Cleveland Food and Brews

Our Trip to Chicago Food/Beer/Fun Wednesday Recap

2011-08-16T22:39:00.002-04:00

This is part 3 of Our Trip to Chicago--Food/Beer/Fun Wednesday

Featuring Giordano's Pizza, an Architecture Boat Tour, Goose Island Clybourn, and a Cubs Game at Wrigley!

Our Wednesday morning got a late start. We left the hotel room about 10:30 am and walked along the lake because we both wanted to experience the Shedd Aquarium (I love fish!). When we arrived around 11:00, we were shocked to find that the line to get in was 60-90 minutes long! We both agreed it was pointless to stand in that line and waste our day away, so we decided to head back down Michigan Ave and grab lunch at Giordano's Pizza. Giordano's was recommended to us by my good friend.

Giordano's Pizza
130 East Randoph St

When we arrived, we were told it would be a 20 minute wait before we were seated, but that we could place our order right then and that would lessen the time to get our food once we were seated. This is a great idea because when ordering a deep dish stuffed pizza expect to wait at least 40 minutes for it to bake!

After sipping on a Goose Island Summer Ale, our pizza finally arrived. We ordered a small pizza with two toppings ($20). The small was described to feed 1-2 people. When the pizza arrived, I knew there was no way the two of us were going to finish it. This six slice beast was nearly 1.5 inches thick and completely oozing with a ton of mozzarella cheese, green peppers, and onions. I don't even think a picture can do this pizza's size justice but here it goes!

The crust on the pizza was firm and mildly dense. If this crust wasn't somewhat dense, I don't know how it would be able to hold everything. The sauce's flavor was average in my book. Good, but nothing mind blowing. I added some extra Italian seasoning and crushed red pepper to kick it up a bit. The inside was cheese, cheese and more cheese, to the point that the peppers and onions got a little lost. I understand it was a stuffed pizza, but it could have used a little less cheese and this is coming from a cheese lover! I manged to eat two slices and I was stuffed! We liked the pizza, but just didn't fall in love with it. My rating for the food is a 3.75/5.

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Wendella River and Lake Architecture Boat Tour

400 North Michigan Ave.

After stuffing ourselves with pizza we were headed to the Wendella boat dock to take the River and Lake Architecture boat tour. I am a huge fan of architecture, so this tour really had my hopes up! Let's just say this was amazing. First, the boat ride alone seeing the city from both the river and the lake was awesome. Add to that a super knowledgeable, funny, and energetic tour guide and you have yourself a winner of a boat tour. Here are a few of the shots I was able to take while on the tour...I snapped about 100 pictures!

The 90 minute boat tour was worth every penny of the $26 per person.

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Goose Island Clybourn

1800 North Clybourn

After the boat tour we decided to hit the red line train and head to the Clybourn stop. From there a 3 minute walk northwest along Clybourn will put you at the Goose Island Brewpub. We were not starving thanks to the pizza, but we did want to get a snack and some brews before heading to the Cubs game! I decided to start off with a sampler for myself.

From left to right there was the Greenline Pale Ale, the Summer Camp IPA, Summer Camp IPA Cask, and the regular IPA. All were very tasty but the one that really stood out in terms of freshness of hops was the Summertime IPA. It liked how refreshing it was, along with the bitterness level. If you like cask beer, like I, you would also love the cask version of this beer. Every bit as flavorful, just silky smooth in terms of carbonation.

For a quick snack we went with the duck confit croquette that was topped with duck gravy, cotija cheese, and came with pomme frites. The Duck croquette and gravy were very savory, and the micro greens on top added a nice freshness to the dish. The cheese didn't do much to add any flavor, it just added saltiness. The fries were not my favorite. They were too thick and just got soggy too quickly. I think with thin cut fries this dish would have held up better. I wish we were a little more hungry because I would have liked to try some of the other menu items because they sounded really interesting. Hopefully next time we are back in Chicago, we'll make it a point to have a full dinner at Goose Island.

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Wrigley Field

1060 West Addison St.

We hopped back on the red line up to the Addison stop which is right where Wrigley Field is. Even if you are not a baseball fan, you have to go to Wrigley at least once just to appreciate it for what it is, an American landmark. Walking in the stadium I had goosebumps and I've been there once before. Just something about the stadium makes you feel like you are back in time. I admire the Cubs for keeping this landmark in the condition they have and I hope they never have plans to move out of Wrigley Field.

We had a blast at the game, but something that disappointed us both was the total lack of craft beer in the ball park. My fiancee walked around to 3-4 different beer stations after a trip to the bathroom only to call me to tell me our "craft" option was either Corona or Red Stripe. There was no Goose Island to be found anywhere, let alone anything else other than Bud, Miller and Coors. This was a huge let down and I hope that the Cubs wise up and offer at least a few craft brews at the game!

After the game we made a quick stop at Vines on Clark in Wrigleyvillle because I saw they had a Fat Tire sign. We each had a brew and were exhausted. We decided to call it a night and head back and then get up early and do as much as we could on our 4th and final day in Chicago.

Be Sure to check out my Best of Chicago links on the Other Cities Food/Beer/Fun Page!

Our Trip to Chicago Food/Beer/Fun--Tuesday

2011-08-13T12:25:00.002-04:00

This is part 2 of Our Trip to Chicago--Food/Beer/Fun

Tuesday
Featuring Oak Street Beach Food + Drink, Revolution Brewing, The Map Room and Bangers and Lace

Our Tuesday started out by walking the Magnificent Mile down Michigan Ave. It was a great way to see the city and some of its amazing cultural and architectural elements. Some highlights were Millennium Park, the John Hancock Center, and Navy Pier

After doing all this walking, we decided to stop at Oak Street Beach Food + Drink which literally sat on the shore of the Lake. Even if we had a Corona it was worth sitting there, resting and checking out the amazingly clear water of Lake Michigan. When we walked up and looked at the menu, I was pleasantly surprised to see some pretty cool craft beer offerings. I had a chance to have a pint of Port Brewing Wipeout IPA on draft and then a SKA Modus Hoperandi all while enjoying the beautiful view of the lake! If you take the walk down Magnificent Mile don't forget about this stop to help quench your thirst.

The water was amazingly clear...you could see the bottom even in 6 feet of water!

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Revolution Brewing

2323 N. Milwaukee Ave

Our first stop during our evening out on the town took us to Revolution Brewing for dinner. We took the Blue Line Train up to the California stop which made traveling a breeze. From there the walk took about 3 minutes.

We ordered the Blackened Pork Belly and Watermelon for our appetizer. The ingredients were Pork belly confit, watercress, watermelon, molasses vinaigrette, pecans and pickled watermelon rind. The blacked pork belly was had a wonderful smokey flavor and paired well with the sweet watermelon and sour pickled watermelon rind.

For my entree, I ordered the house brewed Pale Ale Battered Atlantic Cod that came with fries, roasted red pepper remoulade, and a honey jalapeno slaw. The fish had a very light and crispy batter that really let the fish flavor speak for itself. I added a little malt vinegar to the fish and crispy fries and was pleased with my entire meal.

My fiancee ordered the Beef Stew. It was slow braised in the house brewed Porter and balsamic vinegar and came with garlic cream cheese mashed potatoes, beans and carrots. This dish was seasoned perfectly and packed with flavor. The fresh beans and carrots added some texture which was needed wit the soft beef and creamy mashed potatoes. This was a rich, smooth, and very filling dish that left her very pleased with our dinner choice.

Overall Revolution takes their food very seriously. This was not your average brewpub food by any means. Food wise a 4.5/5.

As far as the drinks are concerned we decided to do a sample of everything they had to offer.

Left-Pablo Picasso: A Dark Belgian ale aged in Cabernet barrels for over a year with Piedt Farms sour cherries.
Right-Eugene: A striking, robust porter full of warmth and chocolate malt.

Left-Rosa: A Tart summer ale infused with 20 lbs of Hibiscus flowers and touch of orange peel.
Right-Bottom Up Wit : Belgian-style wheat beer spiced with coriander and orange peel. Made with organic malt and wheat.

Left- Iron Fist Pale Ale: A dry-hopped ale with Centennial, Cascade, Chinook and Amarillo hop varieties.
Center-Anti-Hero IPA: An American hop assault.
Right-Coup d' Etat: Dry, spicy French-style saison dry hopped with German Select hops.

My favorites of these were the rich and silky porter, the mildly hoppy pale ale, and the moderately hoppy IPA. The saison and the wit were drinkable and pleasing, just not my favorites. The Belgian was just too much sour cherry for me! The house brewed options at Revolution Brewing had pleasing flavor, proper body and proper carbonation. Beer wise I'd give them a 4.25/5.

The Atmosphere and service were also excellent. Our waiter was not only knowledgeable about the beers, but also the menu. He was prompt and friendly the entire time and more than willing to share honest opinions about beers and food.

There were 4 of these awesome fist pillars around the bar. Our waiter explained they were all carved out of a solid piece of wood using a CNC machine.

These curved pieces of wood actually are strips that were taken from old barrels used to age Goose Island Bourbon County Series Beer! In fact the whole restaurant is filled with re-purposed wood!

I figured since we were done with our meals it couldn't hurt to ask if we could see the brewing area. Our waiter asked the manager and he was very happy to let us see the upper part of the brewing area (they were busying working downstairs.) We were told that they would soon be selling their kegs to other areas of Chicago and very soon they hope to begin bottling their beers! Here are some pictures I took.

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The Map Room

1949 North Hoyne Ave.

Our night did not stop at Revolution Brewing. We decided to make the 10 minute walk to The Map Room to check out their beer selection because we heard it was excellent. The bar is small, but worth the walk! Map Room features a large draft list along with a very extensive bottle list. If you head to Revolution and are looking to get another drink Map Room should be on your list.

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Bangers and Lace

1670 West Division St.

After a few pints at the Map Room, we wanted to make one more stop since it was on the way back home along the Blue Line Train. At the Division stop you have a 2 minute walk west and there you will find maybe my favorite bar of this trip, Bangers and Lace. This is a newer bar, with a very trendy, upscale interior. What made this bar really stand out for me was the 32 tap handles they had on the wall. Of these 32 taps, Six of them were featuring the Mikkeller Single Hop Series! In addition to this limited series there were many beers that were limited release such as the Weak Sauce Coffee Porter by Left Hand which was outstanding!

Large Chalkboard behind the bar which displays everything on tap.

Mikkeller Singe Hops

I was thrilled to try 3Floyds Apocalypse Cow!

I wish I would have taken more pictures, but honestly we were having too much fun to worry about pictures.Check out Bangers and Lace's Photo Gallery.

By this point in the night we were both pretty tired and decided to call a cab to get us home. The cab right only cost $15 to get downtown and was well worth the cash to get home safely. I would highly recommend all of the places we visited on Tuesday because we had a blast. Now check out what we did on Wednesday! Cheers!

