Arepazo Latin Grill

Arepazo Latin Grill brings all of the things you love about the Downtown location of Columbus' global Latin favorite, and then they add tapas and a full bar. Carlos Gutierrez brings the same formula working at his Gahanna operation.

The space is open and inviting. It is much larger than the Downtown restaurant. There are plenty of options for vegetarians.

Like the other two locations, every dish tastes delicious smothered in the famous cilantro sauce. Dishes originate in Latin American countries in North and South America.

Vegetarians can order meatless arepas, patacons (a stuffed fried plantain boat), burritos, tostadas and three tapas for lunch. Dinner has a wider selection of meatless tapas options.

The bean and cheese empanada might be the best way to spend $3.75 eating in Columbus. The fried corn pocket is crammed full of black beans and white cheese until it's about the size of a small Nerf football. The appetizer is almost a lunch portion by itself.

A few of the vegetarian tapas involve perfect tostones, or fried plantain chips. Arepazo's tostones have a crispy exterior, but are thick enough to also display some of the fruit's softer textures. They are great served with a garlic aioli, and even better topped with roasted red peppers, parsley and slivers of Manchego.

Servers were able to answer questions about vegetarian items on the menu, and served multiple meals quickly enough to keep lunch crowds moving.

Veritas Tavern

Veritas Tavern is an exciting small plates spot located in practically the last place you would think - Delaware. The fast growing community North of Columbus is home to this exciting restaurant. It is well worth the drive if it is far from you to experience the work of chefs Avishar Barua and Silas Caeton, and it's even better if Delaware is in your back yard.

The menu features great seasonal ingredients. While there are a limited number of vegetarian items on the regular menu, the kitchen is able to accommodate vegetarians with additional dishes if given advance notice.

The dining room has ample bar space, and the bar has a nice selection of wine, beer and great cocktails. Mixed drinks are made with quality ingredients, and show great care. 

The decor is fun with cookbooks adorning the walls as well as menus from the restaurants of renowned chefs Grant Achatz and Thomas Keller. While the dining room is whimsical, it could benefit visually from a greater focus and organization.

The feta dip appeared straightforward with cucumber and flatbread on the plate. The flavor is clean with a subtle richness, and the dish is far more complex than the simple ingredients belie.

The potted blue cheese with chocolate biscuits and port wine in a squeeze dropper is a study in flavor. When combined, the sweetness of the wine tempers the strong cheese, and the chocolate adds layers of roasted notes. Each element can also be removed, changing the flavor profile considerably. 

The Brussels sprouts were roasted and served in a deeply savory sauce that made them irresistible. They were tender, falling apart. The sauce held the essence of tamari soy sauce. I'm not normally a Brussels sprouts fan, but these were good enough to order again.

The grilled asparagus with late harvest peas, maitake mushrooms and ricotta made fantastic use of great ingredients. The mushrooms were seared, and the texture and flavor were as close to bacon as anything I have ever experienced as a vegetarian. The cheese added a creamy background to the dish, and the peas sweetened it up and gave the dish a nice texture.

The white and dark chocolate dessert played with the contrariety of temperature and texture. White chocolate was frozen in liquid nitrogen. The dark chocolate was an ice cream, served with an even-darker hot chocolate fudge. The white chocolate dissolved into a rich frozen smoke. The chocolate was even more rich, and the warm fudge added a great contrast. Drops of Pedro Ximenez sherry add complex oxidized notes to the dish.

Service was exceptional. The staff capably deals with dietary questions. The menu changes often enough that regular visitors would not have to worry about repeating dishes. Interestingly, reservations on the weekend are not taken, and diners are seated first-come, first-served.

Jaleo

Jose Andres is the foremost name in Spanish cuisine in the United States, and Jaleo is his flagship restaurant. The ambassador to Spanish fare introduced small plates-based tapas dining to the United States. He has restaurants in Maryland, D.C., Miami, Beverly Hills and Las Vegas. Jaleo restaurant in Las Vegas is in the stylish Cosmopolitan.

Jaleo has an open kitchen with bar seating for 10 the ultra luxe é by Jose Andres diners. The paella is prepared over an open fire in a hula hoop sized pan, and it's served with much celebration. Service was excellent, providing great options for vegetarians. It capably handles special dining requests, and the cuisine offers a fair number of meatless options.

