Spotlight On: Columbus, Ohio

Nothing beats a pleasant surprise :)

     The first weekend in November my family and I went to visit my brother, Dan, in Columbus, Ohio, where he is a graduate student studying Urban Planning at Ohio State University.

    People, I do not know what I was expecting, but it most certainly wasn't a gorgeous, clean city with a vibrant arts community, a huge and amazing university with a kickass sports team, beautiful rivers, peaceful suburbs, interesting and diverse neighborhoods, just about every other cool thing you can think of. We had a wonderful weekend exploring, attending the Ohio vs. Indiana football game (Buckeyes won 34-20!!!!! O-HI-O!!!!), relaxing in the hotel, and EATING. No foolin', the food scene in Columbus is A.MAZE.ING. I can't say enough good things about it :)

    The foodie adventure started on Friday night when we hit up a Middle Eastern Restaurant called Lavash Cafe .

This my friends, was first rate short order Middle Eastern cooking. Yes, you read that correctly. You wouldn't think that a counter service- based restaurant could be this good, but it WAS. Their menu was extensive and everything was fresh. excellently seasoned and DELICIOUS. An added bonus was that the owner was a constant, pleasant presence in the dining room, stopping by each table several times to answer menu questions, deliver food to customers that weren't able to walk up to the counter, make jokes, check on the diner's experience, and just generally be entertaining and friendly. This gentleman clearly took pride in his food and his business, and his good mood was certainly infectious. We started with hummus and Kibbeh, which, for those unfamiliar, is ground meat with onions and pine nuts in a deep fried wheat shell served with yogurt sauce *YUM*, for entrees, there were gyro platters, Shawarma, and Mojadara (rice and lentils over a tomato, cucumer and herb salad), all served with saffron/almond rice, salad and pita bread. This place was a total win :) Props to the Lavash Cafe crew for running such a tight ship :)

  But the evening didn't end there :) After some shopping and a little downtime at my brother's apartment, we headed over to what might have been one of my favorite spots, the Grandview Ave. neighborhood for some ARTISANAL ICE CREAM  *swooooooooon!!!* We had the pleasure of going to Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams, (sorry, I couldn't the photo of this one to load) which, if you are unfamiliar, is a homegrown business that started in Jeni's home kitchen, and now has 11 locations across the state of Ohio. Jeni's only uses local milk from grass fed cows, and boy oh boy oh boy can you taste the difference that that makes :) In Jeni's own words, they only create ice cream flavors that, " we fall madly in love with, that we want to bathe in, and that make us see million year-old stars". I am so glad that there are other people in the world that feel the same way about ice cream that I do :) The Jeni's team is endlessly creative when it comes to ice cream flavors. Among the flavors we sampled that night were Goat Cheese with Figs and Cognac, Salty Caramel, Smoked Tea and Plum Pudding, Vanilla Cedarwood, and one called "The Milkiest Chocolate in the World" which most certainly lived up to it's name. I do not have the words to tell you how absolutely delicious this ice cream was, but I can tell you that Jeni's will DELIVER ICE CREAM VIA UPS ANYWHERE IN THE COUNTRY!!! I know this because my brother sent my mother some Jeni's ice cream for Mother's Day this year :) I wholeheartedly recommend this ice cream :) Jeni has also recently published a cookbook, and one day soon it will be MINE!!!

The next standout on our culinary tour was post-football game dinner on Saturday night at City BBQ

    Another Ohio standout, and one of the only BBQ joints I've ever found that might actually be in the same category of Syracuse's beloved Dinosaur BBQ. Again, this is counter service in it's highest form. You know the food's gonna be dang good if there's a (fast moving) line out the door. After ordering at the counter, and waiting a surprisingly short amount of time, we plunked down at a bare wooden table which was dressed only with a napkin container and a motley assortment of bbq sauces, we dug into our feast. Friends, this was my first encounter with a Carolina Pulled Pork Sandwich, and HIGH HOLY HELL am I a woman converted :) Allow me to explain. By and large, I strongly dislike coleslaw. I find it too squishy and too sweet to really be palatable in most cases. However, this coleslaw was cool and creamy and tangy, not the least bit sweet or mushy, and the interplay of the tangy, cool coleslaw against the rich, unctuous pulled pork was HEAVENLY :) I now have a standard order whenever I go out for BBQ :) Several of my table mates also got the Carolina Pork Sandwich, but the Brisket and the Pulled-Pork sans coleslaw were also excellent. I must also give props to the fresh-cut French Fries, which were the exact right kind of crispy, the mac and cheese, the spot-on cornbread, and THE DEEP FRIED PICKLES ( deep friend pickles were one of those foods that weirded me out at first, but one bite and I'll never look back, YUM-O!!!) A fun quirk about City BBQ? The walls are decorated with antique/quirky/interesting bbq and hot sauce bottles, and if you bring one in to add to their collection, you get free food, can't hate that :) I also want to give a nod to the fact that both their lemonade and iced tea were scratch made and freshly brewed with real lemons and real tea leaves and natural sugar and you could absolutely taste the difference :) We wanted to try the Peach Cobbler, but we were stuffed absolutely silly and dessert was not an option, so we'll save that one for the next trip :)