Be Sure to check out my Best of Chicago links on the Other Cities Food/Beer/Fun Page!

Our Trip to Chicago Food/Beer/Fun--Monday Recap

2011-08-12T15:40:00.012-04:00

For nearly two years my fiance and I have been talking about taking a trip to Chicago. Finally, this past week we made the drive west to the windy city. I'm going to break my recap down into four parts, one for each day we were there. My goal with these recaps is to give you a mini Chicago guide to food, beer and fun!
Monday
Featuring Three Floyds and Piece Brewing and Pizzeria

Three Floyds Brewing in Munster Indiana
9750 Indiana Pkwy, Munster, Indiana

Before getting to Chicago, I planned a little detour to Munster, Indiana. Whats in Munster...3Floyds Brewing! 3Floyds makes some of my favorite beer. Since it was only a half hour outside of Chicago, we stopped there for a few beers and to buy some to bring home of course!

When looking for 3Floyds bring a navigation and trust it! The brewpub is located in the middle of an industrial area, but the key is to look for the town of Munster water tower because the brewpub sits right under it! The brewpub itself was pretty small, and the pictures should give you an idea of what it looks like.

The food at 3Floyds included both small and large plates which had everything from mac and cheese to crispy frog legs. I decided to get the chicken sandwich that came topped with chipotle, bacon, white cheddar, red leaf lettuce and a side of crispy french fries. My chicken sandwich was moist and seasoned lightly. The light seasoning was good because I liked the addition of the creamy chipotle sauce because it added a little kick to it. I did wish the bacon was a little crispier because it would have given this soft sandwich some much needed texture.

My fiancee got the bbq pulled pork sandwich that came served on an onion roll with cabbage slaw and malt vinegar chips. The chips were amazing and the pork was very tender. She did feel the spice level of the sandwich was a little too much and wished they had a note about that on the menu so people knew its not an average bbq sauce. She also felt there was simply too much slaw on the sandwich, but that was easily corrected by simply taking some off. Overall the food for us was a 3.5/5.

3Floyds isn't on the map because of their food, they are on the map because of their beer! I started out right away by ordering a sampler, plus a taster of a 5th brew. For $6 I got four 4oz samples, plus we had a few other pints before we left. The stand out beers for me were Dreadnaught, Arctic Panzer Wolf, Moloko, GumballHead, Alpha King, Zombie Dush and Gorch Fock. I brought home a bottle of nearly everything they had to offer because to me, 3Floyds is doing a wonderful job making excellent craft beer! The beer at 3Floyds is a 5/5 and a must visit for craft beer lovers!

Don't believe I like their beer? This is what we left with! Ok...it wasn't all for me!

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Piece Brewery and Pizzeria

1927 W. North Ave.

After settling into our hotel, we quickly got ready and headed back out. Since driving/parking in Chicago is very expensive we decided to take the Blue Line Train up to Piece Brewery and Pizzeria. The Blue Line stop to get off at is Damen and from there it was only a 2 minute walk. The name of this places says it all, they are known for brewing great beer and making great pizza, so I was very excited to finally visit this place.

My fiancee ordered a salad to start which was mixed field greens, diced tomatoes, red onions, cucumbers, pears, gorgonzola cheese and candied pecans. The gorgonzola and candied pecans were a very nice touch which took this salad from average to slightly above average in terms of flavor.

After a long debate my fiancee gave in and let me order a traditional New Haven pizza. This was a very simple pizza that comes with red sauce topped with garlic, extra Parmesan and olive oil. (No melted mozzarella or other toppings.) For me, this pizza was excellent. I loved the extra crispy crust and the simple, yet flavorful toppings. It came with crushed red pepper, Parmesan cheese and Italian seasoning, all of which I used a little bit to kick up the flavor just a bit. I would order this pizza again, but I would also love to try their red and white pizza because I have heard they are also very good. Food wise I highly recommend Piece if you want something different than the thick Chicago style pizza, 4.25/5!

Piece had eight house brewed beers on tap, plus several other guest taps available. I started out by ordering a sampler of the Stout, Hefeweizen, IPA, and Double IPA. I liked the DIPA so much right from the start that I had her bring me a full glass. My fiancee, who is NOT a hophead, really liked the IPA. She liked it enough to order a couple pints for herself. The hefeweizen was average, and the stout had good flavor, just not enough body for either of us. I was going to try a few other beers, but I noticed something very special on the guest taps, Firestone Walker Double Jack. I have always wanted to have a fresh draft version of this, and let me tell you it did not disappoint! Overall, we only had the chance to sample 4 house brews. Two were hits, and two were just ok, but the guest taps they had were excellent so beer wise I'd give Piece a 4.25/5.

I give Piece a thumbs UP for you to visit if you are heading to Chicago. The pizza and beer are good, and the Atmosphere is awesome. We ended up making a night of it at Piece because we were having so much fun drinking craft beer and chatting it up with some very friendly locals. These locals gladly gave us the names of 5-6 more places we had to try, so we added them to our list!

Loved all of the natural light pouring in from the ceiling!

Wow...3 Floyds and Piece all in one day!! It was a blast. Now check out what we did on Tuesday!

Be Sure to check out my Best of Chicago links on the Other Cities Food/Beer/Fun Page!

Mango Hometown Tour Recap

2011-08-05T16:22:00.005-04:00

This recap comes to us from Crystal Welsh of Eat*Drink*Cleveland. Thank you Crystal for covering this event and being willing to do a guest post on my site, I greatly appreciate it!

I found out about a very tasty sounding event from a Tweet from fellow blogger Cleveland Food and Brews. It was described as a taste-off between two local prominent chefs: Chef Jonathan Bennett from Moxie and Red and Chef Steve Schimoler of Crop and Cropicana. They would be doing battle to determine who could make the best dish featuring mangoes and seafood. It was being sponsored by the National Mango Board and was free. The only catch was that it was being held at 3:30 pm on a Friday. I'm a HUGE mango fan so I knew I couldn't let a small hurdle like that stop me from attending!
After talking to Cleveland Food and Brews about the event, he revealed that he was going to be a guest judge and asked me if I would be willing to do a guest blog for his site. I was so excited because he is the person that convinced me to finally start writing the blog I had been thinking about for years!

Fresh mango slices as appetizers

Gift bags contained info, recipes and a fresh mango!

I was so excited to be attending this event! I absolutely LOVE mangoes and Chef Bennett is one of my very favorites. For those of you who don't already know, my email address is mangovino if that gives you any idea of the depth of my love for this tropical treat!
As I pulled up to Moxie, I was looking forward to seeing my new friends again -Cleveland Food and Brews and his very sweet fiancee - as well as getting to meet another fellow blogger Poise in Parma and her husband.
As soon as I arrived, I saw CF&B at the judges' table. He was seated with Hollie Strano from WKYC and Elaine Cicora from Cleveland Scene. I knew he had to be really excited and a little nervous too. I was so happy for him to be able to take advantage of this tasty opportunity.

Being a new blogger, it was great to see my seasoned counterparts in action and get to see everyone face to face. Everyone was very welcoming and friendly and I was sure we were going to have a great time!

The National Mango Board representatives did a great job with the event! They encouraged questions and audience participation while teaching us a thing or two about their product. An interesting fact that I learned is that my favorite mango - the Champagne mango - is actually a brand name. Also, most stores don't list the variety of mangoes being sold so your best way to find out what is being sold is to consult a growing chart and compare that to the time of year. Hopefully that will change because most people don't have one of those when they are shopping! Finally, green mangoes can be ripe! I always thought that you should try to find one with a reddish hue. They also demonstrated how to properly slice the fruit.

Chef Steve Schimoler and Chef Jonathan Bennett

In addition to learning about the mango, we also got to sample the creations of the chefs. The judges were treated to full size beautifully plated servings of the chefs' offerings. We received hearty samples as well. While the chefs were preparing their dishes, we were also treated to a complimentary mango margarita and mango lemonade. Both were very refreshing and delicious! Look for that mango lemonade in an upcoming Thirsty Thursday post for sure!

Chef Schimoler's Tuna, Scallop and Shrimp

Chef Bennett's Crab and Mango Fritter on Mango Slaw

Mango Margarita

Poise in Parma did a great write up about the event so check out her blog for lots of details of the food. I thought all of the creations were delicious but a couple were real standouts for me. I really enjoyed how the chefs utilized smoked mango in their dishes. It really added a wonderful complexity and was something I had never tried before. I absolutely loved Chef Schimoler's Grilled Shrimp with Mango and Coconut Green Curry. I could have eaten a whole platter of this! The angel hair pasta he created out of mango flesh was a whimsical touch and remarkably realistic looking. I thought he should get bonus points for a very creative use of the fruit.

Everyone also really enjoyed his Seared Nantucket Scallop with Grilled Mango and Madras Mango Sauce. We all agreed that it was one of the most perfectly cooked scallops we had ever eaten. Chef Schimoler really hit a home run with these two dishes.
In spite of Chef Schimoler's outstanding showing, Chef Bennett took home the honor of Top Chef in this contest. His Blue Crab Mango Fritter with Mango Slaw and Mango Ketchup were truly outstanding. There were huge chunks of crab both in the fritter and in the slaw.

The mango slaw was so refreshing and I loved the addition of basil and cilantro. The Mango Board provided recipe cards and a fresh mango in our gift bags so I have no excuse not to whip up some mango slaw of my own!
Chef Bennett also provided a bonus shooter that contained mango puree, coconut soda and basil - another contender for Thirsty Thursday for sure!

Mango Shooters

This was a fantastic event! It was a perfect combination of food, facts and fun. The National Mango Board provided some really helpful information about an often underutilized fruit. The food was spectacular and made me want to sample even more of the chefs' cuisine at their restaurants. I can't wait for the new Crop to open in September! And I really enjoyed interacting with my new blogging friends. Their encouragement and support mean the world to me.

Eat*Drink*Cleveland, Cleveland Food and Brews, Poise in Parma

Finally, a HUGE thank you to Cleveland Food and Brews! You turned me on to a perfect event and I'm thrilled you let me do a guest blog for you. Your "just do it!" was just what I needed to get started with this new venture and I'm really looking forward to continuing our friendship. Cheers!

Disclosure: This event was free and open to the public. As a judge I received no compensation other than the food I ate and judged. The thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are 100% Crystal Welsh's of Eat*Drink*Cleveland.

Pranzo in Willoughby

2011-07-29T10:27:00.006-04:00

Before meeting some friends out for drinks in Downtown Willoughby, my fiancee and I finally got a reservation at a restaurant we have been meaning to go to even before I started writing reviews. The restaurant is called Pranzo. Both friends and family have recommenced this place to us numerous times to us, but getting a reservation can sometimes be difficult. This time we had no problems and we settled in for dinner at 7:15pm.
Food
Pranzo, as the name suggests, is an Italian restaurant. The menu features antipasti, wood-fired flatbreads, traditional Italian fare such as gnocchi and cavatelli, and also chicken, meat and seafood dishes. They also have specials that change weekly. Before we decided on our entrees, we were brought a basket of flatbread and dipping oil. The bread was thin and a little dense. We would have liked the bread to have a little more garlic and Italian seasoning on it because with just the dipping oil it was just average.