Dishes are crafted from carefully selected ingredients. Classic dishes were full of fresh flavor.

The cheeses were also excellent. The Pasamontes Farmhouse Manchego crumbled finely, and it paired well with the apples in muscatel. The Rey Silo Blanco picked up a hint of paprika, and it added complexity to the fantastic almonds and fig jam.

The gazpacho is as good an example of the cold soup as you will ever try. It is a bracing, clean, fresh and satisfying take on the vegetables that define the summer.

The battered Malaga style eggplant was soft and slightly vegetal with a hint of sweetness. It was a little greasy, but the eggplant was good enough to overcome the minor deficiencies.

The wine list is well paired to the menu. While it isn't as top heavy as some of its competition in Vegas, there are a number of regional Spanish wines that are reasonably priced to mix and match along with an armada of tapas.

Manifesto

Manifesto is an Italian small plates spot Downtown that is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The conceptual curve ball is the pairing of Scotch whisky with the Italian cuisine. The folks behind deNovo make the two mesh nicely.

The decor is a whimsical collection of quotes from historic and cultural figures. I particularly enjoyed the Scotch quote from Ron Burgundy. The redesign was a great use of the space compared to the previous tenant Isabella's. 

There are plenty of vegetarian dishes on the menu. The server explained that the kitchen would prepare vegetarian versions of many of the dishes with meat or seafood in them upon request.

The breaded crispy mozzarella is treated with basil oil, balsamic vinegar and tomato sauce. Imagine a haute cheese stick and you're about half way there.

The spicy tomato bisque has a bright, hot base that pairs well with sandwiches. It was a natural accompaniment to the Italian grilled cheese, a panini made on thick cut bread with goat cheese, provolone and mozzarella.

The Tuscan hummus is made with cannellini beans instead of chickpeas. Crispy flatbread scoops up the delicious puree. 

The butternut squash lasagna was visually pleasing but perhaps a bit sweet. The richness of the dish was overpowering.

The cocktails have stylish names like the Corpse Reviver and Mommy's Little Helper. While cocktails might introduce a novice Scotch drinker to the liquor, the lengthy list of whiskies offers choices to please the most discerning palates. 

The most offensive thing about Manifesto is the music selection. The soundtrack includes a terrible mish-mash designed to please everybody in attendance. Unfortunately, the collection of Dave Matthews, Kenny G and George Strait and other inoffensive drivel I heard from the speakers will irritate everybody except for Clear Channel executives.

The made-to-order pastries in the morning look pretty tempting. Choices include a chocolate praline croissant and pecan sticky buns.

T Murray's Bar and Kitchen

T. Murray's is a stylized gastropub in the Brewery District. While the atmosphere and service are pleasant, the lack of vegetarian dining options on the menus makes T Murray's a tough sell for meatless diners.

The restaurant is located north of the High Beck Tavern, and former Lindey's bartender Tony Murray is one of the people running the restaurant that bares his moniker. Behind the bar, Murray offers classic cocktails and a standard selection of draught beer.

There is typically one vegetarian sandwich on the lunch menu. The roasted eggplant and mozzarella sandwich was topped with arugula and a mayo, served with a side of peppery shoestring fries and cost $7. This is a great lunchtime value for courthouse employees.

There is a very limited selection of meatless items on the dinner menu. The kitchen will prepare vegetarian and vegan entrees upon request.

Global Grill

Global Grill is an upscale international tapas concept in Pensacola. The artfully prepared small plates include numerous choices for vegetarians.

The restaurant is located in the city of Pensacola rather than its more tourist-y neighbor Pensacola Beach. The restaurant has soft lighting that highlights the color of the dining room.

There is ample seating at the bar. Happy hour seemed to host a lively crowd.

As with a traditional Spanish restaurant, Global Grill offers hot and cold tapas as well as a limited selection of entrees. The menu comfortably travels from Italy to Spain to France to Japan to the Caribbean to the Gulf Shore with seamless ease.

The herbed focaccia had a Mediterranean twist. It was topped with feta cheese, toasted pine nuts and kalamata olives. The streaks of reduced tomato added a bright flavor to delicious toasted bread.

