Smoke 'Em If You Got 'Em

While I have only written about Fat Casual BBQ in Macedonia, Ohio once before, I have been back many, many times. Because the first article I wrote about them covered so much of their menu, there hasn't really been a need to cover them a second time, even though the food has been outstanding every time I've returned. Over the last eight months since Walter Hyde and Scott Slagle opened Fat Casual, they have continued to evaluate and innovate to keep the menu focused, relevant, and most importantly, tasty. In addition to their regular offerings, every day seems to bring a new special, some of which make the regular menu and others turn out to be a one-day appearance.

Over the course of the last two Friday nights, I got to enjoy some not previously covered flavors that were so good that it would be a shame for me not to share them with you, gentle reader. Before we get into the two meals, I first wanted to share the revised and newly printed and laminated menu:



As you can see, the main proteins were still available: smoked pork loin, turkey, brisket, and chicken. Most of the sides remain on the menu, some have been reformulated since the opening (e.g., macaroni and cheese), some have been dropped (e.g., beans and rice), and some are brand new (e.g., fried potato salad and suffer'n succatash). Of course, when Fat Casual found a side that worked well, like the incredible warm sweet potato salad, they realized they had a good thing on their hands and didn't change a thing. Thank goodness!

On my first Friday dinner visit, I decided to go with something that Walter and Scott introduced during the season of Lent, a time of year notorious for fish fries. While they did offer a Friday fish fry (which just had to be better than anything I got this year during the Lenten Project II), they innovatively applied the frying concept not only to their fish, but also to their smoked chicken.

While the fried smoked chicken isn't actually on the regular menu, if the restaurant isn't too busy and you tell Walter or Scott that they are very handsome and talented men, you might just convince them to fry you up a portion of their smoked chicken. On my first Friday visit, a mere mention of the fact that I was looking forward to this very thing all day was enough to convince Walter to break out in a grin, ask Scott if they could pull it off, and told me to take a seat and wait for my dinner to be prepared. Note that because the fried chicken was made to order, my dinner probably took longer to prepare than if I had just ordered something that was ready to go.

Needless to say, it is SO worth the wait.

Having placed my order, my second thought turned to sauce. Of course, just like I wrote in my last blog post, every single sauce offered at Fat Casual was made from scratch. And the variety being offered (five to six different sauces each night I was there) was enough to satisfy any sauce-lover's craving. Sweet, smoky, spicy, acidic ... Fat Casual had a sauce to please everyone. Here was my choice for the evening, the Memphis-Style sauce:


Within maybe ten minutes of sitting down at my table, Walter walked out from the kitchen with my dinner:


The fried smoked chicken dinner (which is priced the same as the smoked chicken dinner at an amazing $9.99) came with two of Fat Casual's side dishes and some of their homemade cornbread.

Here was a closer shot of the fried smoked chicken:


Every time I've had this chicken, my eyes roll back into my head. The combination of Fat Casual's incredibly juicy smoked chicken (which sadly, isn't the norm for smoked chicken at barbecue places in northeast Ohio), combined with the crispy and crunchy fried crust makes for a culinary experience that you absolutely must try. Everything about this chicken was perfect: crunchy, smokey, savory, salty, juicy ... it all just works so well. Each order is essentially a half chicken, breast, back, leg, and wing.

In addition to the chicken, my meal also came with two of Fat Casual's newer sides, the Fried Potato Salad and the Suffer'N Succatash:


While the warm sweet potato salad remains my all-time favorite side at Fat Casual, these two sides were pretty close behind that one. The fried potato salad, so called because the potatoes are first fried before being combined with the dressing, was rich and delicious. The succatash, containing Lima beans and sweet corn, was tender, juicy, peppery and buttery. So many times, I have disliked Lima bean dishes because the beans were starchy and unpleasant. Not this time. I finished the entire container and just about licked the bottom of the cup. I heartily recommend you give both sides a try.

My first meal finished, I packed up the entire breast (it really was enough food for two people) to have a wonderful mid-day snack the next day. My meal came to roughly $12, including the chicken dinner and a bottled water that I ordered. If you are looking for flavor AND value, you have come to the right place.

