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| - Hey, you gotta hand it to the owner, it takes balls to open a place across from Lolita, the first restaurant of the now mighty Cleveland oracle Michael Symon. Given the juxtaposition, it makes dismissing this place that much easier, unfortunately. I came here for brunch, and while I didn't leave disgruntled, I also did not leave especially satisfied.
There's nothing glaringly wrong with this place. The décor is the now common Cleveland rustic industrial casual chic; think wooden barrels, long minimalist bars, wrought lron light fixtures and dark subdued color palette. The food is the now common smaller menu of seasonally inspired stick to your ribs fare.
The menu will doubtless contain the obligatory shout outs to: pork belly, kale, house marinated olives (side note: why is this such a trend?? Olives are like bread; if you're going to serve them in a restaurant they should be free), duck confit (this time going for the bar cliché double whammy and putting it on a flatbread) and overpriced burger.
The execution of said foods is pedestrian, as in the ingredients don't mesh any better than if you threw them all together into a pot and told them to pipe down and get along. Many dishes are a few steps from greatness: too salty, or a tad greasy (as in the case of my breakfast tacos), or a tad bland (ditto on the breakfast tacos), or in the case of the sauce on my pancakes a tad too tart.
TLDR; Overall, if you want good wine, good atmosphere, or good food, try across the street at Lolita first. If you're one of the many refugees who couldn't snag a seat at the bar fast enough at Lolita and are now drifting about Tremont lost and hungry, I would say walk down to Dante's or Fahrenheit, but this place will work passably well.
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