The mozzarella egg rolls were like giant cheese sticks with a flakey exterior rather than the traditional flour-and-breadcrumb coated bar fare. The tomato sauce had a fruity note from merlot.

The olive plate had a variety of green and black olives marinated in oil flavored with rosemary and basil. The portion appears large because the dish is which it is served is canoe-shaped.

Asparagus tempura was perfectly fried in a crispy batter that possessed a delightful crunch. The flavor of the fried veggies was amplified by the sweet balsamic reduction that is drizzled on the plate.

The fried artichokes were stuffed with boursin cheese. The artichokes were marred by a slightly underripe character that added an unpleasant vegetal note to the creamy cheese.

The chocolate cake and vanilla ice cream sounds a little plain Jane, but the addition of basil chiffonade added a fresh, herbal undertone to flavors that are usually safe and traditional. The portion was small, and that works well because it's easy to fill up on tapas.

The wine list at Global Grill has fairly priced wines from a variety of international appellations. It fits nicely with the global menu.

Service at Global Grill was outstanding. The server was easily able to point out vegetarian options on the menu, and did so in a personable manner.

It's evident why Global Grill is one of Pensacola's most popular fine dining destinations. Global Grill is a fantastic example of the merits of well executed fusion cuisine.

Global Grill

Barcelona - Dine Originals Week

The lunch special for Dine Originals at Barcelona this week gives diners a great opportunity to sample something from one of Columbus' top restaurants for a roll of quarters. A small sandwich, choice of side dishes, bread with olive oil and drink is cheaper than the esteemed half-priced tapas Mondays.

I've previously raved about Barcelona's Dine Originals dinner and an a la carte dinner. Barcelona doesn't feature a fully vegetarian menu, but they always offer delicious choices to vegetarian diners.

All of the sides for Dine Originals week are vegetarian. They include patatas bravas, a pasta salad, samafaina (a stewed eggplant and zucchini dish in the ratatouille family), tomato garlic soup and Spanish potato salad. The patatas bravas are a Spanish classic that is always well executed by Paul Yow's kitchen.

The pasta salad (called ensalada de fideau) is bow tie pasta tossed with olive oil, shallots and piquillo peppers. The peppers give the dish a nice sweet and spicy taste that along with subtle shallot notes gets delivered through the olive oil.

The vegetarian bocadillo, a Spanish sandwich served in crusty bread, is stuffed with grilled portobello mushrooms, peppers and spinach. The top of the sandwich is slathered in a thick layer of flavorful romesco sauce, a Catalan condiment made with almonds, olive oil, garlic and red bell peppers. It gives savory, garlic-driven support to the earthy, smokey 'shrooms.

The lunch special also comes with a choice of non-alcoholic drink. While it might take shelling out a few extra bucks for dessert in order to eat until stuffed, the $10 special is a great introduction to how much fun Spanish food (and particularly Spanish food from Barcelona) can be.

Barcelona Lunch

Barrio

I have finally returned from the Gulf Coast (or more correctly, I returned a few days ago and I finally ran out of places to blog about), and now I am back to the task at hand: vegetarian dining in and around Ohio. Next on the block: Barrio.

Barrio is the next step in the 317-year plan to rebuild Downtown Columbus. Someday, my children's children's children's children's children's children's children's children's children's children will be able to enjoy the fruits of this rebuilding effort. For now, I get to enjoy the new ballpark and Barrio.

Barrio is a modern tapas place with a Pan-Latin focus as opposed to being an eatery that takes a classic Spanish approach to small plates. Menu choices come from Europe and South, Meso- and North American nations (as well as a few stops elsewhere on the globe).

The interior is small and modern. The walls are black and metallic with pieces of dark wood throughout. Service is capable if unexceptional. The place has opened recently, so perhaps they need a chance to iron out some kinks.

The offerings at Barrio fit into one of two categories: modern takes on old classics, or flashy fixings rooted in Latin tradition. Some of the traditional offerings with a new spin include the Spanish cheese plate and the avocado salad. Some of the new items rooted in tradition include vegetable ceviche, fennel and grapefruit salad, and caramelized provolone cheese.

