Cleveland: Bar Cento/McNulty's Bier Markt

While exploring the amazing culinary landscape of Cleveland, I made two trips to the Westside Market-area restaurant run by Chef Jonathan Sawyer. The establishment is divided into two sides that share a common kitchen but operate different bars, and I had to try both.


First up was the left hand side, Bar Cento: I sat at the bar near the kitchen, close enough that I could feel the heat off the ovens. I loosened my tie and settled in for dinner. It wasn't until I saw the tattoos that I realized Sawyer was right there in front of me making pizzas and running the kitchen. I had a wine flight of unnamed Barbera, Sangiovese, and Nebbiolo--all quite good for the $10 flight special. A warm biscuit was delivered in a brown paper bag with a dish of butter to whet the appetite. I gazed over the menu and finally decided on the Shiitake and Wild Boar Salumi pizza. Excellent crust, great combination of ingredients, and I got to watch the whole process, meaning I got to see Sawyer place full sprigs of thyme on the pizza and then carefully remove them after cooking. Full thyme flavor without having to pick the stems out of your teeth.

One great note about Bar Cento was the music. As I was sitting there on a weekday afternoon, I noticed that Genesis was on the music system. Geez, I haven't heard "Land of Confusion" in a while. After the second Collins song, I saw that the cover for the Invisible Touch LP was propped up nearby. And just to the left, a turntable spinning away. I realized that the record albums stacked above the bar weren't just for decoration, and even enjoyed the minutes-long pause between the A and B sides when the bartender remembered to flip the record.

Later that week I made my way over to the right side for McNulty's Bier Markt, known more for it's massive beer selection. If you love the well-crafted beers of Belgium you can waste a lot of time at McNulty's. I started with a glass of the St. Bernardus Abt 12 dark beer, and followed up with the lighter Delirium Tremens. Two seriously produced Belgian beers from the enormous and well-thought out beer menu. Sadly, the ladies next to me were drinking Corona and Michelob. Oughta be a law.

I had the burger (topped with Dutch cheese and peppery greens) and a side of frites. The burger was great enough to make you cry and call your Mom, but those frites... By far the best I've had in the US and damned close to those available in the Netherlands. They're served with sprigs of rosemary and roasted garlic, and a tiny ramekin of salt and a pepper grinder are provided for you to further season them. And you get a dish with a dollop each of ketchup and three homemade mayonnaise blends incorporating different flavor profiles.

I had greasy fingerprints all over my newspaper, but I was a happy lad. Along with Lola, Lolita, and the Flying Fig, this place is on the Must Visit list for anyone coming to Cleveland.

500th Post: Cleveland West Side Market

Earlier this year I celebrated the 3 year milestone, and this entry marks the 500th post here at Benito's Wine Reviews. At my current pace I ought to hit 1000 around January 2012. I've said this before, but if y'all weren't reading, I wouldn't be doing this, so thanks for your continued patronage and supportive/argumentative comments and e-mails.

Since I'm celebrating this event here in Cuyahoga County, I figured I'd use this opportunity to write about this weekend's food adventure...


August in Cleveland is a lot cooler than Memphis, though it's been nice to see that the temperature has fallen somewhat back home. This past weekend I got to visit the West Side Market in Cleveland, Ohio, a downtown food shopping square that's been in operation since the mid 1800s. Think of a Great Lakes version of the famous Les Halles in Paris. Meat, vegetables, fresh bread, and lots more... If it's edible, there's a good chance you can get it from one of the dozens of stalls.

There's an L-shaped building that houses all of the fruits and vegetables seen in the top picture. Sort of your standard Farmers Market fare with odd twists like prickly pear cactus, green figs, and fresh juices squeezed on the spot. But the real magic can be found inside the square building, home to the fish, meat, and prepared foods. In the righthand picture, from left to right you've got a purveyor of hot sauces, a bakery (traditional breads and pastries), and a butcher selling assorted cuts of bison, lamb, and goat. Hell, you can pick up enough pig parts to build a complete Frankenhog. Elsewhere you've got every seasoned, cured, ground, and smoked meat known to mankind, including Mettwurst and some sort of Slovenian blood sausage.

