Nicolinni's Ristorante on Restaurant Row

The space occupying the old Bennigan's location on "restaurant row" in Copley, Ohio had sat dormant for quite some time. After the national chain went belly up, I often wondered what would go into the space. There were some rumors floating around for a while about what would take its place, but it wasn't until the last two weeks that I got confirmation of the new owners. The first confirmation of the new restaurant's identity was from a longtime reader who emails me from time to time to let me know of her own culinary adventures. The second confirmation came when I read Lisa Abraham's short blurb in the weekly Wednesday food articles in the Akron Beacon Journal. The name of the restaurant was Nicolinni's and apparently it was the first Akron-based and third overall location of the Youngstown-based chain.

Stirred by the promise of another chance to try a Brier Hill-style pizza, I decided to go that very night to check it out for myself. The restaurant was located at 85 West Montrose Avenue, Copley, Ohio 44321. They can be reached at 330-664-0808. Parking was in the lot directly outside the building. I was actually surprised that the parking lot wasn't completely full as the restaurant had been open for only a couple of weeks.

Here was a shot of the roadside sign just off of the street:


Once inside, I discovered that due to a server shortage, the wait for a table was approximately twenty minutes. While I wasn't in a particular hurry, my other option, sitting at the bar right away, appealed to me and I decided to do that. After taking my drink order, the bartender left me with the two-sided menu to look over (top and bottom shot of each):





I looked two or three times for the Brier Hill pizza, but the only thing I could find even remotely close to a pizza was the Margherita Flatbread. When I asked the bartender about it, she confirmed that the pizza was only available during lunch and happy hour. Bummed out, I returned to the menu to make an alternate selection. Having never been to any of the Nicolinni's locations, I decided to look for some of their signature items. Interestingly, while some of the signature items were marked with a "N" logo, others had no such mark, but contained the phrase "signature item" in their description.

After placing my order, I handed the bartender my menu and returned to fiddling with my camera to make sure it was set up properly for when the food began to arrive. Unfortunately, I went from having no food in front of me to nearly everything all at once. In a move to get something in front of me sooner rather than later, the bartender had brought out my salad and bread prior to my appetizer thinking the kitchen was running behind. Sadly, within moments of the first round of food being delivered, another food runner showed up with my flatbread, too. I don't actually blame the bartender for bringing the salad early, as her intention was good. Her timing was just wrong.

Here was a shot of the house made focaccia:


This was actually quite good and had a nice layer of crunchy salt on top of the bread. I could tell from the minute I smelled it that it was fresh. It had a great chewy texture and the crust was nicely caramelized. The bread was an excellent way to start the meal.

Along with the bread came a cup of pesto dip:


This was a warmed oil that had been infused with a solid pesto flavor. While it worked well as a dip for the bread, the bread was so good on its own, that I didn't really use much of the dip. If you like pesto, you'll enjoy this oil. Extra points for it being served warm.

Since my entree came with a house salad, I had only to indicate that I would like it dressed with the house dressing, which I had presumed was Italian:


The salad was actually quite large and big enough for two entire servings (the bowl above came with tongs and a separate plate for actual plating of my portion). All of the ingredients were fresh and crisp, although the salad had sadly been overdressed as there was a puddle of dressing sitting at the bottom of the bowl. That being said, the dressing had a nice acidity to it and the salt level was just right. If you worry about over-dressed salad greens, ask for the dressing on the side and do it yourself.

Next up was the Margherita Flatbread:


The flatbread had been cut into six slices and would've made the perfect size appetizer for two to three people. I ended up only eating half and taking the rest with me. Traditionally, a Pizza Margherita is a thin crust pizza topped with extra virgin olive oil, tomatoes, basil, and sliced mozzarella. Nicolinni's version was somewhat true to this vision, although the cheese was heavy handed. Also, as you can see in the photo above, gentle reader, the tomatoes were sliced way too thick and felt totally out of place on this thin crust creation. The crispness of the flatbread was nice, however.

For my entree, I decided on going with Chicken Francaise:


The chicken breasts had been battered and fried until golden brown and then topped with what I assume was beurre blanc (being French-style chicken, after all). The chicken was perfectly cooked, being both juicy and very tender. The coating on the chicken was flavorful and not greasy and the sauce had a nice balance between the unctuousness of the butter and the zip from the lemon. I thoroughly enjoyed the chicken.

Unfortunately, the same thing cannot be said about my included side dish, the Whole Wheat Penne topped with Nicolinni's Homemade Marinara:


If you look closely at the photo above, you can see the problem in the bottom of the bowl: leftover cooking water. Whatever method was used to make this pasta, it needed an extra thirty seconds to drain properly before plating. In a bit of foreshadowing, when I tried the pasta without sauce, it was definitely overcooked and about a shade under mushy. It is fantastic that Nicolinni's is offering a whole wheat pasta option, but if they aren't going to cook it properly, then they lose points overall. The marinara sauce was thick and rich and had a nice balance of acidity and sweetness. To simplify: marinara good, pasta bad.

Since I ate about half of everything tonight, I had quite the doggie bag to go. Judging that I was pretty full already, I declined dessert and simply asked for the check. With tax and tip, it came to slightly over $32, which although sounds expensive at first, I took as much food home with me as I ate during dinner. $16 per portion was a reasonable amount to spend at a restaurant that seems to be positioning itself as upscale mainstream Italian. While I do plan on returning to Nicolinni's for another meal (probably during the day so that I can try the Brier Hill style pizza), as with most restaurant experiences, my visit today had some good and some bad. If they can work the kinks out, I suspect that they will achieve a nice fit somewhere between Olive Garden and Vaccaro's Trattoria.

