A Not-So-Traditional Patty Melt

T Meldrum's was a suggestion from a previous Massillon resident who grew up eating at this restaurant. It is located at 2144 Wales Road NE, Massillon, Ohio 44646 and can be reached at (330) 833-4729. There is no website currently at this time.

After listening to him talk about his experiences at the restaurant, I decided to leave work a little early and give T Meldrum's a try. They are open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, but do be aware that they close at 8 pm, so there won't be any late night runs for a burger or a malted. As you travel north on Wales Rd, as soon as you pass Hills and Dales Road, you will see this sign on your right:


The building sits in the middle of a parking lot for a larger strip retail outlet. It's hard to tell from the outside, but once inside, it looks as if the original T Meldrum's was added onto over the years as there are distinctive sections to the restaurant. Here is a photo of the exterior of the restaurant:


Once inside and seated, I got down to business of perusing the menu:


And a shot of the inside of the menu. Note the message to the customers:


And a shot of the condiment tray at the end of every table:


The food at T Meldrum's is based on pretty traditional diner fare. However, after looking at the menu, I noticed that they do their own twist on the classics. What finally convinced me to give them a try in the first place is when my friend said that they offered a really great Patty Melt. I am such a sucker for a really good Patty Melt. The combination of the juicy burger, the crispy rye bread and the grilled sweet onions is just something I crave every now and again. The best Patty Melt I've ever had is at Mary Kelley's in Dublin, Ohio, and it is the standard against which I compare all others.

T Meldrum's version is actually a "Sisco" Patty Melt. It is served on grilled sourdough bread and offered with not only grilled onions, but also grilled green and banana peppers. I decided to go with that. Here is a shot of my sandwich when it arrived at my table:


And a shot from the side showing the layers:


This was an excellent sandwich. I opted to go with the 1/3 pound burger instead of the 1/2. This made the burger not quite as juicy as I normally like it, but between the two kinds of cheese and the grilled vegetables, the sandwich as a whole worked nicely together. The big surprise to me was the grilled banana peppers. They added a nice acidity which helped to cut some of the fat of the sandwich and grilling them first helped to tame some of their heat. I definitely recommend including those on your sandwich.

I decided to upgrade my sandwich to a platter for a couple of dollars more. This gave me my choice of two sides. My first side was the Macaroni and Cheese casserole:


This definitely had a homemade feel to it. It was nice and cheesy but wasn't overly so. It had that "baked" look to it; somewhat dry from the heat of the oven without being too dessicated. It wasn't the best mac and cheese I've ever had, but given the location I was eating in, it was certainly acceptable.

They did offer fresh cut fries, but instead I opted to go with the home fries. The difference? Home fries are essentially another name for hash browns. Here is T Meldrum's version:


These were okay, but definitely not nearly as good as the hash browns I had at Wally Waffle. Having worked at Bob Evan's my senior year as a short order cook, I know good hash browns. These were just a bit overcooked. And unfortunately, the seasoning was off just a bit as well. A little ketchup corrected that problem as well as added a nice acidity.

Overall, I enjoyed my meal at T Meldrum's. The Patty Melt was good, but definitely didn't blow my mind. If I were to order it again, I'd definitely get the 1/2 pound burger instead. I think it would end up being juicier. I'd stick with the Macaroni and Cheese casserole as my side again and perhaps order something other than the home fries. The menu is quite large and you could return many times without ordering the same thing twice.

  

For Those Under 30, LP Stands for Long Play

Herbie's Good Grub (formerly Herbie's Heroes) is a quaint little Massillon, Ohio sandwich shop that offers up a real funky ambiance with made-to-order sandwiches, pizzas, and subs. They are located on Amherst Road just north of Lake Avenue in the same shopping plaza as Marc's. They have several tables set up outside and several more inside, so unless you try going during their busy times, you should be able to snag a seat to eat your meal.

When you first walk into Herbie's, you can't help but notice the entire menu written on several blackboards along one wall:


The friend who clued me in to Herbie's suggested I try the cheeseburger sub and fries. After looking over the menu, I decided to go with his suggestion. I paid for my meal, sat down and started looking around the room. The nostalgia of Herbie's is captured on the walls with old Rolling Stone magazine covers as well as LP record album covers of 1960's and 1970's bands such as Elton John, Led Zeppelin, and Fleetwood Mac. The individually sized pizzas that they offer on the menu tie into this time period theme with such concoctions as the Heavy Metal, Psychedelic, and Disco.

On every table is a pamphlet about Herbie's. Here are a few shots of the outside and inside of the menu:




After about 10 minutes or so, my food finally arrived at my table piping hot right off the grill. First up, a shot of my cheeseburger sub and fries:


And a shot from a different angle:


And a shot of the burger from the side showing you all of the layers:


A couple of things to note. First, while you can pretty much construct your sub however you would like it, by default it comes with your choice of cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, and Italian salad dressing. I chose to nix the onion and kept everything else. Second, as you can see in the photo, the sandwich is actually composed of two burger patties laid next to each other on a hoagie roll. So, with the sandwich cut in half, you get the equivalent of two regular burgers. Finally, you have the option of having your hoagie roll toasted or not; I opted for toasted.

