Just a brief trek over the High-Level Bridge from Downtown Toledo, Smokey’s Barbecue Roadhouse represents an East-side outpost hosting some of Toledo’s best barbecue. Couple the outstanding food with its fastidious service, and Smokey’s shines a paragon of barbecue excellence.
The Sicilian-inspired restaurant snuggled into a strip mall across from the Stranahan Theatre has been a Toledo staple for more than 15 years—first under Sebastiano and Helene Caniglia, then for the last five years with Jonathan and Sarah Sagaser, at the helm.
Manhattan’s Pub and Cheer on Adams Street in Uptown opened in December, 2002 and recently celebrated its 15th anniversary. Toledo native, Zach Lahey, the restaurant’s owner and general manager explains, “For almost ten years, it was a major struggle to keep the doors open, to really find our place in the micro-neighborhood (Uptown) that we’re in.”
Perhaps the oldest of all restaurant mantras is to treat your customers as if they were family. But for Candice and Mustafa Ilgin, spouses and owners of Toledo’s Glendale Garden Cafe, that philosophy extends beyond rhetoric and into action. For over two decades, they have hosted their customers like family— and, they explain, their clientele has reciprocated.