Our entrees came with a romaine lettuce salad with a slice of tomato and cucumber topped with a bit of fresh shaved Parmesan cheese. We were surprised that the Italian dressing was not house made like many Italian restaurants. On the other hand, my fiance was very please with the size of the salad and the use of mixed greens.

I decided to go with one of the specials for the evening for my entree which was a beef medallion dish that was prepared in the wood-fired oven and served with homemade gnocchi, sauteed spinach, and caramelized onions. The beef was cooked to a perfect medium inside with a perfect sear around the entire outside. The seasoning on the beef combined with the wood-fire grilling made the beef tenderloin mouth-watering good. The homemade gnocchi was so tasty it could have been a dish by itself. The density of the gnocchi was spot on as was the flavor. The gnocchi and spinach had a very rustic flavor, but the spinach could have used a touch less oil. Overall, I was very pleased with the portion size and the flavors of this dish which was priced at $25.00.

My fiancee ordered the Fiori di Zucca Tagliatelle ($21.00). This dish was prepared with fresh made pasta, yellow squash, squash blossoms, pancetta, olive oil, and garlic. I was excited she ordered this dish because growing up my grandmother used squash blossoms a lot in her cooking during the summer months. This dish was was a little bit of a hit and miss. The hit was the pasta and squash blossoms. The pasta was cooked properly and the squash blossoms had great flavor. The miss was the lack of salt/seasoning and the lack of integration of the pancetta. It seemed like the dish was prepared, plated, and then some pancetta was just mixed in. The flavor didn't come through unless you actually ate a bite of the pancetta. Overall we had mixed feelings on this dish because we felt it could have been prepared better using the same ingredients.

We walked into Pranzo expecting to be blown away by some traditional Italian food, but left feeling a little underwhelmed. The highlight of the night was my beef dish, but the hit/miss dish my fiancee left us just moderately happy for the price of our meal. Food wise Pranzo gets a 3.75/5

Drinks

Pranzo is a Bring Your Own Alcohol establishment with a small corking fee. This is both a plus and a minus. The plus is you can save money and bring in whatever alcohol you so desire. This will lessen your dining cost for sure, and also allow you to choose what you are drinking. The minus is that you have to prepare for dinner by bringing what you want and keeping it cold if necessary. (I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments section about what you think about this policy.)

Atmosphere and Service

Pranzo has a wonderful feel from the moment you walk in. The restaurant is small inside and is divided into two rooms. Although small, the tables are well spaced and we never felt cramped. The exposed brick combined with the decor also made us feel right at home.

First the positive, our waiter was kind, friendly and quick to come to our table when we were seated. That being said, our service for the night was very average. Our waiter told us a few of the specials, but never went into detail about anything on the menu past what we could read. Compare that with the table across the room where the waitress described basically the entire menu to a table as soon as they sat down. Once our entree's were delivered we were basically done eating before our waiter came back to check on us. We expected to get a higher level of service, but we got just average service. Atmosphere is a 4.5/5 but our service was a 2.5/5.

Overall
We left with mixed feelings and a little disappointed in our experience at Pranzo based on all the positive comments we've heard from friends and family. Outside of my entree and the atmosphere the rest of our experience was average. This is definitely a place that we are going to have to revisit to see if our experience was the norm or if this was just an off night.

View Cleveland Food and Brews Restaurant Review Map in a larger map

6th Annual Fabulous Food Show November 11-13, 2011

2011-07-28T12:27:00.004-04:00

Want to know something that annoys me? I hate buying tickets to something and being charged an extra "Service Fee". These service fees can really add up if you are buying tickets for your whole family!

With that being said, I have great news! The Fabulous Food Show tickets are going on sale on sale Friday, July 29th at 10am. There is a special promotion with this opening of ticket sales, a NO SERVICE FEE WEEKEND. From July 29-31 only, anyone who purchases tickets will be able to get tickets with no service fees!

Fabulous Food Show Tickets

The ticket includes admission to one chef show in the Main Kitchen Theater, the Market Place featuring more than 225 exhibiting companies, the Culinary Celebration Theatre, Grand Tasting Pavilion, Sweet Street Stage and over 100 ongoing demonstrations on six different stages.

Ticket prices:

One-day Admission ticket: $25 or $30.00 onsite November 11-13, 2011 at the I-X Center.

2-day and 3-day TICKETS with Specially Reserved Seating:

2-Day Admission ticket (advance sale) $45.00

3-Day Admission ticket (advance sale) $65.00

Convenience fee on all tickets except group tickets and tickets purchased on site

Event Hours:

Friday, November 11 — 10:00 AM - 7:00 PM

Saturday, November 12 — 10:00 AM - 7:00 PM

Sunday, November 13 — 10:00 AM - 6:00 PM

For More information and to buy tickets just visit www.fabulousfoodshow.com.

Dogfish Head Happy Hour at Noodlecat

2011-07-20T13:44:00.005-04:00

Last night I attended the Dogfish Head Happy Hour at Noodlecat. This event was part of Noodlecat's grand opening yesterday. The menu for the event was simple, three tasty brews paired with three steamed buns prepared by Chef Brian Reilly and one bonus brew at the end.

The pairing went like this: Dogfish Head Burton Baton (an oak aged Imperial IPA) paired with the BBQ pork steam bun, My Antonia (a continuously hopped imperial pilsner) paired with the fried chicken steam bun, and Raison D'Etre (a Belgian style brown ale) paired with the miso steam bun. We were also given a pour of the Indian Brown Ale when we were finished.

The steam buns all came out at once along with the three beers. The buns themselves were very tasty and held up very well with everything put inside them.

The pairing of the Burton Baton with the BBQ pork was spot on. Although this version of Burton Baton was slightly less hoppy that we remembered, which might have been due to it being a draft version, I still found the combination to work very well. The BBQ pork itself had just a little bit of kick to it which was cut nicely by the hops in the beer.

My favorite paring of the night was the crispy fried chicken with the My Antonia. The chicken was seasoned perfectly and the mayo that came on it had two mayo haters loving it! The fresh bubbly mouthfeel of the beer complimented the crispy and flavorful chicken. Chef Brian commented that this was the steam bun he was most excited about, and for good reason!

My least favorite pairing was the miso and salted cucumber steam bun with the Raison D'Etre. The beer was actually better than I originally reviewed it, so I might have to go back and revisit it, but the Miso lacked flavor in comparison to the fresh and up front flavors of the cucumber. It wasn't a bad steam bun, but just not as good as the other two. The beer for me didn't do it with this combination, in fact the Rasion D'Etre could have easily beer paired successfully with the BBQ pork.

Overall the event was well worth the $40 online price that included both tax and gratuity. The amount of food in combination with the overall quality and quantity of beer poured left everyone I was with very pleased. I look forward to making it down to Noodlecat soon to dive into their full menu because it looks and sounds amazing!

Laurello Vineyards and Winery

2011-07-19T12:30:00.004-04:00

Besides going to the local watering holes for a good craft beer, my fiancee and I also really enjoy making the trip out to Geneva to enjoy the country and some good Ohio wine. This trip took us to a few different wineries, but our dinner stop was at Laurello with my future sister and brother-in-law.

Food

Laurello has a few different options on the menu. Every day options include appetizers such as cheese plates, bread plates and seasonal options such as bruschetta and eggplant caponata. They also have Paninis and salads available daily. On Friday and Saturday's they also feature Wood-Fired Tuscan Pizzas. We decided to go with the "Special Pizza" which was Homemade tomato sauce, Italian sausage, mozzarella and romano cheese for $14.95.

The pizza underwhelmed us in every aspect. First, I expect a Wood-Fired Tuscan pizza to actually be somewhat crispy. The very outer edge of the crust did have some crispiness to it, but every other part of the crush was soggy and parts were a little undercooked. It was impossible to pick up a piece of pizza without the crust just totally flopping over. This was very disappointing. Second, the homemade tomato sauce totally lacked flavor. There was a mild hint of garlic, but outside of that this sauce reminded of a sauce I'd buy at a grocery store, not a home made sauce. Third, the mozzarella cheese was nothing special and the amount of romano cheese used was hardly noticeable. The only redeeming quality of this pizza was the rounds of sausage, which did have good flavor, but paired with a below average crust and sauce the sausage couldn't change how we all felt about this pizza.

Something else that we also snacked on but I didn't get a chance to take a picture of was Lucy's eggplant caponata. A better description of this dish would have been a mildly flavored salsa that came with crostini and cost $7.95. Overall, our table was not impressed by the food, nor the prices, and therefore I'd have to give Laurello a 1/5 for Food.
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Drinks
What Laurello lacked in terms of food, they made up with it with some very tasty wine. My fiancee and I only drink dry/red styles so I cannot comment on other wines they offer, but I can tell you that this Cabernet Franc was very good. It had a mild dry profile with a hint of dark raspberry. You can buy wine here by the glass or by the bottle and I have included a picture of the wine menu/pricing. Like most wineries, the only alcoholic beverages offered at Laurello is their wine. As far as the quality of the wine goes I give Laurello a 4/5.

Atmosphere and Service
A major positive for Laurello is that they have a wonderful outdoor space to sit and relax. They provide music on the weekends and they also have an area to play bocce! Service wise you have to walk up to the window to order wine and food and you prepay for everything. They then will provide you with a number to place on your table and your order is brought out to you. We loved the outdoor space, but rating the service is nearly impossible since the only real interaction was when I placed the order.

Overall, we'll go back to Laurello because we enjoy the outdoor space and the wine, but I think we will choose to eat elsewhere based on this experience.

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Emerging Chefs ReHival Featuring Chef Kimberly McCune

2011-07-16T13:04:00.002-04:00

First Annual Return to Earth Dinner

Join us for a journey to the rural retreat of Geauga County, for a most authentic “Farm to Table” gathering. Our first annual “Return to Earth Dinner” will be held just a stone’s throw away from the hustle and bustle of the city, and will showcase the culinary harvest of beekeeper’s daughter, Chef Kimberly McCune, Owner/Chef of Vine & Dine.

This quintessential “Pasture to Plate” dinner party will feature Chef McCune’s creations from 100% local food, sourced within 50 miles of the pastural countryside setting of Meadowlane Farms.

