(outside of market) (back of produce area) (inside market)
Soon after arriving at the Clifford House, Nancy's toothbrush jumped into the toilet. Jerry Seinfeld's nightmare! Needless to say, this was a problem we needed to solve quickly. Fortunately, the Clifford House was wonderfully close to many things, including a grocery store literally 20 steps from the front door. When Nancy's toothbrush took an unexpected dive, we strolled to Dave's market for a new one.
Also close, though containing no toothbrush vendors, is the amazing West Side Market, pictured below.
(outside
of market)
(back of produce
area)
(inside market)
Only two blocks from the B&B, the West Side Market was an amazing, European-flavored shopping extravaganza. For someone who loves to grocery shop, this was like going to Heaven. With well over a hundred vendors selling meats, baked goods, candies, coffee, fish, fruit, vegetables, dairy and everything else you might gastronomically need, the Market was wonderfully overwhelming.
The locals are quite used to it, and so take it for granted. However, I was so amazed by the sheer volume of customers, vendors, and wares, that it pained me that I could not do much shopping there since we were in town for such a short time. The idea that I could walk to this Market, buy a suckling pig and everything I needed to go with it, walk home with it, cook it, eat it, and then walk there the next day and tell the vendors how much I enjoyed it was a foodie fantasy I had floating about in my head.
But, I had to resign myself to many "next time we're here" statements instead. These are not satisfying, but they do at least give me something to dream about when I am buying some cruddy pork chops at the grocery store here in town.
But back to Cleveland, and Ohio City in particular, the Market is also across the street from a small but vibrant pedestrian area with brick streets and mature shade trees. Here we discovered the Great Lakes Brewing Company, a microbrewery and restaurant. Across the street is a coffee bar as well as a hot new restaurant, the Flying Fig. Next door to the brewery is the Fulton Avenue Wine Bar, which featured about 30 wines by the glass. The benefits of such vendors within walking distance of our B&B should be obvious, but I will talk about them (and downtown) on the next page anyway...