The following Friday (as in, last Friday), I hadn't planned on returning for another meal, but fellow Cleveland foodie, Kay, decided that she wanted to stop in and try one of the newer special items on the Friday menu, the smoked prime rib. Honestly, it had been on the menu during my previous visit, but I was really in the mood for that fried smoked chicken, so I gave it a pass. This time, however, I was bound and determined to try this somewhat unorthodox, but intriguing sounding dish.

After all six of us arrived, Walter came over to our table to determine what the group wanted to eat. It turned out to be unanimous ... smoked prime rib! Walter went back into the kitchen and perhaps ten minutes later, large plates of beefy goodness started arriving at our table:


This IMMENSE portion of prime rib was accompanied by beef jus, homemade creamy horseradish sauce, and a small garnish of horseradish-infused pickles and sliced radishes. Even without tasting it, I could tell that the meat was obviously cooked perfectly medium rare. Like extras on the set of The Flintstones, all six of us eagerly dug into the huge portion of prime rib and discovered some of the best meat that any of us had ever tasted. More than one of the diners tonight noted that they had been turned off by bad prime rib served at buffets and weddings. Tonight's meal put to rest any notion that prime rib couldn't be prepared so that it was an incredibly tender, juicy, and flavorful cut of meat. While the jus was certainly tasty, the creamy horseradish sauce stole the show and made the perfect complement to the beef. Not to be outdone, the pickles were also amazing all on their own.

While the smoked prime rib dinner was normally offered with the garlic mashed potatoes, because there were six of us tonight, Walter put together a tasting of several of Fat Casual's sides:


Going clockwise from the rear, we had cole slaw, fried potato salad, macaroni and cheese, garlic mashed potatoes, blueberry Figgy Pudding, and the warm sweet potato salad. As if the smoked prime rib wasn't good enough, the myriad of sides made the dinner even more delicious. While the jus served with the prime rib wasn't utilized as much as the horseradish sauce, it did end up making an excellent complement to the garlic mashed potatoes, as discovered by fellow food blogger, Nancy from Fun Playing With Food.

Finally, after we had made our way through most of the enormous amounts of food brought to us by the kitchen, Walter showed up with individual serving cups of one of their newer items that they had been tinkering with, smoked beef sausage with barbecued cabbage:


Fat Casual had started out making all of this sausage in-house, but when demand got too great, they outsourced this meat product to a local company, but still maintained the quality using the recipe that Walter and Scott originally concocted. After smoking the sausage, Fat Casual had paired it with barbecued cabbage; this balanced the savoriness of the sausage with the sweetness of the cabbage. While not officially on the menu yet, I am looking forward to having this again once it does become a regular item.

Everything said and done, our smoked prime rib dinners came out to an incredible $12.99 per person. Anyone who is a fan of prime rib knows that typically, prime rib dinners run much, much higher than that. Given the incredible preparation and flavor and the very reasonable price, I have to say that this was one hell of a deal. Between the fried smoked chicken and smoked prime rib, I honestly don't know which one was my favorite. At this point, it was like picking your favorite child. Both dishes brought much happiness to my mouth and my wallet. My advice? Go with a friend and order one of each in order to share. Do note that for now, the smoked prime rib is only available on Fridays.

While several commenters on my last write-up on Fat Casual BBQ were not impressed with the food they received when they visited, I know for a fact that many others have been. On the Urbanspoon page for the restaurant, out of 92 people who voted on the restaurant, 96% marked that they liked it. That should tell you something. While there is certainly barbecue closer to me than Macedonia, it is so worth the drive to check them out. And if you happen to go on a day when Walter or Scott is willing to fry you up some smoked chicken, take them up on it. You won't regret it.

Completing The Rounds At White House Chicken

It may have come a little too late to take advantage of the buzz Michael Symon created a few months back when he took on the Barberton Chicken challenge between Belgrade Garden and Whitehouse Chicken, but I finally got around to trying my fourth and final Barberton chicken joint, Whitehouse, recently in an early bird (no pun intended) setting on a Saturday night. I don't normally crave this regional style of chicken, but tonight for some reason it sounded good. So, I hopped in my car, drove to the corner where the original Whitehouse Restaurant was located and proceeded to drive around the block three times before settling on the fact that unlike the other three chicken houses (Belgrade, Hopocan, and Milich's), Whitehouse did not have a dedicated parking lot. Instead I opted to park across the street in the strip mall parking lot and braved the arctic air while crossing the street to reach the front entrance.

