Fun Playing With Fried Fish in Solon

Ash Wednesday ushers in the Lenten season, which is heartily observed in Northeast Ohio. Heck, even southern Ohio is in on the act; the Filet o' Fish was invented by a Cincinnati area McDonald's franchisee who saw his burger business dry up between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday. 

We enjoyed delightful food, music and libations at Grove Hill Restaurant on Fat Tuesday, but for some reason, the day after had me craving fried fish. If I have learned one thing living in Cleveland for over 20 years, it is that well prepared, fresh fish is a hard thing to come by, even during "the season." How happy that Solon's Bar 50/20, under new ownership since September 2016 and soon to be re-branded as "Mish Mosh,"  started their Lenten fish fry tonight. 

For $18 each, Bob and I were each first served a lovely salad topped by an obviously house-made Balsamic Vinaigrette.

Then, three magnificent pieces of crispy battered fried Haddock, accompanied by house-made Coleslaw (which didn't look pretty at first blush, but which had been allowed to age to the perfect flavor point), house made tarter (easy on the pickles, so the fish shone through), and fries.

Our first two visits to Bar 50/20 had been uneven - beautiful burgers and fries the first visit (sans camera) and so-so the same plates a few weeks later. But tonight's fish fry left no doubt - owners Jamie and Howard (Howard also being the Chef) are bringing some fun, together with well sourced and prepared food, to the Solon area. And the patio looks like it will be a lovely place to relax and play with your food come the springtime! But in the meantime - the fish fry will be offered every Friday during Lent.

Bar 50/20

5020 Brainard Rd

Solon, Ohio

(440) 349-7300

Fun Playing With Pasta in Solon

Something new has been added to Solon's main drag, with the opening of Dino's of Solon in the old Anthony's/Blue Fig/Lu-Lu's spot at 6372 Som Center Rd, Solon, OH 44139. Dino's is the latest installment of a small, locally owned group of restaurants/caterers based in Willoughby. Dino's relies on a fairly standard Italian-American-Red Sauce type menu. If this is what you crave, you will also find plenty of old-fashioned touches and quality ingredients prepared well and served with a smile. The website for the Solon restaurant isn't fully operational yet, but may be found here.

Bob and I wandered in Thursday evening, which turned out to be only their second day in operation. The space is bright and airy, and the smaller front dining room is ideal for those with mobility issues. The tables were mostly occupied when we arrived a bit before 7pm; a line for tables formed shortly after we were seated. There were a few small service hiccups, but nothing I wouldn't expect from a restaurant in its second service. 

We were started with a basket of warm rolls. Though the menu says they are made in house, they struck us as the pre-fab brown and serve variety - but still nice. 

We both opted for pasta; each entree would be preceded by salad.

House-made Vinaigrette

We loved this dressing - redolent with fresh herbiness and perfect balance among the components.



Two elements raised this salad above what I'd normally expect in a place like Dino's - first, it wasn't chilled to Mister Freeze temperature and second, the lettuce was actual head lettuce that had been washed and torn to make salad, not poured out of a food service bag. You can see it and taste it, and my question to the FOH person who stopped by to check on us confirmed it (she said her mother, one of the owners, is on a mission to eliminate bagged salad from the face of the earth, to which I say, bravo!).

The menu describes two types of house-made pasta - spaghetti (which I do not believe is the default for side orders; spaghetti is also listed twice as an entree, with the house-made at a slightly higher price-point than the dried) and cavatelli. I asked our server - which do I want? She recommended the cavatelli.


Lasagna

This was Bob's entree.  The menu does not tell you that the pasta sheets in the lasagna are fresh pasta and not dried - but fresh pasta it is! This is a straight-ahead version of the classic, topped with just the right amount of house-made sauce. The only criticism we had of this dish (and mine as well) was a bit of blandness to it - it wanted some salt and pepper, or other seasoning, to wake it up a bit. Dino's does offer an optional garlic-marinara sauce; we need to try that next time. The default tomato sauce is a family recipe that is made in-house.


Cavatelli with One Meatball



My dinner likewise lacked seasoning, but the freshness of the components jumped right off of the plate. The house-made pasta was cooked to the perfect level of doneness, and the flavors of pork, veal and beef shone clearly through the meatball, without fillers to block their way. As you can see, Dino's does not over-sauce their pasta dishes as so many other places do. Overall, Bob and I enjoyed playing with Dino's food and we will return to play some more (I need to try the pizza). Dino's is open for lunch and dinner seven days a week, at very modest prices. The space is very casual and friendly, with a full bar and outside dining also available. Welcome to Solon, Dino's!

Fun Playing with Hiroshi's Pub's Sushi

In July 2010, Cleveland area Chef Hiroshi Tsuji (CIA graduate and owner of Shuhei Japanese Cuisine and Sushi Bar in Beachwood, Ohio) opened Hiroshi's Pub at 3365 Richmond Road, Building B, Beachwood, OH.  A sleek, beautiful space, the Pub contains a sushi and ceviche bar in addition to a fully stocked cocktail bar, private dining area and regular restaurant space. Most important, Hiroshi's Pub has a broad and ambitious menu that ranges from salads, sandwiches and mac and cheese, to BBQ and smoked meats, to the above referenced sushi and ceviche. 