There were stalls selling sandwiches and falafel and crepes and pasta and many other delicacies. I enjoyed a great Short Attention Span Lunch--"Ooh, that looks good, gotta try that..." While walking around you'll hear at least a dozen different languages spoken. A bit of haggling here, a discussion over preparation there. At the Scots-Irish counter I picked up a meat pie and slice of Guinness cake for dinner later. Humble fare, but despite my prior adventures with hotel cooking I really didn't have any way to properly cook all the organ meats and exotic rices and other treasures that I saw.

Lolita

The last time I was in Cleveland I had a spectacular meal at Michael Symon's Lola. This time I tried the sister restaurant Lolita.

Located in the historic Tremont neighborhood on the edge of downtown, Lolita is more casual and less expensive than Lola. For a martini, a glass of wine, two courses, and a tip I got out of there for under $50. And if you want to dine on the cheap, the happy hour menu has food and drinks for next to nothing.

I got there right at the 5:00 opening and discovered the bar was almost full and all tables had been reserved. I squeezed into a spot at the bar wedged behind the hostess and next to the wine rack. Got to talk to my fellow diners, who were grabbing a bite to eat before The Tribe faced Oakland. Lolita has a much more casual and neighborhood feel than Lola, which is more of a fine dining experience. Symon was in the restaurant that night and aside from a quick hello I didn't spend any time speaking to him. Lolita has a partially open kitchen and he was in and out of the prep area looking over things.

I started out with the aforementioned martini (Tanqueray and a twist) and the roasted dates. The dates were cooked in olive oil with pancetta and almonds. Really delicious without being overly sweet. Also, they managed to serve these just slightly below the temperature that burns your tongue. Amazing.

For the main course I had the hanger steak and ramps with a glass of 2006 Maggio Vini Nero D’Avola. I loved this Sicilian grape the last time I had it and was glad to see it offered by the glass. This was the first time I'd ever had ramps, the wild vegetable that's somewhere between a leek, a green onion, and garlic with edible greens on top. The ramps were sautéed with peas and assorted seasonings. Great combination of sweet and astringent onion flavors.

As for the hanger steak, it was my first time trying this cut of beef and I'm now officially in love. It hangs off the diaphragm of the cow and rests on the kidneys, which give it a deeper, earthier flavor that you normally find in organ meats, but with the texture and appearance of sirloin.

Tremont is an interesting neighborhood. You've got houses and churches and bars and schools and jammed cheek to jowl. In one direction you've got the tall buildings of downtown, and in the other a bunch of smokestacks from factories and mills. A couple of blocks away from Lolita is the St. Theodosius Russian Orthodox Church, with beautiful onion domes. It was built in 1911 and featured in the 1978 film The Deer Hunter.

Cleveland's got a bunch of remarkable architecture, but you're rarely able to get a shot without a bunch of powerlines in the way. At least the minivan provides a sense of scale.

Советское Шампанское and Other Delights

While in Cleveland on my most recent trip, I vowed to try wines from beyond the mainstream wine-making regions, bottles from places not represented in Memphis wine shops. I've got two reputations to uphold: 1) being willing to try any grape at least once; and 2) being willing to review the oddballs that will never appear on the cover of Wine Spectator. If the title isn't showing up properly, just go to the top of your browser window and hit View --> Encoding --> Unicode (UTF-8).

My first selection was from the Republic of Belarus, sometimes known as White Russia and the only part of the former Soviet Union that's moving back to its authoritarian Communist past. It is now my dubious pleasure to introduce the non-vintage Советское Шампанское, pronounced "Sovetskoye Shampanskoye" and translated as "Soviet Champagne". $12, 11.5% abv. I guess it's a kind of blanc de blancs made from Aligoté and Chardonnay, but there's no telling what strange varietals were used. Nothing inspires confidence like "PRODUCT OF THE MINSK SPARKLING WINE FACTORY" on the label.

Slightly sour tone on the nose, with a touch of yeast. The aroma is somewhere between beer and sourdough. Not what I'm wanting in a wine. It actually tastes better than it smells. Sweet, with a little apple cider flavor. While I tried it on its own, I followed the dessert theme and enjoyed it with a piece of tiramisù and some fresh fruit. The cake and fruit were better than the wine.