Before heading back to Syracuse on Sunday, we had brunch at another local institution in the Grandview neighborhood, Paul's Fifth Avenue  .
 

      This was another establishment that was packed to the gills (although being the day after an at-home game victory for Ohio State, I really shouldn't have been surprised). At first, I was a little put off, because there was absolutely NO ROOM for diners waiting for a table, so your choices were to hover over the already seated diners, or smush two or three deep against the wall. However, this is a design flaw and in no way the fault of the staff. They sat us as soon as they could and got to us as soon as they could. Having been in food service off and on for most of my adult life so far, I'm more than willing to cut them a little slack. Our server was in a refreshingly good mood, which is always welcome after a harried morning :) Paul's has been around for over 40 years, and if the rest of their meals are as good as their breakfasts are, I can understand why :) No one got anything especially elaborate, eggs over easy/sunny side up/scrambled, toast, a Greek Omelet, a Wisconsin Omelet, sausage patties and home fries,but everything was cooked to perfection, served hot, excellent portion sizes, and DELISH :) If I had one complaint about Paul's it would be that they really should expand their building, they absolutely have the client base to justify an expansion, but service and food-wise, everything was excellent :)

I loved Columbus, capital *L* Loved :) I had a wonderful time with my family and I was genuinely sorry to leave. I'm definitely going back as soon as possible :)

Love,
Lynn



     

A Random Collection of Tasty Restaurants :)

Hey All!

Again, I must apologize for the delay between posts. The last few weeks have been a flurry of activity. My Master's Portfolio was completed, submitted, and accepted! I am now offcially done, and I have a Master's Degree in Arts for Children! Go me! *victory dance!* Also, I have been packing up to move. Due to my lease and my job coming to an end, and the fact that with the end of my degree comes the end of my financial aid cushion, I am temporarily moving home to Syracuse, NY. I need to regroup for a few months, and replenish my energy and monetary reserves. Although I will miss the friends I have made here very much, in many ways I am looking forward to going home for a little while. And since I have been living primarily in Rochester since undergrad, I am really looking forward to exploring the changes in the Syracuse local food scene while I have been away.



On that note, for those of you read my blog and live in the greater Rochester/Central or Western New York area, I decided to make a list of some of my favorite local places to eat around here. This list is by no means complete, I may annotate it in later posts, and please, if there's a Rochester-ish place you really like, and I've neglected to post it here, please feel free to add comments that include your faves:



So, quickly, off the cuff, here are some of my favorites:



The Mythos Cafe in Brockport, NY:

-Primarily Mediterranean, this place has the best dolmades, the best tzatziki, and some of the best gyro meat I've ever had. Their pasta dishes and salads are lovely too. Dessert-wise, everything is delicious, though I would personally recommend the Baklava and the Chocolate Decadence (imagine the BEST fudge you've ever had, only BETTER) (UPDATE: Sadly, this restaurant closed very suddenly in 2012, which broke my little Greek-Food obsessed heart *sniff*)



The Millhouse Restaurant in Brockport, NY

-Your basic family restaurant/upscale diner, this place has big portions, reasonable prices, it's very clean, the menu is extensive, they serve breakfast all day, and they make a KICKASS Milkshake :) They don't have a website, but their street address is 3670 Lake Road, Brockport, NY, 14420. Their phone number is (585)637-7050



Sakura Home in Pittsford, NY

-A fairly new upscale Japanese restaurant, this place has a lovely atmosphere, and the Sushi ROCKS! They have several Hibachi tables, but my personal recommendation would be to sit in the regular dining room and order a la carte. Everything on their menu is good, but I would go for any of the appetizers, the sushi, or one of their several noodle dishes. Extra Bonus, they bring hot towels to the table for your hands :)

The Cibon Cafe in Rochester, NY (Park Avenue neighborhood)
-Nestled in the massively awesome Park Avenue District, Cibon is hands-down one of the most beautiful restaurants I have ever eaten in, lots of Red, Black and Gold, with a definite European/Art Nouveau feel. There is only one dish there that I don't care for, and that is their Pasta Puttanesca (it's well-made, just not to my particular taste), but literally everything else I've ever had there is delicious. They also have an extensive wine bar and list of cafe drinks. This is perfect place to while away an evening, either for a long cozy dinner chat, or if you wanna feel all European and fancy-pantsy.