The marinated olives were excellent. There were Gaeta olives, Cerignola olives and a tiny black olive that I was unable to name. The olives were marinated in spaces ranging from fennel to paprika to cayenne pepper, and bathed in a stream of olive oil offset with parmesan cheese and Marcona almonds. While the flavors were great, the small black olives with pits were tedious to eat. I might recommend to the kitchen something with a little more olive and a little less pit for the next selection.

The vegetable ceviche was absolutely divine. It was served in a three portion dish with popcorn, jicama, hearts of palm, onion, carrots, squash and plantains in an ahi cream sauce. The flavor was citrusy and fresh. At first, I didn't understand the popcorn. Then I tasted it with the spicy citrus cream sauce and I was converted.

The caramelized provolone cheese in tomato and olive oil with grill bread was reminiscent of saganaki, although the flavors were more Italian than Hellenic or Iberian. The seasoned cheese is scooped up by crunchy pieces of bread.

The papas fritas were very tasty. They are pretty much exactly what the menu says they are: garlic and herbed French fried potatoes with a sherry vinegar aioli. They are a great comfort food. They portion of aioli is small, and I might have preferred the fries with a little more spice on them, but all in all, they are a satisfying choice.

The quinoa salad in romesco sauce is a great preparation of this wonderful vegetable. Although many are unfamiliar with this South American staple, the grain-like Quinoa has been a part of the South American diet for more than 6,000 years. Barrio's preparation of quinoa is made with micro greens, almonds and romesco sauce, a classic topping prepared with olive oil, tomatoes, garlic and hot peppers. The synthesis of the earthy, spicy and sweet flavors makes this dish shine.

Whenever I am in a tapas place, I would much rather order a bunch of small plates than a starter and a main course. However, for those diners more rooted in tradition, there is also a mixed vegetable entree on the menu.

The beverage lists are fun and reflect the modern sensibilities of the restaurant. Although small, the beer selections are very nice. There are some very nice wines on the list, although Barrio has some time to go before it will be in the pantheon of Columbus' best wine destinations. The rum punch cocktail was far better than the margarita.

Initially, I was worried that Barrio would be poaching business away from Barcelona. However, after trying both, I'll have to say that there is definitely a distiction between the approach of the two places. Hopefully Columbus and its appetite for different styles of tapas is enough to keep both places as fat and happy as the clientele.

Barrio

Details Minibar and Lounge

Details is the new (or new-ish) café by acclaimed chef Richard Rosendale. It's located right next door to the eponymous gastronomic experience that is Rosendale's, and the self-described "minibar and lounge" feature small plates and comfort food.

The offerings are not as flashy as the food at Rosendale's, but the low prices allow diners who can't afford the pricing of the formal restaurant to sample inexpensive fare prepared to the same exacting quality specifications.

Chef Rosendale is arguable Columbus' most noted food personalities. Check out some of his various accomplishments (World Culinary Olympic Champion, the Bocuse D'Or, Top 10 restaurants in the Dispatch, etc.). I previously dined at Rosendale's, and the meal was absolutely amazing.

There are actually a number of vegetarian items on the menu. The Tuscan bread salad, the antipasto plate, the eggplant caponatta and the cheese plate are all vegetarian items that can be ordered as starters or as tapas. There are a number of other bar snacks available as well. The caponatta is a chunky spread made from Italian eggplant, tomato, onion and capers served with toasted bruschetta chips and spinach.

The vegetarian sandwich is called the Garden. It's a portabella and mozzarella sandwich on amazing ciabatta. The flavor is fleshed out with sprouts and sweet red peppers in balsamic vinegar and a savory avocado basil pesto. The sandwich is absolutely delicious.

Diners can order from the menu. There is also a Details degustation (called "the Detailed experience") that can be prepared to vegetarian specifications. The Detailed experience takes place in the upper level of the restaurant, and reservations are recommended. The extra bonus is the fact that diners get to interact with the chef, who explains the nuances of each course (the chef de cuisine at Details is Drew Garms, a young protege of Richard Rosendale with an impressive culinary pedigree).

