Momocho Mod Mex

Momocho Mod Mex puts the modern spin on Mexican cuisine in the heart of Ohio City. Chef-owner Eric Williams, a two-time James Beard nominee, operates a restaurant that's fun, festive and flavorful.

The menu is chock full of vegetarian dishes, including the ever-popular flavors of guacamole. There is an extensive gluten-free menu. The chef whips up guacamole with traditional ingredients, and offers variations loaded with fresh ingredients that put a spin on the classic dip. Current options include goat cheese and roasted poblano guacamole, and a jicama, pineapple, habanero and mint guacamole.

The decor is fun. The darkly lit venue is covered in black and white photos of luchadors and unnamed figures in a style akin to the Day of the Dead, as well as some amazing looking low-rider bicycles over the kitchen and the entrance.

Servers did a good job handling a large party. There were minor issues with pacing and handling explicit instructions from diners when business picked up. Service was pretty good if short of outstanding.

The taquitos at Momocho are nothing like the ones endlessly spinning under the hot lamp at your local gas station, or buried in the back of your college fridge. Fillings included roasted beets, spinach, spicy peanuts and queso fresco, or roasted butternut squash, goat cheese and salted pepitas, both served with a chunky pico de gallo. The ingredients change with the seasons.

The bar offers excellent margaritas in a different flavors and formulations with an excellent menu of tequila and mezcal. Beers are mostly Mexican with a domestic beer made in a Latin American pilsner style.

West Side Market

The West Side Market is the premiere market in Cleveland. Located in the Ohio City neighborhood, the 174-year-old market is a one-stop shop for culinary goods across the international spectrum.

Whether you are stocking your pantry or grabbing lunch, half of the adventure is exploring the offerings of the market's many vendors. If you can dream it, you can probably find it in the West Side Market.

The adventures in parking at the West Side Market share much in common with the North Market in Columbus. The parking lot of the West Side Market is a logjam at lunch and on weekends. It is usually easier to park in the neighborhood and walk to the market than it is to battle for a space in the poorly designed lot.

The open-air produce market is a visual illustration of capitalism in action with vendors shouting prices to customers, trying to outsell other vendors. 

International stalls represent the cuisines of Germany, Poland, Italy, France, Greece, the Mediterranean, China, Japan, Cambodia, Mexico and more. There is some overlap in the vendors, but each offers at least a few different things that set it apart from other vendors.

It is almost impossible to choose a place to eat dessert - or rather, to settle on only one. If you don't like what you see, keep walking and you'll find something. Cakes, pies, cookies and more should satisfy your sweet tooth.

The Ohio City location makes for quite a culinary tour destination. The West Side Market offers tours. The Great Lakes Brewery and Brew Pub are a short walk from the market, and Nano Brew is too. Some of Cleveland's top restaurants are also located in the neighborhood. It's easy to plan an afternoon and evening enjoying the foodie fun in Ohio City, starting with the West Side Market. 

Noodlecat

Jonathon Sawyer is one of the names keeping Cleveland on the culinary radar. His restaurants receive accolades from publications like Bon Appetit and Food & Wine magazine, and the chef has made appearances on Iron Chef on The Food Network. Noodlecat is the fusion ramen project from Team Sawyer. Since the restaurant is looking into opening a location in central Ohio, I decided to check out the West Side Market location and get a sneak preview while in Cleveland.

While ramen shops often offer little in the way of choices for meatless diners, Noodlecat has plenty of options for vegetarians and vegans. The menu is coded to mark vegetarian dishes. There are vegetarian ramen bowls, salads and meatless bao sandwiches. Vegan items had to be requested at the counter, but could be accommodated. The menu is a Yankee take on traditional Japanese noodle houses with a focus on local ingredients.

The smoked tomato coconut curry udon possessed notes that were both Japanese and Thai. The kombu broth suspended udon noodles, poached tofu, bamboo, scallions, potatoes and roasted sesame seeds. The understated base was mildly spicy, and the richness was a perfect vehicle for the wheat noodles and the crunchy veggies.

