Top Recommended Layover Activities:
1. Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum
1 Key Plaza
Cleveland, OH 44114
Cross Street: East Lakeside Avenue
Phone: (216) 781-7625
Price: Adults $14.95; seniors (over 55) and children (9-11) $11.50
Sleek I.M. Pei architecture overlooking Lake Erie showcases several lifetimes of rock-and-roll goodies. The six-story gem holds hundreds of rare treasures, including rock legends’ family photos, Jim Morrison’s letters to his mom, Janis Joplin’s 1965 Porsche and the suit Elvis wore on the "Ed Sullivan Show." Revisit the Summer of Love with classic concert film footage, experience the psychedelic era, or just admire George Clinton’s wardrobe.Built for music lovers of any age, the museum explores individual artists’ careers, as well as the history, culture, and political and social influences of music. One popular video features a minister destroying dozens of LPs of what he claimed was "Satan’s music." Candid photos of musical legends grace the gallery walls. The top floor holds the single largest Elvis exhibition outside of Memphis, featuring artifacts such as Presley’s crayon box, draft card, Army uniform and Gibson J-200 guitar.
2. Jacobs Field
2401 Ontario St
Cleveland, OH 44115
Cross Street: Broadway Avenue
Phone: (216) 420-4200
Price: $18-$60
Home of the Indians baseball team, the Jake has the hottest seats in town. Besides the largest freestanding scoreboard in the U.S. highlights include the Bud Light Fancast Booth where fans with the gift of gab can broadcast six outs of Indians baseball. There’s also the Little Tikes Kidsland and the Davey Tree Back Yard Picnic Plaza, a four-tiered area offering food and pregame batting-practice views. Wahoo World is where tribe wanna-bes can go up against the speed-pitch machine, the video batting cage and Omar’s Golf Challenge. Best of all, fans that catch a foul ball "on the fly" obtain an honorary contract from the Cleveland Indians. Built in 1994 solely for baseball, Jacobs Field features a design that echoes Cleveland’s industrial history. But unlike the city’s worn-out bridges and factories rustily lugging into the 21st century, the Indians have been rehabbed into a sparkling franchise.
3. West Side Market
1979 W 25th St
Cleveland, OH 44113-3455
Cross Street: Lorain Avenue
Phone: (216) 664-3386
A living scrapbook of Cleveland’s flavorful history comes to life at this West 25th Street food landmark.Urban wanderers looking for something more can travel to this historic marketplace and find fabulous firecracker radishes and plump, flavorful tomatoes. Corner to corner, it’s a social experience to be cherished. People-watching opportunities are definitely of the four-star variety. This is ground zero for experiencing Cleveland’s melting-pot atmosphere. You can drink coffee when you shop, the vendors are friendly, and you won’t find pierogi like these in your grocer’s freezer case. After 85 years, the Market’s still going strong and features over 80 vendors selling everything from fresh lamb (Bistricky’s) to cigars (Don Pablo). You’ll also find herbs, fresh seafood, sausage sandwiches, sauerkraut, fresh flowers, dairy products, teas, candies and baked goods. The prices are great at the outdoor fruit and vegetable walkway when the produce is ripe and ready.
4. Lola Bistro & Wine Bar ($$$)
900 Literary Rd
Cleveland, OH 44113-4441
Cross Street: Professor Avenue
Phone: (216) 771-5652
Since 1997, the city’s premiere bistro has doled out high-end comfort food with a twist.In a historic neighborhood of onion-domed Russian Orthodox churches, Lola is surrounded by babushkas during the day and BMWs at night. Inside, it’s cool but comfortable, a culinary showcase of chic techniques and modern methods. Chef Michael Symon is a hometown product who graduated from the Culinary Institute of America and worked his way up the local food chain. Symon’s stylings can be admired both live and via his frequent Food Network appearances. Lola’s menu lists North Coast staples like lasagna, tater tots and mac ’n’ cheese. Forget great aunt Fanny’s comfort supper: Symon’s porcini-laced lasagna uses gouda; fresh crab tater tots side his Slash ’n’ Burn (Lola speak for blackened grouper); and macaroni accompanies goat cheese-and-rosemary chicken. The raw bar hums from afternoon until late night, with last oyster call at 2am on weekends.
