Despite the foot traffic, ABC is sometimes spared the crowd (no promises), making it not just the best drinking option on the strip but also a welcome refuge from what can be a pretty intense throng of young professionals wandering from restaurant to Uber and back again. For what can be a pretty polished neighborhood, the ABC sign sticks out, a purple art deco inscription above the front door and a handful of picnic tables that comprise the front patio.
The shotgun-style space inside is long and narrow, including, by divine Cleveland decree, a vintage bowling game a few steps from the front door. So pervasive are these bowling games across Cleveland dive bars, it would be near sacrilegious to operate a self-respecting dive bar without one. Painted brick runs the full length of one wall, old-school jukebox a bit behind the bowling game and some sporadic seating farther down.
An impressively long bar runs along the opposite wall, making for a lot of bartender room to cover but ample seating. Stapled dollars and Christmas lights provide the requisite dive bar ambiance, well-worn trophies and a couple of screens further up the wall. Though the bar’s food menu isn’t necessarily extensive, everything this reviewer has ever tried has been delicious, again making ABC a worthy stand-in for dropping $25 more for a burger a few doors away.