Making Time For Thyme

When I first heard John Kolar's name mentioned on the old Cleveland Plain Dealer's Food and Wine forum several years ago, it was being associated with a new venture out in Medina, Ohio, called Thyme - the Restaurant (warning: gratuitous use of Flash). I knew the eatery was an upscale kind of place, but unfortunately, I don't get out to Medina all that often (which is a shame, really, since there are so many great places to eat there). Happily, as I collected my camera bag and walked out to my car after work last Friday, for some reason, it seemed time to finally check out Thyme.

Reservations are a mixed bag with me. When it is just me going out for a meal that I intend to review here on the blog, I tend to eschew reservations if I think I can get away with just showing up unannounced. This ensures complete anonymity and impartiality. However, if I think I might have difficulty getting a table (Friday night at 7 PM qualifies), I will go ahead and make a reservation, sometimes under a different name. Knowing that the chef or general manager often checks the reservation books before dinner service starts, my last minute decision at 6:30 PM on a Friday night to eat at this time made this last point moot since unless the person answering the phone knew me by name, it wouldn't have changed my experience.

Thyme was located about a thirty minute drive from Montrose at 716 North Court Street, Medina, OH 44256 and can be reached at 330-764-4114. When I saw the street sign for the restaurant,


I pulled into the moderately crowded parking lot. Having been around in the mid 70s to early 80s, I immediately recognized that the building was a converted and modified Red Barn restaurant. The entrance to the restaurant was actually facing the parking lot:


Once inside, I marveled at the re-purposed space. Through the main doors to the left was a small bar area. The rest of the inside space was devoted to tables, which while cozy, didn't give you the feeling that you were sitting on top of your neighbor. During better weather, a covered patio was also available. Lighting was pretty dim, but fortunately the hostess sat me at a table with a small, but bright incandescent lamp pointed straight down onto my table. She left me to look through the menu:




After taking my order, my server promptly returned with several items for me. First up was a basket of herbed focaccia and a ramekin of softened butter:


The focaccia was fresh and delicious. I didn't bother to ask if the focaccia was house made, but it didn't particularly matter since it was so tasty. The softened butter had a slight sweetness to it and while it matched the slight saltiness of the bread, wasn't required to elevate the flavor of the bread.

The kitchen also sent out a small starter, an amuse bouche, to get my meal off on the right foot:


This was a warm potato and leek soup that had been drizzled with just a touch of chive oil. I raised the glass to my mouth, tipped it back, and drank the entire contents in one gulp. While nothing fancy, it was seasoned properly and the flavor had a pronounced potato and leek essence to it. The chive oil added a small amount of spiciness, but nothing overwhelming. This was definitely a nice way to start the meal.

Always a sucker for gnocchi, especially homemade gnocchi, after seeing that an appetizer-sized portion was available on the menu, I decided to start my dinner adventure with a pasta course:


This was Porcini Gnocchi with Sauteed Spinach, Mushrooms, Porcini Cream Sauce, and a Balsamic Vinegar drizzle. The texture of the gnocchi were ethereally light, occupying that wonderful spot between having a satisfying chew versus dissolving in the mouth. On some of the less coated pieces, I could taste the potato, another great indicator of being freshly made. The mushroom flavor was quite pronounced and while the fattiness from the cream sauce coated my tongue, the acid from the vinegar helped to cut through it. My only complaint was that when I finished the pasta, I was about to reach for a slice of the focaccia to mop up the remaining sauce when one of the food runners swooped in and removed the plate before I had a chance to do so.

Interestingly, my gnocchi had shown up mere minutes after placing my order. In between my appetizer and my entree, however, the wait was a bit longer. It probably only seemed excessive because the gnocchi had come out so quickly. Soon enough, my server returned with my main course, the Double Cut Grilled Pork Chop with Poblano and Bacon Macaroni and Cheese, Asparagus, and Smoked Onion BBQ Sauce:


I had asked for the pork to be cooked to a "medium" temperature and it was. The pork was flavorful, juicy, and seasoned properly. While some of the asparagus spears were a bit thin and wispy, overall they were grilled and seasoned nicely. The smoke flavor in the BBQ sauce was nicely present, but not overwhelming. The pork was nicely complemented by the sauce. However, the big winner on this plate was the poblano and bacon macaroni and cheese. Nice and crusty on top and creamy everywhere else, this was an incredibly delicious version of this American staple. The pasta -- straight up macaroni noodles -- was perfectly cooked and wasn't mushy in the least. While I know that most anything is better with bacon, the addition of the roasted poblano added a subtle sweet and spicy element that really worked.

