2 posts tagged “cleveland”

One of the things that the Beloved and I have really gotten hooked on in the past year has been cooking-competition shows – namely Top Chef and Iron Chef America.  She insists we’re not “foodies” but I think we’re closer to being them than not.

One of our favorite additions to Iron Chef has been the newest IC – Michael Symon.  He’s personable and cooks in a style that we really like – typically taking everyday comfort food and putting a high-end cuisine spin on it.
We had pretty easy travel and arrived in Ohio on Friday night early enough that we were able to enjoy dinner at his restaurant Lola in downtown Cleveland.  Lola was hip and urbane with a small, but really interesting menu and wine list.

Michael Symon

We split a couple of appetizers – a shredded beef pierogie that had mushrooms and horseradish (very good) and a slab of bacon (think small bacon-steak) served with pickled tomatoes and toasty cheese that was phenomenal.  For entrees, the Beloved had a black bass that was very good and I had a fantastic venison loin that was grilled to perfection and served in a red-wine chile sauce.  Yum!

Overall, the food was excellent and the prices reasonable by high-end restaurant standards.  The service started out a little aggressive – as if they were trying to turn the table over pretty rapidly (it was busy).  But after we made it clear we meant to take our time and linger, they really backed off and let us enjoy ourselves.
A great way to kick off our long weekend.

Oh, nevermind…

This weekend, the Beloved and I are heading off to Ohio for a wedding in her family.  We arrive in Cleveland late on Friday and drive off to umm – errr – some other place in NE Ohio for the wedding Saturday morning.

I was thinking about it this morning.  I haven’t been to Ohio for at least 10 years.  Should be interesting.  I’ll post this song from Over The Rhine (who are from the Cincinnati area), which is truly one of my favorite songs ever.

Ohio

Over The Rhine

It’s pretty much going to be all family time, so I don’t know that there will be much of a sight-seeing report on our return, but we’ll see how it goes.  I promise I’ll play my Scrabulous turns when I get back.