photo courtesy St. Clair Superior CDC
AsiaTown is just one part of the always re-inventing itself St. Clair/Superior neigbhorhood. This area of Cleveland stretches from the Innerbelt to MLK and from Superior Avenue north to Lake Erie and has six miles of shoreline to brag about. So while the residential component may appeal more to immigrants, artists and true urban pioneers than the corporate executives Executive Arrangements works with, there are so many reasons to visit! One of the popular areas is the vibrant AsiaTown, which is just east of downtown and stretches from about E. 30th – E. 40th Streets and from Superior to Payne Avenue. It is bustling with Asian markets and shops and the most authentic Asian restaurants in NE Ohio including Thai, Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese.
But the St. Clair Superior area has a lot more than this including:
- a rich Slovenian history – Slovenes began settling in this neighborhood in the late 1800’s and though many migrated ou
t to the suburbs since then, they left behind beautiful architecture and rich history along St. Clair Avenue between E. 55th & Addison. More than 70,000 Slovenians call Cleveland home, the largest population outside of Slovenia. The Slovenian National Home (still a vibrant and active active community center) & St. Vitus Church, a Roman Catholic church anchor the neighorhood that has an amazing Holtkamp organ and newly restored interior. - a busy business district – more than 1,000 companies with 10,000 employees make this part of the city alive from 9-5
- the Quarter Arts District – a vibrant live/work district with many art galleries that can double as homes including TowerPress, Convivium 33, and the ArtCraft Building. Most of them also open to the public several times a year to showcase the work of the artists who live and work there. Here is a great story from Freshwater.com about these and other great live/work spaces in Clevelan d
Shopping/Markets – although there are several large complexes for shopping, one of the best is Asian Town Center. Parking is off of E. 38th just north of Superior (door into complex is far right side of parking lot). It has a HUGE Asian grocery store
called Asia Food Company where you can find items for Asian cooking that are not for sale anywhere else! Find a bi-lingual employee to help you identify items you need if you don’t speak Mandarin or Cantonese! This complex also houses Miega Korean BBQ restaurant on the 2nd floor and several art galleries. A smaller Asian shopping area, Asia Plaza, is at E. 30/Payne.
Dining – there are almost 30 restaurants in this Cleveland neighborhood ranging from Sterle’s Country House (o
ld school Eastern European) on E. 55th to Slyman’s Deli (pre-order your corned beef sandwich for St. Patrick’s Day or they will be sold out) to Vietnamese Pho restaurants (there are now 4 of them, prompting the nickname Pho Row) including Superior Pho and #1 Pho, the best dim sum in town (BoLoong) and the only Ethiopian restaurant we know of (Empress Taytu)
Other cool things to know: this area is a hotbed of “upcycling” – finding new uses for discarded items, including rusing all parts of buildings that are being demolished. And many of those unique items can be found at the Cleveland Flea, which sets up once a month from April-December and in the summer months averages 150 vendors and 10,000 visitors. Check out this map so you know where to park & visit when it repoens this spring!
photo courtesy of St. Clair Superior CDC
The Asian Festival – one of the fastest growing festivals in Cleveland, it now attracts tens of thousands over a full weekend (held every year the weekend before Memorial Day weekend). It takes over Payne Avenue between E. 27 and E. 30th and has free admission and free parking and tons of entertainment and food and could help newcomers explore all the restaurants and shops in just one day.
And St. Clair/Superior is also home to the Tyler Building – a huge brick complex on the north side of Superior at E. 36th has cool tenants ranging from a K-8 charter school (Village Prep & E-Prep) to a brewing company Indigo Imp (their tasting room is open to the public every Friday from 12Noon through happy hour; and Gotta Groove Records which is one of only a handful of vinyl record stamping facilities in the country
In 2014 they will be adding Night Markets, an Eastern Asian tradition where visitors can shop for bargains and dine out in an after hours setting that is high energy and bustling. And the Asian Festival attracts 10,000 visitors a day over a weekend in May (always same weekend as the Cleveland Marathon). And in early March, the Kurentovanje festival – a traditional Slovenian festival to scare away winter and welcome in the coming spring
Now, don’t you want to go exploring! Pick a weekend and stay for shopping and a meal!
To learn more about how Executive Arrangements can connect your job candidate or transferring employee to all the resources and people in NE Ohio that will make them instantly feel at home, call us at 216.231.9311.