5. Tommy’s ($$)
1824 Coventry Rd
Cleveland, OH 44118-1683
Phone: (216) 321-7757
Back in the brown-rice-and-Birkenstock ’70s, this was the stairway to hummus.The best-loved macrobiotic-friendly joint in town is the place where herbivores with navel rings and carnivores in polo shirts can chow down together. With its shaded ceiling lights and high-backed booths, this could be any quick lunch stand.The menu runs to soups, sandwiches and salads, with lunch and dinner plates like flame-grilled eggplant baba ghanoush and a shiitake mushroom and green bean bowl the standouts. No one will flinch if you’re into flesh (not much, at least), so go ahead and try a corned beef on pita. Some combos named for regulars border on the bizarre. The Bill Max falafel is doused in barbecue, but try the veggie burger. Strictly non-steer, it’s as flavorful as any patty in a truck-stop diner.
6. Malley’s Chocolates ($)
14822 Madison Ave
Cleveland, OH 44107-4010
Phone: (216) 529-6262
Pack your will power: Just strolling through the candy bins is enough to make you nutty.This friendly family-owned-and-run sweetshop and soda fountain has made its wholesome reputation by playing to the kid in all of us. All the ice cream in this West Side institution is hand packed, and you can find true chocolate love (including the hand-dipped Nutmallow and the coveted Billy Bob) in finer stores throughout the city. But the real hot ticket is a seat at the soda fountain. Done up in pink and green, the stool-and-counter ensemble looks like something out of a Norman Rockwell painting. Behind the counter, candy stripe-uniformed workers pack ice cream. Here’s the scoop: The Puppy Love sundae is an innocent flirtation; then progress to one of the gooier assemblies, like the Caramel Turtle variation. Larger groups can cool their jets in one of the trellised booths in back.
1. Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum
1 Key Plaza
Cleveland, OH 44114
Cross Street: East Lakeside Avenue
Phone: (216) 781-7625
Price: Adults $14.95; seniors (over 55) and children (9-11) $11.50
Sleek I.M. Pei architecture overlooking Lake Erie showcases several lifetimes of rock-and-roll goodies. The six-story gem holds hundreds of rare treasures, including rock legends’ family photos, Jim Morrison’s letters to his mom, Janis Joplin’s 1965 Porsche and the suit Elvis wore on the "Ed Sullivan Show." Revisit the Summer of Love with classic concert film footage, experience the psychedelic era, or just admire George Clinton’s wardrobe.Built for music lovers of any age, the museum explores individual artists’ careers, as well as the history, culture, and political and social influences of music. One popular video features a minister destroying dozens of LPs of what he claimed was "Satan’s music." Candid photos of musical legends grace the gallery walls. The top floor holds the single largest Elvis exhibition outside of Memphis, featuring artifacts such as Presley’s crayon box, draft card, Army uniform and Gibson J-200 guitar.
2. Jacobs Field
2401 Ontario St
Cleveland, OH 44115
Cross Street: Broadway Avenue
Phone: (216) 420-4200
Price: $18-$60
Home of the Indians baseball team, the Jake has the hottest seats in town. Besides the largest freestanding scoreboard in the U.S. highlights include the Bud Light Fancast Booth where fans with the gift of gab can broadcast six outs of Indians baseball. There’s also the Little Tikes Kidsland and the Davey Tree Back Yard Picnic Plaza, a four-tiered area offering food and pregame batting-practice views. Wahoo World is where tribe wanna-bes can go up against the speed-pitch machine, the video batting cage and Omar’s Golf Challenge. Best of all, fans that catch a foul ball "on the fly" obtain an honorary contract from the Cleveland Indians. Built in 1994 solely for baseball, Jacobs Field features a design that echoes Cleveland’s industrial history. But unlike the city’s worn-out bridges and factories rustily lugging into the 21st century, the Indians have been rehabbed into a sparkling franchise.