Designed with the foodie in mind, ReHival™ will present a new modern twist on family style dining, and the debut McCune’s own ReHive Ale, a local brew crafted by Little Mountain Brewery in Mentor, Ohio. McCune’s Allstar Culinary Team will showcase the talents of Lanny Chin of Bon Appetit, Jimmy Gibson of Case Western Reserve University, Amy Ryan of Viking and Scott Roitblat of Vine & Dine.
Come enjoy the feeling of the Sunday supper again, where time slows, memories awaken, and the opportunity to break bread with friends old and new awaits

When: August 19th (Friday) - 7pm to 10pm
Where: Meadowlane Farms - 11339 Butternut Road, Chardon, OH 44024

Tickets

Eventbrite Link

Market Garden Brewery in Ohio City

2011-07-15T11:46:00.005-04:00

Our good friends who just arrived back from their honeymoon asked us us to see if we wanted to go out to eat and have a few craft beers with them. I suggested that we try Market Garden Brewery, since I've not been there. We arrived on a Wednesday night to find they were pretty busy. We were told that it would be 30-45 minutes before we were seated, but that quickly turned into only about ten minutes and our experience began.

Food
The menu at Market Garden offers something for everyone. Starters include chicken wings, soft pretzels and a scotch egg! They also offer sandwiches, burgers, tacos and larger entrees such as the steak frites that I ordered.
Before we ordered our main courses our table decided to try the wings. We ordered half a dozen mild ($6.00) and half a dozen hot wings to start. The wings were soft and tender on the inside and well seasoned. We all really enjoyed the flavors of the mild wings and the hot wings. The wings were served with a very different sauce than the usual ranch or bleau cheese. It was very rich and we all noticed a goat cheese flavor to it. I also much note that my friend requested all "flats" which the kitchen accommodated with no problem. If we had one wish, we all would have liked the skin on the wings to be crispier instead of the somewhat soggy texture.

Mild Wings

Hot Wings

After enjoying our wings we moved onto the entree round. I decided to go with the Steak and Gravy Frites ($19.00). I ordered my steak cooked to a medium temperature. When my meal arrived, the steak was served precut as shown in the first picture. I noticed right away that my steak was under-cooked, more along the lines of very rare as the second picture shows. I showed the waitress when she returned to check on us and she did offer to take it back and have it cooked more. I decided to eat it as is because with it already being cut, I didn't want it to be refired and dry out. Outside of the steaks temperature, the flavor of it was very good and the seasoning was spot on. I also enjoyed the thin cut fries and the gravy that went along with them. The gravy had chunks of sausage integrated with it which I enjoyed, but I don't think it complemented the flavor of the steak. I did enjoy my meal, but the execution on my meal was slightly off.

My fiancee ordered a burger that came topped with chimichurri, and underneath had lettuce, tomato and red onion. She ordered her burger cooked to medium temperature but it was slightly overcooked to a medium well, close to well done which rendered it slightly dry. The bun on this burger was very good. It had a heavy dense texture and was very flavorful. The chimichurri was good, but she wished there was a little bit more because it really helped to add a little flavor and moisture to the slightly dry meat. The fries were well seasoned with salt and the mayo and mustard aolil complement the fries and burger very well. Overall she thought it was a very average meal and was not too crazy about her burger.

Overall, our food experience was average tonight. Market Garden has a very promising menu. I'm sure as more time goes on, they will be able to improve and tweak it as they have done across the street at Bar Cento. I know that when you first open a restaurant kinks have to be worked out, so I look forward to going back to Market Garden later this summer or early this fall to see how things progress. Overall Food wise Market Garden gets a 3/5.

Drinks

This drink section will only be talking about one thing....Craft Beer. Being a brewery we were very excited to try the beers, especially the Cluster Fuggle IPA and the Viking Pale Ale. Unfortunately they were out of both of these beers, which really disappointed myself and my friend. We got past our disappointment and we got a sampler for our table. Here were the beers available, minus the Viking Pale Ale but including a Summer Ale not listed on the board.

You could pick 6 four ounce samples for the sampler. I picked the Stout, Brown Ale, Wheat, Amber Lager, American Lager and the Summer Ale. When I cashed out I was told that the total was $16 (The price of the sampler was not posted anywhere we could see, nor were we told before ordering it)! I was very shocked by how expensive 24oz of beer was considering the 16oz pints were selling for $5-6 each. Basically each 4oz sample cost $2.66. It also got me thinking about how much samplers are at other area Breweries. Here are just a few examples.

Willoughby Brewing charges $8.00 for eight 4oz samples = $1.00 per sample
Fat Heads charges on average $1.50 per 4 oz sample, so Six samples would cost $9.00
Great Lakes charges a flat $15.00, which buys you a 4oz sample of everything they have on tap, which last night was 10 beers = $1.50 per sample

I appreciate and like the fact that they offer customer choice on the sampler, but that to us didn't justify $16 for only six 4oz samples of beer which were no higher than 5.5%ABV. I hope to see them adjust this price to something between $10 and $12 which would be more in line with other area breweries.

In order from left to right--Summer Ale, American Lager, Amber Lager, Wheat, Brown Ale and Stout

Now onto the beers themselves. The first thing we noticed across the board was the carbonation levels on all of the beers seemed high, especially the stout and brown ale. The tables favorite of the bunch was the wheat. The banana flavor in it was just enough without it being overpowering. The Stout came in 2nd place for us even though we wished the carbonation was less and I thought the flavor for a stout was somewhat lacking. The Lagers were good, but then again nothing that is going to make the craft beer geek go crazy. The least favorite of the night was the Summer Ale because it lacked flavor. Overall, I understand where Market Garden is trying to go with their beers. The focus is to create good, session beers for the masses to enjoy. Not one of these brews weighted in over 5.5% ABV, which is a testament to their mission to create session beers. I do look forward to trying the Pale Ale and the IPA soon to see what their flavor profiles are. I commend Market Garden for coming out of the gates brewing so many different beers. I hope to see as time goes on that they can dial in the recipes and produce session beers with slightly more flavor. Will I be back at Market Garden for another pint or three...You bet. Overall Market Garden gets a 3/5 for Drinks.

Atmosphere and Service

The venue itself is hard to beat. Vast amount of space inside and out, combined with hand crafted wood and concrete provide a wonderful setting to eat and drink with friends. We all absolutely loved the space. Our service during our meal was good, not great. Our waitress did provide us with a few food recommendations, but not a ton of detail or descriptions to go with it. There were also a few times when we needed her for either drinks or to place an our entree order and we had to wait a while because of how busy the restaurant was. She did comment that the kitchen was super backed up and did apologize for the wait. Our experience was what we expected at a new restaurant and we hope to see improvements when we go back. Atmosphere gets a 5/5 and service for the evening gets a 3/5.

Overall

At only three weeks young Market Garden is off to a good start, but going through the growing pains of any new restaurant. The key now is to see growth the next time we go back in terms of food, craft beer and service quality. Being such big fans of Cleveland and Craft Beer we all hope that Market Garden doesn't just do well, but we hope they thrive! So the question you are asking after reading this....should I go there? Yes, by all means get down to Market Garden, support local food and craft beer, and help this new establishment grow, but understand they are still young and have room to grow. Cheers!

For more information on the Beer Side, check out Bobby Like's Beer and his feelings on Market Garden Brewery.

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Restaurant.com Gift Certificate Giveaway #2

2011-07-11T11:37:00.007-04:00

This is Giveaway 2 out of 3 during July!

As you probably know, I love going out to eat and drink in the wonderful city of Cleveland. The problem with going out to dinner so much is my monthly credit card bill can get a little high. Something that helps to lessen the cost of dinning out is using restaurant.com gift certificates. About a week ago I got an email from restaurant.com asking if I'd like to help promote their new site, Restaurant.com's Cleveland Dining Guide. They offered me three $25 gift certificates to giveaway or to use to go out and write reviews. My plan is to give away all three gift certificates to my readers over the next three weeks so that you can try some of the places I've reviewed, or use it to go to a new place that you've been meaning to try!

The Winner is Comment #10 from Laura L.

The winner of this giveaway will get $25 worth of Restaurant.com credit to use to buy one $25 restaurant specific gift certificate.

There are 5 ways to Enter The Giveaway

*You must leave a separate comment on this post for each Entry!*
If you post it to your twitter or facebook wall please let me know who you are so I can verify.

Standard Entry

1. Leave one comment on this post telling me would like to win and what restaurant you would use this certificate for.

Bonus Entries

2. Click "Like" on my Facebook Page and post this on your Facebook Wall:

Check out the Giveaway that @ClevelandFoodandBrewsReviews is doing for a free $25 Restaurant.com Gift Certificate at http://tinyurl.com/cfbrest2

3. Follow me on Twitter and tweet the following:

Check out the @restaurant_com giveaway that @clefoodandbrews is doing at: http://tinyurl.com/cfbrest2 -Please RT-#clefood

Rules:

--You have until Monday, July 18th 2011 at 9am EST to enter.

--The winner will be picked at random using Random.org.
--Only comments left on this post will count. If you tweet, facebook or enter in any other way be sure to leave a comment here telling me you did it.
--You must leave a SEPARATE comment for each Entry, otherwise your entry will only count once.

--Each separate comment is numbered in the order they are posted. The comment that matches the Random.org number wins!!

--Winner has 24 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen.

Disclosure: I have been given three $25 gift certificates that I'll be giving away. I am not being compensated in any way for doing this giveaway.

Capitol City Brewing Brewpub in Washington DC

2011-07-08T10:48:00.000-04:00

During our recent trip to Washington DC, I convinced my fiancee to have lunch with me at Capitol City Brewing's Brewpub. Captiol City Brewpub is located in a prime location downtown just a few minutes away from the White House. After doing a lot of walking all morning, we were in need of a good meal and a few pints!

Food and Service
The main options on the menu are pizza, sandwiches/burgers, and a selection of entrees mostly centered around steaks and seafood. Since it was lunchtime, we both decided to go with the Hickory Burger. Before deciding on a burger, we asked our server few questions about other menu items. However, our server responses were not very helpful because her answers were mostly yes and no with no real information about the food. When my fiancee asked about the Hickory Burger our waitress said "It is one of our most popular items." We asked her to describe it, and she basically recited what the menu said. We both decided to order it based on the menu description which was: "A half-pound Certified Angus ground beef burger smothered with our signature chipotle barbeque sauce topped with cheddar cheese, bacon served on a brioche bun with lettuce, tomato, red onion and pickles."

I ordered my burger to be cooked to a medium temperature, while my fiancee ordered medium-well. After a few seconds our waitress came back to double check that I wanted medium and I confirmed. When our burgers arrived, we first noticed how the cheese was melted all over the place on my burger, while my fiancee's cheese was still basically as solid slice. The presentation of the burgers just was not very pleasing to the eye, so on to eating we went.

My Hickory Burger

Fiancee's Hickory Burger

As we began to eat we both started to realize that our burgers were beyond well done. Our waitress was nowhere to be found and she never came to check to see how our food was. In fact, my fiancee had to wave her down just to get some ketchup. By this point I took 3-4 bites hoping the center of my burger would indeed be a little juicy, and it was not. I decided to deconstruct the burger to see what it looked like. They had cut the burger itself in half to check the "doneness"! I just had to snap a few pictures, pardon the bite marks.

