Who: Dana C. Crawford, PhD
What: The Standard Bar & Grille
Where: 779 East 185th Street, Cleveland, OH 44119
My husband Steve and I visited The Standard on a post-holiday Saturday (12-27-2014) for lunch. Steve had heard of this and other restaurants as part of the East 185th Street district in Cleveland. We are fans of the gastro-pub scene and decided to give it a try. The interior of the pub is very nice and offers bar seating, high tops, and regular tables. The interior is simply decorated, and the tin ceiling (is it faux?) is a nice touch. The bar is fully stocked, and the Cleveland Brewery is next door, so there are so nice local selections on draft (as well as a good selection of bottled beers). We didn’t try cocktails on this day, so we’ll have to report on that during a second visit. Steve and I were feeling munchy that day, so we opted for our patented “tapas style” lunch: order a bunch of appetizers and share! We ordered the crispy arancini, the chicken livers, the shredded Brussel sprouts, the baby kale salad, the mussels, and the mac n’ cheese with bacon. We also ordered Cleveland Brewery beer on draft (I first tried the pumpkin IPA but switched to the regular IPA after tasting Steve’s). I loved the southern-style chicken livers, complete with grits and candied jalapenos! And, the mussels were plump with an unexpected fennel broth (usually we expect the typical white wine broth). The mac ‘n cheese was also good, but as you might suspect, our eyes were bigger than our stomachs, so we ended up boxing the carbs for later.
Overall, we had a pleasant experience and great food. The service was a little slow, but that might not be typical because there only seemed to be one server on hand for this post-holiday lunch. We definitely be back to try the entrees and cocktails!
