Join Me At The Taste of Akron 2010

Bare with me as I channel my inner Snoopy: It was to be a dark and stormy night.

Fortunately, the foreboding weather held off long enough during this year's Taste of Akron event in Hardesty Park near the intersection of Market and Hawkins that thousands of people were able to try out an array of foods from local restaurants and caterers. This being the fourth year of the Taste, it has steadily grown in both the number of vendors and attendees every year. While my normal method of documenting such an event would be to try out and photo-document something from each vendor, I knew that with two dozen different places to try and a limited amount of time, stomach space, and money, I needed a different strategy.

After parking my car on one of the surrounding streets, I walked up to the ticket booth to purchase my food tickets. Tickets were only $2 a piece, but I have come to learn that it is better to be cautious on how many you initially buy because they are not refundable. No money was actually exchanged with vendors for food, only tickets. Depending on the size or expense of the item, each dish at a restaurant was either one, two, or three tickets ($2, $4, or $6).

As I approached the entrance, I saw a list of the vendors inside:


As opposed to previous years, this year there was a spot for strollers to be left just outside the tent to help avoid the clogged lines of people. This was definitely a positive change from last year when during the busy time (and there really wasn't a non-busy time), you not only had to navigate through the crowds of people, but the double-wide strollers were a bit annoying, too. Knowing how hot it can feel in the tent, fans were placed strategically at both ends. This helped somewhat when you were at either end of the tent, but right in the middle, it was definitely still hot and muggy.

As I strolled around looking at each vendors' offerings, I decided to pick restaurants that I was interested in doing a formal review at some point in the future. I considered tonight sort of a "preview," if you will, of what to expect at an actual meal.

As such, I came up to Piatto Novo and decided that they would be my first stop tonight:


If you look closely at the menu offerings, you can see the start of a major trend in the food this year, sliders. Unfortunately, none of the "sliders" that I saw or ate were truly sliders as none of the buns were steamed. I know, picky picky, but at best, these were just small sandwiches on buns.

Regardless, I decided on going with the Italian Beef slider:


Sadly, there was no spicy giardiniera to put on top of the sliced meat, but out of the corner of my eye, I spotted a jar of Sriracha sauce. Score!

As I took a bite into my sandwich, I noticed how dry (not necessarily stale, just not moist) the bun tasted. In a true Italian Beef sandwich, the customer is given the option of having the sandwich dipped in the jus. While the lack of giardiniera was disappointing, a dipped sandwich would've gone a long way from taking a good sandwich and making it even better. That being said, the meat was nicely cooked and tender and was flavorful. With the addition of the Sriracha, it even had a little bit of the heat that I associate with a properly made Italian Beef sandwich.

My second stop tonight was to Bistro on Main. Technically from Kent and not Akron, I've been hearing some interesting feedback about this restaurant and intend to check them out soon.


While the green menu being handed out at the tent's entrance stated that the Bistro was serving up cheesecake, popcorn shrimp, and a short rib slider, in reality, they were serving a seared scallop with avocado and roasted corn orzo and a second dish, a baby blue salad. I decided to go with the seared scallop:


It is hard to hold seafood for any length of time, so I was a bit skeptical about how good this might actually be. When I got back to my seat, I cut open one of the scallops to reveal a nicely cooked exterior and translucent interior:


First, I tasted the avocado and roasted corn orzo. While the orzo was good, I didn't get a whole lot of flavor from the roasted corn. The scallop, which had been seasoned before being seared, had just the right amount of punch to make this a successful dish. And while some might argue that the scallop was the star of the dish and the orzo should play second fiddle, I felt like the orzo could've used a bit more personality. All in all, though, this was a nice dish.

My third stop tonight was at a rather unusual venue, Virtues Restaurant (warning: Flash content with sound). What makes Virtues unusual was that it was located inside Akron City Hospital. While it would make sense that visitors might want an upscale meal while visiting friends or relatives, it still felt a little strange to think about going to a hospital for dinner if you or someone you know wasn't sick.

Regardless, here was a shot of the items being offered at Virtues' stand tonight:


While the sea scallop sounded good, having just eaten a scallop at Bistro on Main and the fact that I only had two tickets left in my pocket made me choose the BBQ Bison slider. Here was a shot of the sandwich:


I tasted the bacon blue cheese slaw by itself and found it to be quite interesting. The smokiness from the bacon and the sharpness from the blue cheese were present, but not overpowering. I don't know that I'd be able to eat this as a standard side dish, but as a topping it worked quite well. I also tried a bit of the BBQ sauce. By itself, it had a decent flavor, but when combined with the coleslaw, it got lost. The worst part of this sandwich was the actual bison meatball. It was rather dry and uninspired. This slider was also the only item that I had tonight where I had to reassemble the sandwich so I could eat it. Whomever had assembled the sliders thought it would be artful to put the coleslaw behind the meatball instead of on top of it. It looked nice, but was definitely not mouth ready.