Having nearly cleaned my plate before indicating that I was finished, my server asked if I was interested in seeing the dessert menu. I figured that since I had already experienced such great success with the regular menu, the desserts must be on par. Right? Here was a shot of the dessert menu:


When I looked at the menu and realized that Thyme only had four desserts, two of which were pretty routine -- namely the creme brulee and molten chocolate cake -- I was actually a bit disappointed. Coming to grips that my choice would be between a cheesecake and a pumpkin mousse, I figured that the Toffee Cheesecake with Candied Almonds, Bruleed Banana, and Toffee Sauce would be the more interesting of the two.

As I've mentioned before, when I anticipate eating something sweet, I will often pair it with something bitter, like espresso or coffee, which was exactly what I did tonight:


The espresso was properly brewed, with full crema floating on top of the murky, bitter liquid sitting below the surface. While I appreciated the raw sugar cube, I skipped it and went straight for the twist of lemon.

Fortunately, only a few moments after my espresso arrived, my dessert made its way to the table:


While the plate definitely gets props for verticality and use of multi-textured components, sadly, this plate could've done with a color outside of the "brown" family -- a sprig of mint would've done wonders to break up the monotone theme. The toffee sauce was pleasant and tasted like, well, toffee. The bruleed banana was nicely caramelized. The candied almonds added a nice textural element.

The toffee cheesecake had its good and bad points. While not overly sweet, it was also a bit "vanilla." I didn't get a whole lot of toffee flavor in the cheesecake and honestly, it needed something to counterbalance the sweetness of the dessert -- perhaps sour cream would have helped. Maybe if the caramel on the banana had been cooked a bit darker, the inherent bitterness would have contrasted better with the sweetness. It just needed ... something. Don't get me wrong, gentle reader, it wasn't a bad tasting dessert. It was just kind of unremarkable considering the level of food I had enjoyed until that point.

The check with tip and gratuity came to just under $50 tonight. Was it worth it? Yes, I think it was. Given that the only non-stellar part of my meal was the dessert (and by non-stellar, I don't mean bad), I would definitely return for another meal at Thyme - the Restaurant. I don't know that Medina has any other restaurants within city limits that are executing food at this high of a level. If you live in Medina and want a wonderful dining experience, definitely check out Thyme. If you live outside of Medina, I still think it is worth the trip.

Hopefully the desserts will attain the same level as the rest of the food in the future.

A Return Trip To Eddie's Pizzeria Cerino

Recently a call rang out from a Cleveland foodie friend, Kay, to come together for a communal meal at an Italian eatery I have written about once before, Eddie's Pizzeria Cerino. Considering the Food Illuminati who would be attending tonight's dinner, I was greatly anticipating a wonderful meal. While some might think that my review of tonight's meal will be biased because the chef knew we were coming and clearly put the kitchen's best foot forward, my previous experience as an anonymous diner lead me to the conclusion that the food would be consistently good, known identity or not.

Pizzeria Cerino does not take reservations. Well, sort of. There is actually one long communal table that can be reserved. It turned out that it could hold parties as large as fifteen people. Which, incidentally enough, was exactly the number of people who showed up tonight. When I showed up, only my friends Nancy and Bob were there. Nancy was enjoying a seasonal brew from the Thirsty Dog Brewery located right here in Akron, Ohio, the Pumpkin Ale. It looked so good that I decided to order one, too:


My pint came rimmed with a cinnamon sugar mix that made me do a double take. At first I thought it didn't sound particularly appealing to mix sugar with beer, but the combination worked extremely well. The flavors of the ale were clean and crisp and tasting this flavor made me seriously consider ordering the pasta special tonight, the butternut squash ravioli.

