🥶 This weekend might break a 127-year record

Good morning, Cleveland! This is The 216 Scoop: One of the city’s most beloved fish fries is back, and it’s feeling a little extra 🐟🥂

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John Petkovic & Jude Perez

The bitter wind. The endless snow. The relentless freeze.

Forget 2016. We might start having flashbacks to 1899.

If forecasts hold through the weekend, this streak of consecutive days with highs at or below 17 degrees will match the longest such period ever recorded in the city and the first since 1899.

It's a rarity in Cleveland's climate history, where January averages typically hover around 34 degrees for highs.

The current run has pushed the month’s average temperature down by about 8 degrees below normal, making it one of the coldest Januarys since 2014.

Wind chills have dipped as low as -22 degrees in the month – and Lake Erie is freezing at an accelerated rate.

It’s currently more than 90% covered in ice, with ice of 2 to 12 inches around shorelines.

At this rate, it could be 95-100% frozen within the next five days.

For fifty years, the Great Wolf Tavern attracted long lines for its legendary fish fry. Even after it closed in 2005, the Darwal family’s recipe was copied by bars and restaurants.

Well, the Wolf of Cleveland is back in spirit and in name – and the fish fry is back.

It’s light and crispy and comes with walleye, perch or shrimp with crispy thin-cut fries.

“It’s like the original, but mine is Champagne-battered and includes vodka and rice flour, which is why it’s lighter and crispier,” say chef Steve DeScott, who headed the kitchen for 20 years at Wexler’s, another beloved and long-closed Cleveland tavern.

This Gray Wolf boasts an immaculate classic bar, bottlecap stools, wooden floors and pool tables – and will soon feature the iconic Z-shaped sign. Oh, there’s also a big, hairy wolf standing erect in the corner.

First came the bars, restaurants and clubs. Then the new hotels. Then conversions of office buildings into apartment complexes.

Then came retail – at least that was the hope when it came to transforming downtown into a neighborhood.

Bedrock’s announcement that it will remove the iconic fountains in Tower City’s Skylight Park underscores how difficult it has been to make retail a pillar of Cleveland’s comeback.

It plans to create an event space – a move that follows similar concepts in the Arcade and Galleria when its retailers up and left.

In 2024, 29 new storefronts opened in downtown, nearly all small businesses – following an average of 31 annual openings since 2019.

(In 2023, Downtown Cleveland Alliance released a cogent retail revival blueprint with recommendations to improve the business environment. Read it here.)

But Cleveland lags cities like Detroit in attracting national retailers, despite robust population growth.

Heinen’s was hailed as a turning point when it opened in the Cleveland Trust Rotunda in 2015.

Last year, it closed the second floor due to “challenging economic realities of operating a grocery store in a downtown retail environment.”

Tower City will be an attractive event space. But the move underscores the challenges in attracting retail and transforming the core into a neighborhood.

Mike Vecchione: You might know him from ‘The King of Staten Island’ and Joe Rogan’s show. Or maybe by his machine-gun delivery and sardonic jokes about, well, anything – no rules. At 6:30 and 9:15 tonight he hits Hilarities and is back for two more Saturday. Info.

Pill Time: Before it became a genre punk was rock at its rawest – and this Cleveland quintet is one of the best examples of it... Incessant guitar, driving rhythm and a primal scream. At 9 p.m. Saturday, they hit Happy Dog with 411-PAIN and Raw Heads. Info.

Beyonce Universe: Cover bands have taken over the concert schedule. Mahall’s is providing a dance-party equivalent with a dance-party tribute to Beyonce, from Destiny’s Child to the cowpoke period. Dressing up is encouraged. 8 p.m. Saturday. Info.

Past Present Portraits from the LAND: The faces and places of Cleveland are the stars in this photo show curated by Liz Maugans and featuring a who’s who of Cleveland photographers working in a variety of mediums. It runs through Feb. 28 at Worthington Yards. Info.

👉 View Listing on Zillow

Humans might be cowering from the snow, winds and temperatures. But the creatures are still stirring.

On Saturday, the Cleveland Metroparks will host two hikes for the hearty (or perhaps the lunatics) among us:

Hike to the Eagle Nest: At 10 a.m., CanalWay Center, Ohio & Erie Reservation in Cuyahoga Heights will conduct a guided hike to an active bald eagle nest while looking for birds, beavers, and other wildlife in the park. Info.

Snow Moon Eve Hike: At 6 p.m., Watershed Stewardship Center, West Creek Reservation in Parma will explore the trails in amid the moonlight in search of evening critters. Info.

Ice fishing on Lake Erie, 1961.

Ooh and don’t forget! Tag @The216Scoop on Facebook & @scoopcle on Instagram to get your photos in the Scoop!

12 °F 🌡️ -3 °F | 🌨️ (Scattered Snow Showers) | 20% | 💨 ↑ ≈ 9 mph (≈ 8 knots)

14 °F 🌡️ 8 °F | 🌥️ (Flurries / Partial Clearing) | 20% | 💨 ↑ ≈ 13 mph (≈ 11 knots)

19 °F 🌡️ 14 °F | ☁️ (Mostly Cloudy / Cold) | 10% | 💨 ↑ ≈ 14 mph (≈ 12 knots)

_{Please note that weather conditions can change rapidly. For the most up-to-date information, consider checking a reliable local weather service.}

Away vs. Suns, 9:00 PM January 30 (Friday)

Away vs. Trail Blazers, 9:00 PM February 1 (Sunday)

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