Mamma and Otto

Living near Cleveland has many advantages for entertainment, whether it be a cultural museum of history or art, sporting event – we have them all – football, basketball, baseball, and hockey, concerts of every music type, dining (Cleveland was recently named one of the Top 10 Food Destinations in the nation), shopping and some very excellent theater. On St. Patrick’s Day, we attended the Farewell Tour of the Broadway hit musical Mama Mia. Anyone growing up in the 70’s can relate and enjoy the music of Abba. It was a min-freakish snowstorm when we left Norwalk to drive to the city, the snow thankfully just stopped suddenly about the time we entered the western suburbs, another facet of northern Ohio living the weather machine and effects of Lake Erie. The show was at the grand old Palace theater – renamed Conner Palace in 2014 in Playhouse Square. We arrived about an hour and half early, time to park the car, get the tickets at Will Call and then grab a quick dinner before the show. Of course, the streets were filled with party-goers celebrating the Green Day. We ventured into what is the oldest continuing restaurant of operation in Cleveland, Otto Moser’s located at 1425 Euclid Avenue in the heart of the Playhouse Square center. I found the following on the Encyclopedia of Cleveland history…
OTTO MOSER’S, one of Cleveland’s best known restaurants, was located for just over a century at 2044 E. 4th St. before moving to PLAYHOUSE SQUARE. Per the most reliable sources, the restaurant was founded by Otto F. Moser in 1892. At that date, E. 4th St. (then called Sheriff St.) was at the center of Cleveland’s theatrical district, which boasted four legitimate theaters, two burlesque houses, and one vaudeville theater. The famed EUCLID AVE. OPERA HOUSE had its stage doors directly opposite Moser’s front door. Otto Moser’s was frequented by many stage personalities over the years, including W. C. Fields, Lillian Russell, George M. Cohan, and others. Moser collected their autographed portraits, which were framed and hung on the walls of the restaurant, creating an ambiance that would come to characterize the establishment. The removal of the neighboring theaters to Playhouse Square in the 1920s altered the character and makeup of the neighborhood, but the restaurant remained largely unchanged until Otto Moser’s death in 1942. Two of Moser’s longtime employees-Max A. Joseph and Max B. Joseph-owned the restaurant in the 1950s and 1960s. The pair made some minor changes, but the restaurant maintained its relationship with show business celebrities and regularly closed its doors to the public, and opened only for performers for a few nights while the Metropolitan Opera was in town. In the mid-1970s, a second location opened briefly in downtown Cleveland’s Park Center. Otto Moser’s changed hands again when the restaurant was purchased by Dan Bir and Steve Dimotsis in 1977. Business continued to decline around the E 4th St. location and the successful renovations in the Playhouse Square district, renewed Bir and Dimotsis’ desire to be near the theater district. After a seventy-plus year separation from the heart of the city’s thriving theater district, the restaurant- with its 1,200 autographs pictures, six mounted animal heads (including a moose named Bullwinkle), and waitress Norma Bunner (who came to work at the restaurant in 1955) – moved to the Bulkley Bldg. (1425 Euclid) at Playhouse Square early in 1994. The new location was nearly three times the size of the original, and the relocation soon proved to be a resounding success. Within a few weeks of opening, Dimotsis told the PLAIN DEALER (Cleveland’s newspaper) that they were serving crowds in a single seating that outnumbered an entire day’s traffic in the old location. By 2004, Otto Moser’s continued to serve lunch – during the week overseen by Norma Bunner who was then going on her fiftieth-year at the restaurant – and dinner to theatergoers, entertainers, downtown residents, and tourists.
Since it was St. Patrick’s Day and Bishop Thomas had given us a dispensation from the “no meat” on Friday rule, we of course both had Corned Beef, Jackie in the form of a Reuben and myself just having a stacked Corned Beef sandwich, both served with a large dill pickle spear and side, Jackie opted for fries and I chose the buttered reds with horseradish. The sandwiches were delicious and enjoyed in a historical setting. We finished the meal with a slice of their Salted Caramel Crunch Cake and coffee which was delicious. By the time, we had finished we made our way back through the mazes of Playhouse Square to the Conner Palace. The show was so good with the sold-out performance crowd singing along to the songs of Abba that we knew by heart. The cast did a four-song encore that had the entire theater on their feet clapping and singing. If you enjoyed the movie or saw the musical on stage previously, it is well worth a revisit. It was a very good way to spend a snowy evening…with Mama and Otto in downtown Cleveland.