When we pulled into the wraparound parking lot at Crowley’s in Eastlake, every single spot was taken. The same held true of the tables and chairs inside the squat, square dive bar. After a few minutes, a pair of barstools materialized, we hopped onto them and spent the next three hours watching the place ebb and flow through happy hour, dinner service and beyond.
Everybody loves a dive bar, but few among us appreciate the greasy food, callous service, dirty tap lines and dirtier bathrooms. What if you could design a dive bar that fired on all those cylinders without losing its edge or becoming the dreaded “hipster bar.” That’s what partners David Bartulovic, Brendan Kearney, and brothers McPat and Seamus Coyne had in mind when they opened Crowley’s in 2023.
The owners, who jointly and separately run other restaurants, first came together to launch a food truck. On a lark, they teamed up to open a low-key dive bar where the bartenders also cooked the smash burgers.
“That went out the window the day we opened,” says Bartulovic. “We exploded.”
From our seats at the bar, we had a clear view into the semi-open kitchen, where a frenetic knot of staffers was in constant motion. Basket after basket of food made its way through the pass, much of it landing in front of our faces. When you sell 130 smash burgers a night you might expect a drop in quality here or there, but every single burger was textbook. In fact, all the little things that tend to get pushed aside during peak times – things like toasting buns, griddling sandwiches, haphazard garnishing, over-frying, under-seasoning – Crowley’s gets right, all night.
Those matchless smash burgers ($14) feature two thin crisp-edged patties, “government cheese” (American), sautéed onion, shredded lettuce and special sauce on a toasted potato roll. That price includes fries. Singles and triples are also available. Fried bologna sandwiches ($13) arrive on golden brown brioche toast, cut on the diagonal, and loaded with thin-sliced meat, cheese and a tangy special sauce. We upgraded the fries to a mountain of lightly breaded onion rings for $3.
We happened to be there on a Tuesday night, so we started with saucy, smoking-hot jumbo wings for 75 cents apiece. We also ravaged a basket of molten fried cheese curds ($12) with ranch dipping sauce. I didn’t expect to find cevapi ($19) on a bar menu, but one of the owners is Croatian and he put his foot down. The freeform pork-and-beef sausages are served properly with raw white onion, aromatic ajvar and flatbread. There’s also a gyro on the menu that features cevapi in place of the traditional spit-roasted meat.
Other menu staples include chili, loaded tater tot baskets, grilled cheese sandwiches, chili cheese dogs and Polish boys.
Crowley’s stays true to the dive bar ethos with $3 Hamm’s, an unpretentious vibe and regulars who might as well have permanent bar stools. Sports of all forms dominate the many screens. The place is loud, but convivial, with strangers striking up conversations on the regular.
The instant success in Eastlake led quickly to a second location in Kirtland followed by a third in Painesville. Bartulovic credits chef-partner Brian Sheehan for maintaining quality and consistency while the group expands at a feverish pace.
But it’s not always easy to maintain a uniform identity when you expand into different communities, properties and interior layouts, says Bartulovic.
“Yeah, that’s been a challenge,” he admits. “Kirtland is a completely different vibe; it’s more of a family atmosphere. And Painesville will be just as good as Eastlake, but it will take a little bit of time because of all of the construction.”
The biggest test is just ahead for the Crowley’s team. Location number four currently is taking shape on the campus of John Carroll University in University Heights. At 4,400 square feet, the bar on Fairmount Circle is three times the size of the original in Eastlake. Instead of the 18 barstools out east there will be 40.
“We want this to be a college bar,” says Bartulovic, who along with partner McPatt Coyne is a John Carroll alum. “The menu will stay true to form, but we will add a few more menu options. This will be the first college bar on campus that they’ve had.”
The University Heights location is slated to open in late October. As for future Crowley’s locations, management is currently noncommittal. They’re working to open Kearney’s Public House in Mentor by spring, but after that, says Bartulovic, “We hope so.”
Crowley’s Dive Bar
Multiple locations
Subscribe to Cleveland Scene newsletters.
Follow us: Apple News | Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | Or sign up for our RSS Feed
