Local craft-beer aficionados have a lot to love about Cleveland’s Lakewood neighborhood. When you’re not at Melt Bar and Grilled chowing down on a scrumptious grilled cheese sandwich and washing it down with one of their countless craft beverages or picking up a handful of brews at Rozi’s Wine House, Buckeye Beer Engine is the place to be for great comfort food and one hell of a beer selection. Before the formation of Buckeye Beer Engine, Robert and Garin Wright ran a beer bar and brewery in Bedford Heights known as Buckeye Brewing. The establishment featured brew-on-premises capabilities, one of only two in Ohio, but was eventually sold to new owners. It has since moved to a different location than the Beer Engine, which made its way to Lakewood in 2006. It was only due time that I made a trip to Buckeye Beer Engine. Decorated with tap handles and other beer memorabilia, Buckeye Beer Engine is small but quaint with a staff that makes you feel right at home. What I loved most about the place is that the beer list is longer than a doctoral dissertation. With nearly 30 brews on draft and hundreds available from the bottle list, Buckeye Beer Engine has one of the best beer selections in Cleveland. To start things off, I skimmed the draft list to see what my first offering could and would be. The lucky bastard was Great Divide’s 17th Anniversary release, a wood-aged double IPA (10% ABV). Served in a snifter, the brew is made from floral English and American hops aged in French and American oak, giving it a touch of vanilla. While still deciding on my main course, I ordered an appetizer of onion rings, which paired nicely with the hoppy offering. Later, I picked out Buckeye Beer Engine’s Hot Italian, made with salami, pepperoni and cappicola topped with roasted red peppers, pepperoncini and melted provolone on a hoagie roll. I combined the sub with a Left Hand Sawtooth (4.7%) on nitro, which I also found on the draft list. For those unfamiliar with beer on nitro, this means it is pressurized with nitrogen in addition to or instead of carbon dioxide, which makes it really smooth and creamy. Typically done with stouts, Left Hand Sawtooth is an American style ESB so I was curious to see what the nitro could bring to the table. The brew is a well-balanced beer, with significant hop character, medium body and maltiness, with the nitro really kicking it up a notch. I followed it with something completely different, ordering up the beauty of a beer known as 3 Fonteinen Kriek, a 5% ABV cherry lambic. You must try this one-of-a-kind brew if you consider yourself a craft-beer geek or simply are in the market for something truly original. As with most trips, I couldn’t leave without a stout for dessert. I scanned the bottle list and came up with the perfect answer — Mikkeller Rauch Beer Geek Breakfast, an imperial stout also known as Mikkeller Beer Geek Bacon that weighs in at 7.5% ABV and has a very smoky malt, black coffee and, you guessed it, bacon taste. Interesting, to say the least. One thing that Buckeye Beer Engine has over nearly any other place in Ohio, or anywhere else for that matter, is that they are open every day of the year. Yep, you heard that right. They also offer a vegetarian-friendly menu for non-meat-eating brewheads. Buckeye Beer Engine is open from 11 a.m. to 2:30 a.m. daily.