Final verdict: Well, if you lived under the iron fist of Communism and this was the only sparkling wine that you ever got to drink then it's not a bad bubbly and I've definitely had worse. On the other hand, any domestic sparkler equal to or greater than Korbel is going to be a far superior experience, and anyone wishing to save money by serving this at a wedding is going to get a lot of nasty looks.

* * *

Continuing with the Eastern European theme, I couldn't pass up the 2005 Jidvei Fetească Regală from Romania. $10, 12% abv.

Fetească Regală is the grape varietal and means "Royal Maiden". Jidvei is a part of the Târnava wine region in... TRANSYLVANIA! Somebody better get a creepy label for this and start marketing it to college-age goth kids. Include a tube of black lipstick free with every bottle.

It's got an unpleasant aroma, a sour tone that reminds me of the stuff from Belarus. At least it's dry, but the dominant flavor is a sharp tangyness. Before tossing it out I tried it over ice, where the harsher notes were subdued and it developed a decent peach flavor.

* * *

We complete our voyage in South Asia: the 2007 Sula Vineyards Chenin Blanc is from the Nashik region of western India. $11, 12.5% abv. It's got an earthy and floral aroma. Kind of like magnolia blossoms or jasmine. It's dry with a round fruit flavor of pears, and a short clean finish. I find myself wanting a bit more acidity, but perhaps that balance would come with proper food matching. I tried it with pita, hummus, and some marinated seafood salad from Whole Foods that included squid, octopus, shrimp, and other denizens of the deep.

I'm guessing it would pair pretty well with Indian food, but that's like saying it would work well with American food: there's a lot of diverse regions and culinary traditions in a country with over a billion people. I'll be on the lookout for Sula wines in Indian restaurants and try them with something like a spicy lamb curry.

Playing the Tourist

Salute to Cleveland Week finishes up with some touristy activities.

Perhaps the most popular attraction for out of town visitors is the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Museum located down on the shore of Lake Erie. It's an odd assortment of tons of memorabilia from the entire history of rock music, with occasional side trips into country, hip hop, and various pop acts.

The biggest thrill for me was seeing the Ford Eliminator Coupe from ZZ Top that was featured in several videos. And it was a curious experience to stand mere inches from the stage costumes and guitars of George Clinton, Bootsy Collins, and the rest of Parliament Funkadelic (those guys have surprisingly conservative signatures). How about Madonna's slinky outfits and Run DMC's well-worn Adidas?

Less well known but more enjoyable for me was visiting the house featured in the classic holiday film A Christmas Story. The house was used for the exterior shots and some interior scenes (others were done on a sound stage--the house is very tiny). The website devoted to the house will provide you with additional information and directions.

Across the street are two houses purchased by the owner: one serves as a gift shop (where you can purchase leg lamps in many different sizes), and a museum that is accumulating material related to the movie, including the non-flexible snow suit worn by the little brother. They've got the car from the Christmas tree/flat tire scene and lots of other fun stuff.

The Kitchen

Leg Lamps in Many Sizes

Two Great Cleveland Restaurants

Salute to Cleveland Week continues with the gourmet side of C-Town. Never thought that haute cuisine and Cleveland would be mentioned in the same sentence? It's sort of like that mousy girl from high school who ended up playing bass for a punk band: you may not have noticed it on the surface, but the talent was always there.

Last time I was in Cleveland the weather was terrible and I didn't have a lot of free time. But during this trip the sun was shining, the snow was melting, and I had the flexibility to move around the city a bit. Number one on my to-do list was to have dinner at Lola in downtown Cleveland.

Michael Symon is an up and coming celebrity chef who aside from his Food Network success has established a great pair of restaurants in his native Cleveland and writes a blog called Symon Says. One of his signature dishes is a gourmet twist on a regional Polish favorite: the beef cheek pierogies with wild mushrooms and horseradish crème fraîche. Of course when I went there I had to order this, and I was not disappointed. Think about the most intense, concentrated beef flavor you can imagine and condense it down into soft fibres of facial muscles that have been slow braised and seasoned to perfection. These are stuffed into delicate pierogi dough and then boiled and pan-fried before being served with the mushrooms and white sauce. Simply amazing. I'm going to be dreaming about these for months.

