Happy New Year everyone! One of my New Year’s resolutions is to make sure I make regular blog posts, so here’s my inaugural effort. Hope you find it- and those to follow- interesting, entertaining and informative. Now I’m not one to make resolutions for you, but I do have a few suggestions. We have a wonderful restaurant scene here in Northeast Ohio, and if you’re reading this, I’m sure you’re looking forward to dining out in 2010. Give some thought to what, where and how you experience NEO food. . .here are some ideas to consider:
• Instead of ordering entrees, try sampling a few interesting appetizers and sharing, or selecting from the small plates or tapas menu. You’ll experience several things that come out of that particular kitchen, and I’ll bet you’ll like more than a couple of them. Several restaurants in NEO focus on small plates, including Bodega Restaurant & Lounge in Cleveland Heights, Downtown 140 in Hudson and D’Vine Wine Bar in downtown CLE.
• Order something you wouldn’t make at home. It’s a great way to try new and interesting dishes, and discover new flavors and tastes. Maybe it’s a complex sauce with exotic ingredients, or a time consuming, labor intensive dish you just don’t have time to make. Or maybe it’s something you’re just not good at preparing, like (for me) seafood. (Digression #1: Husbands, don’t announce you’re doing this. “My wife’s sauce tastes like ketchup, so I’ll have the Spaghetti Bolognese” will probably not be a great start for a romantic dinner.) Plus, you’ll never think “I spent $20 on that duck confit, and I can make it better at home for a lot less.”
• Elaine Cicora, formerly the Scene’s restaurant reviewer and now the Director of Communications for Crop (downtown CLE), thinks our neighborhood bars, grills and joints have some of the best food around. Make sure you try all of your neighborhood’s places, big and small alike. Even if there’s only one thing on the menu that you like, it’s great to have a couple of go-to places for those Friday nights when you’re tired and no one feels like cooking. You need a place within ten minutes for those nights, so check ‘em all out so you know which are your favorites. • Check out what other neighborhoods have to offer with your own personalized progressive dinner. Try one place for cocktails and appetizers, another for your main dish, and a third for after dinner drinks and dessert. There are so many places to do this in NEO: in addition to downtown CLE and AKR, there’s Tremont, Shaker Square, Chagrin Blvd., Gordon Square and many more. Plus our myriad suburbs and small towns.
• Experience a different angle on dining. Check out places where you can sit and watch the action in the kitchen, like Crop or Blue Canyon (Twinsburg). During the winter, warm up by dining in a room with a fireplace like the one at Austin’s Wood Fired Grille (Brecksville). In the summer, dine al fresco on a deck or a sidewalk and enjoy the outdoors when possible. Or go somewhere where’s theirs music, and we have lots of those places in the Rock and Roll Capital!
But mostly, enjoy. NEO boasts one of the finest restaurant scenes in the country. Learn more about them by checking out websites and blogs like this one as well as interesting ones like clevelandfoodie.com, clevelandsaplum.com, pursuitofyourboyfriend.com (Digression #2: this blogger, while exceedingly nice and normal, writes some extremely funny and extremely off the wall stuff. And is very well-versed in NEO food!), and more.
Wishing you and yours a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year!