Weekend Getaway: Cleveland, Ohio
Let's head to The Land for a weekend of great pizza, tropical drinks, and towering pastrami sandwiches.
Welcome to the weekend! Here’s what you’ll find in this week’s newsletter:
Weekend Getaway: Cleveland’s food scene is an undersung gem — we’ll take you on a tour of our favorite cafes, dumpling destinations, and many other places.
January’s Featured Field Guide: Want to plan a visit to Cleveland? Our full list of favorites is available in our brand-new Field Guide to Cleveland — a free download for our paid subscribers! This 38-page dining guide includes a curated three-day itinerary with 25+ vetted recommendations for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and drinks.
Weekend Reading: Where to eat in Seattle now, Michelin heads to Texas, why you need to go eat in Tucson, and the Maine scallop revival
The Riviera of the Midwest
CLEVELAND, OHIO — We keep finding ourselves in Cleveland. With more than a half dozen trips over the last few years, it’s among our most-visited destinations in the country recently, and we’re finally putting all of our recommended restaurants and bars together into one list.
Located along beautiful Lake Erie, Cleveland is a worthy destination for sports (the Cavaliers, Browns, and Guardians all play downtown) and art (the Cleveland Museum of Art is a stellar institution), though we visit as often as we can for the food. The dining scene here is robust and our itinerary will take you to the city’s most exciting restaurants and the best spots for a cocktail, beer, or glass of wine where you can relax and soak up all that Cleveland has to offer.
We never miss Cordelia, where Vinnie Cimino and his talented team of chefs tap into Midwestern nostalgia and history but present all the dishes in forward-thinking ways. We’ve been here half a dozen times, and love the $90 per person Bellie Up menu — this is the way to go, since the kitchen will send you a whole bunch of plates. On our most recent visit last month, we loved the fancy take on Cincinnati chili dip, the barbecued carrots, and the bone marrow pot pie, which Cimino described as “the best Dinty Moore you’ve ever had.” Many dishes nod to Cleveland’s history, and the chefs will tell you about how restaurants such as AsiaTown’s LJ Shanghai have inspired their takes on modern Midwest cuisine.
On this latest trip to Cleveland, we also stopped in at Il Rione Pizzeria, a pick from
of , who recommended it for pizza and a Negroni. We, too, got a round of Negronis plus the Green Pie, topped with red sauce, mozzarella, arugula pesto, fried sage leaves, and basil, and added pepperoni cups per our bartender’s advice (this was a good call!).Ready to explore more of Cleveland? Let’s head to our favorite spot for brunch.