Heaven is a Duck Taco

As a young professionals who love to over indulge in the finest culinary delights, a gastropub is a dream come true. The first time YIC heard about Deagan's, we leapt for joy. Sadly, we were quickly brought back down to reality by the fact that it's just out of our normal price range, meaning it couldn't become a regular pig-out joint (splurge worthy for sure!). Still, just reading the menu and thinking about the microbrew and food combinations we were missing out on made our heads spin.

Sitting there realizing that sadly this was one culinary adventure that wouldn't make it into the annals of YIC was when it actually happened. The heavens parted and the almighty gastrointestinal gods (a banner ad that apparently worked!) showed YIC the way to the frugal digestion promise land: TACO TUESDAYS. Since this sign from the food deities appeared on Monday, it was a little last minute to organize a group excursion, but it had to happen for YIC. Plus, who can say no to tacos?

When the day finally arrived, YIC showed up and while waiting for a table thought it was only fitting to get mojo going for a taco eating frenzy with a Boulder Mojo IPA ($4). This was a fantastic choice, as the robust, hoppy flavor provided the needed juice to wind down from a day at work and wind up for some quality tacos.

Deagan's Taco Tuesday menu is quite simple: there are chicken, beef and tofu tacos all for $2, shrimp and tuna tacos for $3, and this week's special taco was a duck taco for $3.50. Since the adventurous spirit was all around, YIC decided to try a little bit of everything, with a order of one beef, one chicken, one shrimp, and one duck taco.

The chicken and shrimp tacos both had the same toppings and were incredibly bland. The only real flavor came from what anyone would call a disgusting amount of "micro" cilantro. The beef taco was solid: well marinated beef, with a nice sweet pico, cheese and some more cilantro. The beef was definitely the best of the $2 variety and worthy of the Taco Tuesday trip. I washed down all the tacos with another IPA ($4).

None of these $2 tacos held a candle to their big, bad, delicious bro: the duck taco. It was, to be brief, life changing. The shell was deep fried and crispy, and inside was marinated duck confit covered in probably the best Thai chili sauce I have ever tried. This was all topped off with some onions and slaw. From first bite to last this deep fried duck flavor boat was so good that everyone had to try them, so our friends ordered two more without hesitation.

YIC loves a good deal and Taco Tuesday anywhere is always a win, but if you want the best taco YIC has ever had on a Tuesday in Cleveland, Deagan's is your stop and the duck taco is your best bet!(Total 2 Beers and 4 tacos = $18.50)

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A Very Tremont Friday

Sadly Young in CLE was a combination of out of town and working a charity dunk tank outside the Brad Paisley concert on Saturday, meaning we missed the fantastic events that are Discover Gordon Square Day and Parade the Circle. So unless you want a play-by-play of the USA v. Panama gold cup game this week, you’ll have to deal with only reading about a lovely evening in Tremont.

Tremont is probably my favorite neighborhood in Cleveland. The combination of top of the line restaurants, art galleries, historic homes, and fantastic bars make it one of Cleveland’s no-longer-hidden gems. Art walk nights are an excellent opportunity to visit this lively neighborhood, and I was especially excited to play tour guide for some of my transplanted law school chums.

Our night began, as a Friday night after a long week of work should, with happy hour at the Flying Monkey. As I’ve said before, I love the Flying Monkey both for its prices and the great atmosphere, and happy hour on the patio is the perfect combination of everything the Monkey has to offer. The only downside was that I tried a raspberry wheat beer from Shock Top, which was terrible and was a blatant reminder of why there is no such thing as a good wheat beer. Total cost of happy hour - $17.

After some happy hour fun we took a little stroll around Tremont. Art walk nights are excellent because they highlight how many fun options there are in Tremont, from viewing paintings, sculptures and even glassware in the many galleries to grabbing a slice of pizza at Edison’s or a scoop at Tremont Scoops. Tremont is fun for all ages and a great stop for young Clevelanders to get a coffee, grab a bite, or just take in the artwork and neighborhood on a pleasant stroll.

For dinner we headed over to The South Side, which is an embodiment of everything that is Cleveland’s burgeoning restaurant scene. The South Side steals your heart with a wide selection of great beer, fantastic aesthetics, (another patio to die for), great live music, and food that excites the tastebuds. This evening my table decided to share a cornucopia of small plates, all priced at around $10. Between us we tried the enchiladas, P.E.I mussels, spicy pan-fried calamari, chipotle BBQ duck pizza, and the chicken and waffles, each of which were both delicious and affordable! Personally, the duck pizza, which combines provolone mozzarella tomatoes and cilantro lime vinaigrette with the BBQ duck, was my favorite. I also had the always excellent and spicy bison and black bean chili, which is a must when stopping by The South Side. I washed it down with a Two Brothers Cane and Abel, a tasty Red Rye Ale that was slightly hoppy but a very smooth finish. The total cost of my meal with tip and drink was $24.


Our last stop was for one last drink at the Treehouse (another fantastic patio! Think there's a theme here?). The Treehouse is another must try bar featuring a decent draft selection and ok prices, but the real draw here is the atmosphere. The simple fact that it's nothing pretentious and not too loud (especially on the patio!) makes this a great summer bar. My compatriots treated me to an Honkers Ale from Goose Island Brewery, which is a favorite of mine. At this point in the night though my old bones were weary from the week. It was time to say goodnight to a lovely evening in Cleveland for only $41.

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Hot Hot Heat!

