Shopping and restaurant recommendations near CIM

We’re traveling to Cleveland for a few days at the end of this week to visit our S at CIM. We will have some time when he is in class and we need to keep ourselves occupied so I thought it might be a good time to do some Christmas shopping. Does anyone have any suggestions for shopping areas that are not too far from CIM? I’m looking for unique, local boutiquey kinds of shops rather than malls or national retailers. Also, restaurant suggestions would be appreciated as well. Thanks!

I can’t offer much in the way of boutique shopping. There are a few nice shopping areas near University Circle such as Legacy Village and Eton Chagrin Blvd Shoppes but those are still mostly national chains. Shaker Heights is close as well.

CIM is very close to Little Italy so lots of Italian restaurants/bakeries. It’s a popular area and parking is a bit challenging. Mama Santa’s is well-known but I think the food quality/service has declined in recent years. We’ve had a number of disappointing experiences recently. Trattoria on the Hill is decent and they have their own parking lot!

L’Albatros Brasserie is adjacent to Case Western so very close to CIM. Great food. Have only been there for lunch.

We love Barrio (there is a location downtown and one in the Tremont area (up & coming trendy area not too far from CIM).

Legacy Village has some good restaurants.

B Spot and Palador are very good dining spots at Eton Chagrin in Woodmere.

Hope this helps. We’ve spent a bit of time in the area since had one child at Case playing a sport.

@cellomom2

For you and anyone else coming to Cleveland this weekend, it is snowing now- Lake Effect that is supposed to continue through Saturday morning- and a steady snow will begin Sunday morning and then hang on all day. It’s also cold and windy.
Roads are BAD right now because people lose their common sense; there is a massive pileup in Michigan, another 70 car accident that has been there since mid-afternoon Thursday just east of Cleveland in Lake County and an even bigger one a bit further east that has traffic tied up from Ohio all the way into Erie, PA. The snow reaches all way into Buffalo…

Drive carefully and wear boots!

Thanks for the suggestions @NEILRRM. We didn’t end up getting to have a lot of what I would call really nice meals because we ended up mostly looking for places we could get something pretty quickly with our S in between his classes, rehearsals and performances. We saw L’albatross while we were walking around so will try to fit that in the next time we go and will keep your other suggestions in mind for future trips. Probably the best meal we had was at Prestis, the Italian bakery in Little Italy, we had a nice lunch there.

@cellomom2 - LOVE Presti’s!! It’s everyone’s favorite, I think, if the lines at most hours are any indication and their cannoli, cassata cake and cream puffs are amazing. I hope you took a box of pastries home!

We got to Presti’s at about 1:45 and thought that it might be less crowded then, haha wrong!
We didn’t bring any pastries home, missed opportunity!! A good reason to visit Cleveland again!