Fun Playing With Freddie's Polish Boy

As many of you know, one of Cleveland's favorite culinary sons has "made good" with a starring role on daily national television - Michael Symon, who appears on ABC's The Chew. The Chew debuted about a month ago, replacing the long running soap opera All My Children. The DVR has allowed me to see many of Michael's exploits (and you can watch complete episodes via The Chew's website). On Wednesday October 19, 2011, Michael demonstrated a Cleveland classic: the Polish Boy. The Polish Boy consists of grilled sausage or kielbasa on a hotdog bun and topped with coleslaw, french fries and BBQ sauce. Symon said that sometimes pulled pork is added - I've been told that such an addition turns the sandwich into a Polish Girl.

Who would tell me such a thing? The fine folks at Freddie's Rib House, which opened in April 2011 at  5361 Mayfield Road, Lydhurst OH, that's who. You can reach Freddie's at (440) 449-9400 (no website). Hours are 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday and Tuesday, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday, 11 a.m. to 1 a.m. Friday, noon to 1 a.m. Saturday, and noon to 8 p.m. Sunday.

I've eaten there a number of times, but held off posting about them. The people are really nice, but they had some early kinks to work out. Things seem well in hand now. Except for the fries, which I'll get to shortly. Owner Andre Wheeler is the son of the restaurant's late namesake Freddie Wheeler, and he was working the order counter my first two visits. The original incarnations of Freddie's served for years downtown, but the urban location closed shortly after the Lyndhurst spot opened. Take out or eat in at one of four four-tops.

After watching The Chew Crew devour Symon's Polish Boys Wednesday night, I had a hankering to eat one myself yesterday. And I knew where I could satisfy that craving - Freddie's! Here it is - a "deal" for lunch at $4, including a can of pop (regular price is $5 just for the sandwich). A larger size is available for a dollar more.

Usually, I would eat something this messy with a fork - but inspired by Chef Symon, I tucked the foil back into the bottom end of the package, picked it up, and just dove in. Crunchy from the grill, the sausage skin gave way to tender, juicy saltiness that was complimented by the slightly sweet, yet tart (and obviously housemade) cole slaw. The fries, which are cut in-house from whole potatoes, were a bit limp, but full of potato flavor. The BBQ sauce was reasonably well balanced between heat and sweet, but applied perhaps a bit too robustly. My hands and face were a mess after eating this, but oh was my tummy happy!

Here's a Polish Girl I sampled on April 15; it was also messily delicious:

 Other items I've enjoyed at Freddie's since April are below:

Fried Perch Lunch, April 13, 2011

My first meal from Freddie's consisted of a generous portion of frozen perch that was hand-breaded to order and perfectly deep-fried, accompanied by the house made french fries. Everything Freddie's serves is prepared to order - either call ahead, or expect to wait at least ten minutes.

This bag, one of several in the restaurant, could be seen from the ordering counter - a sign of the authenticity of the fries. I believe that they store the raw, cut fries in water to prevent oxidation, then fry them to order. As Chef Symon explained on the The Chew, the better technique is to blanch the fries in 300 degree oil (which would also solve the oxidation problem) and THEN fry to order at 360 degrees. The single-fry method explains why the fries don't get very crisp. But they do taste delicious, and contain no artificial ingredients or processing.

Andre told me that I had to try the wings, and so went my third meal:

Meaty wings, fried to exquisite crispness. The Wing Dinner contains a generous portion for $6.25.

Plus house-made cole slaw.

Plus fries, and two slices of bread (which you can sort of see in the upper left corner), together with a cup of Andre's BBQ sauce.

A friend joined me on my next visit, and we started by sharing an order of onion rings:

Though clearly not made from scratch, the rings were fried to hot crispiness and were most enjoyable.

My friend had a fried tilapia sandwich (all of the sandwiches come with fries):

I opted for the Rib Tips:

Both lunches satisfied and offered good value for the price. The rib tips were melt-in-your-mouth tender and not overly sauced.

