Minnillo, along with partner/executive chef  Chris Di Lisi, have resurfaced in Moreland Hills at Flour. After a few visits, heck, after the first time I opened the door, it’s safe to say Flour is the exact opposite of Baricelli (speaking solely on the decor, vibe and pricing). I wasn’t necessarily in love with every bite of every dish, though some I clearly was, but I was quite smitten with the atmosphere, offerings and the fact that it’s kid-friendly (more on this in a minute). Yes I think Minnillo and Di Lisi will do quite well here, and it’s certainly worth coming to the east side to experience for yourself. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised. I was – and therefore know we’ll  be back several times over.

As far as dining with little ones, when I first toured the space while  still under construction, Di Lisi shared that they plan on welcoming diners of all ages and sizes. So we took him up on it. During our second visit, we were with toddler. And we weren’t alone – there was about 4 minis in total in the restaurant that night. Granted, we all sat towards the back and were there around 5:30, but regardless, they were welcoming, had high chairs and several food items they would make for kids that aren’t on the menu (though Natalie enjoyed one of the pizzas). I will say that when Di Lisi talked to me about being kid-friendly and described the type of decor they were going for, I had a specific imagine in my mind of the type of restaurant this was going to be. I was quite surprised when I went the first time for dinner that what I envisioned and the contemporary masterpiece that actually came to life were two different things. But don’t let the chic, modern look full you – if you’re like us and like to dine out as a family, bring ‘em. Just be smart about it – regardless of where you dine out with kids. No one wants to hear screaming kids, but if you plan ahead and make a few modifications, they won’t have to.

As for everything else, you can read my full Metromix review here. Or as always, here’s part of the review:

One of the Cleveland’s most well-respected and beloved chefs, Paul Minnillo, is back. After closing his long-standing Baricelli Inn in the heart of Little Italy last year, Minnillo, together with partner/executive chef Chris Di Lisi, have resurfaced within the east side suburb of Moreland Hills with Flour, a rustic Italian restaurant.

Food: Flour is the type of Italian restaurant Minnillo has wanted to do for the past 15 years. Inspired by Flour and Water in San Francisco and Locanda Verde in New York City, Flour focuses on the two chefs take on traditional Italian food, highlighting simple dishes from salads to pastas to wood-fired pizzas featuring four to five ingredients max (note: there will be no  parmesan of any kind here). Look for the menu to change often. And not just seasonally, but rather every few weeks.

After a couple visits, we were able to sample a nice variety of dishes. Appetizers not to be missed include the crispy calamari ($9.50), a nice take on an expected offering, and the spring pea, pecorino and mint bruschetta and rock shrimp and garlic bruschetta ($3.50 per piece). In total, there are four different bruschetta offered; it’s nice to be able to mix and match and try a variety.

Or forgo traditional appetizers altogether and instead opt for a sampling of cheese to start the meal (or as we prefer, finish the meal). The salumi, also made in-house, and cheese selection change daily and are available in different portions. We sampled three ($9) with crusty bread and honey: brunet, pecorino and robiola. The offering is nice and in fact, add some salumi, plenty of their fresh bread and a few glasses of wine, and this alone can serve as a wonderful meal.

For salads, their take on the classic panzanella ($9.50) with grilled bread, onions and black olives makes for quite the enjoyable start. The beet salad ($10.50) with arugula, fennel, blood oranges and ricotta was also nice but not a favorite, perhaps because it was light on the beets which were in fact slightly undercooked.

Like Baricelli, pasta, which is made in-house, is available as either a full or half order. The gnudi ($12 for half) is not to be missed. It’s almost addicting with its smoked mushrooms, generous amounts of thick pancetta and rich taleggio.

For heartier options, choices range from veal short ribs, tomato braised pork shank, to salmon and sirloin. We couldn’t resist the diver scallops with fennel atop absolutely perfect olive oil mashed potatoes ($28). A simply perfect dish that will surely be ordered in the future.

