The Cleveland Edit: Moving out of the city
Moving from one of the busiest cities in America full of politics and hard-workers to Cleveland was a total shock to the system. Let me be honest with you, when the idea of moving Cleveland came about, I was not exactly thrilled. Why? Because moving from such a fast-paced city to a place with a less than squeaky clean reputation seemed wrong. I was skeptical of the area, nervous about safety and dreading the weather.
But, now that we have spent a couple months in our new home, there are a lot of unexpected joys that I’ve found.
Our First Impressions of Cleveland
It is SO affordable
I will never forget one of our first meals here. We went to Saucy Breworks and had 4 beers + 2 meals for $50. Five-Zero. WHAT?! That would easily be $90+ after tip + 10% tax in DC. Coffee is only $3.50-$4.00 as opposed to the typical $7.00 in DC after additional cost of oat milk (which the additional cost for alt milk makes me mad, but that’s another blog). Street parking for an hour downtown here is $0.50, when I would easily spend $5+ in DC. It’s amazing how much cheaper the cost of just living life is! I will say we pay a pretty penny for rent, but still not as much as DC and has a lot more amenities than any other place!
There are lots of little neighborhoods
When people ask me what it’s like in Cleveland, I describe it like this: there are pockets of good + pockets of not so good, we are really just trying to understand our place. On the same street as our beautiful apartment, hipster breweries and a Lululemon pop-up there is a corner store where we’ve witnessed drunken people fist fight in the road. It’s all about knowing where we should hang out. I will say it’s a different feeling than our apartment in Arlington, which was in a very residential area. We would go for runs throughout neighborhoods + walk at all hours of the night without fear. I would also take the metro alone throughout the city for happy hour or coffee dates + feel very safe. So far, I have felt very safe where we live, but I stay alert and aware when I am out + about.
The Food Scene in Cleveland
The food in Cleveland is no joke. You would be floored by the amount of unique dining options in this city. From Little Italy to the breweries surrounding every part of the city, there’s sooo many places for us to explore. So far here are some of our favs:
Guarino’s — holy yum. This will be a hard place to top. The pesto gnocchi and moscato was SO good that we went back again when Pete’s parents visited.
Sauce the City — these wings are both dangerously good and dangerously close to our apartment, a lethal combo.
Gervasi Vineyards — we went here for Pete’s birthday and hooooooly moses I couldn’t have loved my meal, the wine or the views more!
Barrio — everybody knows I’m not a taco person, but this place SLAPS. I think it’s because you can create your own taco that I love this spot. I go for the Coca-cola marinated steak w/lettuce :)
Lucky’s Cafe — the only thing bringing this sleepy town to life on a snowy Sunday morning is the coffee + biscuits at Lucky’s… it’s fabulous.
Coffee Coffee Coffee
Is it bad that one of my favorite things about moving to a new city is the coffee? I don’t know if I’m the only one, but I have such a soft spot in life for hanging out with while sipping a latte out of a porcelain mug while the world passes around me.
So, one of the first things we did when moving to Cleveland was scoping out the best coffee, and I have to say there have been a few notable spots that I’m sure I’ll become a regular to…
27 Club — this place is owned by Machine Gun Kelly (how weird!)
Caffeine — if the name doesn’t say it all, I don’t know what will
Rising Star Coffee — this is right around the corner from our apartment which is dangerous and amazing
Kind Strangers
The first thing we noticed about moving here from DC was the stark contrast in people. People in Cleveland are just. so. nice. No longer are we just a number in the crowd in the Nation’s Capitol, but rather appreciated humans in a smaller city. The amount of strangers who have reached out to grab coffee via Instagram is amazing. It’s one of my favorite ways to meet new people, but it’s usually me approaching others. Not here! I’ve already made a couple friends who messaged me to hang!
We’ve had dinners with Pete’s coworkers, met IG girls for coffee and chatted with neighbors. I keep saying that we’ve spent more time with people in the past 2 months in Cleveland than we did during our entire year in DC!
Visitors
One of the best parts of being back in the midwest is that we are close to family again. Well, close as in 13 hours, but that’s better than the 18+ we were before. We’ve already seen my dad, Pete’s parents + my 2 besties in this short period of time. All of whom say that Cleveland exceeds their expectations by the way!
