revised Clemente's Restaurant: Good Food and Good Fun

Clemente’s Bar and Restaurant doesn’t look like much from the outside. It occupies a non-descript brick building at 2230 Fort Street in Lincoln Park, Michigan. Step through the door, and things aren’t much different. The furniture is old, as is the carpet, the suspended tile ceiling, and the wood paneling on the walls. But as one steps through the door, senses other than sight are stimulated.
Upon entry, patrons step into a lobby with three doors. The door to the left leads to the bar, dimly lit and intimate. Plenty of seating, both at the bar and at U-shaped booths along the wall is provided, along with a few tables. Local sports usually play on the televisions. Straight ahead is the dining room, where the smell of fresh baked pizza and homemade Italian food fills the air. The walls of the dining room are paneled with dark wood, and the chairs and booths are olive green and look very old-fashioned. The only thing modern in the dining area is the computer they use to place orders. Even though things looked old, the restaurant was clean and well kept. A blast of sound comes from the final door, on the right side of the entry. It is a mix of crashes and laughter that can only come from one place; a bowling alley. Clemente’s installed a six lane alley in 1948, before the invention of automatic pin setters. According to a 1988 interview from the Heritage Newspaper with co-owner of the restaurant, Joe Clemente, “We really couldn’t afford to have more than six lanes because it was tough getting pinboys. We had just four pinboys, two would jump lanes, and two others would work single lanes.”
Clemente’s first opened its doors in 1933. The restaurant was founded by Guiseppe Clemente and his wife, Natalina, who came to America sometime in the 1920s from Roccopia, Italy. The original location was on Fort Park, just a stone’s throw away from the current location. It started off as a night club, and Clemente’s was the first in Michigan after Prohibition ended to have a class C license to sell liquor by the glass. The family’s Italian recipes were a favorite among those living in a very ethnic area along the Detroit River. Guiseppe died in 1965 and Natalina in 1992, leaving the business to their three children, Joe Clemente, Rose Jackson, and the late Ed Clemente. Rose, age 84, still works daily at the restaurant and she still remembers me. I used to bus tables for her nearly twenty years ago.
The menu at Clemente’s is reasonably priced Italian fare, with the most expensive meals on the Italian side of the menu being the ravioli dishes at $8.99. The dinner menu lists the T-bone steak at $13.99, and the pizzas range in price from $6.50 for an eight inch personal pizza to $14.99 for a 14 inch specialty pizza. A unique item listed on the menu is a sauerkraut pizza, although it is only available seasonally.
My husband, daughter and I went to Clemente’s Saturday, October 10th at 8p.m. Hearing the sounds of the bowling alley when my family and I entered put us in the mood for pizza. Surprisingly, one truly had to listen for the sounds of the bowling alley while in the dining room, even though they were only separated by a wall. I chose the mini 8 inch veggie deluxe, while my husband and daughter ordered a small meat deluxe and a pitcher of Coke. My pizza included cheese, tomato slices, broccoli, mushrooms and green pepper. When the pizza was brought to the table, I was impressed with the amount of toppings they used. The pizza was piled high with vegetables. The crust was not too thick, not too thin, and cooked to just the right degree of crispness. I was also pleased by the fact that they used freshly sliced mushrooms instead of canned mushrooms. My husband said to me about his pizza, “They sure don’t skimp on the toppings, do they?” He was satisfied with the way his pizza was made because it had the right amount of toppings, crispiness and the temperature was not too hot or cold. The bill for our family night out at Clemente’s came to $28.00. Our dinner included the two pizzas, plus salad, bread and breadsticks, and beverages. The service was very good; the waitress greeted us with a smile and filled our drinks at the right time. The pizza was good it had the right amount of vegetables that were not overcooked. We even had leftovers to take home, which were gone by the next day.
If I were to be completely honest, I would have to admit some bias in this review. I have been to Clemente’s many times; my parents used to bring me here as a child. Rose gave me my first job. In my heart, Clemente’s gets a five star rating. Really though, it is a working class kind of place. Given its outdated décor and standard menu choices, I can only give it three stars, but they are well deserved. The prices are very reasonable, and although we did not visit the bar, the beer prices were not outrageous.
If my review of Clemente’s Bar and Restaurant has brought out an interest in dining there, my suggestion is that it be done quickly. Rose informed me during my visit that the restaurant is presently up for sale and the party who may buy it soon is not interested in the building or the business, only the property. The building will most likely be torn down. I asked Rose if this made her sad. She replied, “What do I care? I am 84 years old! I can’t do this forever.” But when Clemente’s does close for good, Downriver will lose a business that has been a fixture in the area for 76 years.
It will also lose some damn good pizza.




