When A Pork Chop Simply Won't Do

It had been forever and a day since I had a meal at the Greenhouse Tavern up in Cleveland's East 4th District. It wasn't that I didn't enjoy Chef Jonathon Sawyer's commitment to local and sustainable food, it was just that it hadn't been on my radar for so long because of all the other great places that had been vying for my attention. When I asked my friend Edsel to join me for a dedication ceremony on a Friday night at my collegiate alma mater, Case Western Reserve University, he suggested we stop in and check out the current menu at the Greenhouse Tavern afterward. In fact, I thought it was such a great idea that I also invited my friends Nancy and Bob along, too.

It's hard to keep up with the menu at the restaurant because it can change so quickly, depending on what is and is not in season. Thus, even if I were to post this review a week after our dinner, the menu STILL might be different the next time you go. That being said, there are always some staples (like the amazing Ohio Beef burger), although the toppings do change with the season. Tonight's meal was a mixture of some familiar flavors as well as some bold innovative ones. Luckily, I was able to find a four-top table for 7:30 PM on OpenTable the morning of the ceremony.

After arriving at the restaurant and checking in, our hostess sat us upstairs and left us with a copy of the current menu. Here was a shot of the one page menu (top and bottom):



As was customary with every meal at the Greenhouse Tavern, bread and spread were brought to the table shortly after we sat down:


The spread tonight was pork rillette. Depending on the whim of the kitchen and what was available, this could also be duck rillette. However, Chef Sawyer's clear love of the pig means that most times I have eaten here, it's been pork. Ultra creamy and smooth, this made a fabulous shmear for the amazingly fresh and crusty bread. While the Greenhouse Tavern doesn't bake their own bread (I believe it comes from On The Rise Bakery in Cleveland Heights), the bread has always been really terrific.

Because there were so many new and interesting menu items to try, the four of us decided to order three "Seconds" and split them amongst us. First up was a dish known as the Fifth Quarter:


The Fifth Quarter referred to the bits of the animal that most Americans were unaccustomed to eating. This could include offal and other non-organ meats. The Fifth Quarter changed daily and today's representation was pork tongue that had been breaded and fried and served with a spicy mayonnaise. While I know that I have probably already lost about three-quarters of you out there reading the previous sentence, you have to believe me when I tell you that even *I* was hesitant to try this. Once I did, however, all doubts melted away. Honestly? It tasted like a pork "nugget." The texture was soft and reminded me of pork loin. What about the flavor? With a tiny squirt of lemon juice and a swipe of the spicy sauce from the bottom of the plate, the flavors were delicious and well-balanced. If I didn't already know what this dish was, I would've simply assumed it was just a meat nugget made out of pork loin.

For our second appetizer, we selected the Lamb Crepinette:


Crepinette is a cooking technique where a particular protein (lamb in this case) is wrapped in caul fat before being cooked. The caul fat melts away as it cooks and the protein is held in a uniform shape while it braises. Today's sausage had been cut on the bias and plated on a pool of charred eggplant puree, herb salad, and lamb jus. One of the herbs in the salad was fresh mint and I paired a bit of the green with a bite of the lamb and a generous dip of the charred eggplant. With this single bite, I knew why Chef Sawyer was so well-respected ... it was a little bite of heaven. It hit all of the flavors I look for in a well-balanced bite of food: savory, tangy, smoky, and just a bit of brightness from the mint. The seasoning was spot on.

Our third and final appetizer was a bowl of the Foie Gras Steamed Clams:


Served with only a single slice of charred bread, we soon found ourselves flagging down our server to bring us an additional basket of bread to help with the sauce sopping portion of the evening. The clams were good, yes, but paled in comparison to the ultra rich foie gras and sweet onion broth that lay at the bottom of the bowl. Between the four of us, we went through almost an entire basket of bread as we dipped roughly torn bits of bread in that glorious liqueur. I've had this dish twice now and both times I am simply amazed at how simple, but utterly tasty this dish has been.

