One of My West Side Faves

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After I got done golfing on Sunday morning the inevitable question "What are we doing for dinner tonight?" came up. Typically, Saturday is West Side or downtown dining because we have the time to get there and don't have to fight rush hour traffic.

It was going to be a beautiful evening so we wanted to eat outside. I knew 3 Birds and Fig were going to probably be full so we decided to make our way out to Players on Madison.

This is one of my West Side faves. Players is what I consider a "3 tool restaurant"; memorable starters, entrees, and desserts, (the other two are Fig and 3 Birds). There are actually a lot of restaurants out there that I think do one or two things extremely well but fall short on one of the categories.

We started out with the calamari. I have to say that it reminded me a lot of Boulevard Blue. It came with a sweet sauce that was really good. I was torn between the Study on Heirloom Tomatoes" or the Cheeseburger with buffalo mozzarella, prosciutto, arugala, and a slice of heirloom tomato. I opted for the cheeseburger. Every season they do a "Study of (seasonal vegetable of choice). I think the cheeseburger may very well be the best I've had in Cleveland. Up to this point I'd have to say that Heck's was probably my favorite.

For dessert I had the praline cheesecake. Wow! It was really basic but really good.

We talked to the lady at the hostess stand and she told us about another place they have over ok the East Side called Stages at Cleveland Playhouse. If anyone has been there I'd love to hear your thoughts.