At this point I was annoyed, and finally the waitress came back with the bottle of ketchup that my fiancee had asked for 5 minutes ago. I asked if it was customary to cut their burgers in half, and she said they probably did it to check its temperature. I then informed her that my burger was cooked to the point of being totally dry. She quickly left the table saying she was going to get the manager. After a few minutes she came back without a manager and said the manager was going to comp our meals. Both of us were somewhat shocked by this, and the lack of an offer to fire us up new burgers considering we hardly ate anything at this point. It was clear the waitress was not happy, and I didn't want to push the issue further by asking for a refire, so we said OK and continued to eat what we could. I only finished a few more bites of my burger because it was awful and ate my fries. My fiancee's burger was not cut in half, and was slightly juicer than mine, but still cooked well past well-done. The other part of the burger that was somewhat unappealing was the amount of BBQ sauce they used. Sure this helped add some moisture to the dried out burgers, but it also made the bun a sloppy mess. The fries were somewhat of a saving grace, but by no means anything special. Food wise, we were very disappointed and would have to score this food a 1/5.

The service part of this story continued. The manager came to check on us before we left. It turns out our server told her that we were in a hurry and that we did not want them to make us new food. When in reality, she never offered to remake our burgers. The manager then explained that when the waitress left our table after I commented on our burgers, she explicitly told the manager we were in a hurry and that is why the manager decided to comp the food. After hearing this information the manager was not happy and apologized several more times for what had transpired, and said she would take care of the whole bill because of the way our experience. She explained that their normal policy is not to cut the burgers and that she was very upset that they cut it, saw it was well overcooked, and it was still sent out to us.
The entire time we were there our waitress made us feel like she was just going through the motions. Our servers rating would be a 0/5, but the managers willingness to try to make things right at least gets them some points in the service department, so I'll give them a 1.5/5.

Drinks
Our server was even less helpful with drink selections. My fiancee asked how their bloody marys were, and how they were made and she responded "I don't know, I don't drink those." I then asked what was their signature beer and she responded "I don't drink beers." Considering we were at a brewpub, I couldn't believe this response and decided to just order the sampler and decide for myself what to get next.

From Left to Right--Pale Ale, Porter, Hefeweizen, Kolsch and Amber Ale.

I was not impressed by any of these brews to be honest. If I had to pick the best of the bunch, I'd say the Amber and the Porter, but even these were not good enough to justify ordering a whole pint. The good news out of all this was that my fiancee did enjoy her bloody mary, but with average beers at a brewpub I can't score them any higher than a 2/5 for drinks.

Atmosphere
What was sad about our experience was that the set up of the brewpub was actually really nice. Glass everywhere gives you light from outside and also a view of what is going on downtown. The bar area was also very nice with ample seating a view of the restaurant. Going simply on decor and set up I'd give them a 4/5.

Overall our meal and service were a disaster and the beer was average at best. We did appreciate that the manager stepped up and trying to make things right. That being said, I don't think we'll be going back to Capitol City Brewing the next time we go to DC since there are so many other restaurants we want to try.

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Noodlecat Opening Information

2011-07-06T14:05:00.003-04:00

I just received word this morning that Chef Johnathon Sawyers's Noodlecat will be open for business on July 19th!

The opening schedule is as follows:

July 19th through the 22nd-- Lunch from 11am to 3 pm

July 25th through the 30th-- Lunch & Dinner from 11am to 9pm

There is also going to be a special Dogfish Head Happy Hour from 5-7pm on Tuesday, July 19th. For $40 the following beers will each be paired with three seamed buns from Chef Brian Reilly.

Burton Baton, Raison D'Etre, and My Antonia!

Tickets for the Happy Hour event can be purchased here: http://beersandbuns.eventbrite.com/

Noodlecat is located at 240 Euclid Ave in Downtown Cleveland and will feature traditional and modern American twists on noodles that are sure to knock your socks off! For more information check out the Facebook Page and Follow them on Twitter!

Restaurant.com Gift Certificate Giveaway

2011-06-27T13:00:00.010-04:00

As you probably know, I love going out to eat and drink in the wonderful city of Cleveland. The problem with going out to dinner so much is my monthly credit card bill can get a little high. Something that helps to lessen the cost of dinning out is using restaurant.com gift certificates. About a week ago I got an email from restaurant.com asking if I'd like to help promote their new site, Restaurant.com's Cleveland Dining Guide. They offered me three $25 gift certificates to giveaway or to use to go out and write reviews. My plan is to give away all three gift certificates to my readers over the next three weeks so that you can try some of the places I've reviewed, or use it to go to a new place that you've been meaning to try!

The winner of this giveaway will get $25 worth of Restaurant.com credit to use to buy one $25 restaurant specific gift certificate.

The Winner of this Giveaway is comment #23--Ryan.

There are 5 ways to Enter The Giveaway

*You must leave a separate comment on this post for each Entry!*
If you post it to your twitter or facebook wall please let me know who you are so I can verify.

Standard Entry

1. Leave one comment on this post telling me would like to win and what restaurant you would use this certificate for.

Bonus Entries

2. Click "Like" on my Facebook Page and post this on your Facebook Wall:

Check out the Giveaway that @ClevelandFoodandBrewsReviews is doing for a free $25 Restaurant.com Gift Certificate at http://tinyurl.com/CFBRestGift

3. Follow me on Twitter and tweet the following:

Check out the @restaurant_com giveaway that @clefoodandbrews is doing at: http://tinyurl.com/CFBRestGift -Please RT-#clefood

4. Become a follower of both my Food Blog and Craftbeer Blog through NetworkedBlogs.

5. Add the Food Blog and Craftbeer Blog to your GoogleReader.

Rules:

--You have until Saturday, July 2nd 2011 at 9am EST to enter.

--Each separate comment is numbered in the order they are posted. The comment that matches the Random.org number wins!!

--Winner has 24 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen.

Disclosure: I have been given three $25 gift certificates that I'll be giving away. I am not being compensated in any way for doing this giveaway.

NoodleCat Brick and Mortar Pop Up featuring Lee Anne Wong

2011-06-24T22:23:00.001-04:00

Tonight we went to the Brick and Mortar Pop up featuring Lee Anne Wong. I wanted to just give you a quick picture recap of what were our favorite dishes since she is in town for only one more night, Saturday June 25th. There are still tickets left if you are on the fence about going so here is the ultra quick rundown of what we loved!

Vanilla-Shichimi Pepper Chicken Wings

Tonkatsu Sliders with Mustard-Katsu sauce and Cabbage Salad

Hatcho Miso Marinated Beef

Udon Stir Fy

All of these dishes had so many different spices and flavor combinations that worked amazingly together. I highly recommend these dishes if you are attending the event tomorrow night, but be ready to be impressed with a large amount of choices on the menu.

For more information about the event and/or to set up a reservation just email: contact@brickandmortarpopups.com

Also be sure to check out the next Brick and Mortar event with Chef Chris Hodgson on July 11th and 13th.

http://brickandmortarchris2-eorg.eventbrite.com/

Emerging Chefs Sushi at Sunset Recap

2011-06-24T10:23:00.001-04:00

Even Cleveland weather couldn't stop Sushi at Sunset this week. The setting for the event was moved to the Asian Town Center due to weather and the setting was very cool. The event took place on the 2nd floor in the large hallway area. The set up of the tables and the red lighting really brought the venue to life, especially as it got darker. For this recap I took two pictures of each course, one with flash, and one without flash to give you a sense of how the evening "looked".

Course 1
Duck fat poached shrimp gazphacho paired with Villa Chiara prosecco. The gazpacho had a very mild spicy to it and flavors of cucumber and scallions stood out the most to me. The shrimp itself was cooked perfectly, but if they hadn't said it was poached in duck fat I would have never known it because that flavor just didn't come through. That being said, this was a fresh and flavorful start to the meal.

Course 2
Japanese style beef tartar using seared Kobe beef and seared tenderloin. It was seasoned with sesame and Chef Cassano's own persimmon ketchup on a pickled and fried lotus root. It was paired with a Karatamba Sake. This dish was all about amazing texture. The crunchy, sweet candied lotus root paired perfectly with the soft beef tartar. This dish had the table buzzing because of how well the flavors and textures worked together. The persimmon didn't come through for me, but this dish didn't need it to. The sake in this course was also very light and easy to drink, which was nice because it didn't take over my palate as I was eating.

Course 3
Yellowtail sashimi with jalapeno and daikon sprouts in a light ponzu sauce paired with Torrent Bay Sauvignon Blanc. This dish was all about eaching each component together to get the full effect. The spice from the jalapeno and the acidity of the ponzu perfectly balanced the flavor of the yellowtail, and the fresh daikon added just enough texture to the dish to make this a "perfect bite".

Course 4
Beef Sushi Brochette in a Sake soy beurre blanc reduction paired with Underwood Pinot Noir. This was hands down my favorite dish of the night. The meat was cooked perfectly. The texture of the beef was so soft it just melted in my mouth. Add the butter, scallion and slightly garlic flavor of the beurre blanc with the smokey flavor of the beef and you have a dish that I could have eaten all night! Simply amazing.

Course 5

White chocolate dried cherry Bread Pudding finished with Jack Dainels butter paired with a Snow Maiden Unfiltered Sake. This dish was savory and sweet with the white chocolate and cherry coming through just enough to make this a wonderfully balanced dessert. The most unique part to this course was the unfiltered sake. I've never had this type before and as my tablemate Edsel explained it would have a somewhat chalky texture to it because of the unfiltered nature. He was right on, and when drank with the dessert it really helped to balance out that chalkiness.

From the first course to the last, I enjoyed every portion of food and how it paired with the drink. Highlights for me were the Beef Tartar, the Yellowtail and the Beef Sushi. The event was another successful one for Emerging Chefs in terms of food, fun and entertainment. The next Emerging Chefs event, Summer White, will take place on Saturday, July 16th and will feature Chef Regan Reik of Pier W.

For more information on Summer White Click Here.

Disclosure: I was provided a media pass to attend this event. The thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are 100% my own.

Tremont NEO Food Tours Recap

2011-06-23T11:17:00.000-04:00

Last night I attended the NEOFoodTours event in Tremont. I was excited about this for a couple of reasons. First, we would be visiting three restaurants along the trip that I have not yet had a chance to try (Bistro on Lincoln Park, Lago and 806). Second, we would be walking around Tremont and talking about the history of this great area.