There are five, 10-inch pizzas available, each served with a side of chili oil. Pizzas can be topped with a handful of toppings, including egg, mortadella, sausage or arugula. The fungi ($15) with miatake, hedgehogs, shallots, taleggio and truffle oil was crispy and flavorful, but, on our next visit, we may opt for the bianca with garlic oil, ricotta, grana, fennel, and rapini leaves and perhaps top with egg and prosciutto.

If you have even an ounce of room left, don’t miss the slightly warm, salted chocolate brownie ($7.50) with refreshing basil ice cream. This dish literally pops, thanks to mini chocolate pop rocks of sorts. It’s fun and ridiculously good.

Libations: As anticipated, Flour boasts an impressive wine offering (and nicely visible, oversized wine cabinet). Roughly 30 Italian wines are available by the glass, all priced between $7–$12. Bottles are also available from a variety of regions, but glass pours focus just on Italy. There’s also a full bar offering a wide-range of cocktails, beers and other spirits.

Décor: If you’re expecting something Baricelli-esque, you’re in for a shock. While the former was stuck in some type of dated pastel period from the ’80s, Flour couldn’t be further from that decade. Just by opening the door, you’re greeted with very clean, contemporary stylings of a modern restaurant with bold accents of color, mixes of rich woods and a beautiful wine cabinet as its focal point. The lounge area is ideal for dinner, cocktails or snacking and mingling after work. The open kitchen features a welcoming chef’s table and large windows throughout the 140-seat dining room. It’s a well-done and inviting space.

Last summer, Minnillo made the decision to close The Baricelli Inn after 25 years. Shortly after, Minnillo and his executive chef, DiLisi made the easy decision to work together again. This time, opening up a restaurant together that would be quite the opposite of Baricelli, or at least the opposite of the perception of Baricelli held by many.

The only problem – it has taken a bit longer to open doors than first anticipated. And these two are incredibly eager to get back in the kitchen and open the doors to their new eatery, Flour. Lucky for them (and us), the wait isn’t much longer. DiLisi fully expects the 140 seat restaurant (with another 30-ish in outdoor dining) to be open by March 29.

Flour is the type of rustic Italian restaurant that Minnillo has wanted to do for the past 15 years. “I don’t have multiple restaurants,” explains Minnillo. “I have a great amount of respect for Symon and Bruell. They continue to do a great job. But that’s not me. I like to focus on one thing.”

That one thing will be a reasonably priced Italian restaurant. But don’t expect parmesan of any kind. “Italian food is very polarizing in this city,” explains DiLisi. “We’re going to focus on traditional Italian cuisine, but with our spin on it, highlighting real cooking techniques. The dishes will be simple, four to five ingredients.”

And the menu will change often. Not just seasonally, but every couple of weeks. And the dishes will support local as much as possible, including grass-fed beef, pork and chicken.

In researching their restaurant, the chefs went to San Francisco and found themselves at Flour + Water. (side note: this is an absolutely amazing restaurant, one of my favorite San Fran eats. If you have the opportunity, I highly recommend it). That restaurant is the inspiration for our place, adds Minnillo. They also received inspiration from A16 and NYC’s Locanda Verde (run by native Clevelander chef Andrew Carmellini. “They do a great job there,” says Di Lisi. “We want to create a Locanda Verde-type experience here.”

Here’s a sample of some of the dishes off the menu that caught my eye. Nearly everything is made in-house. As DiLisi adds, we now have the room to do some serious cooking.

