Burger Comeback

Stevenson's Bar & Grille lost its building, not its burger. The Big Guy ($6) — two patties topped with lettuce, pickles and a house-made secret sauce is still thick, hearty and juicy. The sauce, a house-made tartar, evokes Big Boy burgers' classic Ohio taste. Though Stevenson's ramshackle location on Lake Shore Boulevard closed last fall after 93 years, it only took partner Bruce Cerne two weeks to fire up the 50-year-old flat-top grill from the old location at the restaurant's new address on East 200th Street in Cleveland. "It's not the meat, it's the grill," Cerne tells customers who buy frozen ground beef from him but can't replicate the taste at home. For the record, Cerne gets his meat from Shaker Valley Foods. But people go to Stevenson's for atmosphere as well as burgers, and the new location was chosen well: It's at Euclid's old Frank's Cafe, which served meat-and-potatoes dinners from the '40s through the '80s. It's as good a successor as possible to the vintage 1920 burger shack, which the city of Euclid intends to tear down. "The day before, we're going to have a vigil," says Cerne — a final beer salute. Someone should grill out. 800 E. 200th St., Cleveland, 216-999-7156