Saturday, October 08, 2005

Cleveland Park Bar & Grill Opens For Business

As I drove through Cleveland Park last night on my way home from work I noticed a new "Now Open!" sign above what used to be Bricks and someone was taking down the paper that has covered the windows for the last few weeks. In the interests of bringing the latest news to my faithful readers, I later slogged through last night's torrential storm to the CP strip to take a look. What was Bricks is now the Cleveland Park Bar & Grill. The new owners (three of them!) have made a lot of changes: new wallpaper, snazzy mirrors, juke box, bench seats, wall paneling, flat-panel televisions, re-finished bar, etc., etc.

Friday night was what they called a "soft opening" -- no advertising, just friends and families had been told, but the Strip foot traffic even for such a wet and wild night helped to fill the place. I guess a lot of locals have missed the Park Bench and Bricks. Incidentally, the word is that the Park Bench will reopen in a couple of weeks as the Uptown Tavern.

The menu is far from complete but there's still the wood burning oven for the pizza, plus there's now a "Dinner Menu" involving steaks, burgers, salmon, and some Italian stuff. OK, so I'm not a restaurant critic. The opening night free pizza was fine but the crusts were consistantly burnt -- seems like the kitchen staff needs a bit more practice with the oven. But let's not forget, it was free.

Starters include Italian cold cuts, pizza bianca, bruschettas and salads. The desserts are listed under the heading of "Sugar," so do with that what you will although I noticed it involved such things as ice cream, tarts, brownies, and more ice cream.

Lots of wines available. The usual lineup of beers on tap including Guinness but unfortunately, no Bass so there go the black-and-tans.

Anyway, it's good to see the place back in business, and all you lost souls that have been roaming the area all summer with no place to go -- the Cleveland Park Bar & Grill is here for you.

2 comments:

Miss Penny Lane said...

Yeah, I missed my window seat this past summer! Glad they reopened, if not for any reason other than they will take some people away from Aroma and leave me my bar stool. ;) I went to CPB&G last week--looks like they're going to do well!

kob said...

Thanks for your note -- good luck with the blog. I like the concept, the focus on connecticut avenue. Lots of interesting material to mine there.