The original location of Whitehouse Chicken was at the corner of West Paige and Wooster Road North, or more specifically 180 Wooster Road North, Barberton, OH and can be reached at 330-745-0449. There are also satellite locations in Ellet, Green, Tallmadge, Wadsworth, and Cuyahoga Falls. I've eaten at several of the other locations in the past (a long, long time ago) and I was never particularly impressed. So to be fair to the other reviews I've done on Barberton Chicken joints, I wanted to review the original.

Here was a photograph of the front entrance to Whitehouse from across the street:


Once inside, I was surprised at how much bigger the restaurant was on the inside. From its exterior, the place looked barely large enough to fit a few tables. After being told to seat myself wherever I liked, I tried to find a table near the back where it was unoccupied and I could do my photography without disturbing other patrons. Shortly after taking my seat, my server dropped off a menu for me to peruse:



Unlike all the other chicken houses, the menu at Whitehouse was short and sweet. It was chicken, chicken, chicken, and, okay, for you non-chicken eater out there, one fish dish. While the basic chicken dinner offerings were virtually identical to the other houses, the prices at Whitehouse were considerably more inexpensive. I ended up going with a "Classic White" dinner which included the breast, back, drumstick, and wing along with three sides all for roughly $8.99. A similar dinner at Belgrade would have set me back closer to $11.

After placing my order, the ubiquitous slices of white and rye bread made an appearance on my table:


As with the other chicken houses, there was nothing particularly noteworthy about the bread or the butter.

Unlike the other houses, however, my dinner made an appearance within about two minutes of me ordering it. In fact, when the food runner showed up at my table, I was almost certain that she had made a mistake. Apparently, I had arrived just as the kitchen had begun volume production of the fried chicken for tonight's dinner service, in anticipation of the dinner rush.

Because everything came out on one platter, I didn't get a shot of the entire thing. Instead, I decided to take photographs of different portions, with some of the foods overlapping from shot to shot. First up was the hot rice and mashed potatoes with white pepper gravy:


The tomato-based hot rice was hot, both in terms of temperature and spice level. I've never really developed a taste for this side at any of the Barberton restaurants, but other than the somewhat mushy texture of the rice, Whitehouse's version was decent enough. The mashed potatoes were also decent and seasoned well, but didn't really knock my socks off. The white pepper gravy was somewhat of a misnomer. Depending on how you read the description, it could be taken to mean that it was a gravy containing white pepper or a white gravy containing pepper. In this particular case, it was the latter. The gravy added a nice pepperiness to the potatoes and I think I would prefer it over just a plain brown gravy.

On the other side of the platter was the fried chicken and the homemade coleslaw:


Consistent with the rest of the chicken joints, the coleslaw was a simple shredded cabbage that had been dressed in a vinegar, sugar, and salt combination and allowed to sit until soft. Whitehouse's coleslaw had a nice balance to it, being neither too sweet or too acidic. I still think my favorite version was at Belgrade, but this one wasn't bad either.

Finally, the main event, the fried chicken:


The coating on the chicken was crispy and not greasy. While the crust wasn't quite as thick as the version found at Belgrade Gardens, it was still evenly coated and well seasoned. After cutting into the breast meat, I decided to snap one last photograph, to demonstrate how juicy the meat was on the inside:


I was most impressed with how well cooked the chicken actually was. For two dollars less than the same plate of food from my favorite, Belgrade Gardens, Whitehouse was astonishingly good. While I hadn't thought I was hungry enough to eat four pieces of chicken when I walked through the front door, by the time I was finished with my platter tonight, it was nothing but bones, cartilage, and tiny bits of meat that were inaccessible to teeth and fork. I finally realized just how difficult a decision it had been for Michael Symon when he had to choose the winner for his television show. Of course, there are many out there who will draw a hard and non-negotiable line over which chicken house is the best, for me, between Belgrade Garden, Hopocan Garden, and Whitehouse Chicken, the various shades of gray are incredibly close.