Our meeting place, and first restaurant for the night, was Fahrenheit. I've eaten at Fahrenheit only once, and have been dying to get back there to see what else Chef Rocco Whalen has up his sleeve. Check in for the event was a breeze and we were directed to the back part of the dinning area that was made private for the event. There were approximately 20 people that attended the event, and there were two tables of ten set up for us. I enjoyed this seating arrangement because it really encouraged people at the table to engage in conversation. Before we really had a chance to say much to each other, our food was brought out to us. Our starting dish for the evening was a tuna tataki seared with peppercorns, cayenne pepper, sesame and hemp seeds that was served with a long, thin slice of cucumber that was wrapped around local pickled greens, citrus ponzu, and pea shoots. Chef Rocco then came out and spoke to the group about himself, his restaurant, Tremont, and about how all of the chefs in Cleveland have such great relationships with one another. Chef Rocco spoke with great passion and excitement and it was a great way to start the event. The dish itself was excellent too. The tuna was mildly spicy because of the peppercorns and the cayenne, and it paired well with the fresh and earthy cucumber and greens. Also, the acidity of the dressing really tied the whole dish together and getting everything in one bite made it clear what the chefs vision was with this dish.

Right before we were about to leave we were brought out a quick surprise that no one knew about, not even the NEO Food Tours people. Deep Fried Oysters!

There was enough for everyone to have one quick bite before we left, and let me tell you that one bite was simply amazing. Crispy, spicy, fresh and packed with flavor. I wish I could have eaten the whole plate, but to be fair, I only had the one pictured below!

Todd Gauman, the founder of NEO Food Tours, led us along the way to our next stop. During our walk he pointed out many details and facts about Tremont that I personally didn't know and found very interesting. I thought he did a wonderful job making the walk fun and interesting.

At the end of our walk, we entered the Bistro on Lincoln Park. Myself and almost the entire table from the first stop all decided to sit together again since we had such a good time chatting at Fahrenheit. Once seated, Chef Pete Joyce presented us with a crispy piece of pork belly, some fresh greens that included basil, parsley, and chives, and a couple mixed berries. The single best bite on this dish was pork, basil and raspberry. The only problem was there was only one piece of basil and one raspberry. The whole table commented on how this portion was much too small, and we wish we could have had a chance to try different bites to see how the greens, berries and pork belly would have worked together. We all agreed though that the flavors on this dish were very good.

After we were all finished eating Todd called us outside and told us a wonderful story about the history of Lincoln Park. We then continued on our walk towards Lago and stopped a few times to look at local architecture and to talk more about local history.

Our third stop for the evening was at Lago, and once again our newly formed group decided we would all sit together again. We were served a pan roasted halibut with a grilled vegetable ragu (asparagus, red peppers and a leak), and an English pea emulsion. I found the flavors to work very well together because the English pea emulsion added a wonderful freshness to the dish. The fish itself had a super crispy outside that needed a knife just to cut through it. Once through the crispy outside the fish was flavorful and tender on the inside. However, another comment around the table was that this portion size was just a little small considering we were at our 3rd stop on the tour and our 2nd stop really didn't fill us up at all.

Our final stop for the evening was at 806. When we arrived we were greeted by the owner who explained about the transition of 806 from a wine/martini bar, to a restaurant with a full kitchen. She also explained that we would be served a custom blended Brazilian Sangria that was made with malbec wine, passion fruit puree, and oronoco rum. The menu said we would be served a "Summer Fruit Compote with a Fine Artisanal Cheese selection." What came out had everyone scratching their heads. We were served a few pieces of fruit, four average cheese triangles and four good old "Ritz" style crackers. Needless to say everyone was disappointed at this final course of food, and we were thankful that the Sangria was good!

Before we all left we were presented with one final parting gift. We received a gift bag with information about the tour and Tremont, and a couple cupcakes from A Cookie and a Cupcake. This was a very nice way to end our evening!

Overall I thought the tour was a fun and exciting way to show off Tremont, get people into new restaurants, and to create social interaction among Clevelanders! I also thought Todd did an amazing job giving the historical perspective of Tremont along the trip. After the event, over half of the attendees decided to go out for a drink because we had such a good time together. That really speaks to just how powerful food can be at bringing people together and making friendships on the fly! It was also a great time for everyone to reflect on the event. Improvements that everyone hopes to see would be to make sure that restaurants are providing appropriate portion sizes based on where they are lined up during the event, and to make sure what is listed on the menu is what we are actually getting (4th course). Myself and a few others shared these concerns with Todd and other NEO Food Tour employees and they too shared these concerns and vowed to improve these aspects during future events.

That being said, with the 4th NEO Food Tour event coming up July 20th down at East 4th Street I'm sure Todd and company at NEO Food Tours will be sure to knock our socks off with an amazing event. As soon as tickets go on sale for that event I'll be sure to post up a link on my "Upcoming Events" tab!

Disclosure: I attended this event with a free media pass. I agreed to help promote the event on my site and to also provide feedback to NEO Food Tours after the event. The thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are 100% my own and were also shared with NEO Food Tours.

Willoughby Brewing Company

2011-06-21T09:48:00.000-04:00

My fiancee and I decided to take her parents out to dinner at Willoughby Brewing Company last night. This choice was made because recently I brought a growler of Peanut Butter Coffee Porter to a family function and my future mother-in-law loved it! Another factor was that we have not yet dined at Willoughby Brewing Company since changes were made to both the menu and the brewing.

Food
After looking over the new menu we had some serious decisions to make. The menu featured burgers, pizzas, steaks, seafood and even make your own mac and cheese!

After careful consideration my fiancee went with the Caribbean Pork Tenderloin. This pan seared pork tenderloin was served with coconut rice, asparagus, and a pineapple mango salsa. It was then topped with a citrus, rum glaze. ($18.99) The pork itself was juicy and tender on the inside with a slightly crispy outside that was well seasoned. The seasoning had a little kick to it, but also had some sweetness to it from the citrus/rum glaze. The coconut rice was cooked properly and the asparagus and mango salsa added a nice fresh component to the plate. The four components of this dish worked really well together and when combined made for one very delicious bite.

My choice for the evening was the Seafood Diablo. This dish was composed of shrimp and scallops sautéed with red onions, roasted tomatoes, and garlic in a spicy tomato broth. It was then tossed with linguini pasta and served with two pieces of ciabatta bread.. ($18.99) The pasta was cooked slightly past al dente and the shrimp and scallops in the dish were cooked perfectly. In my dish I had 3 scallops and 4 shrimp to go with the large amount of pasta and roasted tomatoes. The broth really brought this dish together. It did have some heat to it, so if you are not a fan of spicy food you might want to take the word Diablo seriously! I was also glad the dish included bread so I could dip the bread into the juice along with the roasted tomatoes.

My future mother-in-law also got the Seafood Diablo and enjoyed it just as much as I did. She did find it to be a little spicy, but the fresh beers helped to quench that thirst! One inconsistency with the dish was that she only had 2 scallops and 3 shrimp in her dish which was different from mine. My future father-in-law had the fried egg burger and was very pleased with the temperature and flavors!
Overall everyone at the table enjoyed their meal. I was impressed with the menu changes and also how the quality of the food and presentation has improved. If you have not been to Willoughby Brewing Company in a while, I suggest you give their food a try very soon! Food wise they get a 4.5/5!

Drinks
My friends and I have have been going to Willoughby Brewing Company for years to try different craft beers. Unfortunately, over time the beers were getting worse because of poor brewing practices and consequently we went less often. A few months ago new ownership took over and a new brewing regime began. They properly revamped the brewing system and dedicated themselves to brewing high quality beer again. To start our night out we decided to get the large sampler. For only $8.00 you get eight 4oz samples! This is probably the best sampler deal I've ever seen. Our waitress brought them to us with a clearly labeled piece of paper that had all of the beers names on it and then arranged them on the table for us. From left to right was the Toehead Blonde, Hazy Days American Wheat, Railway Razz, Peanut Butter Coffee Porter, GutterPup Porter, MoonShadow IPA, Rusty Rail American Pale Ale, and finally the WBC Maibock. What did not come on the sampler was the Hopnotic Imperial Red Rye IPA, which I gladly ordered for myself! Every single person at the table found at least 2 they really enjoyed. Personally, I liked all of them and was impressed with how each brew was very true to its style. My favorites of the samples were the Coffee Porter, the IPA, and the Maibock.

When it comes to high quality, fresh Craft Beer I can confidently say Willoughby Brewing Company is Back! If beer is not your thing, they do offer wine and mixed drinks as well. Drink wise I give Willoughby Brewing a 5/5!

Atmosphere and Service
Willoughby Brewing is a fun environment for all occasions, that is also family friendly. Here are some pictures of the bar area which offers high top table seating and also booth seating. There is also a back dinning area that is slightly more formal than the bar area. The decor is what you would expect in a brewpub and I think they did a nice job showcasing the brewing area behind the bar. We choose to sit outside on the patio since the weather was beautiful, but it was too dark to take a picture by the time we left!

Our service for the evening was also great. Our waitress was knowledgeable, friendly and around when ever we needed her. The atmosphere for a brewpub is excellent and the service was equally as good, and score wise WBC gets a 4.75/5.

Overall
If you have not yet made your way to Willoughby Brewing Company you don't know what you are missing. Excellent food, amazing craft beer, and overall just a great place to hang out with friends and family.

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The Chubby Cook Preview in Beachwood Ohio

2011-06-16T10:29:00.003-04:00

Scott Groth, founder of The Chubby Cook, has a wonderful idea cooking up in Beachwood.

His Plan:

Serve high quality grab and go breakfast and lunches during the day.
Offer hands on cooking classes at night in his commercial kitchen.
Offer a variety of catering services.

Last night The Chubby Cook had an open house to give the public an idea of what they might find when they walk in the doors. They also took the time to let us walk throughout the venue to get a feel for what the kitchen experience is going to be like when they get the cooking classes up and running. The food samples we had last night were all fresh and delicious. I especially loved the stuffed tomato poppers, the meat and cheese tray, the cheesecake bites, and the home made take on lemon ice cream! I took plenty of pictures to give you an idea of what to expect!

Here are some shots of what the kitchen looks like. It was very large with plenty of work space for classes.

And last, but not least, here are some of the friendly faces to expect to see when you walk in the door!

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Bar Cento in Ohio City

2011-06-15T09:13:00.001-04:00

On Sunday my fiancee and I were running errands and neither of us really felt like going home to cook dinner. I had stated earlier in the day I wanted to have pizza for dinner and into her brilliant mind popped Bar Cento. We have dined at Bar Cento a few times before and both times got the amazing SunnySide Pizza, but have always wanted to go back and try some other menu items as well. So off to Ohio City we drove!

FOOD
We arrived around 5pm on a chilly Sunday afternoon and had no problems getting a seat inside without a reservation. We asked our waiter if there were any specials and he was quick to point out the Duck Confit Pizza that was back on the menu. The words Duck Confit and Pizza were enough for me to order it! We also wanted to order an entree so we could experience something outside of Bar Cento's pizzas, so we decided to split the Brick Oven Chicken.

