Since I was in the home state of Orville and Wilbur Wright, arguably the country’s most famous bicycle shop owners, perhaps I shouldn’t have been all that surprised to see old bikes suspended from the ceiling, but I was. I was sitting in the Greenhouse Tavern, a melded French American gastropub in downtown Cleveland. A friend of mine had recommended the sustainable restaurant and bar on what was my first trip to the Buckeye State. As an Australian with limited time and money to travel the U.S., Cleveland and the Rust Belt more generally weren’t stops I’d intended to make when I mapped out my must-visit itinerary for my free weekends. I guess I’d credulously accepted the washed-up rock ‘n’ roll hub and manufacturing junkyard reputations that preceded them. However, there, perched at the Greenhouse Tavern’s dark-wood bar, enjoying a Johnnie Walker Black cocktail spiked with Sichuan peppercorn syrup, I realized I’d rushed to judgment.
And honestly, it probably shouldn’t have taken a fancy drink for me to recognize that.
But back to the bicycles. There was also a vintage, red model displayed with apparent pride above the bar’s shelves of alcohol and glassware, supplementing the series hung behind me. I leaned forward on my leather-bound stool. “Hey, weird question, but what’s with the bikes?” I asked the young blonde woman pouring a draft beer. She laughed and told me they were installed about seven years ago for what’s become a semipermanent exhibit called “Respect the Bike.” It showcases Ohio-built contraptions restored by Blazing Saddle Cycle in Cleveland, and they were all for sale except the scarlet one, the woman explained. “That belongs to chef Jonathon Sawyer,” she said, referring to the driving force behind the Greenhouse Tavern.
Blazing Saddle Cycle’s Travis Peebles, 39, told me later the project was “a nod” to the region’s rich history in bicycle production and distribution, dating back to the late 1890s and the Wright brothers. “The restoration of bikes is like the restoration of anything else. There’s a satisfaction in seeing things being reborn again, whether it’s used again or whether it becomes a source of art,” Peebles said. Similar to how the Rust Belt is reinventing itself? “Absolutely,” he said.
