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.