25 Best Restaurants: Sokolowski's University Inn

Yes, Bill Clinton, Kevin Bacon and Jimmy Fallon famously ate here. But celebrity doesn't matter to the third-generation sibling owners Mary Balbier, Bernard Sokolowski and Mike Sokolowski, because the day after the press dies down they're back to the daily grind of running the James Beard Award-winning institution their Polish grandparents opened in 1923. The Sokolowskis are the true embodiment of the every-Clevelander — hard-working, humble and tough. "What people are attracted to is that you feel at home here," Bernard says. It makes sense considering the siblings were raised above the restaurant. For each meal, they open their family home to politicians, factory workers and retirees alike to tray up to the cafeteria line for home-cooked Salisbury steak ($9.25), enormous stuffed cabbage ($9.99) and pierogies ($9.25) swimming in butter prepared similar to how their mom taught them. With a sign near the bar that says "Enter as Strangers and Leave as Friends," a trip to Sokolowski's is a reminder of the honest people who've shaped our city into what it is today. Don't miss: The mushroom barley soup has a little extra love from Cleveland's own Chef Boyardee. He dined at Sokolowski's and then suggested sauteing the onions in the soup. The family has been doing it ever since. Divine Calling: The Roman Catholic family starts each day of service with a prayer and a ring of the bell on the cafeteria wall — a custom passed down from their ancestors.1201 University Road, Cleveland, 216-771-9236, sokolowskis.com