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| - The Melt
Ohio
Tuesday December 27, 2011
Three Stars
We walked into this great grilled cheese place, filled with murals of musicians, light-up holiday displays, broken glass sculpture windows, and decent 90s rock music. We made our way past two dozen people to get to the hostess station and she says that it is going to be a 2 hour wait for a party of two. I said forget it, but my bold girlfriend scouted out two people leaving at the bar and swoop those seats within three minutes of getting of there. Our waiter John was absolutely amazing: attentive, fun, friendly, and knowledgeable. He told us that it would take 45 minutes to get our sandwiches from the time we order them. We scoped out the menus, which were on the back of vinyl album cases. We decided to go bold and ordered: Erie Sea Monster (Beer Battered Walleye & Jalapeno Tartar Sauce) & Purple Parma (Breaded eggplant, grilled tomato, sun-dried tomato pesto, provolone cheese).
After we ordered food, we were enjoyed a beverage from their selection of 40 draft beers: Great Divide Hibernation and Winterbach. We also ordered their tomato soup: it came out immediately. The soup tasted almost like pasta sauce but in a good way. It was served with a mound of cheese and gold fish crackers, which was a nice touch.
As we waited for our melts, we stared into the kitchen and noticed that no one had any sense of urgency. After 30 minutes, our food came out, kind of cold and very disappointing.
The Sea Monster: The breading was thick, lack flavor, fell off the fish. The fish itself was a large delicious piece of walleye but it had no seasoning at all. The Grilled Cheese portion was excellent, but cheese and fish are not a great combination (especially here).
Purple Parma: The breading was soggy and seemed to be cooked a couple hours ahead of time. The flavor was so-so, but the thick bread and melted cheese was tasty.
My advice: sit at the bar, order something plain and drink a lot of good beer.
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