One of the kinks I was hoping they'd work out, though, concerns the sides - priced at $3 each. When last I ordered any, in May 2011, the portions were very small for the price point. For example, the cole slaw:

That cup didn't hold more than 2 ounces of product. Yes it is house made and delicious, but for $3, I wish they'd move up to the next cup size. Same issue with the mac and cheese side order:

This cup didn't hold more than 3 ounces, I'd guess. It tasted nice, but wasn't anything special and didn't go very far. I do not know whether anything has changed in regard to this issue in the intervening months.

At first, the baked stuffed potato seems pricey ($8-10). But the portion is huge (chicken, steak or shrimp, plus chopped broccoli, onion, cheese, mushrooms and green pepper), especially for lunch. More important - it was one of the best tasting items I've had at Freddie's (hold the mushrooms on mine, please):

You can see bits of seasoning atop the cheese; I have no doubt that this sprinkle added to my enjoyment of the dish. 

Freddie's seems to have solved it's early issues with utensilry, nakpins and beverages. So - if you are in the Lyndhurst area and are in the mood for a Polish Boy or Girl, or ribs, or fried chicken or fish (and yes, they offer grilled chicken also) - Freddie's can be a fun choice to play with Southern-inspired comfort food. It certainly slaked my Symon-induced Polish Boy craving!

Fun Playing With Smoked Prime Rib at Fat Casual BBQ

We've been hoping to return to Fat Casual BBQ almost since we last walked out their door on Halloween, 2010, but we just haven't been able to manage it. Until Friday night, when one of the Usual Instigators suggested an 8pm meet up to sample the latest creation of Chefs Walter Hyde and Scott Slagle and their amazing crew: smoked prime rib. Let me say that again: smoked prime rib. 

I don't think I've had prime rib since my brother got married, about 18 years ago. Honestly, it's never been one of my favorite things, because it's rarely done well (almost had a joke there, folks). Until now. 

Our group of six assembled at one of Fat Casual's simple tables, and we each ordered the same: smoked prime rib. And some sides - whatever Chef wanted to serve us. The made-from-scratch sides came out first, family-style:

Red Skin Garlic Mashed Potatoes

Cole Slaw

A Less Blurry Look, From Our First Visit In October

Mac N Cheese

A Less Blurry Look, From Our First Visit In October

Warm Sweet Potato Salad

Silly, Isn't It - But I was Steadier on Halloween, So Here's A Clearer Look

Though they do seem to have added some bacon since then, haven't they?

Deep Fried Potato Salad -  From May 13, But You Don't Want to See the Container Shot

Each of these sides, made in-house from real ingredients (locally sourced whenever possible), delivered hearty flavors and textures. And the Deep Fried Potato Salad really surprised - served cold, you'd expect it to be limp, but somehow, there was still a crispy edge to the taters. 

But Fat Casual is all about the meat, baby, and tonight would be no exception.

This, my friends, was a simply perfect hunk 'o cow - prepared like none I had tasted before. Rubbed with a secret, but subtle seasoning, and smoked low and slow for hours - this plate (and the five duplicates enjoyed by my companions) reduced our normally gregarious group to muted moans of melt-in-your-mouth pleasure. I urge you to make your way to Fat Casual (Friday night only, if you are looking for Smoked Prime Rib) and get you some of this!

BTW - those who ate them raved about the locally-sourced pickles. I did sample the radish sandwiched between them, and the brine was indeed lovely, but unfortunately for me, the radish tasted like, well, radish. What I lacked in pickle love, however, I made up for with house-made horseradish sauce love:

OMG - the perfect accompaniment to a perfectly prepared hunk 'o cow.

The horseradish sauce matched the beef so well, in fact, that I had trouble thinking of a good use for the jus, which was far too good to waste, but not really needed to enjoy the juicy, tender beef. Mashed potatoes to the rescue! I recommend the combination.

As we enjoyed our beef, Chef Walter appeared with tastes of Fat Casual's Beef Sausage, which used to be made in house, but is now cranked out by a local purveyor, to Fat Casual's recipe. This taste was served with warm BBQ cabbage, which accented the mild sausage just so.