Having had my trio of savory, I decided to finish up tonight's tour with something sweet. When I saw that Vaccaro's Trattoria was sporting a hotel pan full of cannoli, I decided to stop and pick one up:


While the famous Godfather quote did flash through my mind, tonight I decided to leave the tickets and take a cannolo instead. Here was a shot of my dessert tonight:


Fried dough can get a little soft in humid weather like today, but Vaccaro's cannolo was shatteringly crisp and fresh. The filling, a slightly sweetened ricotta concoction with bits of chocolate was tasty and refreshing. It was sweet without being too sweet and the coldness of the cheese was a welcome relief on such a warm July day.

After finishing up my meal, I wandered over to a separate area where West Point Market was hosting another annual "The Finest Cut" steak cook-off. A friend and fellow food blogger at Dad Cooks Dinner, Mike Vrobel, had won last year and was entering his newest creation in this year's contest in hopes of walking away with another title.

Here was a shot of Mike presenting his finished steak to the judges (Lisa Abraham, food writer for the Akron Beacon Journal and tonight's MC was on the right):


This year he entered the contest with a grilled ribeye steak served with a chipotle lime butter. While there wasn't a general audience tasting (just the judges), Mike did have a few samples left over after he presented his steak to the judging panel and I have to say, it was perfectly cooked and seasoned. While he didn't present any of the reduced sauces and accoutrement that some of the other contestants had, he presented his steak as I would have preferred it, simple, seasoned nicely, and cooked to a wonderful medium rare.

I won't spoil it here, but Mike wrote up the results of the contest on his blog. Click on the link if you want to see what happened.

Having tried four different tastes at this year's Taste of Akron, I am very much looking forward to sampling some of the food at each of the respective restaurants sometime in the near future. While the Taste of Akron is finished for this year, I encourage you to check it out next year. The event is always on a Thursday, late in July, and really does showcase some of the best eateries that Akron and the surrounding communities have to offer. Make sure the Taste of Akron is on your list of events for next summer, you won't regret it.

Dinner For Thirteen At Vaccaro's Trattoria

I suppose that no one, restaurants included, can ignore the laws of physics: For everything that goes up, it must eventually come down.

I have written numerous times (here, here, here, here, here, and here) about my adventures eating at Vaccaro's Trattoria. In fact, when asked, I have also recommended them numerous times to friends and family who are looking for an Akron-based restaurant that serves upscale food without being pretentious or stuffy. While I stand by every single word I've ever written about my previous experiences at Vaccaro's, I have to admit that I have had several people who had taken my suggestion later return to tell me that their experiences weren't as stellar as mine. While my gut reaction is to respond that every kitchen has an off night now and again, I feel like saying this makes me an easy target to be labeled an apologist.

Since landing on Raphael Vaccaro's radar last summer after my first review, I have had an interesting relationship with him. I now understand why professional food critics must keep personal distance between themselves and the restaurants, chefs, and owners that they review. I can surmise that any restaurant, not just Vaccaro's, wants to hear nothing but praise for their efforts. And as much as I want to say, "they just had an off night," and leave it at that, it would be unfair to those of you who have chosen to place value in what I say about this and other eateries that I have reviewed.

I contacted Raphael about six weeks ago to float the idea by him of a prix fixe dinner. We decided on six courses at $40 per person with beverages, tax, and tip extra. He was to take care of the menu and I would be coordinating the guests. Immediately, a Facebook event went up detailing the time, location, and a description of the dinner and I invited seventy of my closest friends whom I thought might be so inclined as to participate in such a meal. While the number guests constantly fluctuated between the time I sent the invitation and just two hours before our meal, in the end thirteen of us showed up, the notions of what to expect having been set by either previous visits to the restaurant or bolstered by the menu that Raphael had sent out roughly one week prior.

Here was the menu that Raphael had sent me:

Course 1 Soup and Sandwich: Smoked Tomato Bisque / Mini Grilled Cheese Panini Course 2 Baby Arugula / Fresh Citrus / Scamorza / Cirignolo Olives / Cinzano Vinaigrette Course 3 Fried Green Tomato / Shrimp & Langostino Course 4 Local Heirloom Tomato Sauce / Fiocchetti Pasta all Uovo Primavera Course 5 Surprise Main Course Course 6 Housemade Ricotta with Lemon Mousse / Fresh Berry Compote / Toasted Saviordi

I was excited to see that all of our courses tonight (well, with the exception of course five) would be totally off-menu. It isn't that I don't like their current menu, but it was nice that for our dinner party, we would be having something just a little bit different.