The pizza was a work of art. It was piled with Ohio rhubarb, Lucky Penny Farms Chevre (goat cheese), chives, orange zest, and amazingly flavorful duck confit. With all of these ingredients on top of a thin crust, I was thoroughly impressed how crispy the crust remained from the outer edge all the way to center. The crust added wonderful texture to the creamy, powerful goat cheese. Neither of us could get over how good the combination of the duck, rhubarb, and goat cheese was. Sweet, Savory and Delicious all in one bite! The chives and orange zest also added a wonderful freshness that, in the end, had me proclaiming this as one of the best pizza's I've ever eaten!

If the pizza wasn't enough, we still had the Brick Oven Chicken dish to eat! It was served with spinach sformato, fennel and a tomato jus. It also came with a side of frites and our server was kind enough to bring us three dipping aiolis my fiancee requested. The chicken was cooked perfectly throughout. The inside was soft, warm, and juicy while the outside had a very thin, extra crispy skin. My fiancee usually will not eat the skin because of its soggy and soft texture, but the way they prepared this dish she loved it. We both appreciated when we bit into the chicken there was a flavor packed crunch and then the soft texture of the chicken. Combine that flavorful bite with a bit of the sformato and fennel dipped in the jus and again we were left with perfect bites. The frites alone are worth the trip to Bar Cento. These are fried to perfection in duck fat and served with a chili, curry, and garlic aioli. My favorite was the garlic with the chili coming in a close second. (I didn't get a picture of the aiolis.)

Overall our meal was amazing. We didn't have one complaint about any of the food. Everything was cooked and seasoned perfectly. If you have not been to Bar Cento, you should go, and if they have either of these dishes on the menu I highly recommend you try them! Food wise Bar Cento gets a 5/5.

Drinks
When you walk into Bar Cento a draft beer list is clearly visible for all to see. They also have a paper list that offers even more selections in terms of draft options and bottled beers. In the few times I've been to Bar Cento, I've never had a problem finding something very tasty to drink. Tonight was no exception, as I had a Bell's Two Hearted Ale and then a North Peak Vicious Wheat IPA which they tapped right away after kicking the keg of Heavy Seas Loose Cannon. If beer is not your thing, don't worry they have over 100 different wines available and they are all very reasonably priced. With a good variety of craft beer both on draft and in the bottle, along with an excellent wine selection and fully stocked bar nearly everyone will find something they enjoy drinking at Bar Cento, and for that reason they get a 4.75/5 for drinks!

Atmosphere and Service
The feel of Bar Cento is laid back and relaxing, yet still refined and elegant. By this I mean you could celebrate your first date or your 50th anniversary here in style, or if you were just looking for a place to grab a cold drink and a good pizza this is your place too! I like that they offer many different seating options from bar seating, to your usual tables inside the restaurant, to the booths that surround the room as you walk in the main doors, and finally the outdoor patio seating. The service also makes you feel very comfortable. Our waiter answered every question we had about the menu and he was extremely knowledgeable even down the smallest ingredient. Outside of the food knowledge our waiter also had a good understanding of the craft beer offerings and explained what some of the offerings would taste like. Friendly, prompt, knowledgeable service combined with a wonderful restaurant feel earns Bar Cento a 5/5.

Overall
Did Bar Cento live up to all the hype surrounding it in the media/social media world? Absolutely! From the moment we walked in until the moment we left, we had a wonderful experience and look forward to going back to Bar Cento again. If you still have not made it down to Ohio City to see what Chef Michael Nowak and crew are cooking up, put it on your short list this summer!

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Sowfood CSA Prepared Services

2011-06-12T14:40:00.001-04:00

I wanted to pass along some information about Chef Brian Doyle's Sowfood CSA Prepared Services

Information from Brian Doyle: Subscribe to a season of prepared meals made with local ingredients and stuff we grow ourselves at our new urban farm.

Committing to a full season costs $90/week. (plus costs of containers)
Pick up is Thursday 10 am to 1 pm at Open Yoga gallery 4736 Lorain Avenue which is right across the street from our farm and the partner of Open Yoga, Chad Krawtschenko is in charge of the farm.

What you get: 3 meals per week to serve 2 adults each meal. The break down is $15/person
This includes all ingredients needed to make a well rounded meal. Protein, starch and veg components.

Subscription options:
1. full 20 week commitment $90/week (plus container deposit)
2. month to month with full commitment $95/week (plus container deposit)
3. month long plan with no long term commitment $100 (plus container deposit)

I am offering a rare "white squirrel" special. (cuz our mascot is a white squirrel that lives on the farm)

Sign up for full season subscription by June 26th and get a free meal added to your weekly service. Now you could split that with another family if you want to and have at least 2 meals each week to yourself. That's a great way to go if you still like to cook a lot and go out. Maybe you'd like to split that with someone you know.

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If you are interested contact Brian at 440-622-5071 or email him at info@sowfood.com

Brasserie Beck in Downtown Washington DC

2011-06-10T08:58:00.001-04:00

While we were in DC for Savor we decided to ask some of the locals where we should go for dinner. One couple at Savor highly suggested Brasserie Beck and another couple also mentioned this restaurant too. With two local couples suggesting it we decided to give it a shot.

We called ahead for reservations and were pleased when we found out they had outdoor seating. However, reservations for outdoor seating was not available. As we walked down K street from our hotel and found the restaurant situated on the ground floor of a larger building. We noticed right away the wonderful outdoor patio space and were already intrigued.

When we checked in we were told the wait would be 45 minutes but we were actually seated within 15 minutes of arrival. Now onto the food!
Food
After looking over the menu a bit, we asked for some recommendations from our very friendly waitress. She said they were known for their Mussels so, I decided to give a full order of fennel and chorizo mussels a try ($20). While waiting for our entrees, a basket of fresh warm bread and butter was brought to the table for us to snack on. I always love starting a meal with a good piece of bread and butter!

As you can see from the picture, the mussels were served directly in the pan. I thought was a very fun way of presenting them. They were also served with a side of Belgian frites and three different dipping sauces. I loved everything about my meal. The mussels were cooked perfectly and super flavorful broth and somewhat spicy chorizo paired perfectly with the mussels and fennel. I also liked the texture differences between the mussels, chorizo, and the frites. Speaking of the frites, it is hard to beat the frites and aioli in Cleveland served at The Greenhouse Tavern, but these sure do come close! What I didn't care for nearly as much were the three dipping sauces. The white one was a creamy olive oil and garlic, the pink sauce was a tomato and brandy, and the yellow was a curry and mustard based aioli. None of these impressed me, but the good news was the frites by themselves were perfectly seasoned and just fine to eat on their own.

My fiancee ordered the Berkshire Bone-In Pork Loin ($28) also based on the waitress recommendation. It came served with a savoy cabbage and brioche terrine, apple butter, sweet potato shreds, and a red wine mustard pork jus. The star of this dish was the pork loin but unfortunately it fell short because it was overcooked. The waitress even recommended medium, which we gladly agreed to, but this pork loin came out well done. The wonderful jus helped to add some moisture to the pork, and the apple butter was also very tasty and added some moisture as well. My fiancee enjoyed the terrine and the sweet potato shreds, but in the end what left a little disappointed by the well done pork.

Overall this meal was a tail of two entrees. I loved my dish and would highly recommend it to anyone who is a fan of mussels, but my fiancee wasn't crazy about her's. The pork was visibly overcooked and for that, Food wise I'd give a 3.75/5.

Drinks
Holy Belgian beer list! This place has pages upon pages of beers to choose from, but be prepared to break out some big bucks if you want to try some of the brews. Prices are not listed online probably for a reason. The average range for a Belgian beer was $10-$20 for 12oz bottles, with 22oz bottles priced over $30. Even a Bear Republic Racer 5 was priced at $7 for a 12oz bottle! We decided to opt for a bottle of wine since we had a good share of craft beer the night before at Savor. Glasses of wine were mostly $10 and up, while bottles of wine started at $32, but there were only a few choices at that level. The majority of the bottles of wine were between $50 and 70. Check out the wine list here for more information. We were lucky and found a $40 bottle of Pinot Noir that was good, not great. There is no doubt that Brasserie Beck has a great beer and wine list, but considering their drink prices are much steeper when compared to the rest of the menu I'll give them a 4/5 for drinks.

Service and Atmosphere
It was easy to see why a few people recommended this restaurant. Here are a few pictures to show how impressive Brasserie Beck was at first sight.

Then you get a glimpse of the kitchen which is situated right in the center of the restaurant for all patrons to see.

The restaurant itself was modern and beautiful inside and the patio space outside was also just as nice. I loved how the kitchen was set up so openly for all to see the action. From what I heard, they do a special chef's table right outside the kitchen for parties of 8 or more (5 course $99 a person, 7 course $125 a person). Our server for the evening was helpful, friendly and very knowledgeable about both the food and the wine list. She was attentive to our needs without being at our table ever second. With a great atmosphere and service I'd give them a 5/5.

Overall
The food menu was reasonable priced from top to bottom, however only one of our dishes were executed properly. The drink menu was very extensive in both the beer and wine list, but somewhat lofty prices kind of put a damper on it for me. The atmosphere and service were as good as we have had anywhere, so overall I'd give Brasserie Beck a 4/5.

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Savor June 2011 Recap - An American Craft Beer & Food Experience

2011-06-08T07:35:00.001-04:00

On Saturday, June 4th my fiancee and I attended Savor in Washington DC. Simply put, this event featured 72 American craft brewers who each brought at least two different craft beers to sample with a food pairing that was prepared by a team of chefs who worked to ensure that the food and beer pairings were spot on.

As we approached the venue we were awestruck by the building itself. The large National Museum Building was masterfully constructed of red brick and took up an entire city block. Even the marker at the corner of the street was impressive!

As we entered the building the feeling of awe continued to take over. This is a huge building with soaring ceilings and the gigantic pillars greeted us in an impressive way. The tables were set up in squares, in which, each side was a different brewery. The Savor information booklet we were given had a clearly labeled map of what we should expect to find at each table.

We also noticed some Cleveland love inside of the National Museum Building!

We were so mesmerized by the venue that we totally forgot to pick up our glasses! We were given a very nice glass with the Savor logo printed on it and clearly drawn 2oz and 4oz pour lines.

With our glasses in hand, we headed out to get our first taste of the evening. As we were walking I noticed John Lane, the owner of the Winking Lizard, talking to the Ommegang reps. It is always good to see a Clevelander when at an out of town event, so we decided to join them and sample the Ommegang BPA (Belgian Pale Ale).

We then made out way back to the first set of tables. I sampled the Cigar City Humidor IPA and paired it with the Devils on Horseback. The sweet dates were wrapped in a salty, crispy bacon and paired very well with the hoppy, and tasty IPA.

