Grandpa's Cheese Barn

Wild horses couldn't drag me away from a business called Grandpa's Cheesebarn while driving north on I-71. Normal people could make a two hour drive to Cleveland without cheese curds. I can't. So I stopped at Grandpa's Cheesebarn off Route 250 in Ashland.

This family-run business has been open since 1978, with the original owner's family history in the Ohio dairy industry stretching back to the early 1900s. The shop is stacked to the ceiling with cheese from Ohio, house-label mustards, jams, jellies and breads. Most everything is available to sample.

There is a small lunch counter inside the Cheesebarn that makes sandwiches, soups, salads and milkshakes. Your sweet tooth can also be satisfied next door at Sweeties Jumbo Chocolates, which makes fudge, candies, nuts and other sweets.

The cheese is Ohio-produced, and much of it takes on classic styles - cheddar, gouda and Swiss (more properly, Emmental). Cheeses are dusted and studded with herbs and spices of all varieties.

Curds likewise come in an array of flavors. The grilling cheese, a domestic approximation of halloumi, was excellent.

Grandpa's Cheesebarn is adorable. It's worth a stop whether you're buying cheese to take home or simply satisfying a craving on a two-hour road trip.

Young's Jersey Dairy

Young's Jersey Dairy is a family fun destination just outside of Yellow Springs. The main business enterprise is dairy produced from a herd of Jersey cows, but guests can also visit a farm with cows, goats and other animals, a gift shop, mini golf/batting cages called Udders & Putters, a dairy-themed hotel and more. There are numerous events and festivals held on the grounds.

The decor at the ice cream parlor is kitschy fun. It's a great environment to enjoy the diner fare and frozen desserts.

The flavors of ice cream are the standard issue choices available at most other shops. Ice cream is rich and sweet. There are cups, cones, shakes and sundaes available in a variety of sizes.

Cheeses from Young's are made with vegetable rennet. The curds are great in any flavor from garlic dill to habanero. 

Murray's Cheese at Kroger

The cheese selection at Kroger just got better with a new New York City import.

Three central Ohio Kroger Marketplace stores are going to partner with Murray's, NYC's original cheese shop, to add variety to Kroger's specialty cheese case.

To showcase its first Murray's in the area, Kroger hosted a blogger tasting at the Sawmill Road location this past Thursday. Disclosure: the wine and cheese in the tasting were provided free of charge. I was also given a bag with cheese and the Murray's Cheese Handbook. Like most cheese shops, Murray's will let you taste just about anything in the case.

The event was an introduction to Murray's, its history and its approach to cheese. While this is the first Murray's in central Ohio, others have recently opened near Cincinnati and Dayton.

Murray's organizes its cheeses by flavor (mild to sharp), and then by category (soft-ripened, blue, et al.). There are a ton of classic imports, as well as big-name American cheeses from all over. The Ohio cheese selection is currently limited, but Nathan Aldridge, the manager presenting the tasting, expressed an interest in carrying more as he becomes more familiar with Buckeye State producers.

Despite the local shortcoming, Murray's really does offer a great selection of cheese. Some of the stars of the tasting included the fresh Vermont Butter & Cheese Company's goat cheese, a crumbly, soft mild cheese with a light clean flavor. The fromager d'affinois is a soft-ripened goat cheese with the flavor of triple-cream cheese like St. Andre (it's actually a double-cream) and an unctuous texture that practically runs down your arm. The Pleasant Ridge raw cow's milk cheese had a funky herbal flavor that finished with bright citrus notes. The black label Cambozola is a blue cheese that's mild enough to win over those who hate blue cheese, and complex enough to make moldy cheese fans come back for more.

The staff is extremely knowledgeable about cheeses, as would be expected at an operation carrying Murray's name. They should be able to find a cheese for every palate. Like most cheese shops, Murray's will let you taste just about anything in the case. Vegetarians take note: Murray's lists the enzymes used in all of the cheeses, allowing vegetarians to avoid cheeses made with animal rennet.

While the first Murray's is open in the area, two more should open by year's end. The Brewery District Kroger and the Dublin Kroger on Hospital Drive will look much like the Sawmill location. The Brewery District Kroger might offer a little more cut-to-order cheese than the other two because of its layout.

It will be interesting to see how Murray's fits into the gourmet scene in central Ohio. While Murray's is a high-profile name in the industry, Whole Foods, The Hills Market, Katzinger's, the Giant Eagle Market District and Curds and Whey in the North Market have pretty formidable cheese selections, too. It will make great cheese more accessible to those who live near these Kroger locations, but will the Murray's name and approach be enough to draw people from outside the stores' vicinity who shop at these other area cheese providers?

Marcella's

Marcella's part deux opened in Polaris a few days ago. I stopped by to check it out because this is the new darling project of the Cameron Mitchell restaurant empire.

This newest outpost of rustic Italian communal dining is located in Polaris at the spot of the recently closed Mitchell restaurant Maritini Italian Bistro. The interior remains relatively unchanged. They painted over the tacky wine bottles on the wall, keeping the color scheme and floor layout similar to Martini. There is also substantial seating in the cafe area in front of the bar.

The menu features numerous small plate selections that are the Italian equivalent of tapas. There are many hot and cold small plates, including eggplant salad, zucchini parmesan, giardinera, roasted peppers with mushrooms, Caprese salad and melted romano pecorino with bread and apples to dip fondue style.

