For the Rocco piece, I noticed the editors did some heavy editing. Not surprising since I have to come to realize that pretty much everything I turn in gets morphed into something else (which isn’t necessarily always a bad thing), but also because this piece was meant to be under 300 words and I didn’t exactly stick to that.

I can appreciate a guy like Rocco. Like me, he likes to talk. He’s very easy to talk to and shared a lot – from his restaurant, to his love and admiration for the city and his fellow chefs to his future (like perhaps a cooking school in Cleveland someday…).

At any rate, here’s what I actually turned in. It still doesn’t cover my entire chat with him, but does offer a little more.

Changes @ Fahrenheit

Chef Rocco Whalen attributes the seven-year (plus a few months) itch to Fahrenheit’s revamped menu as well as other changes inside and out of the popular Tremont eatery.

“It was time for an overhaul,” he explains. “Time to get rid of the tablecloths, update the furniture, bring back some menu favorites and finally, we were able to finally secure the patio all while staying competitive with the economy.”

Whalen is proud of the fact that you can come to Fahrenheit and spend as little ($20 for a couple beers and a pizza) or as much as you want.

Even though the menu technically changes every six weeks to reflect the chef’s inventive and fresh approach to food (the restaurant doesn’t even house a freezer!), look for a few popular items to become more permanent, including his mom’s little meatballs with roasted garlic tomato reduction, rare beef carpaccio, chicken spring rolls and the Kobe short ribs. And thanks to the persistence of one woman over the years, the crispy fried goat cheese salad with balsamic greens is now back, a dish that was on the original menu.

Regardless if you visit next month, or 10 years from now, there is one dish that will always be on the menu: the coffee and mustard crusted pork tenderloin. “This dish is my representation of Cleveland,” Whalen explains. “I take it off and I get death threats!”

While Rocco may have had the itch to change a few things, one thing is for certain, this Mentor native is devoted to this neighborhood and isn’t leaving anytime soon.

“This neighborhood for me is the kitty’s meow,” he says. “We have the best food, chefs, stores – everything right here. Now that doesn’t take away from my boys in Ohio City, but I truly do love this place. Mike [Symon] started something great and I just love being here.”

When I asked her how she knows this, she looked at me and said, “By his picture of course (pointing to this month’s Cleveland Magazine). Look at him and that smile. Every picture he always has that giant grin. You can just tell.”

With Jamie in Chicago for work, I politely invited myself over my parents for dinner tonight. My mom was making turkey burgers with sweet potato fries. She’s an amazing cook whatever she is whipping up and rarely uses recipes. This has always impressed me.

Since they don’t get Cleveland Magazine, I brought over my copy so they could see the recent articles. Now, most people don’t understand what I do for a living, especially my family – parents and siblings. It’s OK, I’m used to it. My mom tells people I’m in personal relations. I used to tell her that makes me sound like a hooker (it’s actually public relations) and then would try to explain my career choice. I’ve since given up because they aren’t alone – most people don’t know what PR is. And all my dad knows is that we can bring dogs to work and have scooters. As an engineer, this totally baffles him.

So when the Cleveland Magazine gig came up, I was excited because this is much easier to understand. While they do, their take on the issue tonight was priceless and my amusement led my mom to instruct me “not to put this on the computer.”

First, they couldn’t understand why I wasn’t in the picture with all the chefs. Then, why my name wasn’t under each mini interview. And my name was hard to see altogether and that a better idea would be to put Bill and Esther’s daughter in parenthesis. And why doesn’t it say Cleveland Foodie? But the fact that my name was coupled with John Long was really exciting for her. She knows him from his days on Lanigan and Malone. And if you are on Lanigan and Malone, you are golden to my mom.

But the best part was when she was reading the Sawyer brief and brought up Charlie Palmer. I know him, she said. Then she started a separate conversation with my dad about the gift certificate they have to his place and have to make it out to Concord to use it. And my dad started talking about their steaks. I told her the article says Charlie and not John and she said well it’s obviously a typo by the magazine and I should let them know so they can fix it. And while I’m at it, I should tell them about including parent’s names in future stories.

I love my parents.

Realistically, that’s not going to happen so this blog has become my outlet of sorts. This blog has also afforded me the opportunity to start freelancing for Cleveland Magazine. In this month’s issue, I have my first three, albeit very brief and heavily edited, articles. But I don’t care – I was given the opportunity to do something I’ve always wanted to do and looks like they will let me play along for a while longer.

The three articles are in the comfort foods section, which came out really nice (lots of good things to try as the weather gets colder). I wrote about mama’s famous white sauce at Carrie Cerino’s, the pork chops at The Grill at Bainbridge Commons and apple pie at Mom’s Dinner.