I arrived about five minutes before the starting time to find an already half-filled table. After seating myself next to my date, the sharp witted and ever-so-slightly irascible Miss Penny (of Dante fame), our server for the evening approached me and referenced me by first name. I had never met this particular server before, so either he had done some research on his own or Raphael had prepped him about our dinner party this evening. Service tonight was good when our server was around, but as he was taking care of more than just our table, there were definite lags when he was occupied with his other guests. On several occasions, diners were left with courses sitting in front of them with inadequate silverware to consume the food.

In what was to be a bit of foreshadowing for this evening's meal, bread and dipping oil arrived at our table shortly after 6:00 PM. Unfortunately, no bread plates accompanied the bread. When we finally managed to track our server down, he explained that there had been a miscommunication and there wasn't even supposed to be bread on the table. When asked about the possibility of getting some bread plates, he surprised most of the people at my end of the table by saying that they had actually run out. Really? I guess it was fortuitous that they had accidentally brought the bread because we didn't get our first course until forty-five minutes later at 6:45 PM. People began nibbling bread sans plate to ward off the rumblings in their stomachs.

While the $40 per person was just for the prix fixe menu, I decided to order a glass of the Gavi di Gavi off the wine menu to compliment my dinner:


Miss Penny had requested a white wine that was somewhere between dry and sweet and having had this before, I knew it would be an excellent choice. While my goal wasn't to pick a single glass of wine that would go with every course (especially considering I had no idea what course number five would be), I did want an easily drinkable wine that wouldn't interfere too much with the flavors of the food. In that respect, this was an excellent pick.

When the first course finally arrived, I had my second inkling that there might be continued problems with our meal. Here was the course that Raphael had titled, "Soup and Sandwich":


To the left was a bowl of fire-roasted tomato bisque:


And to the right was a deep-fried panko crusted cheese sandwich with an assortment of cheeses including a smoky scamorza and creamy chevre:


The problem with this dish wasn't in the flavor; in fact, the flavors were actually quite good. It was the size of the dish. For a first course, it was enormous. In fact, Miss Penny commented that were she eating a normal dinner at home, this amount of food would've been more than enough for an entire meal. It's never a good sign when diners are requesting take-out containers for leftovers on the very first course.

The tomato bisque was actually quite good. It was a bit rustic in texture, and the smoky, tart, and sweet flavors from the fire-roasted tomatoes balanced each other quite well. The smokiness from the scamorza was easily discernible and the creamy zing from the goat cheese added extra layers of flavor to the sandwich. The panko crusted and deep-fried aspects of the sandwich made it unusual, but tasty.

Our second dish was the salad course:


Comprised of baby arugula, escarole, small planks of Fontina, grapefruit sections, supremed orange wedges, raspberries, and strawberries, it had been dressed with a Cinzano vinaigrette. Strangely missing were the Cirignolo olives the menu had described. While I love bitter flavors and I know how much Raphael loves to play with bitter elements on the plate, I know it was too bitter for some of the guests. The sweetness from the fresh fruit helped to tame some of the bitterness, but in addition to being too bitter, several of the diners thought the salad was too salty as well. Personally, I felt that the salt level in my salad was fine and suggested that maybe because of the extreme bitterness, it somehow enhanced the sensitivity to additional salt when there really wasn't any. Or perhaps, the salad had been dressed in two separate batches, and one batch did actually receive more salt than the other. As with our first course, I ended up eating only half of my salad in an attempt to pace myself. While I appreciated this dish, I also know it wasn't universally enjoyed.

Our third dish arrived and I was happy to see that the portion size was much better suited to a six course tasting menu:


While the original menu that Raphael had sent me indicated that there would be fried green tomatoes on the plate, what arrived was a baked ring of squash, called cucuzza, that had been filled with a shrimp and langostino salad, dressed with a bit of Balsamico and studded with several long strands of chives. The cucuzza was actually quite delicious and had an almost baked eggplant flavor to it. It was just the tiniest bit sweet and the texture was soft without being mushy. The seafood salad was dressed nicely and the slight sweetness from the shrimp and langostino complimented the acidity from the Balsamico. I enjoyed the delicacy of this dish; Miss Penny did not.

By the time our fourth course arrived, we had been at the restaurant for a good two hours. Tables around us had already been turned once and were now being occupied by a secondary round of guests. It became clear that we were obviously in for an entire evening of food. Here was our fourth course:


This was a local heirloom tomato marinara that topped fiocchetti all uovo, an egg-based pasta which when I originally did some research on the Internet thought it was shaped more like farfalle. Clearly that page had been incorrect because tonight's pasta was definitely not in the shape of bow-ties. A grating of fresh cheese topped the pasta and the entire dish was adorned with a single fresh basil leaf.