The beverage menu is a scaled down version of the offerings at Rosendale's. There is a great selection of sparkling and still wines by the glass (I'm in love with the La Nerthe Chateauneuf du Pape as a by-the-glass option!) and bottle. There is a great roster of craft beers as well as an entire menu of mixed drinks that go from cookie cutter (gin martinis and margaritas) to off-the-wall (the Monkey gland, a blend of Tanqueray 10 gin, apricot brandy, orange juice and Pernod).

A couple of haute establishments in Columbus (e.g. Rosendale's and Dragonfly) are trying new enterprises that feature items with a more blue-collar price point. Details, like Rosendales, is a home run that fits in the price range of the everyday restaurant customer.

Details

Barcelona half-price tapas

I've talked before about how great Barcelona is. The only thing that makes Barcelona better is half-priced tapas on Monday nights. This, coupled with the bar's happy hour cocktail specials at the beginning of the night, makes for a four star dining experience at a two star price. Vegetarian tapas include hummus, spiced olives, sweet and purple potato chips with blue cheese dip, gazpacho, peach soup and a cheese platter. Entrees are not discounted.

Maca

After hearing all the buzz about Powell's Maca (Top 10 New Restaurants in "Columbus Monthly," plus that undeniable buzz that comes from blog posts and blog posts about your establishment), I just had to swing in and check out all the hoopla.

And there is a reason why Maca is getting noticed. Carefully crafted small plates accompany fairly priced drinks in an intimate atmosphere that seems to have put Powell on the map (well, I can find it now, at any rate).

Maca is very small. I would be surprised if they can seat 30 in the dining room and bar areas. Based upon the size of the restaurant, either show up early or come on the weekends because Maca does not take reservations. You order food and drinks at the bar station, and you can eat as much or as little as you would like.

There were four vegetarian tapas on the menu. It was simple to figure out what the vegetarian items were since the chef was cooking on the line within whispering distance of the bar area.

I started with the cheese platter, which had bread made by Omega Artisan Baking in the North Market, as well as what I believe was manchego, mahon and a soft, creamy, mild blue cheese served alongside small apple slices.

The goat cheese stuffed red peppers were so good, I ordered them twice. The mild acidity of the cheese accents the seared pequillo peppers, and it is a delicious but simple delight.

The eggplant cigarettes were battered and fried. Something in the batter gave the sticks a sweet finish. If you imagine hush puppies surrounding finely cut eggplant, you'd be living in the neighborhood of taste from which these items reside.

Patatas bravas are a Spanish specialty that is a must-have at most tapas establishments, and Maca's potatoes were no exception to that rule. They were served with a chili sauce and a garlic aioli. If I'm ranking Columbus area patatas bravas, I'm still leaving Barcelona's patatas in the driver's seat, but the potatoes from Maca finished a close second (much like Tony Stewart).

The dessert, a dark chocolate mousse with olive oil and salt, was understated, savory and delicious. I was impressed that there wasn't a wine on the menu priced greater than $7 per glass. The bottle prices were also excellent, and they were also available to take home after the meal. The beer selection was small and also well priced, with Great Lakes Edmund Fitzgerald Porter and a Barcelona Lager called Estrella Damm (named after an Alsatian brewer who made lager in Barcelona) available for $3.

Maca was definitely as good as advertised, and it had some great vegetarian options. Check out the pictures, and if you get there yourself, make sure to show up early.

Maca

Barcelona

I had heard nothing but good things about Barcelona before I checked it out, and I was not disappointed in any way with the German Village tapas joint. They offer a wide variety of vegetarian dishes alongside carefully crafted cocktails and exciting wines by the glass and bottle.

I think tapas are so much fun. You get to sit around a table and pass little plates around, sharing and discussing the merits of each dish.

Stories abound that tapas were developed in Spain as a snack for the ill King Alfonso the 10th to nosh on for sustenance, or that the good king wanted wine to be accompanied by food to prevent drunken revelry by the citizens. There is also a more practical tale that says that tapas were developed as a lid to keep flies out of wine glasses at the local Spanish taverns.

Although rooted in Spanish culture, tapas have been adopted by many different cultures. In Columbus, for example, places like the Burgundy Room serve tapas that have Asian and American culinary influences. Most of Barcelona's tapas are classically Spanish, but a few items have a more international flair.