After all the patrons finally arrived, Chef Eddie Cerino came out to welcome us. He told us he would be sending out some complimentary flatbreads for us to try. Here was a shot of the first flatbread to arrive at our table:


This flatbread had prosciutto, goat cheese, and capers on it and was really amazing. The flavors and textures were so layered, even with such simple ingredients. The flatbread crust itself was thin and crispy while still maintaining a nice chewy texture. The toppings, salty, sour, and sweet, all worked so well together to make a perfect bite.

The second flatbread to come out to the table was this beauty:


Topped with the housemade bolognese, melted cheese, and some freshly chiffonaded basil, the complex sweet and savory flavors danced around in my mouth after taking a bite. I'm not sure if the flatbreads are made from the same dough that Eddie's uses for their thin crust pizzas, but I do know that the they are shaped in a free-form manner. The thin crust pizzas are shaped to fit in an actual pan.

To finish up the flatbread portion of our meal, a shot of my appetizer plate:


I highly recommend you give the flatbreads a try the next time you go.

While I wasn't initially in the mood for a salad, the daily special sounded so go that I couldn't pass it up. The fact that the salad (as are all salads at Eddie's) was available in both half and full sizes enticed me further into having one before my entree. Here was a photo of my salad:


Let me apologize for the somewhat lackluster green color of the above salad. I'm finding that one of the limitations of using my G1 camera phone with imperfect lighting conditions is that the green colors tend to be somewhat washed out. I can assure you that this salad was perfectly fresh and vibrant, both in color and taste. The salad consisted of greens tossed in the most delicious honey mustard poppy seed dressing and was adorned with toasted slivered almonds, chunks of feta, and sliced mandarin oranges. I was a little taken aback at how large the salad was as I had only ordered a half-salad. Had I been dining with a partner, this half-salad could've easily been split between two people.

In the end, however, I have to confess that I ate the entire salad. I knew that I had an entree coming, but honestly, the flavors were so spot on that I found myself desiring bite after bite. I normally ask for my salad dressing on the side as most restaurants overly saturate salad greens. Not at Eddie's. Each leaf was properly dressed and when I finally reached the white ceramic surface of my plate, nary a puddle of dressing could be seen anywhere.

Accompanying our salad course was a basket of the housemade focaccia bread:


I had sampled the focaccia bread on my last visit and was looking forward to trying it again. Served simply with a saucer of extra virgin olive oil and a little bit of freshly cracked pepper, I took a bite and immediately remembered why I had liked this bread the first time I tried it. Even eaten plain, the focaccia has an amazing flavor. Many places make their own breads. But it takes a baker with experience to know that true depth of flavor only comes with cold-aging the dough. Clearly this focaccia was made with maximum flavor in mind.

For my entree, I decided to go with the eggplant parmesan bolognese:


This was a massive portion of food and after eating all of my salad, I only managed to finish off about one-third of the food on the plate. I didn't see this as a problem; it was just a way to continue my experience the next day when I had the leftovers for lunch.

Here was a shot of the eggplant parmesan portion of the platter:


The eggplant was tender and flavorful. The crispy exterior was quite tasty and contrasted nicely with the soft eggplant interior. The eggplant had been perfectly fried and there was absolutely no hint of oily residue left on the exterior. The bolognese, lying hidden underneath the eggplant, added a nice meaty richness that I think would be sadly missing in the vegetarian version of this dish.

Accompanying my eggplant was a side of pasta in marinara:


Showered with fresh basil, the pasta was tender and flavorful and the marinara brought a nice brightness to the plate. I forgot to ask if the capellini was housemade, but given the excellent quality of our meal up to this point, it wouldn't surprise me one bit if it was.