While I was standing at the Cigar City table chatting it up, my fiancée made her way over to the cheese table and quickly called me over to try the Barely Buzzed Beehive Cheese. Here is the official description: "This is a full bodied cheese with a nutty flavor and smooth texture. The cheese is hand rubbed with a Turkish grind of Colorado Legacy Coffee Company’s “Beehive Blend”. The blend consists of a mix of South American, Central American, and Indonesian beans roasted to different styles. French Superior Lavender buds are ground with the coffee and the mixture is diluted with oil to suspend the dry ingredients in the rub. The rub imparts notes of butterscotch and caramel." This was my favorite of the 6-7 different cheeses I had the chance to sample.

Next, I tried the Wooden Nickel IPA that was paired with a Bratwurst and Potato Pancake. I really didn't care to much for either parts of this dish. The IPA was a little too malty for me, while the sour cream in the pancake just didn't do it for me either, plus the pancake itself was a little too doughy.

Luckily my next stop left me with a smile on my face! We decided to make our way over the Dogfish Head booth to see what Sam Calagione and company brought to the party. As you can tell from the board HellHound and Bitches Brew made me a very happy craft beer drinker. (More on Savor Flowers later on.)

Dogfish Head had the longest line in the place, around a 15 minute wait to get a sample. When we got to the front of the line we had a chance to talk with Sam for a minute and he graciously offered to take a picture with us! Sam was not the only person from Dogfish Head in the house willing to chat it up about beer. His wife and head brewer Floris Delee were also hanging around. I had a chance to talk with Floris for a few minutes about craft beer which was very fun and informative.

After our little photo session, we walked away with a HellHound in my hand and Bitches Brew in my fiancée's hand. The HellHound was paired with a very moist and flavorful Crab Croquette while the Bitches Brew was paired with some dark chocolate bites! This was my first time tasting HellHound and I have to say I was a fan. I really do hope to score a bottle before its gone so I can give a fair and honest review! Also, I later went back for a second round so I too could have a glass of Bitches Brew, which I love!

HellHound and Bitches Brew

By this point in the night the crowd was pretty large. Here is what I looked like from the first floor.

We decided to walk upstairs to get a view from above!

When then walked back downstairs and headed to the Great Lakes table. It was great to see three representatives from Great Lakes at this event! They had brought with them the Edmund Fitzgerald paired with a Hickory Smoked Beef Riblet and Holy Moses paired with a corn salsa. We both opted for the Edmund Fitzgerald pairing and were were very impressed by the moist, warm, and flavorful beef! The slight smokey nature of the beef paired perfectly with the porter. We liked it so much we had a few of them, and both thought this might have been the best tasting food and beer pairing of the night.

I also really enjoyed the Fort George Vortex IPA because of its crisp hoppiness that paired excellently with the sweet potato and corn salsa which had a sweet heatness to it.

By this time it was already 9:30pm and we noticed that the food selections were starting to dwindle because of the masses. Luckily, we were getting filled up by this point thanks to the 4oz pours and delicious food pairings. We decided to simply walk around and sample a few more beers that I've never had, or were very hard to come by, such as the Founders KBS that we found along side the Double Trouble! The Crawfish Fritters that came with the Double Trouble were light and flavorful!

Great Divide was in attendance with their excellent Chocolate Oak Aged Yetti and their farmhouse ale Colette. We stopped and had a nice chat all about how versatile Yeti is! We did not sample any food at this particular stop.

Oskar Blues Brought the Ten Fidy Imperial Stout and the Gubna Imperial IPA, both of which were excellent!

Two beers that my fiancée and I really enjoyed towards the end of our evening were the Caldera IPA and the the Caldera Mogli Chocolate Oak Aged Imperial Porter (which was my fiancee's favorite beer of the night!)

Caldera Mogli and Caldera IPA

We rounded out our evening with a few great conversations with local DC craft beer fans about beer and about area restaurants. We also had a chance to end our night with a few final samples, the Oakshire Brewing Overcast Espresso Stout, the Arcadia Ales Whitsun Ale, and the LaurelWood Workhorse IPA. I wish I could have tried the Workhorse IPA food pairing of Beef Riblet to compare to the Great Lakes Pairing!

A few thoughts about the event:

Each table was well represented with at least one rep.
All of the reps were more than willing to talk about their beers with the crowd and educate the public about their product.
The venue was well spaced, and even with a very large crowd the average wait time for a pour was short (outside of the Dogfish Head line).
Call this a "rookie Savor attendee" mistake, but next time we would be sure to get our food sampling and pairing done earlier in the evening.
Having seating and standing room tables was very helpful.
We would have liked a plate that had a stemware holder similar to what I was given at the Market Under Glass event in Cleveland. This would have made it easier to do the food and drink pairings while walking around.

Overall this event was a success from our point of view. From the amazing venue, to the smart food and beer pairings, we had a blast from start to finish. At the finish of the event, everyone was given a bottle of the Savor Flowers collaborative beer by Dogfish Head and Sam Adams. I cannot wait to crack one of these open very soon to review it! We both are already looking forward to the Savor 2012 event!

Be sure to check out my other site that is 100% dedicated to Craft Beer!

Cleveland Food and Brews - Craft Beer

Disclosure: After submitting an application for media credentials to cover this event I was granted permission to attend and cover the Saturday June 4th session. All other expenses were paid for by me and the thoughts and opinions expressed in this write up are 100% my own.

Emerging Chefs Mardi Gras en Mai Recap

2011-06-03T07:36:00.000-04:00

On Friday May 27th I attended the Mardi Gras en Mai event by Emerging Chefs. The featured chef of the evening was Chef Chris Quinn of US Food Services. Chris was very excited about this event because he had a vision for what he wanted to do with food and the Mardi Gras theme. When I walked into the door of 2020 Center Street on the West Bank of the Flats the feeling of Mardi Gras began right away. I was kindly greeted at the door and presented with an array of beads to wear to help get in the festive spirit. Also at the door was David Moss of Emerging Chefs wearing an outfit that only a picture could do justice to!

If this didn't put a smile on your face, I don't know what would! Besides David being dressed to impress, the venue really did scream Mardi Gras. Just take a look at the massive pizza oven! The oven opening is the mouth!

Before I get into the food I wanted to show you what the "kitchen" looked like! It really is amazing that the chefs for these events are able to create such tasty dishes from such small kitchen spaces!

Amuse
For the Amuse, we were served a salad of Micro Greens with a Jambalaya Puree and a "fleur-de-lis" cracker. This was perfectly balanced from the fresh and light micro greens to the rich and spicy jambalaya. The entire table was impressed how the heat from this dish was there, but never for a moment made you feel like the heat was too much. The cracker that came with this course was very light and fluffy and added a little texture to the greens and puree. Overall, I loved this dish!

Course 1
Ettoufee pierogies, herbed creme fraiche and crispy crawfish tail. This course was served with a deconstructed Hurricane. The pierogie was thick, yet not dense, it remained light and fluffy in its texture. It was filled with a very flavorful and creamy spicy crawfish filling. The crawfish tail had a sugared crust on it and was a great little bite! Again, this dish had a perfect balance of flavor and heat. The drink itself was very interesting. The hurricane was in Jello form and served with a glass of grenadine. A very unique take on this drink!

Course 2
Muffaletta with sea scallop mousse and tangerine sugar. This course was served with an egg that was filled with Ramos gin fizz, egg whites, sugar and orange flower water! The muffaletta portion was a piece of bread filled with an olive tapenade. When all of the pieces were combined into a single bite most of the table agreed this dish was the star of the night. The scallop and scallop mousse were so flavorful, but when a little sweet tangerine sugar was added to the salty side of the olive tapenade Chef Quinn really had created the perfect bite. Top that with an amazing gin and egg white based drink inside an egg shell and you have one creative course!

Course 3
Voodoo chicken, cornmeal encrusted okra, spiced broth, and micro mustard greens served with a Sazerac. Chef Quinn explained that when he walked into the venue and saw the artwork, especially the old pizza oven, he knew he wanted to do a dish around voodoo. The chicken had good flavor thanks to the spiced broth and seasoning, but was slightly dry inside. The okra and microgreens added a freshness to the spicy broth which once again was showing well balanced heat. The drink for me was much to strong in terms of alcohol and cherry so I passed it along to another willing drinker at our table.

Intermezzo
Mango Habanero Popsicle served with a mango and raspberry salsa . Yes this was as good as it sounds. Sweet mango, spicy habanero and the cool icy Popsicle...how could this possibly be bad!

Course 4
Veal strip loin with an espresso rub and a bourbon and Dr. Pepper glaze. Served with a corn fritter, haircot verts and a couple Dr. Pepper jellybeans. The drink paired with this dish was a Syrah red wine. The veal itself was slightly overcooked, but thanks to the amazing bourbon/Dr. Pepper glaze and a bit of flavorful fat this was very tasty. The corn fritter added texture and the haircot verts were very tender and warm. The dry red glass of Syrah was a perfect compliment to this dish.

Dessert
Beignets served with four types of sugar (raspberry, lime, espresso and vanilla bean) and a melted chocolate ganache. A perfect way to end the evening! I loved the beignets dipped in the chocolate and then the espresso sugar the best!

Once again Emerging Chefs put on a great show, and their chef of the evening, Chris Quinn did a fantastic job coming up with a themed menu that was not only creative, but also very tasty. The next event for Emerging Chefs will be Sushi at Sunset on June 16th!

Also check out Mardi Gras en Mai recaps by WhyCLE, Poise in Parma, and Clue Into Cleveland!

Disclosure: I was provided a media pass to attend this event. The thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are 100% my own.

NEO Food Tours--Tremont June 22nd

2011-05-31T20:58:00.002-04:00

NEO Food Tours will be stoping in Tremont on June 22nd. The restaurants along this adventure will include Fahrenheit, Bistro on Lincoln, Dante, and Lago! If you are interested in this event the first 8 tickets are on sale right now for only $70 at http://neofoodtourstremont.eventbrite.com/. After these 8 are gone tickets will be $80 each.

Here are some more details about the event:
"We will sit down for approximately 20 minutes at each restaurant and talk with the chef/owner about their food and what inspires their culinary creations. Everyone will be served a small plate featuring “off menu” creations and paired with a special beverage. Every tour will be done as a progressive course dinner and we will start with an appetizer and conclude at the last restaurant with a dessert."

When: June 22nd (Wednesday) - 6:30pm to 9pm

Where: Group will meet at Fahrenheit 2417 Professor Ave , Cleveland, OH 44113

We ask all attendees to arrive promptly by 6:20pm, as this is a timed tour.

Dress: This is an all weather event so please dress appropriately. The Food Tour will be walking outdoors between restaurants. Comfortable shoes are recommended. Please visit our FAQ section on the NEO Food Tour website for additional information.

Length of Tour: Approximately 1 mile.

Parking: There is street parking located on the surface streets, or you may also valet at Fahrenheit