A Taste of Cleveland

Nov 13, 2009

It’s early Friday morning and Cleveland’s West Side Market is already bustling. Here, four days a week, over 100 vendors hock their wares from just-harvested produce and artisan cheeses to freshly made pasta and made-from-scratch pastries. Wafting out of each vendor’s space is a different, tantalizing aroma: the comforting smell of freshly baked bread, the autumnal fragrance of newly picked apples, the unmistakable odor of stinky cheese, the rich scent of roasting coffee beans. I was there, pressing my face up to the case at Grandma Freda’s Fresh Bake, where a beautifully decorated, jumbo S’mores cupcake tempted me and taunted my waistline. I wasn’t even halfway through the market and I’d already sampled perfectly-seasoned falafel from Maha’s, Monkey Bread from one of the bakeries and several kinds of black licorice from Mediterranean Imported Foods. Amidst one butcher’s vast selection of meats, a whole pig stared at me from his refrigerated case.

“Closer to the holidays they put a Santa Hat on the pig”, the Cleveland Ritz Carlton’s Chef, Constantine “Dino” Vourliotivilis, informed me. As a vegetarian for seventeen years, I was absolutely horrified, but since Dino is very easy on the eyes I let it slide. On this day, I was at the market with Dino as part of the Cleveland Ritz Carlton’s West Side Market package. Hotel guests who book this package are accompanied to the market by a Ritz Carlton chef. Together they select foods that will later become a personal menu and prepared by the chef for the guests. With hundreds of cheeses, fresh herbs, bountiful produce and every meat one can imagine (and probably some you can’t) there are endless possibilities. For those bypassing the chef’s tour, The West Side Market offers many reasonably priced, freshly made, non-perishable items for visiting foodies to take back to their hometowns (coffees, teas, spices, confections, imported regional foods, specialty dried fruits and nuts among others). Then I found more to appreciate in Cleveland outside the market.

Restaurant-wise, Cleveland was most impressive. With such famous names as Chef Michael Symon calling Cleveland home, the standard for cuisine is high. However, being that Cleveland is situated in the Midwest, the prices are a fraction of what you’d expect elsewhere. In Cleveland’s Shaker Square neighborhood, I hit two restaurants during happy hour: Sergio’s SARAVA and fire. For five dollars at fire, I had the most refreshing (and strong) peach belini, followed by several “firestarters” appetizers, also only five dollars each. The eggplant, basil tapenade and smoked gouda flatbread was fragrant and crisp, with the gouda adding just the right amount of tang.

Making use of the bounty of summer tomatoes, chef/owner Doug Katz created the heirloom tomato plate with tofu, basil, frisee and compressed watermelon. The acidity of the tomatoes was cut nicely by the concentrated sweetness of the compressed watermelon, while the tofu was well flavored by the surrounding components. The meat-eaters that accompanied me feasted upon duck confit Reubens with quick kraut and double secret sauce, and local meatloaf sandwiches with local cheddar and crispy onion rings, all of which was quickly polished off.

A few paces away was Sergio’s SARAVA, run by chef/owner Sergio Abramof. Chef Sergio, a native of Brazil, explained that his favorite Brazilian foods were always the delicacies served by the street side vendors. His restaurant’s appetizers are known as “Street Plates”, and are his old Brazilian street food favorites with a more sophisticated air. With three Street Plates for $12 during happy hour, my group could afford to choose an assortment of items. The Tamale Cakes were almost too beautiful to eat: plancha grilled cornmeal cakes with fresh guacamole, sour cream, tomato caricoca relish and artistically placed streaks of ancho sauce. Complex and flavorful, I piled two more onto my plate after only one bite. If anyone dared touch my extra servings of Tamale Cakes, they’d be pulling back a nub. Also delicious were the light, Artichoke Fritters served aside a lemon-thyme dipping sauce and the Crisp Spanish Cheese with a kalamata and caper-spiced tomato sauce, similar in composition to a mozzarella stick (only much, much better).

Ready for an after dinner drink, my group headed to a location listed by USA Today as one of the “Top Ten Places to Slip Into a Modern Speakeasy.” The Velvet Tango Room had an unassuming interior in a remote corner of downtown. Walking in was like walking back in time and entering an actual speakeasy: sumptuous mahogany counters, dim “mood” lighting, and couches you just sink into. The Velvet Tango Room claims to “revive the art of the mixed cocktail” and asks their customers to be patient, assuring that their drinks will be worth the wait. The menu explains that most drink components, from bitters to syrups to sodas, are made in house. High quality ingredients are used (if you’ve never had a real Italian-imported maraschino cherry, you’re missing out) and cocktails are carefully measured and perfectly shaken for three minutes apiece (when shaken correctly the drinks take on a light, velvety texture). With so many unique drinks on the menu, each member of my group ordered something different and, throwing caution (and fears of swine flu) to the wind, proceeded to pass each drink around for everyone to sample. The cinnamon laced Spicy Chica left a delicious, burning note while the Apricot Fizz tasted like biting into a fresh slice of fruit, mellowed by a creamy meringue topper. Head bartender Carol, a sassy blonde number, created and delivered our libations, while the charismatic owner, Paulius, send me on my way with a complimentary skewer of those cherries I loved so much.

Sergio’s Sarava
13225 Shaker Square, Cleveland, OH 44120
216-295-1200
http://www.sergioscleveland.com/

fire food and drink
http://www.firefoodanddrink.com/
13220 shaker square cleveland, ohio 44120
(216) 921-3473

the Velvet Tango Room
http://www.velvettangoroom.com/
2095 Columbus Rd, Cleveland, OH 44113
(216) 241-8869

the Westside Market
www.westsidemarket.org/
corner of West 25th and Lorain in Ohio city
1979 West 25th Street
Cleveland, Ohio 44113
216-664-3387

Ritz-Carlton Cleveland
www.RitzCarlton.com/Cleveland
1515 West Third Street,
Cleveland, OH 44113
(216) 623-1300

Jennifer Rhodes is an amateur pole dancer, occasional high school teacher and all-the-time writer pursuing her MFA in creative nonfiction at Antioch University in Los Angeles. When not spilling her soul onto the page, breaking up fights in school hallways or dangling upside down on her pole, Jenn can be found spoiling her dog, Jimmy Choo. She resides with her husband in Cincinnati, Ohio, and is working on her first manuscript, a collection of comedic essays.