• Four different types of bruschetta, like spring peas, pecorino and mint
• Pancetta-wrapped chicken meatballs
• Salmon crudo with avocado and grapefruit
• Four to five house made types of salumi
• Panzanella
• Beet salad with blood oranges, arugula, fennel and house-made ricotta salada
• Five housemade pastas (plus daily specials): fettuccini carbonara with housemade guanciale; gnugi, with smoked mushrooms, garlic, shallots and tellagio funduta; cauliflower risotto and tagliatelle with ragu Bolognese and ricotta salada.
• At least six entrees, including veal short ribs, half roasted chicken, grouper cheeks, grilled swordfish and tomato braised pork shank.
• And 9”, wood fired, Neapolitan pizzas with a 40 hour rise:

o Margherita

o Fungi, with miatake, shallots and tellagio

o Romana, with crushed tomato, anchovy, black olives and pecorino

o Salsiccia, with sausage, crushed tomato, bufala, grana and oregano

And if you have room left over, there’s an equally impressive dessert list. “We want to have fun with our desserts,” explains DiLisi. “Use American sensibility with Italian traditions. But we will push the envelope a bit.” Though DiLisi is also a trained pastry chef, they just hired a pastry chef who is from Connecticut originally but spent the last two years baking in Israel. She met a boy and now finds herself calling Cleveland home, jokes DiLisi.

And what Italian restaurant is complete without a glass of wine? Or in this case, 30. Flour will boast 30 Italian wines by the glass, all priced between $7 – $12. Of course bottles are also available and from all different regions, but glass pours will just focus on Italy.

Minnillo is clearly excited about the wine offering and shared they had a lot of fun picking out the wines. “Italian whites are amazing, just wait until people try some of the pours we’ll have available, and at these prices,” he adds. Minnillo goes onto explain that all the servers will be thoroughly trained on the wines, as well as the menu. He explains that he wants customers to get to know all the different items, from the bar to the kitchen, and always have a different dining experience during each visit.

The restaurant will boast a big lounge area that will serve as the main focal point, plus a giant wine wall, impressive chef’s table and a main dining area with large windows (that will be sectioned off into two zones allowing for private parties). Though still in the drywall stage, Kristin DiLisi, Chris’ wife and Flour’s GM, explains the décor will be contemporary rustic.

Flour will also be kid-friendly and feature a separate kids’ menu. Flour, located in Moreland Hills at the corner of 91 and Chagrin Blvd, will be open 7 days a week. Lunch will be available shortly after opening, but for now, the chefs plan to just focus on dinner.

Seriously? While I recognize I never actually read the article so I don’t know all its contents or writer’s point of view, but just the thought makes me scratch my head. There is so much to do, discover and experience in this town – well beyond the Rock Hall (amazes me how many people think this is all we have going for us). And what’s even more surprising to me is how many people call Cleveland home and are still unaware of what’s right in their backyard. Take a day and be a tourist in your own city. You’ll be positively overwhelmed and impressed. But bored? No.

Case in point this past Wednesday night. We headed down to the Botanical Gardens for their wildly popular Gourmet in the Garden series (truly – these sell out fast and early). If you’re not familiar, from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m., for $5 a group of 50 or so watch one of our local chefs demo a dish, then sample. On this night it was chef Paul Minnillo from Baricelli and his executive chef Chris, who was demoing a chilled peach soup with basil and strawberries (peaches from a Chardon farm by way of Fresh Fork Market – apparently all the snow in Chardon is good for snow days and making great peaches).

Minnillo, who reminds me of my Italian uncles with his mannerisms and storytelling, first chatted with the crowd about Cleveland, his future thoughts for the restaurant and Inn (perhaps a spa someday?), a brief education on cheese and his retail offering and his fellow local chefs. Chris then shared how to make this super simple soup at home and finally, we got to sample for ourselves – delicious. Did I mention this was just $5?

From there we walked around Wade Oval to enjoy Wade Oval Wednesdays, the free weekly concert series in the summer (Roberto Ocasio’s Latin Jazz Project was performing). How great that we have something like this. One any given Wednesday in the summer, expect to find families, couples and people of all ages hanging out on the oval, enjoying a picnic, some cocktails and the atmosphere.

After listening to the band for awhile, and knowing a small sample of soup wasn’t enough to call dinner, we decided to head to Baricelli for more.