First, the good. I loved the tomato sauce. As did everyone around me, too. The sharpness from the aged cheese was also a welcome addition as it provided a bit of saltiness and depth of flavor that matched the marinara well. Second, the not-so-good. While I personally didn't have a problem with the texture of my pasta, others around me felt it was cooked a little too al dente (or perhaps undercooked might be a better adjective) and wished it had been cooked just a minute longer. Given that the texture was probably not what you would've received had this been ordered off of their regular menu, I'll have to concede this point to my guests. Had this been just a meal out with a couple of friends and not part of a prix fixe dinner, the pasta more than likely would've been sent back to the kitchen and re-fired.

The problem that I DID have with this dish was one that is all too common at other Italian restaurants and I was surprised to encounter it here tonight:


What you see in the above photo was the amount of water at the bottom of the dish after I had eaten the pasta. At first I had thought that maybe it was liquid from the marinara, but given how thick and uniform in color the marinara was, I surmise that this liquid was a result of not draining the pasta well enough after cooking. Besides diluting the marinara somewhat, it also made the pasta a little more difficult to eat as the potential for shirt-staining drips became more likely.

We finally arrived at the mystery course for tonight's dinner, course number five:


This course turned out to be a thickly cut lamb tenderloin still on the bone served over creamy mashed potatoes and topped with an apricot compote. As I cut into the lamb, I was rewarded with a beautiful medium-rare steak:


This dish really worked for me. While the first two courses had been enormous, this was the perfect little bit of meat and potatoes. The potatoes were seasoned on point and the richness of the lamb paired really well with the subtle sweetness from the apricot compote. There was very little gaminess to the meat and if you hadn't been told, it would've been easy to confuse this with a beef loin. Of course, the presence of the bone at the other end of the chop might've been a dead giveaway, too. Sadly, Miss Penny's cut was just a bit too rare for her taste and another diner's cut was too well done. Had the two dishes been switched, both diners would've been happier. Bad luck of the draw, I suppose.

By the time the sixth, and final, course arrived, we had headed into hour three of our experience. Fortunately, the dessert was on the smaller side as well:


From the menu Raphael had originally sent, I knew that this was supposed to be a housemade ricotta and lemon mousse with a fresh berry compote and toasted Saviordi. The Saviordi actually took its place atop the dish as finely crumbled Lady Fingers. Both myself and others around me felt like the restrained level of sweetness in this dessert was really one of the best aspects about it. The ricotta added a depth of flavor to the mousse, but none of us really got any lemon flavor. The fruit and syrup from the compote added a nice acidity to the subtle sweetness of the mousse. I was happy to see that there were many empty martini glasses by the time we finished the dessert course.

Noting the time that I finished my dessert, I realized that we had been there for three and a half hours. While it occasionally felt like the distance between courses was belabored at times, I finished the meal feeling full, but not overly so. At the very least, it had given all of us a chance to share quite a bit of time talking with each other, which I suppose is the other positive aspect of planning a dinner party for thirteen people. I was impressed that our server seemed to know who received individual checks and who received checks for two and even more so that he apparently got it completely right on the first pass.

Overall, I will say that I enjoyed my meal tonight, although not as much as other dinners I have eaten in the past. Based on the dishes I was served, I felt that there were both good and disappointing points to our meal. The feedback I received from other diners in our party ranged from very good to disappointing. And while I certainly am not writing a review on my blog from someone else's point of view, I think it is helpful to consider the entire range of tonight's dining experiences so that you get a more balanced view should you decide to entertain the idea of going to Vaccaro's for a meal yourself.

I personally intend to continue patronizing Vaccaro's Trattoria, but I know that based on some of the comments other diners made tonight, that might not be the case for them. As I mentioned earlier, tonight was the first major meal where I had experienced this level of inconsistency and having eaten at and written about them for over a year now, I know that the kitchen is capable of such wonderful cuisine. In the end, my hope is that they can work these inconsistencies out.

A Vaccaro's Preview: Cabernet Wine Flour

The last time I stopped in to Vaccaro's Trattoria to check out their new spring / summer menu, I ordered an item off of the dessert menu, the Cabernet Wine Flour Chocolate Lava Cake. At the time I had no idea what Cabernet Wine Flour was and simply wrote it off as perhaps a typographical error on the menu. The chocolate lava cake tasted like chocolate and I didn't give the wine flour component another thought.

That was until I received a press release recently via email from Raphael Vaccaro himself describing this new and interesting product. Apparently, a company named Marche Noir has perfected the process of turning grape skins and seeds, also known as pomace in the wine making industry, into wine flour by drying and milling them incredibly fine. The resulting flour contains all of the heart healthy components that scientists have found in red wine such as antioxidants, iron, and Resveratrol (Res-V). Additionally, the fruit used to make this flour were Ohio grown grapes, so the carbon footprint is lowered even further.

Besides the chocolate lava cake which I had previously tried, Raphael has been working with Ohio City Pasta out of Cleveland, Ohio, to incorporate the wine flour into a freshly made tagliatelle that is currently on the menu, but is still being tweaked. Since wine flour has no gluten, successfully incorporating it into something like pasta can be tricky as gluten is what gives pasta dough its stretchable quality and ultimately the chewy texture that pasta lovers all over the world have come to expect.