I sampled the assorted olives and a cheese plate. The assorted olives were green cerignola (sweet, citrus flavors), picholine (a French green olive redolent of grass, nuts and a vibrant acidity), Gaeta olives (a small, black olive that is soft and faintly bitter) and Beldi (a small, wrinkled, salt-cured Moroccan varietal with six weeks worth of your R.D.A. of sodium). The olives are served warm and make a great accompaniment to a glass of wine.

The cheese plate comes in three and five cheese versions. I sampled the aged goat cheese (which was dry and crumbly as opposed to soft and creamy with a crisp acidity supporting the floral undercurrent of the formaggio), Pecorino di Pienza (a soft sheep's milk cheese with rich buttery notes) and Taleggio (a strong, stinky cow's milk cheese with an even runnier consistency than the Pecorino). The cheese was served with a truffle honey, brandied cherries (which are divine), and apricot with red peppers.

My main course was the brown butter and sage gnocchi (pictured above). The potato pillows were served in herbed brown butter with onions and walnuts. The presentation was pleasant, and the flavors were earthy and restrained.

Marcella's also offers a ton of pizzas that were very good. The vegetarian friendly options include Margherita pizza, a zucchini, mushroom, tomato and olive pizza, a mushroom pizza and four cheese pizza.

The wine list all comes from the boot. The big city concept of quartinos is starting to catch on in Columbus. I first saw quartinos at a Chicago establishment aptly named Quartino a few years ago. A quartino is a small wine serving vessel that fits a quarter of a bottle of wine. Marcella's also serves wine by the half and full liter. All of these portions allow for great pricing and pour size of wine for dinner or drink and snack before you're out doing whatever it is that you do. I hope quartinos start popping up all over.

The service was helpful, all the while trying to learn the details opening a new restaurant. The best idea for dining here would be to eat as a group and to share appetizers and entrees because the portions are small, meant to be ordered en masse and slightly expensive, so a group might offset the investment cost. Alas, I am a dolt who went solo, so I'll have to keep it in mind for next time.

Check out the pictures below.

Marcella's

Mistretta's Italian Market

I was cruising out to Mistretta's on North Shafer St. to buy some cheese, because lord knows if I could only take one food with me to a desert island, it would be cheese. Of course I'm not sure how to keep cheese fresh on a desert island. I might need a cheese cave and an assortment of soft-ripened selections or other ageworthy delights. That would make for a fairly surreal island stay. All I have to find out is pick an album if I also get to take one of those with me, and figure out what that would be (probably "A Love Supreme" by John Coltrane).

But back to Mistretta's...they feature some lovely sides alongside pasta dishes and sandwiches that are clearly labeled vegetarian. I sampled the Tuscan Grilled Cheese, which was made on panini bread with smoked mozzerella, tomatoes and basil. You can make up your own meal choices with the store's high end gourmet convenience items, or order a number of salads, soups or other sides. The mac and cheese looked delicious.

It's a really nice deli. I'll certainly be back when I need a dairy reload, and I'll be sure to sample something else.

Some Cheese Smells Like Sweat

Rasheed Wallace is to technical fouls what Ron Jeremy is to cheap, meaningless sex. The major differentiating factor is that Jeremy gets paid for the sex while Rasheed typically pays for the fouls. This time Wallace paid with a loss, and some poor sap got rewarded with a sweaty jersey to the face. Check the video to see if Wallace is technically foul.

As of this morning, the 219 troops killed this month surpassed the highest total of deaths for two months of combat in Iraq. With Thursday still falling in May, all of the opponents of the war in Iraq may have to eat their hats when they see how the mission has succeeded in exceeding one minimum measurement of success. Unfortunately, the milestone is total troops killed, and nobody is going to wear that medal around town.

Zheng Xiaoyu, former chief of China's food and drug safety organization, was sentenced to death for his role in the contaminated pet food public relations disaster that damaged the reputations of China's food and drug industries. Perhaps if President Bush had sent Paul Wolfowitz out the same way, the world would have more faith in new World Bank Presidential nominee Robert Zoellick.

Turkey, a nation with a clearly defined separation of religion and state, has entered unknown waters. The nation, which is 95 percent Muslim, has elected a Muslim President and Prime Minister. Educated elites and the military are adamantly opposed to the move, and new elections have been called for the Presidency. As a free piece of advice, the United States elected a deeply religious man who shared a common belief with much of the population. Take a look at how well that worked out for us.

Slate works on profiling the Republican's next generation flip-flopper Mitt Romney. If the fact that he's a Mormon isn't enough to get you to vote for somebody else, you can at least compare his wavering opinion of a multitude of issues to Giuliani's sordid pro-life/pro-choice stance. This creates my entry into the 2008 Republican Election Slogan contest (if there is in fact a contest and I didn't fabricate it out of thin air) :

The Republican Party 2008: We can't get any more crazy--can we?

Speaking of crazy, the Joseph McCarthy of international athletics Dick Pound advances his case for drug testing in the sport that needs it most--golf. It isn't certain what the chairman of the World Anti-Doping Agency expects to find, but if Vegas is taking bets, I'll put money on John Daly being the first to test positive based on his past life as the human beer keg.

Criminally good taste was displayed by a band of armed robbers in South Africa who were robbing grocery stores of all their money...and imported cheeses. The robbers would run through the store and grab expensive food, bathroom supplies and vitamins while robbing the registers at gun point. It is offensive that Rosie O'Donnell has to send out a death squad to do her grocery shopping while she recovers from the Elisabeth Hasselbeck hangover. Shame on her!