While Edsel had exactly one thing on his mind for his entrée tonight, I decided to consider one of the (nearly) vegetarian options tonight, the Ohio Corn Linguine Carbonara:


Homemade linguine, fresh local Ohio corn, a poached egg, lots of fresh black pepper, Pecorino, and pancetta pepato had been tossed and plated in a large bowl. When I received the dish, I used my knife and fork to cut through the soft exterior of the egg, thus releasing the golden yolk and watched as it oozed down into the noodles. I gently tossed the linguine a final time to evenly distribute the yolk before twirling a bit on my fork and taking my first bite. Once again, the kitchen showed its prowess by blending sweetness from the corn, richness from the egg yolk and creme, spiciness from the black pepper and saltiness from the pancetta and Pecorino. The fresh pasta was cooked perfectly al dente, with just a tiny bit of chew to the noodles. Even though we had split three appetizers, I found myself ravenously working my way through my bowl until nothing remained.

We also decided to split a platter of the Animal Style Frites:


This was a dish of the Greenhouse Tavern's Pommes Frites that had been topped with bacon, cheese curds, brown gravy, and two sunnyside up eggs. As I brought my camera up towards my face to take the picture, I couldn't help but think that the dish almost looked "angry," the two eggs serving as the eyes to this "Animal." At $11 for this platter of fries, I don't think this would be something one person with any sanity would order as their own side dish, but split amongst four people ... well, we still only managed to eat half of it. While I certainly did enjoy all of the flavors, the frites themselves were simply okay. That being said, I've never been a huge fan of Chef Sawyer's pommes frites, with tonight's version being as good as any other I've tried.

For the final act and as a reward for making it this far down the review, we can now touch on Edsel's entrée. From the moment he suggested we have dinner tonight at the Greenhouse Tavern, he had been somewhat obsessively talking about the fact that you can now order, for a mere $24, half of a roasted pigs head for your meal. Now what we didn't know was that the kitchen only had a small number available per night and if you got there after they ran out, you'd be out of luck. Fortunately, we had arrived about thirty minutes prior to our reservation and when the topic of the pigs head came up with the hostess, she went and talked to the kitchen staff to make sure they reserved one for our table.

It's rare that you'll see a table of four foodies start to clap and make appreciative noises as the food arrives at the table; tonight was one of those times. As the gentleman carrying the very large platter ascended the stairs and began walking toward our table, not only did we actually clap, but people from other tables actually got up to track the migration of the pig's head as it made its way closer and closer. This was what Edsel received tonight:


Served with an Asian style peanut sauce, lime wedges, and homemade coleslaw, this was an impressive looking platter of food. Additionally, four buttered and toasted buns were provided to make pulled pork sandwiches. While there was more than enough to go around, I only wanted a small taste because of all the other food I had sitting in front of me. Edsel was kind enough to serve me a bit of the cheek meat, prized for its flavor and texture. Combined with just a bit of the peanut sauce, coleslaw and a squirt of lime juice, this was probably the most tender, flavorful piece of pork I have ever eaten.

While digging the cooked flesh off of a cooked pigs head is likely too much for most people to handle, we seemed to have little trouble with the concept. Even with the four of us trying to make a dent in the enormous portion of meat, collectively we still walked away with three entire containers full of leftovers from the pigs head alone! Unless you are REALLY hungry, you could definitely split this with two or three other people and just order a side item to complement it.

Too full from dinner to even consider dessert, we asked for our check. After some quick math, it was decided that with a 20% tip, each person's share came to only $45, which for the amount of food we had just consumed (and the sheer amount of leftovers), was a pretty good value. The fact that everything had been spot on and nothing that I tasted tonight was over or underseasoned was a testament to how well the kitchen was operating. If you have yet to try out the Greenhouse Tavern, I urge you to give them a try. You can certainly make an entire meal for less than the four of us tonight. Regardless of how much you spend, you will no doubt enjoy the unique ambiance and wonderful flavors coming out of the kitchen at this Cleveland hotspot.

