Heights Eats

Despite having a blog for over four years, we’ve never reviewed the Grovewood Tavern, one the most respected establishments on our side of town. Sarah bought me the Cleveland Independents Deck for Christmas this year, and the coupon was as good an excuse as any to visit. This was perhaps our favorite meal we’ve had yet at Grovewood.

Although it’s a wine bar, Grovewood has a bit of a gastropub vibe. The outside looks like like a bar, and the dark wood inside clearly fits with the “Tavern” in its name. The year-round hanging white Christmas lights add a warm touch, especially on a winter evening.

We started our meal with the grilled Caesar ($7) and potstickers ($11). Grilling romaine is a great idea: the bittersweet caramel bite nicely offset the richness of the Caesar dressing. The portobello filled potstickers with lardons were somewhat reminiscent of Michael Symon’s beef-cheek pierogies. They were satisfying but not at all heavy.

To drink I had a draft Winter White Ale (Ithaca Excelsior, … continue reading

We’ve been meaning to make it to Deagan’s in Lakewood for dinner for eons. We were already on the West side from a late afternoon trip to Dave and Buster’s, so we decided to take advantage of our location. We were glad we did.

We arrived at 6:00pm on a Friday night and got the last open table. We were given menus–including a kids menu for Jonathan–and our drink order was taken quickly.

Deagan’s has an excellent selection of draft beers, making for a difficult decision. I ordered the Green Flash Red IPA ($5). It was perfectly balanced between the hops and bittersweet caramel from dark roasted malt.

The décor is warm, with high wooden ceilings and plenty of thick, dark wood in the chairs and tables as well. The lighting was perfect, just dark enough to feel relaxed and intimate but bright enough to clearly see your food and surroundings.

Deagan’s has a large variety of small bar snacks and appetizers. Jonathan … continue reading

Slate, my favorite news / commentary site, recently introduced a cooking column called “You’re Doing It Wrong.” America’s Test Kitchen has a similar mentality, that many traditional recipes produce inferior results and that there are better approaches. While ATR produces reliable recipes, I’ve always found their approach a bit stuffy and elitist. Their focus also tends to be what tastes familiar and American, which isn’t always what I want.

I was hooked into the column because writer L.V. Anderson makes homemade pizza almost exactly like I do: thin crust, lots of olive oil, very high heat, toppings light enough not to weigh down the crust. It took me years to get to that point, so I was immediately curious about his other recipes.

The chili, which I tried first, was initially disappointing. While I liked his “kitchen sink” flavoring approach—chipotles, beer, mushrooms, chocolate, etc.—the tempeh created an off flavor in the mix, like adding Lou Reed to Metallica. That said, … continue reading

Sarah and I had heard good things about Jammy Buggars for quite a while and figured that, as it was Saturday, we had time to cross the river for dinner. We were happy we did.

The establishment feels like a moderately upscale bar / restaurant with dark wooden beams and a stylish décor. The ambience is informal, and we were among a number of groups with children.

Despite arriving before 5:30pm, we weren’t seated for a half hour. The waiting area is small with few chairs, and we felt a bit cramped while standing.

We were very comfortable once seated, though. The booths are among the most comfortable in town, with thick, supportive uphostery. Tables are set with a free basket of tasty, homemade potato chips, so any hunger pangs from waiting were immediately put at bay.

Jammy Buggars has an excellent list of draft and bottled beers, and I started with a Bourbon Barrel ale ($4.50). Despite liking both bourbon and ale, this will be my last try on this beer, which is … continue reading

A couple years ago, my mom got us some exotic jams and marmalades from Swaziland for Christmas. Somehow she placed a double order for the price of one, so we’ve been going through them pretty slowly. Inspiration struck, though, when we were asked to bring some flavor boosters for grilled chicken to Sarah’s brother’s place and didn’t have time for something like, say, mole.

My favorite was the Mango Sriracha Glaze. The recipe calls for chicken thighs but was really good on breasts, and we used leftovers for wings. The sauce took all of three minutes to make, and we didn’t add it until after cooking (although I did boil the sauce briefly to meld the flavors). The combination of sweet mango, hot sriracha and rice vinegar was awesome.

Sarah was partial to the Peach Ginger Soy Glaze. The recipe calls for peach jam and fresh ginger, but our jam was ginger peach, further simplifying an already … continue reading

Inspired by The Cage Free Tomato and Sarah’s idea of blogging on our cultural heritage, I home cured some salmon.

My dad’s side of the family is Jewish, and most breakfasts when we visited family in New York were lox, bagels and cream cheese. I never understood this as a kid–fish for breakfast?–but I’ve gotten a taste for it as an adult.

I used farmed Atlantic salmon from Whole Foods (farmed seems safer for a raw preparation) and part of a 50 ml bottle of mezcal brought home from a recent vacation. I basically followed this recipe, substituting mezcal for the Scotch.

The results were quite good, at least as good as most commercially bought lox or gravlax but a bit cheaper. Despite the almost unpalatable smokiness of straight mezcal, there was very little smoke flavor in the finished dish. That said, the recipe did only call for a little bit (1.5 t. for the 1/2 lb of salmon I used).

Next time … continue reading

Sarah from Top Chef recently won one episode with her sausage stuffed cabbage. It looked really good to me, so I decided to make it.

Sarah (from this blog, not Top Chef) typically dislikes stuffed cabbage, which is usually filled with a tomato beef sauce. This recipe has no tomatoes but lots of vegetables. In addition to the big cabbage leaves, the meat mixture also contains more cabbage and onions and is stuffed into kale. Sarah really liked it, and even Jonathan enjoyed it.

The recipe we made is modified in a number of ways from the Top Chef recipe published here. It uses less butter and less olive oil. And, instead of two small heads of cabbage (green and Napa), we used the one large head we got from City Fresh. It might be very good with Napa, though. I wouldn’t suggest following the original recipe to the letter. Bravo tends to be pretty sloppy with these, including not mentioning when … continue reading

Grovewood Tavern

Deagan’s Kitchen and Bar

“You’re Doing It Wrong”: Chili, Brownies, Granola

Jammy Buggars

Glazed Chicken and Swordfish

Mezcal Cured Salmon

Top Chef Stuffed Cabbage