To me, Belgrade Garden still edges out everyone else in terms of overall flavor, crispiness of the chicken coating and juiciness of the meat. That being said, if a Barberton chicken dinner is what you are after and you aren't particularly dogmatic about your selection, I don't see how you could go wrong with Whitehouse Chicken. The good news is that you might even spend a little less to experience nearly the same meal. As I stood from the table in preparation of paying my check, I noticed that there were considerably more guests seated at tables than when I arrived. Given that Whitehouse Chicken just doesn't have the physical space to handle the massive crowds that the other houses do, I'd suggest getting there early unless you don't mind waiting.

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.

Going For A "Child's White" At Hopocan Gardens

In my quest to cover the four major Barberton chicken houses, I have eaten at and blogged about both Milich's Village Inn and Belgrade Gardens. Both posts have been quite popular in the search engine results and I have had many new readers find my blog because of those write-ups. Recently, I had a chance to finally make it to the third major chicken house, DeVore's Hopocan Gardens. Trying to avoid long lines and crowds, I smartly went for an early supper and was rewarded with plenty of available seats.

Hopocan Gardens was located at 4396 Hopocan Avenue Ext, Norton, OH 44203 and can be reached at 330-825-9923. There was ample parking in the lot outside the restaurant. The tricky thing about finding Hopocan Gardens was knowing that the restaurant isn't visible from the corner of Hopocan and Hillsdale Avenues. The clue, as I discovered the first time I found it, was to look for this sign:


Once on Hopocan Avenue Extension, follow the road down to the parking lot and the actual restaurant. Here was a shot of the front of the building:


There were two doors in the building. I choose the one on the far left, but as it turned out, either entrance would have been acceptable. Based on the size of the parking lot, I was expecting a lot of available dining room space. While tonight's small crowd only needed the moderately sized dining room attached to the kitchen and bar area, there were additional unlit rooms to the rear of the building. I don't think I'd be stretching the truth to say that during the Friday and Saturday night dinner crunch, just like it's other brethren, Hopocan Gardens can seat a lot of people.

After seating myself in the main dining room, my server dropped off a menu:




As has been the case with the other chicken houses at which I've eaten, the menu options were quite similar, although Hopocan Gardens' menu seemed a bit simpler at only two pages. I was here, of course, for the fried chicken and while the price for a regular four piece chicken dinner wasn't too expensive, I just wasn't that hungry. Fortunately, there was a "Child's White" option available that came just with a chicken breast and three sides in the mid $6 range. Perfect!

When I asked about the sides available, I was told that of all the sides, only three were homemade: hot rice, coleslaw, and fresh-cut fries. This seems to be a common theme among all of the chicken houses. And, as it turned out, the flavors were also very similar.

My server started my meal by bringing me some bread and butter out from the kitchen:


Once again, white and seedless rye were presented. Once again, there wasn't much to be said except that the bread was fresh, but unremarkable. I began to realize that the experience of getting a Barberton fried chicken dinner was largely pretty much cookie-cutter. Where one restaurant outshone another was in the execution of the dishes. Fortunately, I didn't have to wait long to find out how Hopocan Gardens fared.

Here was a shot of my chicken dinner:


Considering this was the "child's" plate, it was still an enormous amount of food. In fact, I took half home with me for a snack later on that evening. Let's work our way around the plate.

First up was the hot rice:


The first time I had hot rice, I wasn't sure if the "hot" moniker was due to the fact that the dish was served hot or if it is because the dish was supposed to be spicy. Hopocan Gardens' version satisfied both requirements. It was most similar in flavor to Belgrade Gardens' version, but this actually produced a bit of capsaicin-induced burning in my mouth. Not so much that it masked the other flavors, but it was definitely the spiciest I've had so far.

Next was the coleslaw:


The coleslaw at all three chicken houses have been made with the same vinegar, sugar, and salt ingredients, but I think my favorite so far has to go to Belgrade Gardens. While Hopocan Gardens' version wasn't bad by any stretch of the imagination, the version at Belgrade Gardens seemed to sing a bit better in my mouth. I think the balance between the three dressing ingredients played better on my taste buds.