When I arrived at the restaurant, it was brimming full of patrons and there was an electricity in the air. By the time our two and a half hour culinary odyssey had come to an end, there were considerably fewer people in the dining room. I boxed up my rather ample remaining portion of eggplant and capellini, paid the check, and returned outside into the now somewhat chilly autumnal air. I was worried when longtime Executive Chef Dominic Cerino left the kitchen at Carrie Cerino's in North Royalton that I would be without a seat in the cucina. Having now eaten twice at Eddie's Pizzeria Cerino, I realize that perhaps all I ever really needed to do was simply change the address of where that kitchen was located.

eG Heartland Gathering: Focaccia is Fantastic

My main contribution to the Heartland Gathering for the past three years has been bread. The first two years it was fairly easy to do bread because the gathering was in Ann Arbor and Cleveland. This made it very easy to start the breads on Friday night after work and bake into early Saturday morning. A couple hours of sleep and I was off to the main event. Last year in Chicago proved to be a much more interesting challenge because not only was Chicago a six hour drive, but I was also arriving earlier in the week for a couple pre-Gathering events. Fortunately, there was enough interest (and at the last minute an available kitchen) for me to put together a bread workshop where we actually made the breads for the dinner the next day.

This year's Heartland Gathering was in Kansas City. And I drove. And arrived at midnight on Saturday morning. Hmmm ... how was that going to work? Well, gentle reader, I'm here to tell you.

I stayed with a good friend and founder of eGullet, Fat Guy (his screen name). When I was teetering on the fence on whether to attend this year's festivities, he offered to share his room with me. This was enough of a financial incentive for me to commit to the Saturday and Sunday activities. Knowing that I wouldn't have access to an oven until 2 pm on Saturday, I decided that I would do all of the steps of making my focaccia bread at the hotel and then transport the almost finished doughs to the venue for this year's dinner.

Fortunately, Fat Guy was able to secure a room on the first floor as lugging around my KitchenAid Pro up and down the stairs was not something I really wanted to do.

Once I finally arrived, I started the pre-ferment, in this case a poolish, for the three batches of focaccia I would be making. The poolish adds a wonderful sour element (but not nearly as sour as a sourdough) to the finished breads and a nice depth of flavor. Plus, the poolish helps to extend the shelf-life of the finished bread, although to be fair, I don't think it was around too long once the noshing started.

To make a poolish, you need:

* 250 grams of bread flour
* 250 grams of room temperature water
* 2 grams of active dry yeast (basically 1/3 of a packet)

I would recommend using bottled water since the chlorine gas has had a chance to escape. And remember that since there are only a few ingredients, they must all be really good. If your tap water tastes bad, it won't do much to help your bread either.

Once you have all of your ingredients in your container (this can rise significantly, so use a big enough container), mix vigorously with a wooden spoon until it has the consistency of thick pancake batter. Cover this with a lid (or plastic) and sit it in a draft free corner for anywhere from 6-12 hours. If you find that you can't use it right away, it can be successfully stored in the refrigerator for up to two days.




After about 8-12 hours of sitting in a nice draft-free corner, if done correctly, your poolish should look something like this:



Notice all of the little bubbles and tiny holes. When you first remove the cover, take a deep breath. This is the smell of a good starter. Virtually any bread you make with this will benefit from the time you took to make the pre-ferment.

Now that your poolish is ready, you are ready to make your focaccia dough. At this point you need to break out the serious tools, especially your KitchenAid stand mixer. Here is a shot of mine sitting on the dresser next to the TV set (which I moved to accommodate the mixer):


Here is a shot of the basic ingredients required for the main dough:


Into the KitchenAid bowl, add:

* 430 grams of bread flour
* 100 grams of cornmeal
* 7 grams of active dry yeast (1 packet)


You can now add the extra virgin olive oil and all of the poolish to the bowl:

* 500 grams poolish
* 15 grams of extra virgin olive oil (also known as 1 tablespoon)


Before starting to build the recipe, you should measure your salt and water separately so that you can add them at the appropriate time:

* 296 grams of room temperature water
* 16 grams of salt (preferably sea salt)


The thing to remember about the water is that IT is the variable in the recipe, not the flour. 296 grams of water is a starting point, you might need less, you might need more. It all depends on the humidity of the day, the protein level of your flour and the age of the flour. I always find that it's better to add 50 less grams of water initially than what is called for in the recipe and slowly add the last 50 grams until the dough gets to the right consistency. Even then, I may have to add more water, but I do it very slowly. In today's dough, I actually used about 284 grams of water instead of 296 grams. An over-hydrated dough can turn sticky and unmanageable very quickly.

