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.

Rosh Hashanah Part II

In my previous entry on Rosh Hashanah, I spent a considerable amount of time talking about the pre-dinner festivities at Nancy and Bob's house. Arriving about ten minutes early with my aunt, I was able to take numerous photographs of the gorgeous table setting and some of the foods that had already been placed out for the first of many courses. While I enjoyed talking about the foods and symbolism regarding certain dishes, celebrating Rosh Hashanah by eating our way through it was ultimately more satisfying.

Going into tonight's dinner, what was really piquing my curiosity was the amount of ceremony involved with celebrating Rosh Hashanah. Having been to several of Nancy and Bob's Passover Seders in the past, I knew that there was a lengthier ceremony involved in celebrating that holiday. For Rosh Hashanah, however, it turned out that there was considerably less ceremony. After having lit the candles,


Nancy gave three blessings. The first was a blessing over the candles:

"Blessed are you O Eternal our God, who has commanded us to light the festival lights."

The second, a blessing over the bread:

"Blessed are you O Eternal our God, who brings forth bread from the Earth."

The third, a blessing over the wine (also known as Kiddush):

"Blessed are you O Eternal our God, who gives us the fruit of the vine."

With blessings pronounced, we were told to start our meal by dipping Honey Crisp apples into the ramekins of honey before eating them:


Apples and honey are both used symbolically to indicate the wish for a sweet year. While the apple was already sweet on its own, it also had just a bit of acidity to it that balanced very well with the honey. After we finished our apple slices, everything on the table was open for consumption.

This year Linda bought two loaves of challah, one plain and one golden raisin, from On The Rise Bakery. Here was a shot of the golden raisin version:


The bread was a wonderful pale yellow color from all of the egg yolks it contained and the golden raisin version had a lovely mild sweetness to it. I ate the golden raisin challah by itself, but decided to smear a bit of Linda's chopped liver pate onto the plain challah:


This wonderful chicken liver pate was unctuous and fatty and at the same time had a lightness to the taste. Linda told us that she had used both chicken fat and butter to give the pate a wonderful mouthfeel. If you don't like the mineral taste of liver, I don't know that this would've changed your mind, but it was an excellent version, nonetheless. The cherry tomatoes, Sugar Snaps, were from Bob's garden and were absolutely sublime. The combination of tomato flavor and natural sugars exploded in your mouth when you bit into one of these gems.

Next up was one of my all-time favorites, Nancy's gefilte fish with Bob's homemade prepared horseradish:


Nancy's gefilte fish is unusual because she uses a three fish blend, whitefish, pike, and carp, that she gets specially ground for her at Mr. Brisket. These three are ground up with some onion to form the ground fish that she then seasons and shapes into the oblong fish balls that she then gently poaches in fish stock. The fish balls on their own have a very clean, fresh fish flavor. It's only after you pair a bite of fish with some of the horseradish, however, that this dish really comes alive. The heat and the zip from the prepared horseradish surprisingly doesn't overpower the delicate flavor of the fish, but actually compliments it.

One of the nice treats about Nancy's holiday meals is that often times, simply prepared fruits or vegetables are laid out on platters and each person can customize the dish how he or she wants. I took some of the marvelous homegrown heirloom tomatoes and fresh basil from the platter and placed it on my plate:


At this point, I could have dressed it with some of the extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar available on the table to make a quick and easy vinaigrette or use one of two varieties of salts that were sitting on the table. I opted to use a simple sprinkling of volcanic black salt on my tomatoes. Besides the dramatic black color they added to the top of the tomatoes, it also added a certain mineral quality that regular sea salt didn't have. The tomatoes were at their peak of ripeness and it was all I could do just to close my eyes while I ate these to try and remember this taste until tomato season comes next year.

Our first course now complete, we had a ten minute respite during which time dirty plates were cleared from the table and the next course prepared. At the end of our break, everyone received a wonderful bowl of Nancy's chicken soup with a lone matzoh ball:


Before we sat down to dinner, Nancy had explained to us that because we were celebrating Rosh Hashanah and not Passover, leavening (in the form of baking power) had been used in the matzoh balls. While the end result looked the same as what I had experienced before, it wasn't until I took my spoon and cut into the ball that I realized the amazing difference that the leavening made in the final product. While I never considered Nancy's Passover matzoh balls to be that dense, the ones she prepared for Rosh Hashanah were ethereal and light. Even before I put the first bite into my mouth, I knew that I was in for a real treat. The chicken soup was also wonderfully rich and had a slight vegetal undercurrent to it. Lovingly referred to as "Jewish penicillin," this soup would've definitely warmed me on a cold day.

Our first two courses now underneath our belts, we took another small breather to get the most substantial course ready to serve. First on the table were some fantastic garden beets that had been roasted, sliced, and served cold with toasted almond slivers:


Growing up as a child, the only version of roasted beets I ever knew were the kind that came out of a can. As you can imagine, gentle reader, I absolutely abhorred the not only the taste of, but even the very thought of, roasted beets. It wasn't until several years ago that I tasted locally raised and roasted beets that I have learned to absolutely fall in love with them. When treated properly, the delicate beet flavor and the amazingly intense sweetness of a well-roasted beet is truly something to savor. Tonight's version ranked up there with the best that I have ever had.