While I wasn't super excited about the fresh-cut fries as a side, being that they were homemade, I gave them a shot:


The good news was that some of the fries were actually crispy and not greasy. The bad news was that the rest of them were limp and a oil laden. I've said it before and it bears repeating, if you like this kind of fry, these will definitely appeal to you. If, like me, you prefer fries that are crispy on the outside, not greasy, and fluffy on the inside, this probably won't be your cup of tea.

And finally, the star of the plate, the fried chicken breast:


The first thing that people new to Barberton chicken might notice is that the chicken breast doesn't look like a regular piece of fried chicken you would get elsewhere. To quote Hopocan Gardens' website:

"During the depression, families needed to find a way to cut the chickens to yield the most pieces without any waste. Times were hard. When the first chicken house opened, they cut the chicken this same way and passed the efficiency onto their customers in the form of low prices - an idea that is still popular 50 years later. "

While it looks like the breast might be boneless, I can assure you it isn't. I managed to cut through a small bone and after taking a bite, had to fish the small jagged piece out of my mouth so I didn't actually choke on it. It was my own fault and I should've paid a bit more attention to what I was doing.

Speaking of which, after cutting into my chicken, I took a picture of the interior meat:


Overall this was a nicely fried piece of chicken. The exterior was crispy and not oily and the meat itself was moist and well-seasoned. It was comparable to Belgrade Gardens' chicken, but the chicken I had eaten at Belgrade Gardens was actually juicier and more succulent. If Hopocan was a 9, then Belgrade was a 10. Regardless, I enjoyed the chicken very much.

Having finished all that I could eat, I boxed up the rest, walked up to the counter and paid a little over $7 (with tax) for my very filling meal. I very much enjoyed my meal today at Hopocan Gardens and wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to you, especially if you are looking for a taste of this somewhat unhealthy dish and don't want a massive amount of leftovers attributed to a full-size entrée. However, if you are looking for the very best version of Barberton chicken, I still have to tip my hat in the direction of Belgrade Gardens.

Not-So-Broasted Chicken At Mrs. Yoder's Kitchen

Sometimes you get in the mood for a particular food and until you satisfy that craving, you just endlessly obsess about it. I must have been watching a show on television that featured fried chicken, because I suddenly realized that it had been an extremely long time since I had eaten it and probably even longer since I had eaten a good piece of fried chicken. Deciding that I would solicit the advice of my Facebook friends, I posed the following question: "Tom J. Noe is in search of REALLY good fried chicken tomorrow. Any suggestions?"

While I received a myriad of responses, one stuck out above the rest. I'm not exactly sure why, but when my friend Liz suggested Mrs. Yoder's Kitchen out of Mt. Hope, Ohio, I felt compelled to learn more. The link that Liz gave me led me here and from here, I found the actual website for the restaurant. While the fact that the restaurant has a website was a great idea, for whatever reason they don't list their street address. However, through a bit of digging, I discovered that they were located at 8101 State Route 241, Mt. Hope, OH 44660 and can be reached at 330-674-0922.

Mount Hope was a small town, and once I rounded the corner to continue on Route 241, I noticed the sign for Mrs. Yoder's on the right side of the road:


As I pulled into the parking lot behind the restaurant, I realized that one of the side benefits from driving all this way from Akron were the unparalleled vistas that were apparent in every direction:


While I stood there in the late afternoon sun reveling in the beautiful countryside scene and the gentle zephyr ever-so-slightly tussling my hair, my rumbling stomach reminded me of the real reason for my visit today. I walked around to the front of the building, entered, and was fortuitously seated at a table right by a window. While I had expected my hostess to hand me a menu, when I looked down at the table, I realized that my place mat was actually the menu. This was very similar to my trip to Hartville Kitchen.

Due to the size of the placement, I decided to break the menu into three separate photographs:




After taking my drink order, my server asked if I would prefer some of Mrs. Yoder's homemade white or whole wheat bread. I asked me to bring me her favorite and within a few minutes, this appeared on my table as well as my requested glass of water:


There was nothing particularly revelatory about this slice of bread, but it was very fresh, had a lovely crust and crumb and reminded me of the bread served at Das Dutch Kitchen. The white bread had a varnished look to the crust and with one sniff I could tell that the loaves had been brushed with milk before being baked. A taste confirmed my suspicion. While I didn't use any of the tubs of butter also present in the basket, I couldn't help but use some of the tableside condiments with which I have grown familiar at other Amish eateries:


Of course, what the sign should say is "Homemade Apple Butter And Amish Peanut Butter." Regardless, I used my slice of white bread as a platform for tasting the peanut and apple butters. Both were quite tasty and made a delicious spread. Both reminded me of the exact same condiments at Das Dutch.