Tomato Tasting at Howe Meadow Market

Anyone who has been reading my blog for even a short period of time knows that I am a supporter of local, sustainable, and seasonal products. As I have talked about in the past, I am also a huge fan of markets that can connect the consumer as directly as possible with the farmer / grower. In fact, I've already written about two markets over the past summer, my trip to the Shaker Square Farmer's Market and Coit Street Market and my trip to the Homerville Wholesale Produce Auction. I'm not going to go and rehash the meat of those entries again; there is no point. If you want to read what I had to say about each of those markets, click on the respective links.

However, knowing that both of those markets are not local to Akron natives, I wanted to offer up a third alternative, the Howe Meadow Farmers Market located on Riverview Road in Peninsula on Saturday mornings and at the grounds of Stan Hywet on Thursday late afternoons and early evening. The website details the hours and dates of each location along with various programs and offerings that happen during the summer. Today, being in the midst of corn and tomato season, I decided to visit the Howe Meadow location on Riverview. After arriving shortly after 9 AM, I was directed to park in a meadow by the only major structure on the property, a barn:


As I walked towards the market (which would be just to the right of the barn in the above photograph), I almost felt like I was walking into a medieval fair. It wasn't that people were dressed in period costumes or musicians were playing period pieces, but I felt like I was communing with my natural surroundings. Here was a shot of the market as I approached it:


Just inside the entrance was a Welcome tent where I discovered that while cash was perfectly acceptable, they had a way where you could get "credits" if you needed to make an ATM withdrawal or needed to use your WIC coupons. The credits were used just like regular cash at the various stands in the market. Fortunately, I had enough cash on me that I didn't need to take advantage of the offering.

I'm not going to necessarily comment on the next series of photographs as I think they do an excellent job of telling their own story. I will really only say this: I remain extremely impressed with the bounty of all the wonderful fresh fruit and vegetables that we have available to us at this time of year and I wish I could convince more people to take advantage of this amazing opportunity to buy local and keep the money in our local economy.

That said, here we go ...

(This is probably my favorite photo ... look at all the colors!)

Today in the middle of the square were a duo of musicians playing the dulcimer and flute:


One of the other reasons for my visit today was a free tomato tasting. Market goers were encouraged to try as many flavors as they wanted from the twenty varieties of heirloom tomatoes that were present for todays tasting:




Each group was labeled and the two ladies running the tasting conveniently had a sheet of paper with all of the varietals on them so that you could keep tasting notes if you so chose. I probably ended up trying about half of the tomatoes on display before deciding on the Sun Golds as being my favorite. The balance between the acidity and sweetness was absolutely perfect.

In what turned out to be a pleasant surprise, Jonathon Sawyer, his wife Amelia, and several of the crew from the Greenhouse Tavern (which I've written about before) showed up in conjunction with the tomato tasting to put together several salsas prepared with the ingredients available right there at the market.

Here was a shot of Chef Sawyer putting together his salsa as well as doing some public relations work for his restaurant:


Another shot of the Chef:


Not to be outdone, the crew from the Greenhouse Tavern were eager to each build their own salsas to compete with Jonathon's:


Here were the finished salsas, each highlighting different elements of sweet, tart, and savory:




After all of the salsas had been prepared, shoppers were encouraged to try them all and tell a woman standing at the end of the table what our preference was. Today my vote went for Dan. His salsa had a wonderful blending of tomatoes, corn, garlic, lime juice and seasoning. That being said, it was kind of like trying to pick your favorite child. Of course they were all good, but Dan's really stood out as being well balanced.