Next onto the table was Linda's sweet potato and carrot tzimmes:


This dish was truly a revelation to me. Made with sweet potatoes, three kinds of organic carrots, locally grown Ohio honey from Lucy and topped with a spice blend containing ginger, coriander, Vietnamese cinnamon, and nutmeg, this immediately took me to Thanksgiving dinner. But this version was immensely better than my family's rather tired and dated candied yam casserole. This one exploded with flavor and the balance between the sweetness of the honey and the vibrance of the spices was spot on. I was so impressed with this dish, in fact, that I decided to have seconds and ask Linda for her recipe. I've already re-invented the dreaded Green Bean Casserole for my family's Thanksgiving dinner, perhaps it's time to give the Candied Yam Casserole a makeover as well.

The third item onto the table was a perennial favorite of mine, the potato kugel:


Made with grated potatoes, matzoh meal, eggs, oil, salt and pepper, this dish could be most closely associated with a bread pudding. Not that it was creamy, mind you, but the final product had a similar consistency to a bread-like product. While the previous samplings of this dish had some of Bob's chilies sprinkled through the kugel, this time it was sprinkled only on the top of the dish. While the texture of this version was identical to previous ones, I think my preference would be to have the chilies scattered through the kugel instead of just on top. But, that is just my preference, and certainly not meant to indicate that I didn't enjoy tonight's kugel just as much.

The fourth, and final, component to our third course was Linda's beef brisket in gravy:


This was a grass-fed brisket from Miller Farm that had been generously seasoned and then braised for many hours with an assortment of root vegetables in liquid. Once the brisket was completely cooked, the braised liquid and vegetables were run through Linda's Vita-Mix blender and fortified with some beef stock to make the wonderful gravy you see in the picture above. The beef was exceedingly tender and literally melted in your mouth. I did end up using my knife to eat the brisket; it wasn't to cut the meat, but to corral bits of beef, gravy, and potato kugel onto my fork before placing the morsel of savory goodness into my eagerly awaiting mouth.

When I finally managed to get a sampling of everything, my dinner plate runneth over with what Nancy described as "Jewish soul food":


I won't bother rehashing all of the fantastic flavors on that plate since I've already done so. I will say that even with two previous courses already in my stomach, I was surprised at how quickly and completely I cleaned my plate. I even had room for more of Linda's delicious tzimmes.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention that we had some really fantastic wines with our dinner tonight. I didn't get a picture of all of them, but here are two that were rather well-liked, an Australian shiraz from Jacob's Creek and a cabernet sauvignon from Simi:


With the main meal out of the way now, we took a little bit longer break to completely clear off the table before serving the desserts. While I was feeling a bit full at that time, I decided to eat through the discomfort in order to enjoy the two wonderful desserts I had seen on the printed menu earlier in the evening. Our first dessert was made by Linda and consisted of a honey cake baked in a bundt pan:


She also made homemade apple sauce and her husband, Fred, whipped up some slightly sweetened heavy cream to be served alongside the cake:


I then managed to assemble all of the components onto my plate:


The honey cake was dense and moist. It tasted of honey and spices, but wasn't overpowering in either category. Mixed with a bit of the apple sauce and the freshly whipped cream, this was an excellent way to start off the dessert course. Honestly, had the other dessert not been so small, I would've happily ended my entire meal with the dressed-up honey cake.

Our final taste of the evening would be something that Nancy happened to come across while shopping at one of her favorite Cleveland locations, Casa Dolce (she has even written about having lunch at Casa Dolce). Some time ago she almost accidentally noticed that Casa Dolce was selling a traditional Jewish delicacy called Rainbow Cookies:


Made from marzipan, these cookies were something that Nancy remembered from her childhood but had never seen in Cleveland until now. She tried some back then and vowed to come back during Rosh Hashanah and place an order for her guests. I'm certainly glad she did. I could've walked by the case in Casa Dolce hundreds of times and never have guessed what these actually were.

Here was a shot of a single cookie, accentuating the many colorful layers:


I've had marzipan paste before (the principal ingredient being ground almonds) and know the flavor well. The surprising thing about this cookie, however, was how cake-like the texture felt. Had I not been told this was a cookie, I would've just assuming it was a multi-layer cake. The almond flavor was intense and clean and the combination of almond with the chocolate frosting on top was a nice way to finish the meal.

At this point, everyone was too full to move, so we sat at the table and lazily conversed about current events and politics for another forty-five minutes. Realizing that my aunt and I had a fairly lengthy drive ahead of us, I suggested that it might be time to depart. Still fairly full from the momentous meal, everyone arose from their chairs, thank you's and good-bye's were exchanged between guests and our gracious hosts, and we quickly found ourselves back outside in the cool, moon-lit air. On the way back to my grandmother's condominium, I asked my aunt if the meal had lived up to the hype of my previous post on Nancy and Bob's Passover Seder meal. She answered emphatically, "And then some!"

Shanah tovah.