The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Enjoy familiar huge sandwiches at Slyman’s Tavern Location near Pinecrest development an enjoyable, corned beef-powered stop even if things feel just a little off
By Mark Koestner entertainment@news-herald.com
If you’re from the Cleveland area, you probably know about Slyman’s Restaurant. Opened in 1964, it’s long been a Cleveland icon.
Famous for its piled-high corned beef sandwiches, the smallish spot on St. Clair Avenue near East 30th Street is also known for lines out the door during the lunch rush. The demand for great corned beef in Northeast Ohio is real.
But the farther-flung Cleveland’s suburban neighborhoods become, the longer a journey it is to the eastern edge of downtown Cleveland. It can be difficult to pull the trigger on a 30- or 40-minute shoreway run to grab what’s now a $15 sandwich, no matter how strong your craving for corned beef may be.
Enter Slyman’s Tavern, a new concept that takes the food from the iconic flagship to sports bartype settings in the suburbs. First came one in Independence, and in July 2017, one opened in Orange Village, near the $200-plus million Pinecrest mixed-use development near Interstate 271 and Harvard Road.
I liked the idea when I heard about it. Although I’ve been enjoying Slyman’s for decades, I’ve never actually eaten inside the place — it’s always been takeoutonly. So the notion of a decent sitdown atmosphere where I could enjoy the same great sandwiches and relax for a meal with a beer was appealing.
The Orange location is housed in a former Red Robin, on the outside perimeter of the main Pinecrest hub. It’s been extensively renovated, to the point where it’s difficult to picture it as a Red Robin. The kitchen is in the same place, but the bar and even the main entrance have been moved, and the whole place is wide-open. There are TVs, a very high ceiling and the sort of trendy décor — some stone fronts and faux hardwood floors — that you’d see in a modern tavern or tap house. There are garage-style doors that open to a huge patio area, another departure from the Red Robin days, and it’s easy to imagine quite a bar scene in warmer weather.
We stopped in mid-December, so no such luck for us. It was midweek, but the place was fairly busy nonetheless. It’s near a bunch of shopping options, but it seemed more an after-work happy-hour crowd than holiday shoppers like us recharging their batteries.
The menu is only slightly different from the original Slyman’s. There are a few appetizers and salads on the lunch/dinner menu that you won’t find at the flagship. On the other hand, the Tavern’s all-day breakfast has fewer choices than the flagship’s breakfast menu.
We picked appetizers of fried pickles ($6.99) and Slyman’s fries ($9.99).
The pickle chips were fine, served with an OK spicy ranch sauce, but not anything you can’t get somewhere else.
The fries were a sort of different story. They’re crinkle-cut fries, which I’m normally not a fan of almost entirely because of their budget appearance. If that makes me a food snob, so be it. I’m also not a fan of huge pans of fries loaded down with a bunch of toppings that often look more impressive than they taste. Slyman’s fries are topped with corned-beef shavings, melted Swiss cheese and green onions. They were awesome.
The crinkle-cut fries are actually ideal because they do a good job of holding up to the stuff piled on them. The Swiss is actually a cheese sauce, but it’s a good one with a homemade feel. The portion is reasonable — enough for my wife, my son and me but not leaving us with half a baking sheet of fries to take home.
Pro tip: Get the fried pickle chips and drag them in the corned beef shavings and cheese sauce from the fries. It’s the best thing I ate there.
And that’s even though I had the standard corned beef sandwich ($14.99). Unlike its forefather, Slyman’s Tavern offers a smaller version for $10.99, which is a good idea, but I was trying to replicate the takeout experience in-house, so I went with the full sandwich.
Maybe it’s my own prejudices, but I often find myself thinking that — especially with some of my favorites — the original is better than the next step. I thought the rye bread, which was great, was a bit fresher than you get downtown, but the corned beef was a bit drier than I’ve had at times. It was still good.
I also said no to thousand island and another sauce when asked if I’d like them, but my sandwich came with both. I also asked for Swiss, knowing that downtown, you can get cheese for a little extra (or at least you could at one point). Alas, my sandwich arrived with no Swiss. Not a deal-breaker, but if you’re going to pay $15 or $16 for a sandwich, it should come as ordered. To be fair, though, that cost covers basically two meals for me these days, as I took half of the massive sandwich home.
My wife’s salami melt ($9.99) continued the portion trend. It was piled high with fried salami slices and topped with cheese and a fried egg. I sampled only the allbeef salami — delicious — and she loved the sandwich overall.
My 10-year-old decided on a hot dog ($4.49), a quarter-pound Hebrew National frank that he couldn’t finish, either, but enjoyed. There’s a kids’ menu there, but if you also have kids who won’t do the kids’-menu thing anymore, it might be helpful to know there are still some good options.
The beer list is more extensive than I had expected, with a nice range of reasonably priced drafts, as well as a solid list of bottles. Quite a few local and Ohio breweries are featured.
Aside from the inconsistencies with my sandwich order, the service was very good. We were greeted warmly and sat right away. Our server was friendly and attentive, even though it was busy. I always appreciate that.
What’s kind of weird is that I liked the food, the service and the atmosphere, and I’m sure I’ll go back when I’m in the area. Yet it’s not the kind of place I’d go out of my way to get to, even though the downtown version, which is only takeout for me, has been exactly that place for more than half my life. I wish I could explain it better, but it’s almost as if even though I enjoy hanging out in nice bars AND like Slyman’s food a lot, they might be better as separate experiences for me.
That likely won’t be the same for everybody, and it certainly doesn’t mean I won’t recommend Slyman’s Tavern to anyone. Reviews are based on one anonymous visit to a restaurant.