Way back in the 1790s when pioneer Moses Cleaveland was overseeing the design of Public Square, it was being used as a pasture for the farm animals of the early settlers. Impressively, he was able to imagine the urban future of the space, to look past the grass-munching cows, mud-rutting hogs, and ground-pecking chickens to envision a focal point for the city, a place for people of all walks of life to come together. Here, where the east streets become west streets, where the city has seen many a feisty political rally, where out-of-towners walk alongside those who make Cleveland home, and where we come together as a city for many a public celebration, we see Moses’ vision carried forward. It seems fitting, then, that here Michelle Stratton has opened The Flaming Ice Cube, a vegan restaurant in the heart of a city that has devoted many a collective artery to corned beef.
Watch the Cool Cleveland Cuisine video of Flaming Ice Cube here.
Located on the first floor of the newly renovated Park Building, Michelle’s self-declared Compassionate Cafe has a wide set of windows that frame a view of the new and the old: several wrapped-concrete flower pots on Euclid Avenue in the foreground, the venerable Soldiers and Sailors monument in the background. I look past the cold March rain falling and imagine the wide sidewalk in the summer, which Michelle explains will hold many tables and chairs for customers to soak up the sun while enjoying an excellent cup of organic fair trade coffee with soy creamer. Michelle doesn’t let my mind stray long as she orders up all kinds of food from her wide-ranging menu, and it soon arrives at the table: pizza, quesadillas, salads, rice bowls, and even a fantastic-looking (and smelling) burger.
Before I talk about the food at The Flaming Ice Cube, I must provide a disclaimer: I am a devoted carnivore. Don’t get me wrong, I love most every kind of fruit, and I find perfectly cooked green beans with a bit of olive oil and sea salt to be divine. But to me, everything is better with bacon. Back when our city’s founder was looking past the pigs to the promise of a future Public Square, I would have been staring straight at the swaying pork bellies and thinking about how much I love BLTs. I’ll also confess that, like most college kids, I experimented with vegetarianism for a few weeks. That phase only lasted until I went home for Easter break and my family held a ham-based intervention.
Given that background, I can unequivocally tell you that I thoroughly enjoyed my meal at The Flaming Ice Cube. It says on their menu, “Our goal is to serve the best food around—and it just happens to be vegan.” I can certainly say that this is the best vegan food I have eaten, and surprisingly, I have eaten a fair amount of it (not normally on purpose, but by sheer coincidence). Had I not known the spicy chick’n quesadilla was not made with real cheese or real chicken, I might not have guessed. Of course, the spelling of “chick’n” gave me a pretty good idea it wasn’t really chicken (that and the fact that I was at a vegan restaurant).
“They’ve come a long way with vegan cheese,” Michelle explained. “Before, they could never get it to melt.” Perhaps there is still hope for vegans to enjoy fondue. We’ll see.
I also enjoyed the Mediterranean pizza, which is topped with artichoke spread, spinach, Kalamata olives, green onions and a mozzarella-facsimile. The artichoke spread makes this pizza one to try. Delicious and addictive. The best thing I had to eat, though, was the Mmmushroom burger, which is loaded with grilled mushrooms and onions and features Michelle’s housemade vegan burger. That vegan burger is worth a trip to The Flaming Ice Cube all on its own—perfect texture, holds a grilled flavor much like beef, and was even good cold as a leftover the next day.
All of these familiar dishes, of course, point to the conundrum of the American vegan restaurant: you have to appeal not only to vegans, but also to people who are used to eating meat. While our region certainly has a high number of vegans and vegetarians comparatively speaking (according to Michelle, Lakewood has the highest percentage of vegetarians in the state), most people who are spending money at restaurants are people who want to eat something that seems at least somewhat familiar. In other cultures, where meat eating is rare, you can serve up all sorts of dishes based on rice or noodles or just whatever is fresh in the field that day without anyone craving a cheeseburger, but in our culture, where we eat deep fried chunks of chicken like they are popcorn, not having dishes that are based on familiar foods is just not possible for a restaurant like Michelle’s.
Still, “Cleveland people are more willing to try something new,” she was pleased to report, also noting that customer feedback has been very positive.
Life as a vegan, and the challenges of being a vegan business owner, are not new to Michelle. She’s been a vegan since 2000, and has been a vegetarian off and on all of her life. But an encounter with a raw foodist at the turn of the century convinced her to become a vegan and she’s not looked back. The Cleveland version of The Flaming Ice Cube is just her latest venture; the first Flaming Ice Cube is in Boardman, just outside of Youngstown, which Michelle has been operating as a cafe since 2002 (it began as an aromatherapy store). The Cleveland cafe has been open since July 2010.
The space is very welcoming and without pretension, the workers are quick with a smile and are very knowledgeable, and Michelle knows how to make sure that flavor is just as important as the source of what she is serving. In fact, one dessert, the Peanut Butter Crunch Bar is so good that she is now selling it wholesale to other restaurants and stores. Even though I was absolutely stuffed by the time we got to dessert, I could not resist this chocolate-peanut-butter-with-a-cornflake-crunch bar.
The population of the city-proper of Cleveland may have declined as residents have drifted off to suburbs to reside in, but we continue to return to downtown and Public Square, the heart of our city, especially at times of celebration: St. Patrick’s Day, the Fourth of July, Christmas season, and when one of our sports teams is able to tap into that eternal-hope gene of Clevelanders. While those times would please Moses Cleaveland, I think he would smile even more about those places, both big and small, that are laying the groundwork for the sustained rebirth of downtown: big places like East 4th Street, the Medical Mart, and Euclid Avenue, and small places that can have a big impact, like The Flaming Ice Cube, a hot place that adds compassionate coolness to our city.
Click here to watch the Cool Cleveland Cuisine video of Flaming Ice Cube.
The Flaming Ice Cube is located at 140 Public Square in downtown Cleveland. Hours are Mon-Fri 7:30AM – 9PM; Sat 11AM – 9PM. You can reach them at 216-263-1111 or at http://FlamingIce.com.
Alan Block chose to move to Cleveland in 2006. He spends much of his free time seeking out great food in our region. To pay the food bills, he works at University Hospitals as the IT Service Desk manager. He has previously authored two food blogs, the Bacon Loving Heathen and the Cleveland Epicure, as well as the Eat, Drink, Repeat food newsletter. He welcomes your suggestions of cool food and drink destinations at cleveland.epicureATgmail.com.
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