For my dinner, I decided to go with the "broasted" chicken, breast and wing. Although I have erroneously used the word broasting in the past to describe fried chicken, broasting is actually a trademarked process of marination and pressure frying sold and licensed by the Broaster Company of Beloit, WI. While the menu at Mrs. Yoder's definitely said "Broasted Chicken," when I went to the Broaster Company's store locator page and put in 44660 for the zipcode, Mrs. Yoder's was oddly missing from the list. Just to make sure I dotted all my "i's" and crossed all my "t's," I actually called the restaurant the day after.

After speaking with one of the managers, Seth, I have come to two conclusions. First, as much as the Broaster Company hates it, the term "broasting" is more associated with the pressure frying method than the company itself. Second, while Mrs. Yoder's Restaurant (and many other local restaurants) may have been calling it broasting for decades because of the particular cooking technique, technically it wasn't. Had they called it "pressure-fried chicken," there wouldn't be an issue. I suppose calling it broasted instead removes the word "fried" and makes it sound healthier.

Whatever you decide to call it, my dinner arrived much more quickly than I had anticipated:


With my breast and wing dinner, I was able to select two sides. The first side, as you can see above, was the homemade dressing with gravy. I did enjoy the fact that the plate came adorned with a lone sprig of parsley. While many restaurants have dispensed with this simple garnish, it really does break up a plate of brown well.

Here was a close-up shot of the chicken breast:


Expertly fried, the skin was crispy without being greasy. I normally discard chicken skin, especially if it is flabby, but in this case, I was happy to consume the entire breast, skin and all. The meat was succulent and juicy and seasoned perfectly. I suspect that the on-point seasoning had more to do with the marination process than an expert hand with the salt shaker. The chicken was excellent and to my taste it was on par with the chicken being served at Das Dutch.

After taking a bite of my chicken, I moved on to my first side:


The dressing was a clear winner here, both flavorful and interesting texturally. While most dressings are so moist that the bread cubes used kind of dissolve, this dressing had a combination of textures, from crispy to creamy. The optionally added gravy gave another level of moisture and the seasoning was also nicely done.

For my second side, I picked a seasonal favorite, asparagus:


Technically, this daily special was asparagus with cheese sauce and crumbled bacon. Worried that the delicate flavor of the asparagus would get killed by such assertive flavors, I asked if I could get the asparagus by itself and the cheese sauce served on the side. Happily, the asparagus with cheese sauce was assembled a la minute and it wouldn't be a problem to keep the two flavors separate. The asparagus was steamed just long enough to remove the crunch but not so long as to turn it into mush and drain the gorgeous green color from the stalks. The kitchen staff has helpfully added a pinch of salt to the top of the dish, but after eating my way down, I had to add just a touch of salt to keep things tasting good.

I tried the cheese sauce by itself


and was happy to discover that the cheddar flavor was quite mild. That being said, when I dipped some of the asparagus into the cheese sauce, I quickly came to the conclusion that I had been right to keep the two separate: the cheese sauce overpowered the delicate flavor of the asparagus. I suppose if you are eating the asparagus not because you like the flavor, but because its a healthy green vegetable, application of the cheese sauce will be a no-brainer. I happen to be one of those people who love the flavor of asparagus, so I would opt to skip it if possible.

Overall, I'd say that I had a very good meal at Mrs. Yoder's Restaurant. Is it worth the drive from Akron, Ohio? If I was in the area already, I'd say yes. But since I can get almost identical flavors much closer to where I live, I'll say no. It wasn't because the food or service was bad or their use of the term "broasted." It's more a matter of how much gas it takes to get me from my house to the restaurant and back. I should also mention that for those going for lunch or dinner on Friday and Saturday nights, they have an all-you-care-to-eat buffet.