For an entrée I decided on the smoked Berkshire pork chop with cheesy polenta and BBQ onions. The pork chop was a bit over an inch thick and was served sliced over the polenta. I'll admit that the flavor of smoked pork made me slightly homesick for just a moment. I suppose that's one of the highest compliments a Southerner can give to a pork dish prepared north of the Mason-Dixon line. I enjoyed both dishes with a spicy Argentine Malbec called Terra Rosa.

The place is quite popular and while I was able to snag a small table by showing up at opening time on a Saturday afternoon, I chose instead to eat at the bar. Turned out to be a great idea because of the excellent bartender and the friendly local couple seated next to me who struck up a conversation and recommended similar restaurants around town. Topping their list was...

The Flying Fig in Cleveland's Market Square. I went there the following week and had a salad and meatloaf. Sounds like a depressing cafeteria meal served by some surly Eastern European waitress whose last name has an excess of consonants from the second half of the alphabet, all bathed in the dead lights of flickering fluorescent tubes. WRONG! Best salad I've had in months combined with the finest meatloaf I've eaten in my entire life. This is a charming little restaurant in one of those cool, trendy sections of town comparable to Cooper/Young in Memphis. Lots of great restaurants within walking distance, anchored by the Great Lakes Brewing Company.

The salad was a mesclun mix with a honey vinaigrette, prosciutto, mission figs, roasted pistachios, and some sort of dry goat cheese in thin, broken strips. And the meatloaf... good Lord the meatloaf... It was a veal and wild mushroom blend served with a rutabaga purée and a truffle-sage jus. Bit of wilted spinach for greenery. I'm going to have a lot of fun trying to recreate this one back home. Best thing about the meatloaf: aside from the gourmet ingredients, the individual slices had been pan seared to allow for a nicely caramelized crust on all sides. Not greasy at all, just savory bliss washed down with a glass of 2005 Anne Amie Cuvee A Pinot Noir from Oregon.

I ate at many other great restaurants, including a wonderful Lebanese place and an establishment near my hotel that had an amazing pork osso buco. But why spoil all the details for you? If life takes you to Cleveland, you're in for a pleasant surprise.

Benito vs. the Polka: Babushka's Kitchen

Today kicks off Salute to Cleveland Week here at BWR. I've spent almost a month up there this year on business, and will be headed back for more in a few weeks. Despite the image problem that Cleveland has in the national psyche, I prefer to celebrate the many positive aspects of The Metropolis of the Western Reserve.

On this most recent trip, I decided I ought to have at least one authentic Polish meal. After all, my sister-in-law is of Polish heritage, and I'm a big fan of pierogies. An assortment of locals and one Polish immigrant all pointed me in the direction of one place: Babushka's Kitchen in Macedonia, Ohio, south of Cleveland.

I strode in around opening time and although I wasn't starving, I went for the Hunter's Feast so that I could try a bit of everything. Apparently it's not a commonly ordered dish; the proprietor came out and asked me, "Hey, are you that guy from Toledo?" Apparently I have a doppelgänger who comes by once a week for this particular menu item.

Let me break it down for you:

• one stuffed cabbage (gołąbek): cabbage leaves wrapped around ground beef, rice, and other aromatics, all doused in tomato sauce. Hearty and piquant, reminded me a lot of stuffed green peppers from Picadilly.
  
• a link of smoked kiełbasa: awesome, good quality sausage here.
  
• roasted pork loin with sauerkraut and dumplings: slight disappointment, if only because of the great things done with pork in the South. Enjoyed the slow-roasted sauerkraut.
  
• one jumbo potato and cheese pierogi with grilled onion and sour cream: probably my favorite of the bunch, this was a huge, quarter-pound stuffed dumpling of pure carbohydrate joy.
  
• and two sides: I tried to talk the waitress out of the side dishes, as I had no intention of clearing the main course, but she wouldn't take no for an answer and suggested that I take the leftovers home since it was supposed to snow that night. I demurred and accepted her "lighter" recommendations of a cucumber salad (really quite refreshing and delicious, almost like pickles) and mashed potatoes smothered in gravy (couldn't quite stomach it given everything else on the plate).

