Cleveland Foodie

recap – cleveland’s first rock ‘n roll bbq

Michelle V — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 11:49:00 +0000

For just the second time in its seven year stretch, we missed the Taste of Tremont. And we were out of town for the spring North Union Farmer’s Market event and will be on vacation next month for the fall fundraiser, Farm to Table. For a foodie that loves to support local happenings, I haven’t been doing my part. So when I first heard about the Cleveland Food Rocks BBQ through Elain Cicora, director of communications for Crop, and saw who was participating, I quickly put it on our calendar.

As some one who regularly plans events for my day job, I’d say it was a success. And while I haven’t talked to anyone at Cleveland Food Rocks to get their take, I’ve got to imagine they’d agree. Being the first time they did this, and given the infancy of the organization, it appeared to go off without a hitch. The turn out from chefs and restaurants was impressive: Momocho, Crop, of course, Boulevard Blue, Prosperity Social Club, Moxie, Beachland Ballroom (also played host & donated the space), Bar Cento, Lago, Brother’s Lounge, Greenhouse Tavern, Luxe, Melange, Blue Canyon and Sky Larae Catering to name a few (25+ total restaurants).

There was also, as the name obviously dictates, music – lots of local music, with the likes of chefs Steve Schimoler and Brandt Evans – even Bootsy Collins. And of course, the food — the reason why so many came out in the first place.

Just about everything we sampled was good. In fact, there was only one thing I didn’t care for. Melange perhaps had the most impressive offering and set up with a tasty (full) clambake, including clam chowder (speaking of Melange, chef Michael Herschman is now the GM over there), Bar Cento’s duck blini was rather enjoyable and the wasabi potato salad from Luxe was quite good. Our favorite? This nod easily goes to Momocho for the grilled corn on the cob with chipotle and lime butter. If no one was looking, we would have had thirds and fourths. Our second favorite was the melt-in-your-mouth brisket from Blue Canyon, served with an assortment of barbecue sauces, including a white barbecue sauce from Alabama, a mustard-based sauce and Blue Canyon’s own, which I liked best.

As for what I didn’t care for – the salmon from Blue Point. And to be fair, I didn’t even realize it was Blue Point until after I tried it (between holding Nat and navigating the crowd, I missed the sign). But I will say this – I might just be alone in my thinking because surprisingly I spoke to quite a few people who felt otherwise.

Unfortunately, we didn’t get to try everything. After an 1.5 hrs, Natalie, who proudly sported her Rolling Stones tee and flirted with lots of chefs, had her fill of the sun and music and was ready for a nap. I heard the grilled peaches from Lago with goat’s milk ice cream and balsamic were wonderful as was the grilled veal from Johnny’s.

I really do hope this becomes a regular event. It has all the makings of an annual tradition we’d proudly support. And I think with a few modifications, it can grow each year and become quite successful (for example – better and more seating, perhaps high tops, and a separate area for the music to avoid overcrowding and to control the volume). Yes – I said it, the volume. Does that mean I’m getting old? But at times it truly was super loud and that made it difficult to chat with others and fully enjoy that tent in particular.

Finally, you have to give credit to chef Steve Schimoler and his team. He started Cleveland Food Rocks and has really done his part to promote Cleveland and all of the restaurants – not just his endeavors. He’s making an impact here and really trying to make a difference. And I think he’s succeeding. And plenty of our local chefs have jumped in and are helping to make it even bigger and better. It’s a great collaboration and it’s nice to see them all working together. While I’m sure there is still competition among them – and there’s nothing wrong with a little healthy competition to keep you on your toes – you can tell everyone truly loves this city and is happy to work together to promote all it has to offer, especially all things local.

(photos pulled from Cleveland Food Rocks Facebook page)

free tix to cleveland food rocks rock ‘n’ roll bbq

Michelle V — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 16:08:00 +0000

As previously posted, Cleveland Food Rocks is throwing the first Rock ‘n’ Roll BBQ throwdown this Sunday at the Beachland Ballroom. An impressive list of our local chefs will be on-hand grilling and mingling from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Tickets are $25 or $30 day of, but chef Steve Schimoler of Crop, who is the brainchild behind this initiative, has generously offered up two free tickets to Cleveland Foodie.

Interested? One of the questions I always ask chefs during the q&a’s is to tell me their top five songs on a dinner party playlist. If you want the tickets, tell me what your top five songs would be if you were hosting a summer cookout. To be qualified, you must also enter your e-mail and of course be able to attend this Sunday. Just comment with your songs and e-mail between now and Thursday. Best playlist wins. Note: To be fair, I won’t pick and instead will ask a local musician.

Update: We have a winner. See comments. Thanks for sharing your playlists, lots of good selections!

i heart cleveland (news, reviews and events)

Michelle V — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 11:57:00 +0000

A funny thing happened on the way to the Indians game this past Thursday. I’m told it was an awesome game and that fireworks were set to Michael Jackson (which we did catch thanks to the deck at Pete & Deweys, er, Thirsty Parrot). Maybe this has happened to you? You set out to go to the game, and than the lure of East 4 sucks you in and end up catching the highlights (or lowlights as they seem to be lately) the next day.