My first dish fit this bill. Pictured above, the Catalan flatbread was like the Iberian take on bruschetta. It was a big piece of soft, crumbly bread grilled with olive oil and topped with caramelized onions, roasted peppers, capers and flecks of Manchego cheese. The flatbread was a sublime combination of savory notes with tangy pickled notes and the sweetness of the onions. This came after an amuse bouche pea and mushroom salad.

The spiced olives were pitted and seasoned with fennel, cumin, rosemary and chile flakes. They were tasty, with a few different varietals of green and black olives mingling together in the seasoning and the oil. The bread was served with an oil infused with tomato and herbs. It was also very tasty.

The patatas bravas are a very traditional Spanish dish. At Barcelona, the small fried potatoes are topped with a garlic aioli and a fiery tomato sauce, and the presentation was fantastic, with each of the sauces swirled on one side of the potatoes.

Again, though, there were many other tapas at Barcelona that are more internationally flavored. The soba noodle salad is a Japanese buckwheat dish with cucumbers and other greens in a lemon vinaigrette. It combines European and Asian flavors on the same plate with great success.

My final dish tasted unlike anything else I have ever eaten...and that's a very, very good thing. The chilled spiced peach soup was redolent with peaches. It has the consistency of apple sauce, and undercurrents of ginger and cinnamon. It was also an ingredient in one of the mixed drinks, which I'm upset I didn't get a chance to sample.

The service was excellent. The staff was very helpful. I was told that the chef could make a few special vegetarian additions to the menu, including a veggie paella. They made sure my delicate vegetarian sensibilities were well accounted for in the dining experience.

My favorite cocktail was the carrot cake martini, made from cream, amaretto, Goldschlager and something else I can't name. The liqueurs combined into something that tasted like creamy alcoholic vegetable dessert. I loved it. I was not as big of a fan of the white grape martini, made with white grape juice and Ciroc vodka. The featured by-the-glass tempranillo wine was excellent, showing notes of tobacco, leather and plum, all for about $8.

I didn't try dessert, but it looked good. The bar was also very lively. Barcelona has definitely earned its stripes, which include being recognized by Wine Spectator with their Award of Excellence and being ranked slightly low by Jon Cristensen in the Top 20 restaurants in Columbus. Check out my poorly lit pictures, and then definitely see for yourself.

Barcelona

La Tasca

My first night in Illinois, dinner was at La Tasca, a tapas restaurant in Arlington Heights. The dining rooms are rather large, but that made sense as the place was very busy. There was also a fairly lively bar crowd having drinks and small plates of olives, cheese and bread. The bar offers basic beer selections, a decent Spanish wine list, and a wide variety of spirits including some fantastic PX brandies. There is also 50 million variations of the martini available in many different ridiculous flavor combinations.

La Tasca offers a number of excellently prepared vegetarian selections. Tapas are typically offered in hot and cold formats. The cold (tapas frias) vary from the fire roasted tri-colored peppers peppers in an olive oil vinaigrette to the garlicky potato salad to the tomato and mozzarella salad. There is also a cheese plate with a cow, goat, sheep and blue cheese served alongside various accoutrements, in addition to the Spanish omelet that is available for gross vegetarians who eat eggs.

The hot tapas include fried potatoes in a creamy hot sauce (very good), herbed goat cheese baked in tomato basil sauce (also very good and pictured above), a grilled vegetable plate, and vegetable paella.

After eating 80 million little plates, I had no room for dessert. That being said, this is a very nice place located in the middle of downtown Arlington Heights. It's a great dinner spot.

Vermilion and 99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall

Vermilion has been on my to do list for some time now. Consider it checked off. Vermilion is an Indian/Latin fusion restaurant. They offer tapas and degustations of seven courses. This dinner was a measly two tapas with an entree.

Vermilion has luscious drinks like a tamarind margarita and a coconut cream saffron drink with dried coconut and rum that was a perfect foil to the spicy fare. The dinner started with an amuse bouche that was a spicy gazpacho accompanied by a tapioca cracker served on a plate with a character written in chili powder.