I decided to drop in unannounced last week to give this new pasta dish a try. My intention is to return for another dinner at Vaccaro's in a couple of weeks, but I wanted to preview this interesting product before that dinner. Sad for me, but great for the restaurant, was that I showed up to a completely booked house on a Wednesday night. Never the one to insist that anyone makes a fuss over me, I saw that there was still an empty seat in the bar area and after inquiring if I could just sit there, Martin, one of the floor managers, was more than happy to see that I was well attended to.

Having never sat in the bar before, I decided to take a photograph of the area:


While I knew what I already wanted before arriving, I took two photographs of the menu. The first photograph shows you the wine flour tagliatelle dish that was currently on the menu:


And the second shows a little blurb at the bottom of the menu describing the wine flour product:


I started out tonight's meal with a house salad, or as the menu describes it, insalata mista:


While I've had this salad as part of the $6 (now $7, I believe) lunches that I wrote about here, I've never actually had the full version before. Dressed simply with a balsamic vinaigrette, this was a nicely balanced salad. One of the perks I always enjoy when I have a salad at Vaccaro's was how nicely they are always dressed; enough vinaigrette to coat each leaf, but you aren't left with a pool of dressing at the bottom of the plate. The mixed greens also brought a bit of bitterness to the party, which was a nice contrast between the sweet and sour of the balsamic vinegar.

Having finished my salad, my tagliatelle soon arrived:


Tossed in a thick creamy sauce made from roasted red peppers, a Cabernet wine reduction, and lots of butter, the large chunks of duck confit, dollops of local MacKenzie Creamery goat cheese, and sautéed mushrooms covered the hidden tagliatelle underneath. The sauce was sweet and unctuous and perfectly seasoned. Raphael stopped in to check on me at one point and stated very emphatically that there was no heavy cream in the sauce. Then he kind of cocked his head to one side and joked, "But there's plenty of butter!" Eh, you'll hear no complaints from me. The flavor of the sauce played nicely with the duck confit, the goat cheese, and the cremini mushrooms.

On to the tagliatelle itself. Because the skins are where the pigment lies when making red or white wine, the wine flour itself lent an dark aubergine color to the finished pasta. I could tell as soon as I bit into it that it was freshly made pasta. It had a wonderfully soft texture that still retained a bit of chew to it. Sadly, I couldn't isolate any of the pasta without the sauce, so I didn't really have an opportunity to taste the pasta naked. That being said, if it did contribute a unique flavor, it worked quite well with the sauce and toppings.

Unfortunately, there were two problems with tonight's dish. First, I discovered amidst a bite of duck confit that there were two small bones which had been missed and needed to be removed:


I suspect that's a problem you won't see again, given Raphael's dedication to perfected Italian cuisine.

The other problem was with the actual tagliatelle itself:


When I started digging into the pasta, I noticed that there seemed to be a lot of sauce and toppings sitting on the pasta. As it turned out, because of the way wine flour pasta cooks and hydrates, if you aren't careful, the pasta can clump very easily. As I began to delve into the dish, I noticed a fairly large clump of pasta sitting at the bottom of the plate that had done exactly that. As soon as I started to describe the clumped pasta to Raphael, he shook his head in agreement and explained the challenges he was still overcoming with this new flour. He admitted that the challenge not only comes from cooking it properly, but that it also cooks differently the first day after it is made versus the second.

I have no doubt that Raphael and the kitchen will work out the kinks in the process and get just the right formula for a tasty, healthy, and texturally perfect pasta. He noted that in addition to the pastas, he was working on reformulating some of the pizza doughs to incorporate wine flour as well. And, he has been playing around with making gelato using wine flour. Apparently, the flavor of the gelato changes based on how old it is.

Understand, the nitpicks I make today were exactly that, nitpicks. I actually loved the flavor and texture of this dish and would certainly order it again. I'll be curious to see how the menu evolves at Vaccaro's to take advantage of this heart-healthy ingredient. Taken as just a tagliatelle dish, this new menu offering was a lip-smackingly good item and I can assure you that your taste buds will be happy. With the uniqueness of the wine flour in the pasta, I would definitely recommend you check it out. I'm just hoping to get to try more of it soon, whatever the end product might be.

Extra Helpings: Vaccaro's Spring Menu

Never let it be said that I am the perfect diner. While I consider it to be my job here on Exploring Food My Way to be critical, and at times hyper-critical, of the food experiences I write about, every now and again, yes, even I get something wrong. And just like when something goes amiss in the restaurant business, admit fault, apologize, and move to rectify the situation as quickly as possible.