Works Cited
LeFort, Mikel. “Little Alley; Six lane house celebrates its 40th year.” Heritage Newspapers {Wyandotte, Michigan} 12 October, 1988. 15-D.

Showing my mom how to blog

My mom cooked me a wonderful dinner! I am so lucky to have her for a mom because: she is caring, loving, eager to give great advice, and is also very willing to listen to any problem that I may have. She is great with the grand kids! As I am showing her new things about the blog she is showing me new things about the computer.

video on Youtube "What does this all mean?"

Times are changing so fast right before our very eyes. One of the things I found interesting in the video was they said, "The information you may have learned in your first year of college maybe outdated by the time you leave school." That statement gives me high anxiety because sometimes I struggled to learn the new information of technolgy. I guess the big key to college is learning how to follow directions and if a person can do that, then they should be okay at work. This video shows us that education is never done. The world is definitely technolgy based.

Clemente’s Restaurant: Good Food and Good Fun
Clemente’s Bar and Restaurant doesn’t look like much from the outside. It occupies a non-descript brick building at 2230 Fort Street in Lincoln Park, Michigan. Step through the door, and things aren’t much different. The furniture is old, as is the carpet, the suspended tile ceiling, and the wood paneling on the walls. But as one steps through the door, senses other than sight are stimulated.
Upon entry, patrons step into a lobby with three doors. The door to the left leads to the bar, dimly lit and intimate. Plenty of seating, both at the bar and at U-shaped booths along the wall is provided, along with a few tables. Local sports usually play on the televisions. Straight ahead is the dining room, where the smell of fresh baked pizza and homemade Italian food fills the air. The walls of the dining room are paneled with dark wood, and the chairs and booths are olive green and look very old-fashioned. The only thing modern in the dining area is the computer they use to place orders. Even though things looked old, the restaurant was clean and well kept. A blast of sound comes from the final door, on the right side of the entry. It is a mix of crashes and laughter that can only come from one place; a bowling alley. Clemente’s installed a six lane alley in 1948, before the invention of automatic pin setters. According to a 1988 interview from the Heritage Newspaper with co-owner of the restaurant, Joe Clemente, “We really couldn’t afford to have more than six lanes because it was tough getting pinboys. We had just four pinboys, two would jump lanes, and two others would work single lanes.”
Clemente’s first opened its doors in 1933. The restaurant was founded by Guiseppe Clemente and his wife, Natalina, who came to America sometime in the 1920s from Roccopia, Italy. The original location was on Fort Park, just a stone’s throw away from the current location. It started off as a night club, and Clemente’s was the first in Michigan after Prohibition ended to have a class C license to sell liquor by the glass. The family’s Italian recipes were a favorite among those living in a very ethnic area along the Detroit River. Guiseppe died in 1965 and Natalina in 1992, leaving the business to their three children, Joe Clemente, Rose Jackson, and the late Ed Clemente. Rose, age 84, still works daily at the restaurant, and still remembers me, who bused tables for her nearly twenty years ago.
The menu at Clemente’s is reasonably priced Italian fare, with the most expensive meals on the Italian side of the menu being the ravioli dishes at $8.99. The dinner menu lists the T-bone steak at $13.99, and the pizzas range in price from $6.50 for an eight inch personal pizza to $14.99 for a 14 inch specialty pizza. A unique item listed on the menu is a sauerkraut pizza, although it is only available seasonally.
My husband, daughter and I went to Clemente’s Saturday, October 10th at 8p.m. Hearing the sounds of the bowling alley when my family and I entered put us in the mood for pizza. Surprisingly, one truly had to listen for the sounds of the bowling alley while in the dining room, even though they were only separated by a wall. I chose the mini 8 inch veggie deluxe, while my husband and daughter ordered a small meat deluxe and a pitcher of Coke. My pizza included cheese, tomato slices, broccoli, mushrooms and green pepper. When the pizza was brought to the table, I was impressed with the amount of toppings they used. The pizza was piled high with vegetables. The crust was not too thick, not too thin, and cooked to just the right degree of crispness. I was also pleased by the fact that they used freshly sliced mushrooms instead of canned mushrooms. My husband said to me about his pizza, “They sure don’t skimp on the toppings, do they.” He was well satisfied with the way his pizza was made.
The bill for our family night out at Clemente’s came to twenty-eight dollars. Our dinner included the two pizzas, plus salad, bread and breadsticks, and beverages. The service was very good, as was the food. We even had leftovers to take home, which were gone by the next day.
If I were to be completely honest, I would have to admit some bias in this review. I have been to Clemente’s many times; my parents used to bring me here as a child. Rose gave me my first job. In my heart, Clemente’s gets a five star rating. Really though, it is a working class kind of place. Given its outdated décor and standard menu choices, I can only give it three stars, but they are well deserved. The prices are very reasonable, and although we did not visit the bar, the beer prices were not outrageous.
If my review of Clemente’s Bar and Restaurant has brought out an interest in dining there, my suggestion is that it be done quickly. Rose informed me during my visit that the restaurant is presently up for sale and the party who may buy it soon is not interested in the building or the business, only the property. The building will most likely be torn down. I asked Rose if this made her sad. She replied, “What do I care? I am 84 years old! I can’t do this forever.” But when Clemente’s does close for good, Downriver will lose a business that has been a fixture in the area for 76 years.
It will also lose some damn good pizza.