A Return To Hudson's Restaurant ... Sort Of

The last time I ran into Chef Kevin Altomare was at the Hudson's Farmers Market back in late September. I was giving a demonstration on how to make panzanella salad and he happened to be sitting near the demonstration tent and we struck up a conversation. I didn't know at the beginning of the conversation that he was co-chef and co-owner of Hudson's Restaurant on the Green in Hudson, but after I identified who I was, I offered that I had reviewed his restaurant a number of months earlier. Unable to get a wi-fi signal on his computer, he was unable to check my review in real time, but remembering the patty melt and homemade potato chips that I had eaten, I assured him that our lunch had been not only tasty, but also a great value, too.

Towards the end of my stint as demonstration chef for the day, Kevin told me that he and his business partners were looking to open up another Hudson's location at some point in the near future, this time in the Montrose/Fairlawn area. Plans were still being worked out at the time and so I opted not to say anything publicly here on the blog in case those plans changed. As it turned out, everything came together nicely and Chef Kevin manned the helm of the second location starting around the beginning of November. While the concept of the second location was more or less a carbon copy of the first, I decided to give the restaurant a few weeks to settle in before doing a serious review.

The newest location of Hudson's was located at 3900 Medina Road, Akron, OH 44333 and can be reached at 330-666-7777. The website has remained the same and information on both the original and the new locations can be found there. Parking for the restaurant was located in the shared lot with the other business in the strip mall. For those familiar with the Montrose area, the restaurant was located in the same space as the old Brown Derby Roadhouse restaurant, which has now moved to a new location on "Restaurant Hill" overlooking Rts. 21 & 77.

After finding a suitably close parking space, I managed to snap a photograph of the exterior of the new restaurant:


Once inside, I noticed a relatively empty bar area to my right and the dining room directly in front of me. I decided to sit at one of the high top tables in the bar area so that I would be unobtrusive. I was surprised that the bar area was so empty on a Wednesday night at 6:00 PM. However, by the time I had left an hour later, it was filled with hungry diners.

While I had presented you with the lunch menu in my earlier review from the other location, I decided to include Hudson's dinner menu during this write-up:



It was clear from studying the dinner menu that the lunch menu was simply a subset of items available during dinner service. I was in the mood for a nice multi-course meal and seeing as many of the entrees came with a side salad included in the price, my only decisions tonight were to choose which appetizer and which entree I wanted for dinner. When my bartender/server finally came over to take my order, I asked her for the daily specials.

She easily rattled off the list and upon hearing that one of the soup options tonight was a Wisconsin Cheddar Cheese Soup, I decided that a cup of that would make an excellent way to start my meal on such a cold day. Here was a shot of the soup:


After placing my order, my soup arrived fairly quickly and was accompanied by a small package of Westminster all-natural soup crackers ... a nice touch! I have had these crackers before at upscale eateries and I really thought they added a delicious flavor and contrasting crunch to the otherwise velvety soup. The cheese flavor of the soup was present, but not overpowering and I discovered as I dug my spoon into the depths of the cup that bacon had been added as well. This lent the soup a subtle smoky flavor that complimented the main cheese flavor quite well.

For my salad tonight, I decided on the basic "house" salad and when I heard that a Brandy Balsamic Vinaigrette was available, I asked for it to be placed on the side:


The house salad was your standard mix of greens and reds, but I was happy to see the addition of a bit of chopped egg. As expected, the salad came out unseasoned and after application of the tangy dressing and a bit of freshly ground black pepper, the flavors popped in my mouth. This was a decent enough salad and the only real complaint I had was the croutons did not feel homemade and had an oddly-garlic metallic taste to them. The vinaigrette was quite light on the palate, but I had a hard time discerning the brandy flavor. Then again, I'm not a huge brandy drinker to begin with, so it wouldn't surprise me not to be able to discern the flavor.

For my entree, even though I considered the entire menu, I seemed to gravitate toward the pastas tonight. When I saw that Pasta Bolognese was being offered, I knew that was what I would be having:


This generous bowl of fettuccine had been cooked to a perfect al dente and dressed (but not overdressed) in a creamy, tomato-less, pork and beef-based sauce. Adorned with a simple grating of Parmesan cheese and chopped parsley, this was a satisfying and filling dish. While the seasoning was spot on, I felt that the flavor was just a tad flat and two dimensional. Like most long-cooking stews and sauces, often times the bright, acidic notes tend to dissipate when given a long cooking process. Perhaps I was missing the acidity that the tomatoes normally add to the classic Italian-American meat sauce. Don't get me wrong, this was still a good dish, but it just needed one extra component to really elevate it. All that said, the portion I didn't finish at the restaurant definitely made it home with me for consumption later in the evening.

The best part of the meal tonight was getting the check ... just barely under $20 including tax. As with my meal at the original location in Hudson, for the quality of food being served, Hudson's offers a very good value to the customer. With dinner items ranging from only a couple of dollars up to twenty dollars for the petite filet mignon, you will definitely find something for everyone's taste and budget. If there were service issues tonight, I didn't spot any and the food coming out of the kitchen was hot, fresh (except for the croutons), and overall, very tasty. With two locations open to serve the greater Akron area, I recommend that you give Hudson's a try if you haven't already done so.