I had decided to return to a local Akron favorite of mine, Vaccaro's Trattoria to explore their newly announced spring menu. I received an email notification formally introducing the menu over the Mother's Day weekend, but since my mother was otherwise occupied, I decided to go later in the week. I showed up, per usual, sans reservation on a Thursday night at 5:30 PM and had no problem getting a table. In fact, when I left at around 6:45 PM, I still wouldn't have had too many problems getting a table.

After seating me near a window, my hostess handed me the new menu:



While there were some Vaccaro's classics that honestly will probably never come off the menu, there were new items in virtually every other category of the two page guide. Along with the new menu items to consider, tonight there were also three entrée specials. First, a seared ahi tuna over squid ink angel hair pasta; second, a seafood risotto; third, a twenty ounce steak (I want to say ribeye, but I could be wrong). While I definitely wanted to check out the more permanent menu items, the seared ahi tuna over squid ink pasta really caught my attention.

After much debate with myself, I decided to get an appetizer from the menu and then order the tuna and pasta special. The problem was that apparently between my attempting to remember which of the specials I wanted to order and staring at the menu, my brain switched out tuna for salmon. Had there not been a salmon dish on the menu, my server would've caught my error and all would've been well with the world. The problem was that there WAS a salmon dish on the permanent menu and when I was placing my order, I didn't say, "I'll have the seared salmon and squid ink pasta, please." I said, "I'll have the salmon please, medium." Dutifully, my server took my order and walked away.

After a few minutes, she returned with the bread service, which as always, starts out with a dish of extra virgin olive oil, grated Parmesan cheese, and optional freshly ground black pepper from their Howitzer pepper mill:



I've talked several times in the past about Vaccaro's bread service so I won't give it too much lip service this time around. It was nice to see that Vaccaro's was still serving the Mediterra Fire bread, with its darkly caramelized crust almost to the point of being burnt, so as to impart a slight bitter note to the flavor of the crust. One thing I've learned over all of my visits to Vaccaro's, Raphael and his kitchen staff aren't afraid to play with bitter flavors and often to great effect.

For my appetizer, I decided to go with one of the new additions to the menu, a Mediterranean flatbread. Here was a shot of the plate that came out of the kitchen:

This was easily large enough to feed two to three hungry people. I forced myself to stop after eating half so that I would have room for the rest of my meal. The flatbread consisted of a homemade crust that had been rolled and baked prior to dinner service and then topped with shaved prosciutto, herbed mascarpone cheese, mission figs, diced Granny Smith apple and dressed lightly with a mustardo. The mustardo was a sweet and savory sauce that had a bit of graininess to it and didn't overpower the flavors on the flatbread.

Here was a close-up shot of a single piece on my appetizer plate:


Because the flatbread dough had been hand-rolled, some pieces were crunchy-chewy and others were completely crispy. The toppings all worked well together, the saltiness from the prosciutto working nicely with the sweetness from the figs and the mustardo, balanced with the tartness from the apples. To me this dish didn't feel heavy and I could've easily eaten the entire plate and been a happy man. In fact, paired with one of Vaccaro's salads or a cup of soup, you could make a meal out of just those two items.

As I saw my server walk out of the kitchen holding my dinner plate, I began to salivate. Squid ink pasta is not something many chefs attempt, and I was definitely looking forward to trying Raphael's version.

As my server set the plate down in front of me, I immediately noticed something was quite wrong:


Where was the pasta? I don't remember my server describing crispy potato cakes in her spiel at the beginning of the meal. I spoke up and said, "I'm sorry, but doesn't this dish come with squid ink pasta?" I still had it in my mind that the squid ink pasta came with salmon, not tuna. My server kind of got a concerned look on face and said, "The squid ink pasta was with tuna. You ordered the salmon. Do you want me to take it back to the kitchen and have them make you the pasta instead?"

When I realized what I had done, I have to admit, I was a little bit embarrassed. The mistake was entirely mine and as you can see from the picture above, what was presented to me was a quite enticing plate of food. Not wanting to penalize the restaurant for my gaffe, I quickly changed my mind and told my server that I would be perfectly happy to stick with the salmon. The squid ink pasta would just have to be saved for another visit.

So, let's talk about what I did order. I ordered the seared Norwegian salmon with a lemon oregano marmalade and crispy zucchini and potato cakes. Let's start with the salmon and the marmalade:


The salmon was perfectly seasoned and nicely seared on the outside. The marmalade was spooned both over the fish as well as served as a "sauce" on the plate. I cut into my fish to discover it cooked to a perfect medium:


The flesh was tender and juicy and the salmon flavor was very subtle. Sometimes salmon can have an overpowering flavor, but this piece was absolutely divine. The outside of the fish also had been dressed with fresh herbs and this brightness helped cut through the flavor of the salmon and the lemon marmalade.

