The Cabin has been a fixture on Lake Shore Boulevard in Willowick for a long, long time.
And I hadn’t been to the restaurant in a long time, not since my father would take us there for the occasional family dinner when I was a kid.

That was well before the place burned down in the early 1990s and was rebuilt to look very much how it did before, according to the history on its website.

Between the fact that I had never tried the place as an adult and that it has been under new management since June, I was eager to check it out.

Read more at Entertainment Editor Mark Meszoros' review: Dining Out: Wonderful meal at The Cabin has but one drawback.

I remember seeing Sterle’s Country House in Cleveland on an episode of Food Network’s “Diners, Drive-ins and Dives” a few years ago and, recalling the place from my childhood, thinking that it was none of those.

It’s not, but it’s not exactly the place from my childhood, either.

Frank Sterle opened what used to be known as Frank Sterle’s Slovenian Country House on East 55 Street in 1954. If you have Slovenian roots and have lived in Cleveland at any time since then, you’ve probably been to the place. Sterle died in 1986, and the restaurant was operated by new partners from then until 2012, when Rick Semersky bought it.

It’s still going to be known simply as “Sterle’s” (ster-LEES) by most of its longstanding clientele, so the tweak to the name isn’t a big deal. A bigger deal is that there’s now an outdoor bier garden, waitresses in black T-shirts instead of the traditional dirndl, and some items on the menu that Frank Sterle didn’t serve.

We went on a recent Saturday, doing Sterle’s the way it is best experienced: in a large group and when there’s live polka music. This is what hasn’t changed from the years gone by – families dance while accordions loudly pump out songs that everybody present has heard a thousand times. The band the night of our visit started at 6, and by 7 the large dining hall inside the Alpine ski-lodge-styled old building was nearly full.

Read more from Correspondent Mark Koestner at Dining Out: Cleveland Slovenian fixture boasts uneven food but a fun time for families, polka fans.

In December, on a day taken off for Christmas shopping, I popped into the new Granite City Food and Brewery at Legacy Village in Lyndhurst. 

Opened in November in the space formerly inhabited by Joseph-Beth Booksellers, the restaurant is part of a 30-location chain that started in St. Cloud, Minn., and now has a presence in 13 states. 

It was mid-afternoon, and I had eaten lunch not that long before, so I just bellied up to the appealing bar to try one of their beers, settling on the Broad Axe Stout. Described as having notes of chocolate and coffee, the oatmeal stout sounded great on the blustery day. I enjoyed the mellow atmosphere in the big, open place and did peek at the menu, so I was interested in coming back for a meal.

That opportunity presented itself on the first real day of the NCAA men’s college basketball tournament, aka March Madness. A buddy and I took a break from binge watching to fill up on food and, of course, a little beer.

Read more in Entertainment Editor Mark Meszoros' review Dining Out: Granite City Food & Brewery at Legacy Village pairs good beer, food for fine time.