With every intention of going to the game with our neighbors and their friends, we decided to stop at Lola first for a drink and a few appetizers. Luckily, and I’m assuming since it was rather early, the chef’s table was open. This is such a fun place to sit because you can watch executive chef Derek Clayton and company masterfully and meticulously prepare each dish for the restaurant.

We decided to split several orders of each of the appetizers. Obviously, the beef cheek pierogis were a hit. But for me personally, I loved the braised Berkshire “bacon” (pork belly) and cured tuna with grapefruit and fennel the best followed by the charcuterie plate which I grazed on most of the evening until there was nothing left. These apps couldn’t be more different from each other and were truly outstanding.

Sometimes I much rather share an assortment of appetizers than have dinner. It’s not that Lola doesn’t offer some very tempting dinner options, obviously they do, but this is a fun, tasty way to try wide-variety of items.

After enjoying probably one too many cocktails at the chef’s table, we the heading to the patio for dessert. I was not-so-secretly hoping everyone would bail on the game and could continue to take advantage of the great Cleveland evening and crowd watching on E 4th. I got my wish.

All the restaurants were filled and people were overflowing from the individual patios onto the street. Lining the street were beautiful planters with oversized colorful flowers. It’s truly a site to see and take in. My hope now is that other areas within Cleveland take note of its success. We can enjoy more than one great neighborhood at once.

And Clevelanders aren’t the only ones impressed with E 4th. The New York Times just wrote a feature on the area’s rebirth, which includes mentions of Lola, of course, The Greenhouse Tavern, La Strada, Pickwick and Zocalo – which surprisingly the reporter cited as one of the best Mexican restaurants in Ohio. While I’m excited for the article, I’d have to greatly disagree with that statement (that nod goes to Momocho).

And speaking of positive national exposure for our small but mighty city, Daily Candy, something else I heart, just did a quick write-up on their recent visit. While I agree we desperately need more shopping, the writer’s tour guide missed a big opportunity by not taking her to Room Service, Duo Home and Banyan Tree, among others.

A must-attend event
Cleveland Food Rocks presents a Rock ‘n’ Roll BBQ Throwdown
On Sunday, July 26 from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., at the Beachland Ballroom, Cleveland Food Rocks will be hosting a ginormous BBQ with many of our area chefs in an effort to raise funds for this initiative.

Participating restaurants include: Bar Cento, Beachland Ballroom, Blue Canyon Kitchen, Blue Point, Brother’s Lounge, Crop, Dante, Fahrenheit, Flying Fig, Greenhouse Tavern, Grotto Wine Bar, Gusto, Happy Dog, Johnny’s Downtown, Local Crop, Lago, Luxe, Melange, Momocho, Moxie, Prosperity Social Club, Sarava, Southside and Sky Larae’s Culinary Services.

Rain or shine, come enjoy what you just know is going to be some seriously good eats for $25 ($30 day of) plus live music. And it’s family-friendly! You can purchase tickets here.

Started by chef Steve Schimoler of Crop, Cleveland Food Rocks is a non-profit collaborative of dozens of Cleveland-area restaurants and food-service operations, dedicated to promoting and encouraging a vigorous local dining scene by forging a link between great food and live music. The group hopes to serve as a grassroots model, representing the power of social interconnectivity as a catalyst for strengthening the Greater Cleveland Community.

she’s just my type, american classic

Michelle V — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 20:07:00 +0000

Congratulations to Ken who won the Cleveland Food Rocks contest for his description on why Cleveland rocks. His six-word entry, “she’s just my type, American classic,” earned him $50 to Crop Bistro.

To be fair, I asked Jim Sollisch, creative director and writer extraordinaire where I work, to be the judge. He’s an incredibly gifted writer and I knew he would enjoy this.

As for the winner, Jim said he liked it because it’s a sentence, not a tag line, and therefore more interesting. If the assignment were just on food, Jim said he liked “foodie complicity, gourmet simplicity, every ethnicity.”

By the way, if Jim were to play along, his entry for why Cleveland rocks would have been: 5-bedroom house, 3 fireplaces, updated $209,000. “Hemingway had a great idea to use the for-sale genre— it really packs a lot of info in a few words,” he explained.

I thought there were a lot of great entries to choose from and am happy so many people played along. A lot of people focused on food and those ones were among my favorites. I liked: Mistake on the lake takes its cake (although it came in past the deadline); Symon, Bruell, Small, Whalen, Sawyer, Schimoler; One generation’s history is another’s inspiration and Live local, eat local, love local (that would be chef Eric Williams of Momocho who entered just for fun).

Congratulations, Ken, and enjoy your dinner. And thanks to Crop and chef Steve Schimoler for giving away the generous gift card.