About

The literary Cafe, located on Literary Road in the hysteric Tremont Neighborhood, opened for business in it’s current iteration in December of 1991 catering to the then aging punk and post punk-new wave suburbanites who moved into Tremont in the 80′s. Residing in an original 1870′s structure, the Literary Cafe is open to the public, being a cafe only in a figure of speech, behavior and attitude, a tip of the hat to the avant garde and Europeans who spend a good part of their life rotting away in sidewalk cafes. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Accessible from all major highways, we are that bar down Literary, west of Lolita’s in the heart of Tremont with a lit up painted head in the window that some people say looks like George Harrison, may the higher powers rest his soul. 99.9% of the time none of the overflow bar crowd from Iron Chef Michael Symon’s award winning Lolita’s (formerly Lola’s) restaurant visit the Literary Cafe. Maybe someday we’ll hire a motivated foodie/bartender to run around the like a monkey bitch to capture some of that lucrative crowd that hangs out just down the street.

Beginning with a barroom influenced by my uncle Jim’s basement, dressed with pine paneling and accented by the obligatory exposed brick wall, the Literary Cafe provides you with barstools and/or chairs where you can sit, purchase alcohol, and drink it. During the warm weather that Clevelanders crave, a patio filled with injection molded plastic chairs beckon, saying, “come, get geeked up on cocktails out here”. To keep the fun rolling throughout the evening we have have a TV, free WI-FI, and sometimes, amusing second hand assholism drifts in from the hood.

The Literary Cafe offers a full service bar, no micro-brews on draft, very affordable wines, a fairly friendly staff and on good nights, an electric clientel. We do not serve food, but pretzels are on the house. Beef jerky and peanuts can be purchased with cash. Sorry, we do not accept credit cards.

Every first Saturday  of the month we host a poetry reading with  featured readers and an open mic. We also produce a Talk Show that used to be on Cleveland Cable Access and can now be viewed on Google video.

How about that!

Brian Pierce’s illustration “The last supper at the Lit” can be viewed in the back room of the Literary Cafe, I think.