A friend and I lunched there shortly after the opening, and I decided not to post about it because, honestly, we didn't have a lot of positive things to say about either the food or the service. Still, I wanted to give them another chance. That opportunity presented itself last week, as a group of four hungry lawyers agreed to join me for a Hiroshi's Pub rematch.

The front dining room was lively, but the sushi bar and cocktail bar were both quiet. And the cavernous room in the back, completely empty. I describe this to more fully explain an important problem I noted on my first visit, that still hasn't been solved: parking. We got the only empty spot in the entire bank of spots in front of Building B, except for the spots reserved for the Physical Therapy place, and the restaurant wasn't even close to well populated. Spots in front of Building A are mostly reserved for tenants of that building (and restaurant Moxie causes most that are left to also be filled at prime dining time). The space now occupied by Hiroshi's used to house various take-out food ventures that needed a lot less parking - I hope they figure out a solution by the time nice weather returns.The first time I visited, my handicapped friend couldn't get a handicapped or other close spot, and had to park in the PT-reserved area.

Three of us ordered a "Sushi Lunch Special" on the blackboard ($13.95). One person ordered a sandwich and the fifth ordered sushi a la carte. The sandwich-eater enjoyed his Grilled Eggplant and Artichoke with grilled onions, Provolone cheese, sundried tomato tapenade and side of potato salad or cole slaw; from the look of it, this dish was considerably improved from the one I'd sampled in July.

The lunch special started with this salad:

And choice of house-made dressing:


Balsamic Vinaigrette

The other lunch special eaters both had the ginger dressing, which they loved. I really liked the dressing,  which tasted rich without being too indulgent. Though the salad was nicely fashioned from actual (versus food service) vegetables, it was so cold so as to be nearly inedible as presented. Clearly, each salad plate had been assembled early in the day and the plates put in a chiller. This was a shame because the dressing tasted nice and the salad was crisp and fresh - just too darn cold.

Any complaints that I might have had about the food, however, disappeared when this plate was set in front of me. Four nigiri (l. to r. "white tuna," probably Escolar, Salmon, Hamachi, Tuna) were joined by both a Spicy Tuna Roll and a California Roll. And the ginger, not seen here, was actual ginger-color and not electric red, indicating a quality product (which it was).

All four varieties of fish offered pristine smell and taste, complimented by expertly prepared sushi rice.

No - those are not strands of cucumber to the right of each piece of the tuna roll, but cilantro! Which I much prefer to cucumber, so I especially liked this roll. The "spicy" part was in evidence, but not overpowering. The sprinkle of roe added a bit of crunchy textural contrast.

I'm normally not a big fan of California Rolls for a number of reasons, including the use of processed crab stick and the ubiquitous insistence on filling the roll with cucumber. This roll, which did contain crab stick, used a creamy avocado spread instead of either chunks of food-service pack avocado or cucumber. Also, the crab stick was a better-quality product, and instead of being halved or quartered, was left whole, giving the roll more toothiness. All in all, I'd happily order this lunch again. Our a la carte sushi eater was also pleased with his fish.

Hiroshi's Pub does not have a dedicated lunch menu, though most sandwiches can be had for $6-9 and other less-than-ten dollar options are available. Salads range from $7-12. Entrees and sushi/ceviche will set you back a bit more for meal-sized portions. My experience this visit demonstrated that the quality of the product definitely justifies the price points, at least for the fish. I need to return and give the BBQ meat another try. In the meantime, I had great fun playing with Hiroshi's sushi!

Fun Playing With Seafood From Mister Brisket

Friday, I got a call from Mister Brisket, AKA Sanford Herskovitz. "I have something special coming in tomorrow morning and you want some" he told me. So what could be so special?

Diver Scallops. Dry packed diver scallops - meaning no sodium polytriphosphate, injected chemistry, water, or other yuckies. And these suckers would be big. Huge. "Grill them with a little salt, pepper and olive oil," he said. Ok, I'm with the program - bring 'em on.

Mister Brisket delivered two pounds of the scallops yesterday (he says he eats a full pound of these at a sitting - you have to realize that this is a big man). I wound up cooking up one pound for dinner for the two of us (and we had two left over) - and I gotta say - these are the best scallops I've ever tasted.

We started dinner with salad:




Organic Greens with Mackenzie Creamery Goat Cheese, Cherry Stop Dried Sweet Cherries, 12 Year Old Balsamic and EVOO

We'd accompany the scallops with fried Mei Fun (thin rice noodles) with vegetables. Though I wanted to grill the scallops as Sanford had suggested, the Cleveland weather gods again did not co-operate with my outdoor plans. So, I decided to sear them. After all, I'd watched the fish station saute scallops for about 4 hours at Lola the night before, so I had the technique all down.



I've had dry pack and scallops in the shell - and a lot of so-so scallops packaged other ways - these were some of the best scallops I've ever smelled, touched or tasted.



These things are f*cking huge! Note the ruler - they average over 2 inches in every direction.



Searing in cast iron. I didn't want to use EVOO at this high temp, so I used my Five Flavor Oil.



Served - Kosher Salt, Black Pepper and Five Flavor Oil. It didn't want or need another thing!

I don't want to exaggerate - but these scallops were simply amazing. Like little steaks.

I served them up with sauteed rice noodles and vegetables:



I'm so glad I have another pound of these babies on ice in the fridge for tonight! Thank you Mister Brisket for introducing me to the joys of playing with Diver Scallops!