FoodieCLE Deck, Brewsters

So, our first outing for our foodie deck was kind of a cheater one, Brewster's is in our neighborhood and we go there occasionally.

We went with Dave and my brother Shig and both of the kids.  Unfortunately my phone freaked out and did not save most of the pics I took, it allowed itself to reset and then wouldn't load for like 10 minutes.  Not sure what happened, perhaps it didn't like the atmosphere.  Or was jealous of how good it was.  Cause it was pretty awesomely good.

Here's a pic of the card we used and the menu, the only pic my phone didn't eat...

I ate the Drunk as a Skunk Beef tips, they were AWESOME.  So tender, cooked perfectly (medium rare), flavorful and just overall really perfect.  I did ask for no onions and they didn't care, onions marring my beautiful button mushrooms, making them taste a little oniony but not ruining it for me.  And the mashed potatoes....chunky and garlicy, perfectly complimented the steak and mushrooms.  A real "man's mans" kind of dinner.

Ry got the philly cheese steak pizza, which he wasn't as pleased with.... his words: Eh...it was okay, I mean, it wasn't bad.

My brother got the Old man and the sea, a ridiculous amount of fried food from the ocean.  I had some of his fish, it was pretty good.

Dave got the Root Beer Chicken.  Their root beer bbq sauce is pretty awesome, I think dave liked his.

I think we are going out again tonight for the foodie deck, I'll let you know.  I had some really cool pictures of the dinner before I ate it.  Okay, you caught me, I lied.  I forgot to take the pics before.  I took some really good ones after I ate most of it but...I guess even phones need to eat.

My score:  Yeah, I'd eat there again.  Partially because it's so close to my house and partially because it's a decent place to eat.  Sometimes we have had not so good nights there, though, so we don't go that often.  But, occasionally, it's a good place to eat.

Cleveland area haunted house reviews, week 2

We only went to one house this weekend, Cornstalkers in Hinckley.  We got a Groupon for buy four passes for $8 each, which is the only reason we went to this one (honestly I hadn't heard of it before and it didn't come up on my searches when I was looking...).  Which ended up being an awesome deal, because admission was $20.00 a person normally. 

Anyway, I definitely recommend this one.  Even if you are paying full price (suckers...).  It was the longest house we have been to so far this year, it took us an hour and some change to get through all three parts.  It's all outdoors, so keep that in mind if you do go.  We had a perfectly beautiful night for it, too, in the lower 60s. 

What made this house good without details that ruin it? Hmm...well, it was long and interesting.  That's always a plus.  And some how they got their corn impossibly tall.  I swear it was 10 feet tall.  Genetic engineering nowadays.... but it was nice because corn haunted houses where you can see over the corn are kind of lame, no offense.  The props and created scenery were a little lacking, but this house is all about ambiance and actors.  We had some pretty good actors, even though they were few and far between. It wasn't that busy so they were able to double back on us and get us repeatedly, but if it were busier they might have been spread too thin. 

Sometimes not having a lot of theatrical props and hydraulically operated monsters in a house is old school and fun.  Ambiance means a lot in a house and sometimes bigger haunted houses rely too much on gizmos and rubber masks and not enough on the basics.  I'm not saying this is the scariest haunted house I've ever been to, but it has the basics down, which is refreshing. And it was fun.  The actors had fun, we had fun, it was a good time.  Could they make improvements?  Definitely.  But were they a decent and sound haunted house which provides a good time that lasts longer than 15 minutes?  By far. 

My score for the Hinckley Cornstalkers Haunted House:  7 out of 10 legless zombie girls.

Cleveland Area haunted houses week 1 review

So, this past Friday we went to North Olmsted's Fear Experience and Elyria's Hauntville (in that order).  Originally we were going to go to North Olmsted and Hinckley but the Hinckley house is all outdoors and we are currently in our fall monsoon season so it was closed due to weather.  So, here is my personal review and opinion of the houses. 

The Fear Experience, Haunting a strip mall near you...

We had a groupon for this and got VIP tickets for the same price as regular tickets so we could have gone through the houses again for free as many times as we wanted (all except for martin who had to buy a regular ticket) and we wouldn't have to wait in line.  That would have been good later, but this early in the season we didn't have to wait in line anyway.  Oh well.  Still, it would have been nice.  This groupon we had to buy for a specific day and they were only offering them for the first few weekends anyway, so they had our number.  Honestly, we weren't even gonna go here, it was the groupon that saved us when Hinckley fell through. 

They also tried to upsell us on this ride where they put you in a hydraulic coffin and shake it around like you are being buried alive.  I passed on that, too.  Not a fan of being put in a box and shaken around. 

These houses were pretty good.  Nothing amazing but they weren't disappointing, either. The actors were okay, the makeup was good, the effects were normal haunted house fare.  I mean, nothing jumped out at me and said, hey, this is super duper cool or scary.  So, nothing left a major impression.  They were fun and amusing and that's all one can really ask for from a haunted house in a strip mall.  I mean, the ambiance is lost a little when the whole second house smells a little like the Chinese restaurant next door.

My overall score: 6 out of 10 mallrats.

Hauntville, stripmall spooks second set....

So, this one was a little harder to find, since the sign was small, unlit and located out in front of a strip mall just like it was a "vote for Hauntville for mayor" sign in the grass.  Lucky for us there was also a giant searchlight above it or we probably would have driven past it again the second time. 

Surprise!  This one is also in a strip mall, conveniently located next to Halloween City, just in case you needed to go get some fake blood to look adequately mangled after your housing experience. 
This was supposed to be three haunted houses but really it was just one house with three separate themes located inside.  We always had a guide show up at the entrance to the next area to tell us we were entering the next area.  The beginning of cell block 13 was interesting but then after the beginning it was all kind of just black hallways and a few rooms, and even fewer actors.  The second one, psycho manor, had a little more decorations and actors happening and the third "house" (if you can call it it's own house...) the dark abyss was kind of swampy but nothing spectacular.  I will tell you, I've been through the vagina tunnel (if you are a haunted house you know what I mean...it has nothing to do with an actual vagina nor does it look like one), they surprised me a bit with this one.  That's all I'm going to say about it. 

The website and the banner at the location claim this is "Ohio's Scariest Haunted House!!!" I politely disagree.  It wasn't bad, it was kind of understaffed and a little dull in spots but it was pretty average for a haunted house.  I had fun but I wasn't convinced on the "Scariest Haunted House" part of the self proclaimed review. 

My review: 6.5 out of 10 vials of fake blood at 20% off retail value.

These houses weren't great but they set a good start for the Halloween season.  I'll see you back again next week with our first Pittsburgh reviews.