The veggie bao was stuffed with sprouts, mushrooms, cucumber, carrots, radishes and red onions. The soft roll had a nice coating of a sweet hoisin-like sauce. 

The sit-down restaurant has an expanded menu with more choices than the West Side Market stall. Both locations are worth checking out. I plan on frequenting the Columbus Noodlecat if and when it opens.

Melt Bar & Grilled - Cleveland Heights

I possess a minor aversion to waiting to eat. I am a sucker for instant gratification in matters of dining. I also really want to go to Melt in the Short North. In order to save myself a wait, I instead visited Melt in Cleveland Heights.*

Melt is a bar that serves grilled cheese sandwiches. These sandwiches entered the zeitgeist through Man vs. Food when host Adam Richman powered his way through the Melt Challenge, a culinary feat of strength involving five pounds of grilled cheese sandwich, cole slaw and fries.

But the place is more than just a big sandwich. The bar offered up a nice selection of Ohio craft beers. The menu has a good selection of vegetarian and vegan fare at resonable prices. 

The decor is fun, especially the mural of Ohio celebrities. Despite the "bar" part of the name, the restaurant is rather kid-friendly.

Vegetarian starters include salads, soup, pierogies, mozzarella wedges, tofu wings, spinach artichoke dip and garbage-sink cheese fries. The pierogies were adequate, but displayed more in common with stateside versions of the dumplings than authentic Polish ones.

The Godfather is essentially a fat slab of lasagna between two slices of bread. It had sweet tomato and  basil flavor delivered by rich, creamy ricotta and mozzarella cheese.

If a pasta sandwich isn't your cup of tea, there are plenty of other choices on the menu, including sandwiches made with vegan cheese. 

Melt isn't a must-do for foodies, but it is a fun place with good potential for repeat visits. I'll have to make a trip closer to home in the next month when the weekend wait gets a little shorter.

* - This is exaggerated for humorous effect.

Lopez SouthWest Kitchen

Lopez is a Southwestern restaurant in Cleveland's suburbs with an interesting back story. It originally was envisioned as a huge international chain. While multinational domination was not achieved by the restaurants, there are still locations in Palm Beach, Beverly Hills, Mexico City and Cleveland Heights. Rick Bayless, a chef you might have heard of at some point with his heralded restaurants, television appearances, cookbooks and grocery store foodstuffs, was the first executive chef in the Cleveland Heights kitchen almost 30 years ago.

Dishes run the gamut from Tex Mex and regional Mexican to those that reflect the American South. The bar has a nice selection of tequilas, beer and wine, and makes adequate margaritas that are a touch expensive outside of happy hour.

There are many vegetarian dishes on the menu. Seasonal items, like the Mexican corn cake with mushrooms and arugula in a balsamic reduction, also come in meatless versions.

The guacamole is excellent. The delicious house-made chips were served in adorable little paper bags.

The tacos are massive. With a side dish, two mushroom tacos are a complete meal. The jalepeño cheese grits are excellent, as was the cornbread pudding.

The restaurant decor is fun. One picture puts Cleveland more than one thousand miles from Mexico, though the kitchen makes it feel much closer. Service was friendly and capable with only a few minor pacing hiccups in serving a large party. The attention to vegetarian concerns was excellent. 

Gia Lai

Gia Lai is a Vietnamese restaurant in the Legacy Village shopping center in Lyndhurst near Cleveland. The decor is modern, and the menu offers fresh takes on Vietnamese classics with a large number of vegetarian dishes. One whole page of the dinner menu consists of all vegetarian dishes.

The vegetarian pho should help Cleveland residents embrace the winter chill. The rich, clear mushroom broth has citrus accents, and it is a perfect backdrop for the mountains of soft and crispy tofu, rice noodles, veggies including pea pods, hot peppers, carrots, bean sprouts, leafy greens, baby corn, mushrooms, green onions, cauliflower and peppers, alongside Sriracha sauce, a sweet hoisin and fresh garnishes. The bowl is the size of a hot tub, and it could feed a small army.

