The city of Cleveland is booming!  Listed as one of the New York Times 52 places to go in 2015 and National Geographic's Places You Need to Visit in 2018, Cleveland has a vibrant restaurant and bar scene, with lots of festivals, sporting events, and museums.  In fact, Travel+Leisure magazine ranked Cleveland #7 in their 10 Best Foodie Cities in the U.S. for 2023!  The members of the Cleveland Institute for Computational Biology frequently enjoy these comforts of Cleveland, and we are happy to share our experiences here with you.  Thoughts and opinions are of their respective post authors and do not reflect those of any institution or official agency.

Orchids Forever

It’s mid-February in Cleveland.  For those outside of CLE, mention of this city in the middle of winter conjures visions of blowing snow and frozen lakes.  Yeah, that sounds about right (Figure 1). Whether it’s the Cleveland winter we have come to expect or the strange alternative that is this year (a record high the […]

Original Immersive Van Gogh Exhibit (Cleveland)

We are two years deep into this pandemic thing, and some of us are beyond stir crazy.  As I have written long ago, Clevelanders love the arts.  On any given pre-pandemic day, it wasn’t hard to find a concert offered by the Cleveland Orchestra or a ballet at Playhouse Square.  Oh, those were the days. […]

Zhug, including the before times…

Remember the before times when we could go out to eat in a crowded restaurant?  Indoors?  With no masks?  And little fear beyond a bad but high priced meal or a long wait for a table? Oh, those were the pre-2020 days… We’re at now at the end of 2020, and the before times seem […]

Voodoo Brewery Cleveland

Wow, what a difference a month can make.   Remember life pre-COVID-19?  It’s hard to believe now, but we all used to gather in groups and do stuff together like eat in restaurants.  It seems so long ago… One of our last meals pre-COVID-19 was lunch at Voodoo Brewery Cleveland on Lee Road.  Voodoo Brewery […]

BOLD Food and Drink

Like most older American cities with sizable surrounding suburbs, Cleveland has struggled to attract and retain downtown residents.  Cleveland’s latest strategy targets the area known locally as “The Flats,” a downtown area on the east and west banks of the Cuyahoga River.  The Flats has had a long and colorful history pretty much since the […]

Blu (formerly Moxie)

Cleveland, you’ve got moxie!  Well, at least you did until 2019. Moxie was a Cleveland-area restaurant located in the Beachwood ‘burbs that closed its doors last year after a 22-year run.  I kinda groaned when the announcement of its closing was made.  I mean, I wouldn’t necessarily classify Moxie as destination dining, but it was […]

M.U.S.i.C. (Musical Upcoming Stars in the Classics)

At the risk of repeating myself again (ha!), Cleveland is steeped in all kinds of music.  I have written about the biggies.  You know, concerts at Severance Hall, at Blossom, at Oberlin, etc.  But, if that’s all you think we have here in the CLE, well, you are very much mistaken. If you listen very […]

Día de Muertos (Day of the Dead)

It’s mid-to-late October in the Cleveland area, and fall is in the middle of its full technicolor show (Figure 1).  Retailers are stocked with everything pumpkin spiced.  Skeletons seem to be everywhere. You know what that means–time to make an ofrenda! ¿Cómo? For those of us raised in this country and of a certain age, […]

Cleveland National Air Show

The signs of the new academic year are all around us.  Students are moving into dorms on campus.  There’s been a run on the school supply aisles at Target.  The Canadian geese and  US Navy Blue Angels are starting to fly in formation overhead. Wait–what?!? Every Labor Day weekend since 1964, the Burke Lakefront Airport […]

Finger Lakes (Keuka and Seneca Lakes) and wine tasting

Near (Figures 1 and 2), far (Figure 3-5), wherever you are, I believe that the wine does go on…                 What can I say, I do heart me some wine.  When I am out and about, I can’t resist the opportunity to do some tasting when it presents […]

Washington Place Bistro & Inn

Rain, rain, go away.  Come again another day. So far this spring, the sun has been a major flirt but has yet to commit.  More persistent is the rain.  And, oh, how it has rained this spring. Clevelanders, already well aware that abundant sunlight is sparse throughout the year here in Northeast Ohio, are anxious […]

Lox, Stock, and Brisket

Good food prepared relatively quickly for pick-up is hard to find.  Face it:  most prepared or quick food is junk, and we’re better off cooking something at home.  But, that requires time.  And planning.  We never have enough of the former, and the latter just makes me tired thinking about it.  So, while recent surveys […]