The Wine Bar

Last week (Feb 9th) was my
friend Erich's birthday, so we
went up to Cleveland for his surprise
party on the weekend of the 5th.

(photo withheld by request)

Before the party, my wife and I met up with friends for a glass of wine. The Ohio Wine Bar is a great little place to get a fantastic selection of choice wines from around the globe.

It was really reminiscent of a little place I went to with my wife in the wine country of northern California. I can't remember the name of it - but I know it was near Paso Roebles. The owners had turned an old barn into a wine tasting facility, and in one of the rooms they refurbished with an old original Saloon, hand crafted in mahogany, from the 1800's. The Bar was in Boston, and was unused for half a century. Some rich dude liked it so much he refurbished it and had it shipped out to California. Here I was catching a buzz and letting my glass of wine catch oxygen in a similar looking local. Sitting there with my friends on a cold gray Ohio day warmed my cackles, along with the Paso Roebles selection I had from a 93 Pino Noir crop.

I got to do this more often, I thought to myself. You see, there are chunks, or pockets, or smears, of Ohio that touch in me things about living in California that made me fall in love with that place. It's like a love affair with a most fantastic woman you had in college. You never forget this women and every women after reminds you of the women you left behind. Behind in your past. Behind in another life. It may not be a huge thing that reminds you of her. A shape of a breast, a smile, a hair style, the tilt of her head, the color of her teeth. But it's something. California is that mistress for me now. The new love in my life is the fridged bitch-state of Ohio and its two main ice cold mistress', Columbus, and Cleveland. But the lady that got away, the one that slipped by my fingers and escaped my grasp -like the single life of a bachelor- is California, and it's retched alcoholic step sister, Los Angeles. From now on Ohio will remind me of her.

The Ohio Wine Bar has wine from the vineyards I visited during my life in California. This time I sit with my good friend and our spouses, in Ohio. Raf and his wife Dar are a welcome site for my weary wine drunken eyes. The spouses exchange stories and its good. The wine is good. The friends are good. Of course Erich can't be there cause he doesn't know we're in town. Ironically, he's the one that introduced us to this place before we were married.

I look out the window and see a street here in Ohio City that is reminiscent of Eastern Europe - old school. Ohio City architecture has that kinda character to it. Nice restaurants and the nice way to access the streets, are people friendly.

Adjacent from the wine bar is the West Side Market. A fresh produce place that's been there when my grandparents were kids. I used to get there, when I was a kid, with my mom on the bus. In the main building, surrounded by immigrants, I found myself lost for the first time. I remember little, but I remember the panic and all the strangers looming over me. I also don't remember how long I was lost but it was long enough to freak my mom out. When she found me I was surprised to find she was not mad at me. Relieved more like. I probably got a spanking, but I don't remember. I just remember taking a strawberry from my moms friends fruit stand (a man she's known for years, and always gave us free samples). I placed the plump strawberry in my mouth and bit a chunk outta it like it was an apple. For me it was the size of an apple. The man turned to me in anger and it was not the friendly grocer who we knew to give us free samples. He was a mad man with evil teeth and mean eyes. He yelled at me and I turned and ran. From that moment on I was lost in West Side Market.

That's all I remember.

Liz and I had an enormously restful evening before the big surprise party for Erich. A well deserved one for her. The twins and Chloe are taking their toll on her. She never gets outta the house, and never has any help. But now the kids are with my Mom in Cleveland, and we have a whole evening of friends and wine to look foreword to. And we do, and we are - all of the above.

The surprise party was a nice way to get together at King Wa and eat Chinese food, and see people you normally don't get to hang out with. Erich had about five factions of friends that normally don't all meet at the same time in the same place. Anymore than two factions appearing in the same space may cause a meltdown in the know three dimensions we live. There were Erich's College band buddies his Garage band buddies, and his current Jam buddies. Of course the thread that weaves through them all unchanged by time (mass expansion not with-holding), was our High School buddy Pat.

I knew some of these guys 'back in the day' and now its weird to see them all with children and spouses. They still rock out, but I think they do it in private now. Their long hair, replaced by the ravages of responsibility. I don't know if Erich was surprised or not - he was 'happy'. I hope to eat there again next time I'm up in Cleveland. The food was almost better than the China Dynasty - a best in Columbus Chinese restaurant's. A place I can't afford to eat, but worked as a bartender in college.

Afterward we went over to Erich's house and, not wanting to take too much advantage of my mother, we stayed long enough to have a couple glasses of wine from Australia - some bottles Erich had picked up on his honeymoon. Erich always has a nice supply of wine and beer for visitors. I am not talkin' cheap stuff either. Erich spares no expense and stocks his fridge with exotic beverages from various micro-brews. Raf and Dar stayed the night in the spare room that has been nicknamed "the fertility room", thanks to yours truly and his spouse. For there is a chance that the twins were conceived in that very room on the night before Erich and Stacy's wedding.

I guess we'll know how fertile the room was in about nine months.

But that as I like to say, is a story for another Blog!