[SOLVED] unwanted carriage return after > on custom menu in sidebar

I've noticed links in the showing off thread that had what looked like menus in the sidebars with > symbols before the items. I liked that look and asked (on that thread) about how to make them.

I got this answer:

Then, in looking closer at those sites, I realized they were using categories or some other kind of menu, which had a different styling than custom menus. I tried to match that css with something applicable to my custom menu layout.

I almost have what I want, except I get an unwanted carriage return after the > and before my menu items. I've tried lots of variations, e.g., width, text-align, margin, padding, display, word-wrap, etc, but I still get that extra carriage return. What am I missing?

Thanks for your help.

Jerry

Screenshot
Site layout