Making Time For Thyme

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

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

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


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


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




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


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

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


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

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


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

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


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

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


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

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


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

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


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

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

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

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

Lack Of Management At Edgar's Restaurant

Salt.

When eating, often times we don't even tend to think about it unless there is too much or too little. I personally believe that salting a dish correctly can be one of the hardest skills to learn in a professional kitchen. The application, of course, is quite simple: grab a pinch between your forefinger and your thumb and then generously sprinkle it over whatever you are trying to season. Knowing exactly how many of those pinches to use is the real trick.

After my last visit to Edgar's Restaurant, I couldn't wait to write up and share the experience with my readers about the amazing food I had eaten during an inaugural visit to this hidden Akron gem. Within days it seemed, the idea for a dinner party between myself and two others germinated and grew until it became nine of us. My dinner guests ranged from a fellow food blogger to middle school and high school friends and even two guests of a guest I had yet to meet. Excited about the prospect of a great meal, we all convened on the restaurant at the appointed hour and eagerly began thumbing through the menu.

While the majority of the menu was the same as the first time I visited, I did decide to include a photograph of today's specials menu:


After filling all of our drink orders, our server started the meal by bringing out some of Edgar's homemade sliced bread and butter:


Fresh bread is always appreciated, even if it isn't particularly complex. Just like last time, the bread was fresh and had a nice yeasty and slightly acidic smell to it. While I didn't partake of the butter, I did use a slice or two to mop up the delicious barbecue sauce that accompanied my appetizer tonight.

Speaking of appetizers, having tried and absolutely loved the barbecued pork ribs during my previous visit, I was eager to try another of Edgar's amazing smoked items this time around as well. After reading the menu's description of the hog shanks, I was hooked: "Meaty braised pork foreshanks, sweet & spicy sauce, blue cheese dip, celery, carrot sticks." Sign me up, please.

Soon, the hog shanks arrived:


While I was expecting larger pieces of barbecued meat, I made the realization that with the celery and carrot sticks and the side of blue cheese, this could have been a chicken wing substitute. The only problem was that the kitchen hadn't included the blue cheese. No matter, I was here for the pork.

Here was a close-up shot of the pork foreshanks:


Wow, this delivered! The pork easily separated cleanly from the bone and was tender, moist, and just slightly smoky. The barbecue sauce, no doubt homemade, had an appropriate balance between smoky, sweet, salty, and tangy. After finishing the meat I had separated from the bones, I used the slices of bread to do some serious sauce sopping. (I'm assuming that licking the plate was probably not on Miss Manners's Etiquette List.)

All that remained of my appetizer were the cleaned pork bones and those lonely looking celery and carrot sticks:


All of the entrées tonight came with a house salad. I decided to go with one of Edgar's homemade dressings, the White French:


While the salad itself was a bit pedestrian and came out completely unseasoned (which didn't surprise me), the dressing added a wonderful flavor to the greens which made eating this somewhat pleasant. Almost all of their salad dressings were made from scratch and of the two I've had so far, I believed they were doing a good job. What sort of left me scratching my head, however, was of the seven or eight varieties that they offered, one of them was a commercial dressing. Why not just make that one, too?

Up to this point in the meal, I would say that everyone was thoroughly enjoying the food. Other than my appetizer coming out sans blue cheese dip, there was nothing out of the ordinary. That changed when our entrées arrived. Visually everything looked good, but it turned out for those of us who hadn't ordered a barbecued item for an entrée, we were in for a big surprise.

I had decided to go for Edgar's Buttermilk-soaked Pecan Fried Chicken with Garlic Mash and Sautéed Green Beans:


Let's start with the chicken:


The chicken was well fried. It was cooked all the way through, but wasn't dried out. The coating was crispy and definitely had seasoning, but once you were through the crust, the chicken meat itself lacked enough seasoning to carry the dish. I realize that the chicken was "buttermilk-soaked," but I'm thinking that "buttermilk and brine-soaked" might have been a better way to make sure that the meat was seasoned a bit more thoroughly. That being said, the chicken was, by far, the best thing on my dinner plate tonight.

Next up, the garlic mash and green beans:


The good news was that there was definitely a garlic flavor to the mashed potatoes. And the potatoes themselves, while not completely light and airy, had a nice texture to them. However, between the potatoes and the green beans, there wasn't a lick of salt to either. Without any seasoning, I might have just as easily substituted wallpaper paste, albeit with a little garlic flavor.

Additionally, two of my guests tonight ordered the Barnsey Burger, a new addition to Edgar's menu described thusly: "Grilled 10 oz. ground pork & sirloin, stuffed with smoked brisket, applewood smoked bacon, mozzarella cheese, toasted ciabatta." Sounds good, right? According to both diners who ordered this sandwich, the burgers come out with zero seasoning and tasted like boiled meat completely devoid of any smoke flavor that both the brisket and the bacon should've added. In fact, the sandwiches were so bad (although apparently the sweet potato fries that accompanied them were okay) that both guests called over our server and asked her to return them to the kitchen.

Our server executed the appropriate response by apologizing and asked both patrons if they would like the kitchen to prepare them something else from the menu; both declined and decided to share their spouse's entrées. I am not here to comment on whether I think that my guests should or shouldn't have sent their dinners back to the kitchen. What I will comment on is the fact that at no time did a front of house manager come over and try to make things right with the two individuals. Even an apology, warranted or not, would've helped. In fact, with a dinner party this size, had nothing gone wrong during the meal, a manager should still have stopped by during the three and a half hours we were there to make sure our experience was a positive one.

Wanting to end my experience today on a positive note, I decided to partake of the dessert tray. Amazingly, when I asked our server which of the desserts were homemade, she indicated that none of them were, but several were made by a customer. Considering that there were at least eight or nine different dessert choices, I thought to myself, "That must be one generous customer."

After contemplating my options, I decided to go with a slice of the Pumpkin Cheesecake:


Topped with a crumble, small dollop of whipped cream, and a single walnut for garnish, the cheesecake slice was plated on a dessert dish that had been drizzled with a caramel sauce. I cut a bite, dragged it through the caramel sauce and placed it in my mouth. I was happy to discover that the customer who made this dessert had a much better sense of balance than the kitchen did tonight. Basically, it was very tasty. The cheesecake was moist and creamy and had both a forward pumpkin flavor and traditional pumpkin "spice" blend. Even with how full I was after my entrée (and I ended up only eating half of it), I was surprised at how much of the cheesecake I was able to consume.

Tonight's meal had some off and on moments to it, most notably a noticeable lack of management both in the food coming from the kitchen as well as the management of the front of house. Whether we had a good or bad experience, a manager should have stopped by at some point during the meal to make sure everything was going well and take corrective action if it wasn't. I thought our server did a good job dealing with the problems herself, but having two out of nine entrées sent back to your kitchen definitely warranted a visit from someone with more authority.

Despite the problems tonight, I am definitely willing to go back to Edgar's and give them another chance. The food the first time was so delicious and all of the barbecued items we ordered from tonight's experience lead me to conclude that perhaps tonight was one of those "off" nights restaurants have from time to time. I'm still recommending that you give Edgar's Restaurant a try if you haven't already, but please take my recommendation with a grain of salt. You might need it for your food.