The Great American Rib Cook Off is all about heat, from the grills to the sauces, and this year YIC chose to attend on a particularly scorching day. The Great American Rib Cook Off has been a staple of Cleveland’s Summer since 1991, providing a combination of fun music, great food and a good time...so honestly I don’t know what the hell happened this year.

This year’s Rib Cook Off was much smaller than I remember years past being. There were only 10 purveyors of pork, and there wasn’t much of a stage (although it WAS Sunday) and thus no real musical acts. The combination of lame atmosphere, excruciating heat, and exorbitant prices drowned out the presence of even the most spectacular sauces and ribs.

The first hiccup with the Rib Cook Off from a YIC perspective is the cost: it was $10 to park and it usually costs $7 for an adult ticket ($5 with a coupon), except if you get there before 3 p.m. Being the princes of frugality that we are, we made it just in the nick of time, saving ourselves $10 collectively.

The lack of entry price was the only frugal part of the day as we were to soon discover. Since the goal was to try as many of the different sauces as possible, YIC decided to stick to the samples which were 4 or 5 tickets and water, which was much needed on this day, at 3 tickets (ticket = $1.25). All told we ended up buying about $60 in tickets. Throughout the day we tried samplers of ribs from 6 of the vendors and a pulled pork sandwich from one (Ed.: Brendan refused to leave without buying a pulled pork sandwich…).

I suppose I’ll write about the ribs in pure Rib Cook Off style, by naming the best instead of simply describing them all. So for "Best Ribs," the honor goes to Porky and Beans (same as the actual winner) with their ribs being full of rich flavor and falling right off the bone even before we dowsed the with their put-some-hair-on-your-chest hot sauce (description not actual name; although, Porky and Beans, think about it!). Following close behind for me was Texas Thunder, with perfectly cooked ribs that had a nice spice with the grilled on sauce, but not the same succulent dry rub that set Porky and Beans apart.


Now for the important part: "Best Sauce," because, I’m sorry folks, cooking meat is one thing but mixing up a batch of spicy, tasty, burn-the-hair-off-your-mustache-but-make-you-say-sweet-Jesus-that-is-good BBQ sauce is at the very least an art form but in reality more of a gift. This year Butch’s Smack Your Lips BBQ proved they have the gift with their Super Pyro BBQ sauce. This was the perfect combination of hot and tangy and nothing else came close to this at the cook off. This sauce was so good that it is not only the only real bright spot of the day but literally the only thing I will ever admit to liking that comes from New Jersey.

The other three rib gurus whose fare we ate were Johnson’s BBQ, Carolina Rib King, and Uncle Bub’s BBQ. None of the ribs we tried were bad, and we definitely left with full tummies, but it just felt like something was missing which could have made the event better. Also, how in the world Famous Dave’s BBQ won the Peoples' Choice Award two years in a row escapes me!

Overall, this is a pricey event, and although there were still some great ribs the overall atmosphere was seriously weak this year. So the Rib Cook Off has some upside in the chance at tasting some good food, but it comes at the cost of a real splurge. Spending money on something awesome is completely encouraged from time to time, but with the weak showing of vendors, lack of fun entertainment, and generally boring feel to the event, YIC would not recommend making this one of them. Total cost $80 (two people but only 2 hours of fun).

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If my wallet were as big as my stomach...

If my wallet was as big as my stomach, Cleveland restaurateurs would never go hungry. Unfortunately, like many young adults who choose to make Cleveland their home, I can't afford to do everything I desire. But my love of all things Cleveland is too strong a passion to ignore. The only solution I have come upon to resolve this quandary is to search out and find the amazing ways to live and love Cleveland economically.

So this is my attempt to live in blissful frugality. I am going to search out and find the many ways to eat, drink, and love the Forest City for those of us young and living with limited means.

My first stop on this "Tour de Thrifty" was the C-Town Chow Down. The Chow Down, for those of you who don’t know, is a conglomeration of the finest food trucks Cleveland has to offer. Located in Tremont's Lincoln Park (at least in May!) and accompanied by music, these boxcar foodies convene once a month to purvey their wears for the hungry masses.

The lineup of trucks!

I started off my trip with some early afternoon BBQ with a pulled pork sandwich from Jim Kuhn's Pig Lickin' Good BBQ. The pulled pork was cooked perfectly, not dry with some great flavors. I added some of Jim’s famous sauce to the mix and dove in. The sauce was tangy and sweet, which I enjoyed even though I am more partial to spicier BBQ.

Next I headed over to The Nosh Box, which was a new experience for me. I got a chicken flatbread sandwich. The flatbread was a nice idea with some grilled onions and peppers, black beans, rice, cheese and cucumber ranch dressing. It was good but had a few to many flavors happening all at once for my taste, seemed like it should have been trying to be more a sandwich and less of a burrito.

Jibaro was the last stop for our group where my friend got a burrito. Per usual, it did not fall to impress as I made sure to mooch some of the delicious burrito scraps!

The day was supposed to end with some vintage baseball at Thrush Park, but the inclement weather utterly devastated the field of play. So we decided instead to head to the Flying Monkey for Sunday Funday to catch the Tribe game. Flying Monkey is one of my favorite places to grab a drink in Tremont. If you stop by during the week or on Sunday it has a wonderful atmosphere, great prices, and friendly service. Friday and Saturday nights draw crowds, and personally I have to be in the mood for that, but this is a great place for a happy hour drink. On this Sunday it was a great decision as we sat down for with some $2 beers and watch the Reds get slapped around, putting a nice cap on a wonderful afternoon in Cleveland. All told, I spent $15 dollars for a whole afternoon of living and loving Cleveland and I couldn’t have been happier.

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