music I like

My favorite type of music is country: Jake Owen, Kenny Chesney, and Zack Brown Band. I like the young country the best because each song has a story. My daughters also like the same kind of music.

My favorite song of Jake's is " I cant buy you a Big House On the Hill or a Big Diamond"

overwhelmed with homework

I am so over whelmed with all this school stuff. I feel like I can hardly breath. I really need to improve my speed in which I get things done. I am on information over load, but I love to learn new thing about the computer. I just want to go to bed and when I wake up, all the information would be there in my head.

My experience at the writing awards Ceremony

On Wednesday, September 30th I went to the writing awards ceremony at the University of Michigan-Dearborn, in the CASL building, room 1030. When I arrived at the writing awards ceremony there was fresh apple cider in cups. It reminded me of fall. Next to the apple cider was string cheese, and big chocolate chip cookies. The auditorium was small with flip down seats, just like at the movies, but they had little flip down tables attached to them so the students could have a place to take notes. The podium was on the left hand side of the room with a moveable microphone attached. There were about a hundred people there.
The ceremony started at five o’clock, and lasted almost an hour. Professor Philip Potvin introduced the different writing categories: Fiction, Poetry, Research Writing, Creative Non- Fiction, First-Year Writing and Honors writing. Each student that was given an award for their writing piece was given an opportunity to read what they had written. Some students had other people read for them, while others read their own work. Some students just accepted their awards, and others did not even show up.
Carol J. Garfield wrote a poem called “Tornado Township,” that came in at second place under the Poetry Category. He held up his paper to show everyone how his words were formatted like a tornado on the page. I thought that was creative.
Holly Carlisle wrote a paper called “Point of No Return,” that came in third place under the Fiction category. Her story was about a person who was in an abusive relationship, and how she rearranged the apartment to cover up the evidence of the abuse. Then she went on to explain the experience of being in a metal ward of the hospital.
Stephanie Hymes’ writing piece was called “Socially Challenged.” It was awarded second place in the creative Non-Fiction category. I really liked how descriptive she was in her experience of being a home schooled child. She remembers how everyone in her family acted towards her mom, and her decision to home school. She describes her grandma sitting in the chair at the table with pursed lips, and on a rampage about the kids being socially challenged later on in life. She explains all the sounds, smells and the emotional feelings that she had felt on that very day. At the end of her story she tells how her mom went against what everyone else said, and had faith in her own abilities to raise her children. I think more people need to have the same type of confidence despite what everybody else thinks.
It was an interesting experience to see the different view points on writing. Every writer had their own style of writing some used big and fancy words while others had very descriptive words. Each writer was valued for how ever long or short their writing piece turned out to be. The way the words were written had a huge impact on how people could visualize, and comprehend each piece.