Around the Corner Saloon - Lakewood Bar

I probably should have put this up sooner, but I was trying to figure out what to say about Around the Corner Saloon in Lakewood. We ended up there kind of by default; as we were headed out to see Little Shop of Horrors at the Beck on a Saturday. Unfortunately our first choice, Melt (review here) had an hour wait and then one of my friends did not want to Indian so India Garden was vetoed (review here). By this time we were just looking for something decent and fast, and that is pretty much what we got at Around the Corner. ATC is a bar right near the Lakewood/Rocky River border at 18616 Detroit Road (see map). They do have a very nice and big patio out in the back, so the setting was nice, even if the furniture was a bit rinky dink. The menu (see it here) is pretty much what you would expect, burgers, wings, bar foods, etc. There are a couple of surprises, such as the lettuce wraps with your choice of beef or chicken, but pretty much a Cleveland bar menu. So the question becomes how is the food? Well, it ended up being fairly typical bar food. I had the fish sandwich with fries; the fish was a nice sized portion of frozen fish, deep fried and topped with cheese. Pretty decent, but nothing memorable. The fries were crisp and well made, yet nothing special. My friend had the lettuce wrap and while there were alot of interesting possiblities, including jicima and a couple of sauces, nothing was really distinctive or special; a real questionable choice was to provide a pile of small Romain leaves as the lettuce wraps, not easy to wrap and just a bit wrong for the dish. The only item that stood out was the Tomato Florentine soup; a rich and thick soup with some nice flavoring and a good presentation; it almost seemed to come from a different kitchen. I should mention that sevice was OK, but that the kitchen sent the soup out twice and the lettuce wraps were about 15 minutes behind the rest of the meal. Things like this happen, but it is not good when you have to try really hard to get your waitresses attention as she is lounging by the bar to correct this. If you don't deliver your own food to your table, you should always check in to see that everything is right and there are no problems. Overall ATC is a nice bar, with a very nice patio; I would guess a great place to get you drink on, however it is probably not the best choice for dinner, especially given the other alternatives that are nearby. While nothing major to complain about, on the whole the food was just average. Just because a place is doing a fairly standard menu, does not mean that the food cann't be good.