The vegetable spring rolls were fresh, and they were served with a spicy peanut sauce that added a rich note to the noodles and sauteed veggies inside the cold roll. 

The menu also offers a number of Chinese dishes. The cuisine is modern with fusion accents more so that a by-the-book traditional Vietnamese restaurant. Those willing to overlook some of these characteristics should be pleased by the fresh, flavorful fare.  

Paladar Latin Kitchen

Paladar Latin Kitchen and Rum Bar is a small national chain with one location near the city of Cleveland. The menu is Latin fusion with dishes from Mexico, Cuba, Central and South America. The bar prepares great drinks with an emphasis on rum, cachaca and tequila.

Paladar makes a ton of dishes for diners with dietary restrictions including a menu with symbols denoting vegetarian and vegan dishes. There is also a gluten-free menu.

Almost all of the side dishes, with the exception of the black beans and the refried bean dishes, are vegetarian. The pinto beans are vegan. Sides include rice dishes, vegetables and the ubiquitous fried plantain.

Guacamole is prepared to order and includes seasonal ingredients. The seasonal version was made with pepitas and queso blanco. 

The baked empanada appetizer was portioned to share. It was stuffed with portobello mushrooms and queso blanco.  It was dressed with a finely chopped pico de gallo and a garlic aioli that gives the dish a nice bite.

The sweet potato tacos give a great taste to a vegetarian classic. Hearts of palm add crunch, and the rest of the taco is filled with pinto beans, cabbage, scallions and tomatillo salsa. It is an exercise in flavor and texture.

Cocktails were well made but a little expensive. It's best to look for happy hour deals.

Dave's Cosmic Subs

I checked out the Dave's Cosmic Subs chain while in Northeast Ohio visiting my brother. Dave's is mostly located in Ohio, although there is currently one location in Atlanta. It has a fun, faux-hippie vibe, and to keep the patchouli crowd fed, Dave's has many different veggie sandwiches.

As expected, the decor is 1960 rock icons and vibrant psychedelic artwork. The majority of business is take-out, although there was seating for 30 in the Kent dining room.

The menu at Dave's has four meatless subs. Staff was accommodating to vegan concerns. There is also a build-your-own option that allows for dietary customization. Sandwiches are made on a sturdy sub roll that is either white or wheat.

The Dave's Haight Ashbury has roasted red peppers, green peppers, banana peppers, tomatoes, onions, herbs and Dave's Cosmic Sauce, a vinaigrette with a little punch.

The Veg Out is made with mushrooms, artichoke hearts, lettuce, tomato, banana peppers, cheddar, provolone and Swiss cheese with herbs and the eponymous sauce. 

Dave's also makes their own veggie burger patty. It is served on the sub roll a la the old Subway Veggie Max patties. They also make a classic pizza sub which can be prepared without pepperoni.

There are pretty typical sub sides at Dave's, including chips, cookies and salads. This looks like part of a fun development growing near Kent State University.

Great Lakes Brewing Company

I can't believe that I have been writing about restaurants for about three years on this blog, and during this stretch, I've managed to avoid writing about one of my absolute favorite lakeside attractions: The Great Lakes Brew Pub. Luckily, I can draw on a wealth of back experience to craft a nuanced piece in which I explain the little details that make Great Lakes one of the Buckeye state's, if not the nation's finest brewing operations.

In many instances, brew pubs are an apparition or an illusion. Something that appears to be an on-site operation is actually nothing more than a contract brewing ruse. Lesser outfits than Great Lakes show off shimmering brew kettles that sparkle because they harbor a darker secret: they've never actually been used.

Great Lakes takes this problematic issue and blows it to pieces. The brew pub is located adjacent to the actual brewery, and patrons can follow the pipes overhead that carry the beer directly from the brewery to the brew pub into the frosty glassware on the table. There are few illusions at play in the Great Lakes Brewing Company.