During Minnillo’s introduction earlier, he shared that he’s been working hard for the past 10 years to get the restaurant out of that dining destination/special occasion category, but doesn’t feel he’s having much success. I admit that for years that was my perception of the restaurant, until I went there. And part of it is the mansion itself which houses the restaurant and Inn (it does scream special occasion) and the long history of high ticket items. But in recent years, he has lowered prices and even offers half orders of pasta (my 1/2 bucatini amatriciana was just $12 and is plenty of pasta for one person) as well as great/affordable dinners during Lent. To be honest, I’ve never sat in the dining room so I’m not sure what vibe that gives off, we much prefer the patio. And that does not feel pretentious or fine dining to me – more like casual, quaint and a must for al fresco dining.

Beyond my pasta and a half order of basil fazzoletti for Jamie, I had the beet salad with walnut-crusted camembert, watercress, a hard boiled egg and vincotta (absolutely wonderful salad) and the chilled peach soup for Jamie. We also each had a glass of wine.

I will say this, while we thoroughly enjoyed our meal and sitting on the patio in the heart of Little Italy and ourselves don’t view Baricelli as destination dining, if Minnillo truly wants to change people’s perceptions, he needs to make a few more revisions to the menu beyond the pastas. One big area that did bother us was the wine list. If one were just to peruse the list, they’d assume this is a high-priced, high-occasion type of place. There is only one bottle under $60, a couple glass options in the $10/$12 range and the rest is priced in the hundreds. Personally, I would love to see a more approachable wine list with several bottle options under $5o – even $40, as well as more glass choices, too.

And that was our Wednesday. A demo, music and fab dinner in one of Cleveland’s great neighborhoods. If that’s boring, I give up.

Terra Madre
This year’s class has been selected to attend the food extravaganza in Torino, Italy. I remember Dominic Cerino talking about his experience a few years ago and sharing his memories. It sounds like an amazing food journey. Here’s more from Slow Food Northern Ohio:

In October 2008, farmers, producers, chefs and educators from around the globe will gather in Turin, Italy for Terra Madre 2008, the third biennial meeting of the Terra Madre Network organized by Slow Food International. The Terra Madre event will bring together food communities, cooks, academics and youth delegates from around the world to work towards increasing small-scale, traditional, and sustainable food production.

The following delegates have been selected by Slow Food USA to represent our region at Terra Madre 2008:

Farmers & Producers
Aaron Miller, Miller Livestock, Kinsman
Cindy & Terry Smith, Goatfeathers Point Farm, Peninsula
Abbe Turner, Lucky Penny Farm, Garrettsville
Adam & Jennifer Gidlow, On the Rise Bakery, Cleveland Heights

Chefs
Matt Harlan, Lolita
Paul Minnillo, Baricelli Inn & Baricelli Cheese Company
Jonathon Sawyer, Bar Cento & Greenhouse Tavern & Restaurant
David Uecke, Anthe’s Restaurant (Akron)

On Monday, July 14 at 6 p.m., head to Bar Cento to help raise money for the event. For $40, the event will feature food and wine of past attendees. Congratulations, Chefs, and safe travels.
___________________________

Speaking of Dominic Cerino, he will be heading to Cordova, Alaska next week, along with Regan Reik of Pier W, to not only cook but discuss the eco system and what makes Cordova so special for 100 media and chefs.

“It kind of cracks me up that they are flying in two chefs from Cleveland to cook a seafood dinner for media and chefs from the west coast, but hey I’ll take it,” shared Cerino.

He also added that he will be taking some of Cleveland with him, including his own guanciali, Lake Erie Creamery goat cheese and possibly blue eggs, a favorite of Cerinos.
___________________________

I had heard last month that Chef Michael Herschman was leaving his post at the Cabin Club in Aurora. I admit, the first thing I thought when I heard this was, where else can he go? I don’t know if it’s pretty common in the chef world to constantly change kitchens, but in my professional world, you would be labeled a flight risk. You can now find Herschman at Metropolitan Cafe.

