. While I realize I can't go back to 1995 and relive the experience as it originally was, I am happy that I am able to spend just a little bit of my time now spending some quality time with my friends, listening to some absolutely great music, and eating and drinking a little bit of the Cleveland from my past. I highly encourage you to check out both The Barking Spider Tavern and Grum's Sub Shoppe if you happen to be in the Case campus area.

  

Weekend in Cleveland

On the first Thursday of every month, the only surviving member of the First String Band plays with fellow musicians at the Barking Spider on Case Western's campus in University Circle. Every six months or so, myself and a few other fraternity brothers will take a road trip back to Cleveland to hear this ensemble play. It's a great way to relive a bit of our past glory, catch up on what is going on in each of our lives and in general, just a nice way to spend an evening. We also usually take the next day off of work and bum around, revisiting some of the old restaurants and haunts we did in days past.

So it goes again. Even though yesterday was January 1st, it turns out that the Spider would be open and the group we wanted to hear would be performing. So we checked into our room at Glidden House (CONVENIENTLY located right next door to the Barking Spider) and headed to Coventry to see what was open for dinner.

We decided to eat at a new place, Tree Country Bistro, located where the Que Tal used to be. It is now a Japanese / Korean / Thai restaurant. This appealed to all of our group since we could each get what we wanted. My friend Mike ordered sushi, and ended up getting the Snow Mountain:


He reports that this was quite good. It had tempura eel that was then wrapped in a maki style roll and topped with crabmeat (well, the fake kind used in California rolls). I decided to go with a Thai curry and opted for the green chicken curry:


It also had peas, green beans, bamboo shoots, green peppers and eggplant. The flavor was excellent, but the heat level was nowhere near what I had asked for (confirmed by another taster in our group who also likes spicy foods). I ordered this Thai spicy. I even went so far as to say, "Not American Spicy. Thai Spicy." And what did I get? Barely warmer than mild. As with other Asian restaurants, I am finding that just because the menu says that spice levels are 1-3 or 1-5, the upper number is never the absolute limit. When I brought the spice level issue up with our waitress, she only then admitted that Thai spicy was probably closer to 5 than a 3 (which according to our menu was the spiciest level). *Sigh*

Today for lunch we decided to hit up an old favorite, the Mad Greek on Fairmount in Cleveland Heights. This has always been a favorite of mine as they make such an excellent grilled pita (I know, it's the simple things in life, isn't it?). The prices were noticeably higher than they have been in the past and the lunch menu was a much more pared down from what we've seen the previous times we went. However, the foods and flavors were outstanding. We decided to start by splitting an order of hummos and grilled pita bread:


It almost looks like a bowl of oatmeal, but I can assure you it isn't. This was very good, if not a bit too much of tahini in the hummos. The grilled pita is like crack and you most assuredly will run out of it before you finish the amount of hummos they give you. Fortunately, additional pita is free of charge. The pita is reasonably fresh and what really gives it it's "crack-like" status is that before serving it, they brush each side with olive oil and throw it on the flat top to slightly caramelize each side. So, so good.

For my lunch I decided to go with a standard: gyro with fries.


The fries were quite good, crispy and hot. The gyro was also delicious, with its blend of spiced meat, the tomatoes, onions and the yogurt sauce.

Tonight we'll be tackling another favorite old haunt, the Euclid Tavern. More on that in my next post.