Chef Walter freely admits that he's more into the freestyle of cooking than the formulas involved in baking. That does not stop Fat Casual from turning out very satisfying desserts - we sampled the Piggy Pudding:

Creamy and redolent of blueberry - how could we not love a dessert called Piggy Pudding?

As it's name suggests, there is nothing fancy about Fat Casual (unless you count the finesse involved in their meat preparation, which is low, slow, flavorful and perfectly textured, and their house-made sauces, which we didn't even get to on this prime-rib dominated evening, but which I thoroughly enjoyed on my last visit). Dress comfortably, preferably in a top that is somewhat expendable, since this type of food can be a little messy! Bring your friends, and anything you might wish to drink that isn't on the menu, and prepare to be wowed by the simple pleasures of beautifully seasoned and smoked meats and house-made sides and sauces at incredibly wallet-friendly prices. If you don't have five others to share with, as we did, the Smoked Prime Rib plate pictured above is available only on Fridays and comes with a side of redskin garlic mashed potatoes, au jus and horseradish sauce for an unbelievable $12.99. Also available (with advance order only) is smoked fried chicken - which I simply must try!

Fat Casual is open Wed -Sun at11:00 am, and closes at 8:00 pm Wed and Thurs, 6 pm Sun and 10 pm Fri-Sat, unless they run out of food earlier! Fat Casual is located at 223 E Highland Rd, Macedonia, OH 44056, call 1-330-748-4690 for more info; the website is here.

Fun Playing with BBQ and Rock N Roll

Today, we positively gorged ourselves on some amazing Bar-B-Que and other goodies at "The First Ever Rock N Roll BBQ Throwdown," hosted by Cleveland Food Rocks.com. Our attendance at this event was a sort of consolation prize for having to miss the EGullet Heartland Gathering taking place this weekend in Kansas City. But what a prize it was!



The mission statement of Cleveland Food Rocks includes promoting and encouraging a link between great food and live music, and using social inter connectivity to strengthen the Greater Cleveland Community.

The Beachland Ballroom donated it's parking lot, and provided cash bar and restrooms. I had never before visited the Beachland - what a cool space! And their beer selection was excellent, featuring both local and microbrews.





An eating area was set up at the front of the parking lot.

All of the food and music was under tents - even so, thank goodness the bad weather missed us!

And so - on to the food!


Brisket with 4 Sauces - Blue Canyon



Chef Brandt Evans and his crew were on their game! I sampled three of the sauces, one with each slice of brisket, and they were all delicious. But almost unnecessary, as the meat was perfectly cooked and melted in the mouth.


BBQ Wings


Cole Slaw - Chef Eric Wells/Sky Larae's Culinary

Bob pronounced this cole slaw one of his favorite eats of the day - and considering how much meat was on the menu, that is a humongous compliment to Chef Eric.


Pulled BBQ Pork Rib Sliders w/Coriander Slaw - The South Side

Yummy. I had never heard of The South Side before, but I'm glad we were introduced!


BBQ Rib - Moxie the Restaurant

So good - it deserves another look:



We missed the BBQ Throwdown between Chef Jonathon Bennett and Moxie Co-Owner Brad Friedlander last week at Moxie - I heard that Brad won - but these ribs were simply fabulous, with a hint of mustard through the smoke.

The next table offered what seemed like a strange combination of flavors - but there was a method to their table, and it all worked deliciously:




Assorted Ohio Cheeses, Local Peaches and other Fruits


Cajun Sausage


Hungarian Sausage

Both sausages were delicous, and sourced from Holiday Italian Sausage. This table was presented by Localcrop.com - a partnership between local purveyors, restaurants, and food service mega-force Sysco. Here is the essence of it, from their website:

"Localcrop.com is an online farmer’s market, where local ingredients are collected and delivered to restaurants through a unique partnership between chefs, farmers, artisan producers, and a single-source distributor, Sysco Foodservices. Created by Steve Schimoler, founder of www.chefex.com, this is the next generation of online marketplaces, where the model is purely local, defined as an area within a 150-mile radius.