I took a shot of the marmalade on the side of my plate:


Serving as a "sauce," this condiment again played with multiple flavor points in my mouth: salty, sweet, tart, and bitter. It was spooned on at room temperature and as the heat from the plate and salmon warmed it, it gently melted. Some people might not like pairing something sweet with salmon, but I thought the pairing worked exceptionally well. Because the lemon rind had been left in, the marmalade had a wonderful mild bitterness that really made this dish interesting. Of course, I can't forget the herbaceous note that the fresh oregano brought to the party, too. I wish Raphael had been around after I finished my meal as I wanted to pick his brain about where the idea for this dish had originated, but sadly, he wasn't present. Regardless, I highly recommend you give this dish a try.

Finally, I can't forget the third component on my dinner plate tonight, the crispy zucchini and potato cakes:


Extra crispy on the outside, creamy on the inside, the zucchini added a subtle sweetness not normally found in a fried potato cake. Fried as one cake and cut into three wedges, this added a wonderful textural contrast to the tender flesh of the salmon. The expertly fried cake wedges were seasoned more aggressively than was the salmon, but still within reason. Of course, neither the wedges themselves nor the plate underneath showed any evidence of extra oil.

Having chosen to go with an iced tea instead of a glass of wine for dinner, I decided that a splurge was in order suddenly dessert was an option. As with the regular menu, there were some old friends and new faces:


I don't think that the homemade donuts with fresh berries and duo of sauces will ever go away. Not that it should, it really has been delicious every time that I have had it. Fortunately, there were four other choices, well five really, if you count the sampler of homemade gelati. Besides the vanilla bean and blackberry gelati that were paired with two of the desserts already listed on the menu, grape, strawberry basil, and butter pecan were the other gelati available today.

I am not a huge coffee drinker as the caffeine makes me jittery, but I do enjoy cutting the sweetness of desserts with something bitter, so I added an espresso to my order:


As promised on the menu, crema was in no short supply. I was a little worried because this appeared before my dessert and I didn't want to drink it cold, but my fears were allayed when my server not only promised a replacement cup with my dessert, but then moments later returned with this:


This was a 72% bittersweet molten chocolate cake topped with a scoop of blackberry gelato. The menu calls this dish, "Chocolate Cabernet Wine Flour Molten Cake" and lists one of the ingredients as "chocolate cabernet wine flour." Now I have heard of eating a piece of dark chocolate with red wine and I'm guessing that this was the riff they were trying to play tonight with this dessert.

The flavor of the red wine was very subtle and could easily be lost if you did nothing but pay attention to the intensity from the 72% cacao in the chocolate. The cake itself was only barely molten, at the very center, and even then there wasn't much, if any, oozing to be had. The scoop of gelato perched atop the cake was expertly crafted and had a nice balance between blackberry tartness and sweetness from additional sugar. The flavor played well off the cake. Sadly, the strawberry garnish, although at the very beginning of the Ohio strawberry season, wasn't a particularly good example. The greenish white crown should have tipped me off, but I bit into the red flesh anyway only to discover a mid-November supermarket quality strawberry.

The one discrepancy I do hope the restaurant takes note of and fixes was that the dessert which I ordered was listed on the menu as costing $6. When I received my check,


it was listed as $7. I didn't notice this until after I had gotten home, and honestly, it was only $1, so I'm not going to sweat it, but it is something that should be fixed.

With only a few minor quibbles over my dessert tonight, I am confident that I experienced another exceptional meal at one of Akron's premiere Italian eateries. Food at this level of execution is obviously not cheap, as you can see from my check total. Personally I would rather save my pennies to be able to treat myself once a month to food this good rather than eat out all the time at fast food places, but that's just me. Service was, as it has always been, outstanding. I highly encourage you to check their new menu out for yourself and discover (or continue to re-discover) one of Akron's consistent culinary gems.

Lunch In A Tough Economy

After my first visit to Vaccaro's Trattoria back in May 2009, I was so impressed with my visit that I immediately signed up for their email feed by filling out a little card while finishing up paying for my meal. Unfortunately, there is currently no way to subscribe to this feed on their website. And while the restaurant sends out updates on their Facebook group page, they have yet to make the most of all of the current social media networks (specifically Twitter). One network they have been very good at utilizing is their email feed and the sending out of timely emails detailing current specials. I have taken advantage of these specials in the past and decided that one of their current specials was just too good to pass up.

I had received an email from Vaccaro's both last week and this promoting their weekday $6 lunch special. For a measly $6, you get to choose from one of three salads, one of two soups, and one of four sandwiches, all of which will come out on one plate. Since I happened to be in the Bath / Montrose area last Thursday for other business, I decided to stop in for lunch and try it out for myself.