Overall it was a great stick-to-your-ribs kind of meal, and while I wouldn't want to eat like that all the time it was a good winter feast. Plus, I received a year's worth of polka music in one sitting. When I found myself humming along to "Who stole the kishka?" I figured it was time to depart.

Crest of Poland image via Wikipedia article on Poland, released into public domain by the author.

2003 Kavaklidere Öküzgözü d'Elaziğ

Since this has turned into the "Week of the Weird" here at BWR, I figure I might as well wrap things up with a strange wine that was actually quite nice. The name you see on the title of this post is not a typo, it's Turkish: land of the superfluous umlauts.

While looking around the Whole Foods in the University Heights neighborhood of Cleveland, I found the 2003 Kavaklidere Öküzgözü d'Elaziğ. $15. This comes from the Elaziğ province of eastern Turkey on the Anatolian plateau. Öküzgözü is the name of the grape and means "ox eye" in Turkish. Oddly Turkey is the fourth largest producer of grapes in the world but only a tiny percentage is converted into wine. I've never had a wine from a nation where the per capita consumption is less than one bottle a year. (The average American drinks ten bottles a year, the average French or Italian person drinks a little over sixty bottles a year.)

Bright red cherry aromas, crisp, slightly tart flavor with a mild finish. Much lighter than expected, kind of like a mellow Merlot. Totally different from what I expected--I was thinking something aggresive like a Spanish red to stand up to the robust cuisine of the area.

2004 South River Vineyard "Karma"

I spent a recent week in Cleveland, Ohio. Cleveland gets a bad rap from many people, not the least of which is its own population. I entered the city with a fresh perspective and eager hopes: I was greeted with a mass of grey upon grey upon grey. I suspected this was a temporary confluence of weather and season until the fog rolled in from Lake Erie and I discovered whole new levels of grey, combined with such low visibility that the tops of street lamps were fuzzy.

At right: the steamship William G. Mather, built in 1925 and six hundred feet long. It used to haul ore and coal throughout the Great Lakes during much of the 20th century. Currently it's parked on the shore of Lake Erie down by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Browns Stadium.

Despite the economic depression and the fact that the population has fallen by half since the 1950s, I discovered ways to find happiness in this town. A martini after work, dinner at one of the dozens of mom & pop Italian joints, followed by driving back to the hotel listening to a great local jazz station.

As part of my commitment to try indigenous wines when traveling, I chose the 2004 South River Vineyard "Karma" from Geneva, Ohio. $15, 12%abv, 42% Cabernet Franc, 39% Merlot, 19% Cabernet Sauvignon. Aggressive nose of herbs, grass, underlying cherry. Flavor is a bit odd but you really get to taste some of the unique elements of Cabernet Franc.

Perhaps my favorite meal of the trip was at McCormick & Schmick's. Actually a chain but it's definitely a great, upscale seafood restaurant. Dinner was a glass of Sauvignon Blanc with a pasta/shellfish entree, but the best part was the first half.

I started off with a cocktail. Their bar menu helpfully arranges the cocktails in chronological order, going back to the 1800s. I picked one from the Depression-era, the Negroni. It's equal parts gin, sweet red vermouth, and Campari, an Italian liquor made from 60 different secret ingredients but tasting strongly of orange peels. This cocktail is deep red and bitter as all hell, which means that I loved it.

And then a sampler of oysters (afterwards, the server was kind enough to discuss my notes with me--the man knew his bivalves):

Hog's Island Oysters from Norfolk, VA: big, full-flavored, salty
James River Oysters from the James River, VA: small and mild
Hood Canal Oysters from the Hood Canal, WA: sweet and earthy and delicious (these also have shells so pretty if you found one on the beach you'd take it home with you)
Steamboat Oysters from Bay Center, WA: long, rich, and herbal
Delaware Bay Oysters from Delaware Bay, NJ: big and meaty
Cameron Shoal Oysters from Totten Inlet, WA: long and satisfiyingly chewy

Cleveland has a lot to offer, and if you know where to go and are willing to roam around a bit, there's a lot of nice spots in town. Next time I hope to hit Michael Symon's Lola.