Remember when food was local? This book collects the fondest memories of Clevelanders who ache for favorite treats from the past. Hough Bakery. Frostees in the Higbee's basement. Popcorn balls at Euclid Beach. Burgers at Manner's or Mawby's. Entertainment-filled nights at Alpine Village. Mustard at old Municipal Stadium. And much more.

What made the summertime special to a Cleveland kid? Building sandcastles in your clam diggers at Edgewater Park. Pulling up to Manners Big Boy in your parents' car for a burger and a Big Ghoulardi. An ornate sundae at Boukair's. Watching the Indians lose (again) at Municipal Stadium. Being terrified by Laughing Sal at Euclid Beach Park. And more!

"From humble and hungry beginnings, the city of Cleveland grew over centuries until it boasted a dizzying array of gustatory choices. City dwellers and travelers alike flocked to the eateries at Public Square and Terminal Tower, including the Fred Harvey restaurants with their famous Harvey Girls. A single block-long street, Short Vincent featured the Theatrical Grille, the longest-running jazz joint in the area. The walls of Otto Moser's were a veritable Hollywood roll call, and the New York Spaghetti House offered a complete dining and aesthetic experience. Fill your cup with the libation of your choice, grab a snack and join author Bette Lou Higgins on a historical tour of the restaurants that kept Clevelanders fed."--Publisher's description.

What to do in Cleveland now that it’s gone from “The Mistake on the Lake” to “Believe Land” From polka bands to popcorn balls, the more recently bumbling Browns to the thankfully no- longer- burning river, Michael Murphy shares his Cleveland. Raised in The Land, Murphy returns to see that the quirky character of his hometown is no longer mocked, but celebrated (mostly). The city, where high cuisine used to be Manners Big Boy or the Woolworth’s lunch counter, has turned into a culinary hub with multiple James Beard Award- winning chefs. There are now boating festivals and kayaking clubs on the once polluted Cuyahoga River. Cleveland has become a place that people actually intend to visit, not just get stuck in when the airport is snowed in. Cleveland’s Catalog of Cool mixes contemporary with vintage stories and profiles of essential Clevelanders, past and present, like the well- known like Jimmy Brown and Chef Michael Symon, the late Harvey Pekar, and, of course, the most quintessential of all Clevelanders, Ghoulardi.

A tough town like Olean offers a guy only so many job options: sweat in the stench of oil refinery crude, like his immigrant father does, suffer boredom in a factory job, or apprentice in a trade. Icky Haut chooses the latter and works his way up, one crumb at a time, in a commercial bread bakery. Haut loves everything about baking bread: the smell and taste of yeast, the softness of flour rubbed between fingertips, the intense heat of ovens, the anticipation of a loaf’s rise, and the comfort of its promise of sustenance. But after his second child is born, he realizes he’s been mixing, proofing, shaping, scoring, and baking dough half his life. Is this it? Maybe not . . . but then his great idea to expand the bakery jams him up with his boss, and he’s toast. How Haut relies on family and faith to start his own bakery is the center of this real-life, local-guy-makes-good story set in the 1930s and 40s. Haut’s boss calls bread the “staff of life” feeding his bottom line; the Hauts are nourished by their faith, and that shift in perspective recasts the story to hope in the “Bread of Life.”

The entire Italian American experience—from America's earliest days through the present—is now available in a single volume. This wide-ranging work relates the entire saga of the Italian-American experience from immigration through assimilation to achievement. The book highlights the enormous contributions that Italian Americans—the fourth largest European ethnic group in the United States—have made to the professions, politics, academy, arts, and popular culture of America. Going beyond familiar names and stories, it also captures the essence of everyday life for Italian Americans as they established communities and interacted with other ethnic groups. In this single volume, readers will be able to explore why Italians came to America, where they settled, and how their distinctive identity was formed. A diverse array of entries that highlight the breadth of this experience, as well as the multitude of ways in which Italian Americans have influenced U.S. history and culture, are presented in five thematic sections. Featured primary documents range from a 1493 letter from Christopher Columbus announcing his discovery to excerpts from President Barack Obama's 2011 speech to the National Italian American Foundation. Readers will come away from this book with a broader understanding of and greater appreciation for Italian Americans' contributions to the United States.

Times are good, and 1950s moms are hungry for pastries to serve their baby boomer families. Icky’s Cookies fly off local grocery store shelves, and with each new variety, the neighborhood is filled with the enticing aroma of Saigon cinnamon, ginger, vanilla, and molasses. Soon, national grocery chains and distributors want to buy his product, too, and Icky thinks he’s made it big in the commercial baked goods market. But just as he’s ready to expand his bakery, an editorial in the local newspaper suggests cookie “fumes” could pose a danger to nearby Marcus Park. Will all good things crumb to an end? Perhaps. Baking Second Chances is a local-guy-bakes-good story about a faithful man who follows his call to reflect God’s glory even when the world seems stacked against him—and family and friends who are willing to put their cookie-eating mouths where their hearts are.