I arrived at around 11:30 am to find a mostly empty dining room. A mere thirty minutes later and the place was really hopping. After the hostess sat me at my table, she left me with the lunch menu (which was more than just the $6 special) to peruse at my leisure:



While the regular lunch prices were very reasonable, I had come only armed with a $10 bill in my wallet and a hunger in my stomach. Here was the "Lunch On A Platter" portion of the lunch menu:


The salad and soup choices were fairly easy for me to make. Having tried some of these menu items in my previous visits, I decided to make an effort to get something new this time. My salad would be the Caesar and my soup would be the daily special; today it was Chicken Piccata. The only question for me was which sandwich to pick. While they all sounded good, I was mysteriously drawn towards the tuna melt. I had never actually had a tuna melt before and the thought occurred to me that if Raphael Vaccaro had put it on his menu, it had to be good.

I placed my order with my server and sat back in my chair to catch up on the news on my smartphone. In what came as a bit of a surprise, my server returned with both a plate of grated cheese in olive oil,


but also a trio of breads in which to dip it:


Here you had the housemade focaccia, a multi-grain bread and a baguette-style bread. All three were fresh and delicious and a welcome sight to this hungry diner. The fact that Vaccaro's could offer bread service in addition to the lunch trio I had ordered all for only $6 was quite remarkable. I had to remind myself not to fill up on bread and oil as my lunch would soon be arriving.

And sure enough, after a short interval, it did:


The Caesar salad was dressed in a more acidic dressing than I am normally used to on this type of salad. It wasn't too lemony, but you could definitely pick up on the lemon juice. Some might prefer this version, it felt lighter on my palate. Personally, I prefer the heavier, less acidic version. The salty and savory qualities from the shaved Parmesan on top of the salad helped to tame some of the bright lemon flavor. You can't see them from the picture above, but just below the surface were a number of very tasty homemade croutons. They added a lovely saltiness and textural element to the dish.

Next up on the plate was the tuna melt:


Comprised of house made tuna salad on a split and toasted ciabatta roll and topped with cheddar cheese, this was a very delicious sandwich. Besides the brunoise of sweet peppers and celery in the tuna salad, with every bite I took, I noticed a very mild, but particular spicy zip and acidic zing. Nothing overpowering, just enough to make it interesting. I had thought that maybe they were employing a chili mayonnaise in the tuna salad, but after asking my server about it, she consulted the kitchen staff and learned that they were adding a very thin layer of Frank's Red Hot onto the bread before topping it with tuna salad and cheese. That little extra bit of something, or je ne sais quoi, was just what was needed to take the sandwich from good to great.

The third component of my trio was the Chicken Piccata soup:


From my first bite to my last, this was a tasty soup. It had all of the wonderful elements of a good chicken piccata: strong lemon flavor, nice briny capers, and tender chicken. Each of the elements balanced well with its companions. It reminded me of another successful "entree" meal that had been turned into a soup, the lasagna soup at Twig's Diner. The only minor complaint that I had with today's soup du jour was that it came out of the kitchen not quite as hot as I would've liked. That didn't stop me from eating the entire bowl, of course.

As I finished my lunch today, I realized that this was the absolute perfect amount of food to fill me up. So many times I've gone to restaurants and wished that I could get an appropriate amount of food (usually half of what is usually served) for a smaller amount of money. So often I feel that the American diner thinks that if they don't have an overabundance of food being served on the plate, then there is little value for the dollar. Personally, I love that for only $6, I was served just the right amount to fill me up and I didn't have to worry about futzing around with leftovers.

To my surprise, at the height of the lunch rush, Chef Raphael came out to the dining room to speak with several customers. He noticed me sitting in the corner of the dining room and approached for a brief conversation. I complimented him on my meal and told him that I noticed a lot of people had ordered the $6 special. He acknowledged that it was indeed a very popular special and that in this current economy, he felt like he needed to offer something filling and tasty that didn't break the bank. Honestly, I hope he keeps this special or a variation of it on the lunch menu even after the economy recovers. It represents a nice way to get fed great made-from-scratch food without being overfed and at the same price point as a McDonald's value meal.

While I knew that the meal was going to only be $6, in the back of my mind there was still a bit of disbelief; that is, until this arrived at my table:


$6.41 with tax. Extraordinary! If Vaccaro's Trattoria was right around the corner, I would be in serious trouble as I'd be eating there for lunch at least three times a week. With the two dozen or so combinations between salads, soups, and sandwiches that make up one of their lunch platters, you will have plenty of options from which to choose. Even if you decide to order one of the other lunch items from the menu, from my previous visits in the past, I'm sure you will not be disappointed. I definitely recommend that you give Vaccaro's Trattoria a chance if you are in the area.

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Raphael Vaccaro, Owner and Chef of Vaccaro's Trattoria responds:

Tom....

Thanks for all the great compliments. It is people like yourself that motivate me in this tough business! The only correction I have is the website is now complete with FB, Twitter, Reservations, Ring Me, and all menu's. Take a look. I think you will like it.

Raphael