Mel's down the street was a large bar and restaurant immediately across from Jacobs Field. It closed for good that week, and business at the old and celebrated New York Spaghetti House near Mel's has been so anemic that it's opening a safety net in the suburbs. That way, you don't surprise them, and they can order something else. Diners in a hurry are pointed toward daily lunch specials, such as baked lasagna and chicken cacciatore. As little as five minutes shaved off lunch service can mean the difference between whether customers perceive a tableservice restaurant as sensitive to customers' needs or unforgivingly slow.
Little touches go a long way.
Whenever the latest trend in culinary Cleveland becomes stale, here's a quiet Italian classic. All hail the Brown sauce. The faithful don't mind the company, and the Tribe nation stops in before and after for sausage and rigatoni. The tiny wood-floored bar inside the foyer looks as if Hemingway wrote there. The Brigotti family has a weakness for good wines, so the small but well-chosen cellar can supply a surprise or two between the antipasto plate and the cannoli dessert.