Exclusively available to restaurants, institutions, and foodservice operators, our goal is to deliver the quality assured ingredients that help restaurants build the freshest, seasonal menu possible, while minimizing transportation costs, respecting the environment, and supporting our local community."

I wish them the best.

And, moving on to the next table:


Kalbi Shortrib (Korean Style) - The Brothers Lounge

This was another perfectly BBQ'd bite.


Assorted Potato Salads - Luxe

Chef Marlin Kaplan contributed these lovely looking potato salads. We were too full to sample them, unfortunately.


Smoked Duck with Cherry Sauce over Blini - Bar Cento

A lovely bite from Chef Mike Nowak and his crew. The blini were cooked a la minute and were perfect!

The next table was Melange. They offered a dazzling array - caramel popcorn (which had bacon, I'm told), clam chowder, and a clam bake. Though I snapped a photo of the bake, however, we were just too full at that point to partake:



I was too full to grab a "to go" bag of the popcorn:




Smoked, Grilled Salmon over Spicy Papaya Relish - Blue Point Grille

We were really too full to taste this, even though it looked so good! We had just passed up some lovely looking grilled shrimp from Prosperity Social Club (and I'm sorry I didn't snap a photo). I asked for a very small taste of the salmon - we actually managed to eat most of it - the combination of the salad and the salmon was sublime.


Beef Slider with Fried Pickle, Remoulade and Fresh Horseradish Sauce

This little nugget from Happy Dog was just delightful - I even liked the little bit of fried pickle I left on my half of the sandwich (yes - we were splitting tastes at this point).


Chicken Taco

Crop's contribution was also delicious. We were too full to even consider the accompaniment to this - a slice of watermelon with aged balsamic and herbs.


Sous Vide Pork Belly with Mango Salsa - Boulevard Blue

Another lovely morsel that we had no room to taste. But it did look beautiful, and others raved about it.


Grilled Veal on Foccacia - Johnny's Bistro

Bob and I shared this little bite - simply marvelous.


Grilled Corn, Chipotle-Lime Butter, Cheese, Pico de Gallo - Momocho

Another dish that we knew we'd love, but that we simply had no room for.


Watermelon Mint Slushie - Greenhouse Tavern

Greenhouse also cooked up some "corn on the bone" - but again, we passed because we were too full. I tasted the slushie, which would have been delicious - had it not had cucumber in it. Bob got to enjoy two of them.


Caribbean Vegetable Kabobs over Coconut Rice - Treehuggers Cafe

After hearing lots of great things about Treehuggers, I was sadly unable to taste their offering - simply out of room. But it looked terrific!


BBQ Tofu - Beachland Ballroom

This was served as a sandwich; I snapped a shot as another photographer was getting some photos. This actually looked and smelled lovely - but again, no room at my inn.


Carved Fruits - Green Planet Catering

Chef Ben Cyr's whimsical carvings reminded me of the fruit my grandpa Joe used to carve. Beautiful fruit!


Pumpkin Ice Cream - Pierre's

Cleveland icon Pierre's Ice Cream provided three types of chilly treats - I enjoyed this Pumpkin Ice Cream.




Grilled Peaches topped with Goat Milk Ice Cream and Balsamic Reduction - Lago

This was the last bite that we shared, around 4pm - and we still haven't been able to touch a bite of food since (and it is after 10pm EDT). The Goat Milk Ice cream was truly special, and the combination Lago presented was the perfect ending to an amazing afternoon of playing with our food.

I haven't even mentioned the wonderful music we enjoyed - brought to us by these same local restaurants and featuring many employees of those venues. We are blessed in Cleveland to have so many talented folks who are willing and able to share. We enjoyed great music and great food - not to mention the many wonderful food-world friends both professional and amateur who we got to socialize with - Chef Steve Schimoler and his minions took playing with food in Cleveland to a new level today!