3. West Side Market
1979 W 25th St
Cleveland, OH 44113-3455
Cross Street: Lorain Avenue
Phone: (216) 664-3386
A living scrapbook of Cleveland’s flavorful history comes to life at this West 25th Street food landmark.Urban wanderers looking for something more can travel to this historic marketplace and find fabulous firecracker radishes and plump, flavorful tomatoes. Corner to corner, it’s a social experience to be cherished. People-watching opportunities are definitely of the four-star variety. This is ground zero for experiencing Cleveland’s melting-pot atmosphere. You can drink coffee when you shop, the vendors are friendly, and you won’t find pierogi like these in your grocer’s freezer case. After 85 years, the Market’s still going strong and features over 80 vendors selling everything from fresh lamb (Bistricky’s) to cigars (Don Pablo). You’ll also find herbs, fresh seafood, sausage sandwiches, sauerkraut, fresh flowers, dairy products, teas, candies and baked goods. The prices are great at the outdoor fruit and vegetable walkway when the produce is ripe and ready.
4. Lola Bistro & Wine Bar ($$$)
900 Literary Rd
Cleveland, OH 44113-4441
Cross Street: Professor Avenue
Phone: (216) 771-5652
Since 1997, the city’s premiere bistro has doled out high-end comfort food with a twist.In a historic neighborhood of onion-domed Russian Orthodox churches, Lola is surrounded by babushkas during the day and BMWs at night. Inside, it’s cool but comfortable, a culinary showcase of chic techniques and modern methods. Chef Michael Symon is a hometown product who graduated from the Culinary Institute of America and worked his way up the local food chain. Symon’s stylings can be admired both live and via his frequent Food Network appearances. Lola’s menu lists North Coast staples like lasagna, tater tots and mac ’n’ cheese. Forget great aunt Fanny’s comfort supper: Symon’s porcini-laced lasagna uses gouda; fresh crab tater tots side his Slash ’n’ Burn (Lola speak for blackened grouper); and macaroni accompanies goat cheese-and-rosemary chicken. The raw bar hums from afternoon until late night, with last oyster call at 2am on weekends.
5. Tommy’s ($$)
1824 Coventry Rd
Cleveland, OH 44118-1683
Phone: (216) 321-7757
Back in the brown-rice-and-Birkenstock ’70s, this was the stairway to hummus.The best-loved macrobiotic-friendly joint in town is the place where herbivores with navel rings and carnivores in polo shirts can chow down together. With its shaded ceiling lights and high-backed booths, this could be any quick lunch stand.The menu runs to soups, sandwiches and salads, with lunch and dinner plates like flame-grilled eggplant baba ghanoush and a shiitake mushroom and green bean bowl the standouts. No one will flinch if you’re into flesh (not much, at least), so go ahead and try a corned beef on pita. Some combos named for regulars border on the bizarre. The Bill Max falafel is doused in barbecue, but try the veggie burger. Strictly non-steer, it’s as flavorful as any patty in a truck-stop diner.
6. Malley’s Chocolates ($)
14822 Madison Ave
Cleveland, OH 44107-4010
Phone: (216) 529-6262
Pack your will power: Just strolling through the candy bins is enough to make you nutty.This friendly family-owned-and-run sweetshop and soda fountain has made its wholesome reputation by playing to the kid in all of us. All the ice cream in this West Side institution is hand packed, and you can find true chocolate love (including the hand-dipped Nutmallow and the coveted Billy Bob) in finer stores throughout the city. But the real hot ticket is a seat at the soda fountain. Done up in pink and green, the stool-and-counter ensemble looks like something out of a Norman Rockwell painting. Behind the counter, candy stripe-uniformed workers pack ice cream. Here’s the scoop: The Puppy Love sundae is an innocent flirtation; then progress to one of the gooier assemblies, like the Caramel Turtle variation. Larger groups can cool their jets in one of the trellised booths in back.