This was followed by a plate of artichoke pakoras served with a mild brown mustard and a sweet, spicy red sauce. The other plate was a manchego and Indian lentil/ vegetable empanada. The entree was asparagus wrapped in phyllo served on a red and green tomato curry with okra and spicy starch support beams.

The menu featured almost half vegetarian half not vegetarian options, and the staff was helpful in pointing out the best vegetarian items. The menu does change frequently, but the Indian part of the fusion keeps the options very veggie friendly.

Vermillion et al

The virtual barrage of bars followed.

Swirl Wine Bar featured a number of conservative wine choices and small nosh plates.

Goose Island Wrigleyville was stop number two. They have the same Goose beers on tap as my previous post on Goose Clybourn.

Casey Moran's featured sports on television, loud classic rock music, weird psychedelic patterns on screens and a bustling crowd of people with a fairly vanilla beverage list.

Then of course came the beer-from-everywhere-including-a-pile-of-Belgian options Hopleaf that has most anything you'd think of by the bottle or on draft. They have pages of Belgian beers on a menu plus a pile of tap handles. Some of my old pictures might be more telling for Hopleaf. It is part of a different trip to Chicago where I visited these same clowns.

And now your Chicago Bulls (and dinner)

When you sit in the good seats, you are in a better position to take pictures of "The Answer" Allen Iverson being questioned by Captain Kirk Heinrich while Ben Wallace and his cornrows (sob...not the 'fro) watch on in quiet anticipation.


The Bulls topped the Nuggets 109-108 in a see-saw battle at the United Center. The game ended with Ben Gordon missing a shot at the end that improbably rolled to Tyrus Thomas, who soared above the opposition to dunk the ball with 0.2 seconds left on the clock.

Luol Deng, Gordon and Heinrich ruled for the Bulls, while the two-headed Thug Nation of Carmelo Anthony and Allen Iverson put up a pile of points that came up about 0.2 seconds and one point short. Probably the most clutch performer at the game was the Jose Cuervo lounge with its margaritas and better-than-basketball-game-quality quesadillas.

Check out the Picasa link that has piles of Bulls game video and pictures along with a few dining experiences before the game, which will be described after the basketball links.

A bunch of meals and a Bulls game

Before the game, dinner was at the newly-opened Graze. Graze is an American small plates concept that features a wide variety of tapas and some interesting cocktails and wines that complement the small dishes nicely.

The bread was marvelous. There were flatbreads, olive bread and a sage bread with chunks of sea salt baked into it. The sage bread was an interesting taste experience with an herbal beginning and the salt making your mouth water as you swallow.

The cocktails are a mojito, which was very good, and a Moscow Mule that was absolutely killer with hints of ginger lingering on the quenching finish.

The small plates that I tried were the red pepper hummus with flatbread to dip and a cheese plate with cow, sheep and goat selections and accompaniments like griddled sweet pistachios and apples. The main course, pictured above, is a pumpkin ravioli in a vegetable broth with radishes and green peas. It was stylistically Asian flavored with enough Italian and American influences to make the dish unique. There are also side dishes like skin-on mashed potatoes made to the diner's specifications (our table had white cheddar mashed potatoes).

This restaurant has a ton of vegetarian selections. The only minor complaint in the experience was that certain dishes were a little heavy on the salt. However, a young restaurant may be trying to establish consistency, and the place had more successes than failures, so this was not a major issue.

The pictures are in the same Picasa link above that references the basketball game.


















After the game, it was time for some celebratory drinking. The first spot is about 20 blocks north of the United Center. Piece features a wide selection of beer in addition to their brew pub brewed offerings.

The place offers what they call Connecticut style pizza, which is definitely not Chicago style pizza. It is very good however, with a wide variety of toppings. The only draw back is karaoke night, which drove us back downtown.

Pops for Champagne opened a new outpost in the River North area of Chicago. The place offers a wide variety of quality champagnes and champagne cocktails that are meant to pair with a massive cheese selection and small plate selections. It took a little convincing to get me in dressed like a sporto Bulls fan.

The service was gracious if stretched a little thin. The most interesting cocktail was the Hendrick's gin with cucumber, basil and champagne. The place was more than adequate for providing Bulls celebration juice, but I recommend dressing up a bit more than Al Bundy and I typically do.