Having finished the tomato tasting and the salsa competition, I gathered up my produce and headed up to my friend Diane's house for a fantastic dinner of grass-fed beef from Millgate Farms, a panzanella salad made from some of the tomatoes that I had bought today at the market, and finished off the meal with some amazing Ohio sweet corn that we simply boiled until tender and delicious. I know that our farmers markets won't be up and running again very soon, but once June 2010 hits, I encourage you to seek out a market nearest you and learn what great produce is supposed to taste like. The fact that you'll be helping to support a local farmer and cutting out all of those emissions from having to truck or fly produce from halfway across the United States, or for that matter from another country, is just a big plus in my book.

Ohio's First (and only) Certified Green Restaurant

That's right, gentle reader! The Greenhouse Tavern opened for business last week and tonight I and three of my friends descended upon the establishment for a tasting of their menu. Chef and owner Jonathon Sawyer has been blogging extensively about the renovation of the space for quite some time now (as well as posting photos up on Flickr), and it was finally great to be able to walk into the finished space and see the result of all of the hard work that he and his team put into the place to make his vision happen.

The premise of the GHT is that all of the food served is local, sustainable, and accessible. Jonathon started this tradition with the restaurant he was previously involved with, Bar Cento. With the GHT, he is blessed with not only a three level eatery, but when the roof space is finished (and there will be seating on the roof, too), he will grow some of the herbs and other greens he will be using in his kitchen. Seating right now consists of the basement, a ground floor, and two second floor eating areas (think mezzanine) on opposite ends of the restaurant. The basement space is a smaller "chef's" table area where the kitchen is located. There is also outdoor patio seating once the weather gets nicer (which was definitely not today).

GHT is located literally three doors down from Michael Symon's award winning Lola. Here is the brand new sign for the GHT:


We were seated on the first floor right next to the bar. Almost immediately, bread service began.


This is fresh bread and a very finely processed (in terms of texture) duck rillette. It took the place of butter and oil and when spread on the bread added a wonderfully unctuous and flavorful element. Having to make sure that the bread was up to snuff, I tried it without any rillette. The bread itself was quite good. Upon going down into the kitchen area after our meal I discovered that the bread they serve is cut from this wonderfully large loaf of round bread. Not a miche, but it looked like it was composed of individual dinner rolls that had been allowed to proof together and fuse. When baked, it made a marvelously large loaf of bread, perhaps three feet in diameter.

The GHT menu is surprisingly easy to navigate. It consists of a single page and has Firsts, Seconds, Thirds, and Halfs. Or, in regular-people-speak, small appetizers, regular appetizers, entrees, and side dishes. You are encouraged to mix and match however you'd like your meal to progress. There were between 4-6 dishes in each category and only two daily specials, so you won't feel overwhelmed with the number of choices. We decided to go with a mixture of five appetizers (Firsts, Seconds, and Halfs).

First, a daily special ... savory bread pudding with fried chicken livers on top:


This was delightful. The bread pudding was creamy, rich, and savory. And the surprise for all of our palettes was the addition of nutmeg. It added an almost "sweet" twist to the flavor profile of the pudding. And the chicken livers were completely amazing. Crispy, rich, livery, but not too livery. Eaten alone and then with the pudding it was marriage made in heaven. I could've eaten the entire dish alone if I had had the opportunity.

Next up were the breakfast radishes topped with creamery butter and simple sea salt. This was served with a dressed watercress salad:


I'm not a huge radish person, but these were amazing. The radishes were mild in flavor, but cold and crispy, the butter was creamy and delicious, and the little bit of salt on top just put the dish over the edge. There are so many layers going on at the same time. Texture, flavor, and temperature.

Next up was a dish that my dining companion Nancy was interested in trying, the cabbage gratin. Think of it like "French Onion soup without the soup part" was how someone had described it to her. The cabbage is joined with onions and caramelized to an inch of their life to create this incredibly rich dish that is then topped with cheese and put under the salamander until the cheese is bubbly and browned:


Next up, steak tartare with a poached egg, mustard, and cornichon served with grilled bread.


This was far better than I thought it was going to be. I'm not a huge steak tartare fan, but this was very good, especially when eaten with a bit of the mustard and some of the egg. Rich and fatty, the crispness from the bread and the sharpness of the mustard really brought this dish together for me.

