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| - GET TOGETHER - A serious health scare can put things in perspective. A mother of a childhood friend is recovering and being three thousand miles away left me feeling helpless. I hadn't seen her in over thirty five years nor my buddy in twenty three and this had to change. When I returned home to Michigan last Friday, I had to make a trip down to Cleveland to see her. After the visit, her son and I went to dinner at one of his 'favorite new restaurants'.
Parking in the lot, they've checked off one of my gauges of a good restaurant experience. A smoker is set up in the parking lot and it smelled GOOODDDDD...an interesting space on the corner, you step up into an open restaurant with the bar on your right and the dining area through an opening around to the left. Trendy visually, a brick accent wall and nice fixtures with wood floors create a contemporary look and feel. Tall windows let natural light inside and you can also see into the kitchen from the street on approach.
Our service started with an attentive who told the story of the restaurant's philosophy (farm to table, local ingredients and an evolving, seasonal menu) with a little bit of the arrogance of a hipster establishment. We had a varied set of dietary requirements: 1) a low-salt diet; 2) digestive sensitivities; 3) a pre-teen; and an elderly guest.
Our choices were (in reverse order) - Potato + Ramp Soup ($8), Dry Aged Beef Burger ($18) one for both the pre-teen and elderly guest, Ansen Mill Rice Grits ($23), Market Fish (Salmon) and a New Creations hanger steak ($28). My hosts started with the bread service containing a bread with heirloom grain, a locally grown vegetable of ramp in pesto form, a cultured butter dusted with black sea salt and a seasonal tomato jam.
A highlight of the visit was the handling customer service issue, that is often mishandled but in this case was not. One of the burgers was cooked a little too rare, although someone in the party had asked for medium well. Our server Jeanna, who did a great job of describing the menu also had the unappealing quality of talking down or feeling impatient to customers with pretentious 'restaurant talk' -- telling our guest who said she didn't want to see pink if possible "the chef cooks this medium rare"-- instead of reassuring or coaxing an undecided customer to a meal they'd enjoy. She reluctantly took it back to fix and came back to mention the chef is making a new burger for us.
The rest of us finished our meals by the time the burger came back BUT in the meantime, a manager (not Jeanna) came by and apologized for the delay AND offered her a free desert. When we asked Jeanna for it at meal's end she had no idea what we were talking about. She checked, brought out the desert to go and despite this, the manager's gesture made things right!
My meal was the hanger steak cooked to medium rare perfection, an arugula salad, naan bread and pickled red onions garnished with dill. Very tasty and well balanced meal of sweet and savory flavors on gathered together on a large round plate that screams high end. Compliments to a great effort by the chef and his vision. Reminds me of home (in Los Angeles).
Prices were on the high side but you can work around the higher priced items if on a budget and definitely perfect for a 30-year reunion.
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