Regardless of why he moves around so much, one thing remains constant – his incredible talent! Aside from Cabin Club, I have tried to follow him throughout the city since he (unfortunately) closed Mojo in Tremont. And this latest move will actually get me to go back to Metropolitan this fall.

1. The top 5 spices that are a must in every kitchen? Sea Salt, telichery pepper, fennel, cinnamon and all spice.

2. What is your favorite and least favorite thing to make? Favorite – Making any kind of sausage – Italian, Lamb, Venison – my Grandfather taught me when I was a teenager and I’ve been making sausage ever since.

Least Favorite – Baked desserts require too much measuring and accuracy. I’m also not a big recipe reader and to bake requires a certain amount of that. In order words, baking is not intuitive for me.

3. If you could cook for one person, real or dead, who would it be?
Joel Robuchon. He was a great influence in my early cooking years.

4. You’re having a dinner party, what are the top 5 songs on your play list? JJ Cale, Eric Clapton, The Doors, 3 Tenors, Pavorotti – any of my wife’s compilation CD’s – she’s my music guru.

5. Favorite restaurant in Cleveland? I’ve have too many friends in the business to be this specific. I was cornered on this question once and never heard the end of it!

6. What restaurant do you miss? Battuto – we became very good friends with Mark & Giovanna Divario and I was sad to see such a great place close.

7. What is your favorite thing about Cleveland and what drives you nuts about this city?
Restaurants in Cleveland are a great value compared to other cities and the talent here is terribly underrated. It drives me nuts that people will brag about what they ate and spent for a mediocre dinner at a celebrated restaurant in another city. If Clevelanders can get past the hundreds of chains in this city (that they support!) they will discover a very vibrant independent restaurant culture.

8. Most famous person you have cooked for?
I’ve cooked for several famous peeps including Julia Child, Bill Cosby and Shirley McClain.

9. Most unusual food you have ever tried?
We had “fresh” razor clams that were, in fact, alive and well. They did the hula when you squeezed lemon on them. I’m serious; they literally stood up and danced. I tried one and it gave me the creeps.

10. If you weren’t a chef, what would you be doing? Operating a winery in Piedmont or Tuscany.

11. What hidden café/restaurant have Clevelanders yet to discover?
Let me know! There’s nothing that I know of on the east side and I would love to support a small unsung, hardworking establishment.

12. Favorite place to grocery shop?
I try to go directly to the farmers. I was going to Secours in Perry all summer, Saturday’s to Shaker Market. Now that it’s Fall I’ll go to Edy’s or Sages for apples and pears. Farmer Jones and Miles Farmer’s Market also has wonderful produce.

13. How have you (Baricelli) survived for so long in this market?
Million-dollar question. It’s not easy in a city like Cleveland where there are chains on every street corner. It also doesn’t help that the population gets smaller every year. We were a fine dining establishment for 22 years, which put us in the “special occasion” niche. People go out more often and don’t require a special occasion to do so. Our new menu reflects the growing trend of casual dining and we’re having fun again preparing what we love when we travel to Italy – simple, hearty dishes, Italian comfort food, if you will. Business is booming, people are walking in without reservations! I love it. Change is good.

14. What three cheeses are a must for people to try?
Tough question. We have the only affinage cooler in Cleveland, and over 50 cheeses. Here are three but I’m sure I’ll change my mind after I hit the send button:

1. Gratte Paille – a triple cream from France
2. Meadow Creek Farms, Grayson (Galax Virginia) – a raw milk cheese similar to a French Reblochon
3. Any of our goats after approximately six weeks of aging

15. What is your favorite thing about Baricelli and running a restaurant in general? Making people happy. Food and wine brings people together. I get a thrill walking through my restaurant, seeing people having fun and enjoying what we worked very hard to bring to the table. I’ve made many, many friends here.

16. What advice do you have for chefs just starting out?
You had better really love what you’re doing or you are in the wrong profession. It’s all about passion and sweat!