Next up is the pommes frites with a poached egg and chervil:


One of Chef Sawyer's signature dishes at Bar Cento was the pommes frites. He has not only brought that knowledge with him to the GHT, but I think he has improved upon it. Pairing pommes frites with a soft poached egg may seem strange to the American palate, but when you got some potato and some egg in one bite, it was quite lovely. The one thing we discovered as we were digging through the frites was the presence of whole garlic cloves, crushed. This lent a "kiss of garlic" taste to the frites. The one thing that none of us really got was the chervil. Its flavor just wasn't there and visually, it didn't seem to be in the dish.

Okay, so we've finished our appetizers. Now it's time for the entrees. I decided to go with the Ohio burger with rosemary pommes frites and homemade vinegar.


When I go to establishments where I don't know about the quality or sourcing of the ground beef, I always order my burger medium well. Tonight, I was a trusting soul and ordered it medium. I was not disappointed. I have been on a quest for a good burger for a while now and just have yet to find a burger that truly satisfies my soul. My search ended tonight; this burger was divine. The burger actually came out just a shade less done than medium, but I decided to give it a go anyway. And I'm glad I did. Besides being savory, the thing that struck me about this burger was how juicy it was. And the grilled bun was a perfect foil for the meat and cheese. It was both crusty where it had been grilled and soft on the interior.

One of my friends decided to order the Tom Cod en Papillote. Inside the paper pouch was a wonderful sauce of wine, butter, and fresh black truffles. This also came with sliced potatoes (also cooked inside the pouch).


Apart from the actual butter used in the pouch, the fish itself was soft, creamy, and incredibly "buttery". Just melt in your mouth good.

Another friend ordered the buckwheat noodles with clams, tomato, and chili.


I tried a little bit of this as well and discovered why she ordered this tonight even though she had it previously. It was delicious. The noodles were cooked, but still had a nice bite to them. The clams, tomato, and chili were wonderful together, little bits of capricious heat distributing themselves throughout the plate of food.

Finally, we couldn't pass up dessert and I decided to have the Valrhona bittersweet chocolate Pot du Creme with a almond cookie dipped in chocolate and sprinkled with fleur de sel. (Nancy's Red Eye setting on her camera happened to click in just as I snapped this photo.)


The cookies and Pot du Creme are designed to be eaten together. What can I say about this dish. Heaven on a plate. Truly. The cookie complimented the Pot du Creme which complimented the cookie. This dessert is designed for the hardcore chocoholic out there. Of which I am a total fan. And given the cute presentation (there are two cups of Pot du Creme and two cookies), this is a dish that would entirely be appropriate to share with someone else.

Finally, after our meal (which took a good two hours from start to finish), we descended into the basement to check out the open kitchen and the chef's tables.


I feel that my review would be incomplete if I didn't include two details that some might find noteworthy. Chef Sawyer is very aggressive with seasoning. This was how he cooked at Bar Cento and this is how he cooks at the GHT. I personally don't think the food is too salty. But it is on the edge. He is definitely not afraid to use salt to bring out the best in the food he serves. I only mention this because I could definitely see a customer who was sensitive to salt having an issue with how the food leaves the kitchen. And seeing as there are no salt and pepper shakers on the tables, the food is meant to be eaten how it leaves the kitchen.

Second, unbeknownst to my little group of foodies, the Chef directed our server to comp our desserts. Now, we didn't know that at the time we ordered them, and I just want you, the gentle reader, to understand that while I certainly appreciate the gesture, I have in no way held back from what I really thought about my experience.

I thoroughly enjoyed my meal at the GHT. I will be going back soon. The prices are extremely reasonable for this quality of food, the food itself is marvelous, and I know that I am supporting a restaurant that cares about local farmers and purveyors and has adopted a sort of "do no evil" type of mentality. And that's the kind of place I want to support with my dining dollars. I hope that you do, too.