Toledo has a history of extinct nightclubs that began with grand expectations. This has not been so much due to hubris as it has been because of lack of urban development. To be the first great bar in a neighborhood requires fortitude, and is a daunting, often impossible task. But downtown is hitting a critical mass. There are now over 15 bars near the stadium and sports arena. A new bar no longer has to try to be a bar for everyone. New establishments are now able to be different, and this diversity helps raise the bar.
Monroe Street is bustling with recently opened locations – a brewery that pushes conversation and a nightclub that pushes sounds of bass. Black Cloister Brewing Company and M’ Osteria are terrific additions to the downtown neighborhood, and are redefining nightlife in Toledo.
Black Cloister Brewery
Sitting around a large, community table, I felt like I was in King Arthur’s Court. A large brass logo of a hand holding a chalice hangs on the wall. Everyone drank deep-colored beers out of custom glassware by Gathered Glassblowing Studio. There was no music, no food, no television; just beer and the sounds of conversation bubbling over in the room.
Black Cloister’s VP of Marketing, Scott Biddle, refers to their Taphouse as the “anti-bar.” “It’s community-driven. It is a place where you can sit down and talk to your neighbor.” The Taphouse offers a rotating selection of Belgian-styled beers, which are made on-site. On why they don’t have TV’s, Tom Schaeffer, Black Cloister’s CEO, said, “We want people talking to each other, not looking at a wall . . . Good beer is meant to be shared.”
The Taphouse is beautiful. It has a high ceiling with rich, wooden planks. Brick archways line the two main rooms. A portrait of Martin Luther, sent to the brewery from the original Black Cloister in Germany, overlooks the people seated at tables. Luther was not only a profound theologian, but also a huge beer advocate. A massive, 50-foot mural by Doug Kampfer and Graphite Design + Build spans the back wall, depicting a cornucopia of ideas, including barrels of beer, dinosaurs, the apocalypse, and an artillery tank. Visiting the brewery “is bigger than just the beer,” says Schaeffer.
4pm-midnight, Tuesday-Sunday. 619 Monroe St.
419-214-1500. blackcloister.com
M’ Osteria
Next door to Black Cloister, M’Osteria offers modern Italian food and drinks. Up a tall staircase, after the dinner crowd finishes their meals in the dining room, M’Osteria’s lounge begins to fill. Long walls of exposed brick are decorated with colorful paintings of bridges and infrastructure. Stools surround an enclosed rectangular bar. The open room is lit with hanging lights that give the feel of an outdoor patio at night. Garage windows open in a back seating area, allowing soft spring winds to push in from the west.
It was a little after midnight, and pretty women in bare-backed dresses and curled hair ordered drinks while dudes in pocket-squared sport coats attempted to tell jokes. A bearded DJ in a black hoodie played an unrelenting playlist of electronic dance music while a backlit, cursive “M” glowed purple beneath his Apple Macbook.
I sat with Rob Croak, Director of M’Osteria’s operations, at a table near the DJ booth while we each drank a beer. “Toledo’s been inundated with sports bars and chicken wings for years,” he said. Croak hopes that M’Osteria will be something different—something grand, but approachable.
Croak insists that M’Osteria is not a dance club. One man punched and twirled near the DJ, but everyone else seemed relaxed, either standing by the bar or sitting on one of the many leather couches. The music is heavy, but never distracting you from a conversation. “We’re taking people and making them feel like they are somewhere else,” said Croak.
Yet, I could not help but feel that I was at home in Toledo, with downtown nightlife that is finally growing up.
11am-10pm, Monday-Thursday. 11am-2am, Friday and Saturday.
609 Monroe St., 419-214-4222.
mosteriatoledo.com
Got a comment? Tweet us @TCPaper
Tweet Dorian @DorianMarley
Dorian Slaybod is an attorney happily living in Toledo.