Jines Restaurant in Rochester, NY
- Also in the Park Avenue district, Jines has been around FOREVER and if you eat there just one time, you'll know why. I would call it an upscale diner kinda place, but their menu is so creative and extensive, it really defies categorization. My personal recommendation would be the Lamb and Feta Burger, but honestly, you can't go wrong. On the occasions that I have dined there, I have found the staff to be friendly and helpful, very willing to accomodate special dietary requests. They also serve breakfast all day. Classy but not fussy, Jines is definitely a winner :)

Main Street Pizzeria in Brockport, NY:
If you like thin-crust, NYC/Neapolitan-style pizza, then, in my humble opinion, Main Street Pizza is the BEST you're gonna find in Rochester. I'm not even going to tell you how much of their pizza I've had during my college years (2 slices and a soda are only $3!!) Their other stuff is great too, but I'm a pizza-girl. Just go, now, you'll thank me later. No website, but their address and phone number are 82 Main Street, Brockport, NY, 14420, (585) 637-8760.

Mona Lisa Cafe in Webster, NY:
- One word for you: GELATO!! For those of you that may not know this, Gelato is my favorite dessert of all time (tied for first place with a fountain-style chocolate ice-cream soda). Mona Lisa Cafe has some of the best Gelato EVER! (and they're pastries and panini's are lovely too) Their table space limited, but trust me, it's worth it:)

Zambistro in Medina, NY:
This place is an absolute GEM, relaxed, upscale dining, nothing stuffy. The food is delicious and artfully arranged, Chef Mike Zambito is a genius when it comes to creative use of ingredients. One of my favorite things about Zambistro is that the chef prepares tasting plates for each table, small samples of other items on the menu, no charge, just part of the experience. This is the perfect place for a celebration of any kind. It's a hike from the city, but you'll be so happy once you get there. My personal recommendations would be the lobster pasta, homemade macaroni and cheese, blackened beef tips, lobster risotto, or the cedar plank salmon. And all the desserts are phenomenal :)


Avanti's Italian Grill in Medina, NY:
Another hike from the city that is totally worth it. Being something of an Italian chef myself, I am pretty critical of Italian Restaurants, and this place passed every test with flying colors. They make all their own bread and pasta fresh every day. And it doesn't have that greasy, cover everything in tomato sauce vibe that can pervade some establishments. They have the best Chicken Parmesan I've had in the Rochester area. But I can also personally vouch for their Chicken Francese, Pollo Sorrentina, Chicken Gorgonzola, and their Chicken Marsala. Really, this is great, innovative Italian food, if it means anything to you, they have my stamp of approval. (The Avanti's Pizzeria right next door is great too)

Aladdin's Natural Eatery in Rochester, NY:
Another Mediterreanean/Middle Eastern restaurant, this has got to be one of the all-time greats! If you like your food as natural and unprocessed as possible, then you need to make a beeline for Alladin's. Their food tastes like a vacation to Greece, no joke. Thier hummus is beyond compare, as is their grilled lamb, and their Baklava is pretty darned tasty too. They have two Rochester locations, one on Monroe Avenue, the other in Schoen Place is Pittsford. The Monroe Restaurant has a lovely rooftop balcony, and the Pittsford location has outdoor canalside seating. Wholesome, fresh, exotic but comforting, I cannot say enough good things about Aladdin's. This food is delish and (almost) completely guilt free. GO!

The Old Toad in Rochester, NY
If you like the British Pub vibe, then this restaurant is for you. It is, quite literally, a British Pub. Their Fish Fry is amazing, but really, this is another place where, depending on what you're tastes are, you really can't go wrong. The Old Toad is perfect spot to visit on a rainy evening when you want to curl up with a book, or have a long, long chat with a close friend or two. The Old Toad is basically the definition of the word "Cozy". They also host trivia nights on Mondays and Jeopardy nights on Tuesdays :)


Well, that's about all I can think of off the top of my head, but I'm sure there'll be more later. Go forth my friends,explore some of these places. Eat, drink, be merry, let me know how it goes! More posting soon!

Love to All!
Lynn