What they deliver at Great Lakes is real beer with a real flavor. Cleveland is a city with a long brewing history, and Great Lakes and its staff have been a part of that history for some time. Brothers Patrick and Daniel Conway established Great Lakes in Cleveland in 1988, and they put Cleveland Master Brewer Thaine Johnson at the helm to create beer in the European tradition with just a hint of Cleveland's rock n' roll roots.

Although Johnson has moved on to the great fermentation tank in the sky, the brewery continues to feature some of the finest brews in the nation, many crafted with Johnson's careful guidance. And there is nothing that pairs better with one of the finest beers in the U.S.A. than the brew pub fare of Great Lakes.

There are not a many vegetarian choices on Great Lakes' menu. However, in my experience, there is always a vegan burger, a pasta dish and a couple of appetizers on each menu for those who believe that meat is not a component of the food pyramid. Some of the vegetarian appetizers include the Brewer's Pretzels with Liptauer cheese dip, the artichoke crock, the sweet potato fries, and a number of salads,

The mushroom bruschetta was made with spent brewer's barley bread topped with garlic butter, Killbuck valley mushrooms, roasted red peppers and melted mozzarella. Although the dish was flavorful, the large slices of bread made the dish somewhat difficult to eat. If the slices of bread were cut in half, the whole process would have been far less messy.

My main entree was a vegetable alfredo pasta. The alfredo sauce was actually made with a splash of Dortmunder Gold beer, a mild white cheese and cream. The vegetables were zucchini, carrots and chives. The dish actually occupies some sort of middle ground between macaroni and cheese and Pasta Primavera.

Of course, the food at Great Lakes is like a great opening act. It's an added bonus, but you're at the concert to see the headliner. In this case, the headliner is beer.

Great Lakes has beers that are offered all year long, and others that are seasonally available. The regular brews are available throughout the region. However, the most interesting brews are always the seasonal offerings.

The one seasonal that is currently available in bottles is the Grassroots Ale, a saison brewed in the Belgian tradition as a summer brew for farm workers. It showcases the herbal elements that compose the refreshing, high-alcohol brew. Grassroots used to be called the Hale Ale. It is the only seasonal selection currently available at retail, unlike the other seasonals that can only be purchased at the brew pub.

The Lake Erie Monster looks like it may no longer be on tap since I tasted it, which is too bad, because that is an absolute pleasure to behold. The extreme hop presence of the beer makes itself known in the aroma, and even more so on the palate with its 92 i.b.u.s. However, the beautiful richness of the malt offsets the orgasmic bitterness of the beer.

Since the brew also possesses 9% alcohol by volume, it is served in a smaller Belgian-style tulip glass, making it a delight to savor slowly. I originally tasted this in a bottle years ago, but as of now, there is no plan to bottle the Lake Erie Monster again, so mark your calendar for next year if you want to taste the next batch.

The York Street Bitter is also an excellent example of brewing style. The ESB is a classic British-style golden bitter ale. The alcohol and hop content of York Street ESB is lower than any of the Great Lakes Pale Ales. However, the less is more approach has created a beer with a beautifully refined sense of elegance that is sometimes lacking in American ales.

The final seasonal I sampled was the Bailout Brew. This offering was made in the style of a Maibock, a blonde German-style lager typically consumed at spring festivals in the Fatherland. A grassy hops character peaks out between a bread and citrus aroma in the Bailout Brew. The 7.5% alcohol content is sneaky, because the beer has a weight like a lower alcohol brew and seems like it would be an easy quaff.

If tasting the beer from the source isn't a fun enough proposition, Great Lakes has other bells and whistles to keep your rapt attention. There are brewery tours on Friday and Saturdays. It's a fun way to spend about an hour, and you can see the guts of the Great Lakes operation. The attraction of free beer is tough to pass up, too.

Another form of entertainment with the Cavs in the playoffs and Indians season starting their season is to take advantage of Great Lakes' Fatty Wagon. Great Lakes makes biodiesel out of spent oil from the deep frying stations. The recycled lipids power patrons to Cavs, Indians and weekday Browns games for the low cost of $1 (tickets not included). It also includes a return trip.

Great Lakes Brewery