Also make sure that you don't let the salt touch the yeast directly or it may actually kill it. Using the dough hook, start the mixer slowly (setting "1") to mix the ingredients. Once the ingredients have come together, increase the speed of the mixer to "2" and knead the dough for 6-7 minutes. The gluten in the dough is properly formed when it can pass the windowpane test.


Notice that even though we have a rather wet dough, it is not sticking to the sides of the bowl. This is a good thing. Once the dough is fully kneaded, transfer to a slightly oiled container,


cover with a lid (or plastic), and put into a draft-free corner for about 60-90 minutes or until the dough has visibly doubled in size. The amount of time will really depend on how warm your spot is. In this particular instance, I let it rise about 2 hours before folding it over. Remove the lid, fold the dough over onto itself to release the gas buildup as well as redistribute the yeast and re-cover and place back in the corner. The second rise shouldn't take nearly as long as the first since the yeast is now nice and active, maybe about half to three-quarters the amount of time as the first rise.


Once the dough has risen a second time, it is ready to be panned. First, turn on your oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit in order to allow it to sufficiently pre-heat. Now, take a sturdy half-sheet pan and spray the bottom with release spray (i.e. Pam). Then cut a piece of parchment to the size of your pan and lay it in the bottom of the pan.


The Pam will initially help to hold the parchment paper in place and after baking will help to release the finished bread from the pan. Once the parchment is in place, use a brush to spread a thin layer of olive oil on top of the parchment. The oil will not only help to flavor and slightly crisp the bottom of the focaccia, but will also help in removing the parchment from the bottom of the bread.


Now that the pans are ready, use a flexible plastic scraper to transfer the fully fermented dough into the middle of the pan.


Wet your hands or spray your hands with release spray and gently begin pushing the dough to fill the pan.


This will take about three or four times to accomplish because the tendency of the dough will be to spring back. Every five minutes, push the dough a little further out towards the edge of the pan, making sure to cover the top of the pan with a tea towel between attempts to avoid drying out the dough.


While you are stretching your dough, you can create the flavorful topping. In this case we will need:

* 3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
* 11-12 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
* 1/2 cup fresh rosemary, finely chopped

This amount will actually make enough topping for two half-sheets of focaccia, so if you are making a different amount of bread, you can adjust it accordingly.


Once the dough has been stretched, give it about ten minutes to rise a little more. Using a spoon, spread an appropriate amount of the topping onto the focaccia. Then, use your finger tips to gently dimple the top of the dough, pressing the toppings downward.


Allow this to proof for ten more minutes. Before going into the oven, sprinkle the top of the dough with some nice coarse Kosher salt.


Place this into the center of the oven and bake for 25-30 minutes, or until the bread is nicely browned and the garlic is nicely caramelized. You may need to rotate the pan half-way through the baking process. Once the pan is removed from the oven, immediately remove the bread from the pan and place onto a cooling rack. Once on the rack, you should be able to easily remove the parchment paper from underneath the bread. After it has completely cooled (which takes about 45-60 minutes), cut up into appropriately-sized portions. A half-sheet should make 24 portions if cut into 2" x 2" squares. However, you can get man more portions if you cut it into a different shape.

The topping can really be anything you find flavorful. In fact, if you wanted to pair the focaccia with something else like cheese, you could just finish the top off simply with Kosher salt and cracked black peppercorns. That's what I decided to do for a second variety of focaccia that I knew would be served during the cheese pre-dinner course.


You'll see how we ended up using (and eating) both versions (rosemary & garlic and salt & pepper) in the next two entries where I will cover both the Heartland Dinner pre-dinner and the dinner itself. Let's just say that both breads turned out spectacularly and I was quite pleased with the results.

[Ed. note: The photos taken of me working in the kitchen (I'm in the blue shirt) were photographed by another attendee, jgm, who has graciously surrendered the copyright of her photos to me and I am hereby re-releasing them under the Creative Commons license that governs this blog. Documentation is on file to confirm this.]