A Benefit For Heights Arts

     Page One Hundred Seventy-Five.
     It's New Year's Day, and this morning I had a pleasant breakfast at Tommy's restaurant here in Cleveland Heights. Tommy's is a pretty famous local joint on Coventry Road. It dates back to the early '70's and was one of the first Cleveland-area spots to get onto the whole '70's/vegetarian/middle-Eastern/health food/lots of wooden decor band wagon. It's still around with few changes to the menu and is so famous in fact, that's it's appeared on The Food Network a number of times. Cleveland actually has a number of restaurants and chefs who are well-known to the Food Network and it's viewers. Tommy's is only one. For the record, it does serve meat of many varieties. But much of the meat is served un-American style, meaning: meat pies.

Tommy's, when it isn't 20 degrees outside.

     For the last decade or so, on New Years Day, Tommy's has been closed for regular business and instead has been open from 10AM to 2PM for a fund-raiser. $10.00 gets all you can eat of a traditional American breakfast: pancakes, scrambled eggs, sausage, juice and so forth. The place is packed. By 9.45AM, the waiting line is out the door and, if heaven forbid, you show up after 11, you'll wait an hour for a table.
     On January 1st, 2013, one of my buddies phoned me at 9 and declared that he was already first in line. Did I want to join him? I politely passed, explaining that even though the place is 500 feet from my apartment, and I could literally show up in my PJ's, there was no way on this or any other planet I was getting out of a nice warm bed on a cold morning. This year, that same friend gave me advanced warning. A few weeks ago he began preparing me for today's predawn (9.15AM)  phone call. He was first in line again and eagerly awaiting my arrival. I managed to show up 20 minutes later, just seconds prior to the multitudes of humanity. We were sitting, drinking coffee, just a wee bit later.
     None of Tommy's workers on New Year's Day are regular employees. All are volunteers from Cleveland Heights city hall, the Cleveland Heights Teachers Union and other local civic organizations as all the proceeds from the benefit go to a local arts organization entitled Heights Arts.
     Cleveland Heights has a preponderance of artists and art enthusiasts among it's population. It's a somewhat sophisticated community and the artsy-fartsy people have organized themselves into this well-respected civic organization. Heights Arts has a Lee Road storefront where local artists sell their wares and where anybody can pop in and find out what's going on in Cleveland's surprisingly well-organized arts community. In fact, much of Cleveland's arts community is organized around the Cleveland Museum of Art which is among the world's top tier art museums and also the Cleveland Institute of Art which is commonly considered one of America's finest art schools. Both of these institutions are seconds from Cleveland Heights' western border.

Heights Arts, also when it isn't 20 degrees outside.

    So this morning I did my part. I let a friend donate $10.00 in my name to Heights Arts so I could eat pancakes and stuff. It was a nice way to start the new year. For dinner tonight, I'll be back on Coventry, with another friend at Hunan's. Then after dinner, I have a party to go to. It'll be a nice day. Last night, I rang out the old year at a rib joint directly across the street from the beauty salon I manage over on Lee Road. I'd never been there before and got a burger. It wasn't bad and the accompanying salad was really good; I want to go back and try their ribs sometime. I'll get back to you on that one.