Before I go into my description of my meal, I just want to note that while I love hearing about new places to try from the tens of you out there who read my blog, it can be kind of a thin line to walk. On the one hand, you clearly wouldn't be recommending the place if you didn't think it had something unique and/or tasty to offer. At the same time, I have to balance being as real to my experience as I can without running the risk of destroying someone's cherished childhood memories about a favorite eatery. It's wonderful when a restaurant's past accomplishments can live up to today's realities. But it doesn't always happen. That being said ...

As you can see from the pictures above, the patties were nice and juicy. And the tomato was really very good. It was a brilliant red and completely ripe and sweet. For a conventionally grown tomato this tasty in May, they must have a very good supplier. The shredded lettuce and American cheese were exactly as you would expect them to be. The hoagie roll was nice and fresh and you got that little extra bit of texture from the toasted inside.

This was a good sandwich. Unfortunately, this was not a great sandwich. The Italian dressing definitely added something interesting to the mix. But it didn't accomplish what I think it should have by adding that much needed vinegar note to balance the fattiness of the burger. The other problem I noticed was that it just didn't have enough salt to zero in and lock in the flavors of all the ingredients. Sure, the cheese and the dressing added some salt, but when I managed to taste a bit of the hamburger patty itself, it wasn't seasoned enough. That being said, it wasn't as if this was missing salt altogether. And to be fair, salt and pepper shakers were available to add additional seasoning. However, I am of the opinion that food should come out of the kitchen ready to eat, no additional salt required.

The fries were definitely the star of the plate. Crunchy on the outside, creamy on the inside, not greasy, nicely seasoned with something more than just salt, these were a real winner. No ketchup was required. You could tell that there was more than just salt on the fries by looking at them. It was quite obvious by seeing a good bit of red and black flecks that this was a blend of some type. The friend who suggested Herbie's originally thought it might be seasoning salt, but I'm not convinced of that. Most seasoning salts I've tasted have a weird metallic taste to them and I definitely didn't pick up on this as I was eating my fries.

I was excited to learn that on Fridays and Saturdays, Herbie's breaks out the BBQ pit and actually slowly cooks up pork shoulder in order to be able to serve pulled pork sandwiches. Being a lover of pork myself, and especially of a good pulled pork sandwich, I may just have to make a weekend trip back down to Massillon to check them out again.

I think Herbie's does a lot of things right. And if they took some time to dial in those last few elements to some of their food, I think they would be outright delicious all around. When I return for the pulled pork sandwich, I hope to be able to sample a few more items off their menu. I hope that if you are in the area, you'll give them a shot and make up your own mind.

  

Even Homer Would Be Drooling

Mmmmm, donuts.

One day, out on my lunch break in Massillon, Ohio, I happened to stumble onto a small donut and pastry shop located in a strip mall in a completely out of the way location. Always on the lookout for interesting and unusual places, I walked in to check it out. I'm so glad I did.

I am talking, of course, about Johnnie's Pastry Shop located at 232 Federal Avenue NW, Massillon, OH 44647. The phone number is 330-832-9666. There is no website at this time. Don't get this Johnnie's confused with the Johnnie's just outside of downtown Canton. They are in no way related (trust me, I made this mistake only once), though I'm sure the latter is a fine place to visit as well.

The first thing you notice about the donuts at Johnnie's is how nice and large they are. They looked quite good even though I knew they had been sitting in the glass display cases since that morning. Looking over my choices, I noticed they had several filled varieties and asked the counter person to explain the different choices. When she got to the custard filled with a chocolate glaze, I stopped her right there. "One, please!"

Initially I thought it was a tad expensive that that the donuts were one dollar each, but when she finally handed me my little bag with my donut in it, I was taken aback at how heavy it was. These donuts are about twice as big and twice as heavy as the ones you'll get at your local Dunkin' Donuts or Krispy Kreme store.

I debated on whether or not to wait until later to eat my donut since I had just had lunch, but when I got back in my car I decided to eat my sweet treat right then and there. It was at that moment that I discovered the magic of Johnnie's wonderfully rich and eggy dough with just a hint of cinnamon spice. And they were filled with the most fantastic pastry cream that was sweet but not too sweet. I was instantly hooked and I realized that there was no doubt that this was SO worth the money.

Fast forward to today. Realizing that it had been a while since I had one of their donuts, I decided to grab lunch at a small Chinese place near Johnnie's so I could drop by and pick up an assortment of their goodies for your viewing (and my eating) pleasure.

Here is the box from the store:


And a shot of the assorted donuts I purchased today:


There is a custard filled, jelly filled, glazed, and one of their famous Danish crullers. Now lest you, gentle reader, think I am silly enough to try and eat all four donuts, don't worry. The resulting stomach ache and sugar coma would've made writing this review impossible. After photographing each one, I split them up with work colleagues who were all too eager to scarf them down. Although, to be fair, I've had these enough times that I could probably describe each and every one without having to taste them first. But, in the interest of culinary science, I pushed myself to re-taste each variety. I know, it sucks to be me.

Let's talk about the high notes of each of the donuts. Here is a shot of the exterior and interior of the custard filled:



Do note that the glaze on both the custard filled and jelly filled are going to look a little wonky. Unfortunately, they sat in my hot car on the ride back from lunch and the glaze more or less did what glaze does at that temperature; it melted. When you get them at the shop, I assure you they have a much nicer finished look to them.

This is just an amazing combination of wonderfully tender dough along with the vanilla pudding-like texture and flavor of a good pastry cream. After my initial visit, I talked to one of the counter people about the incredibly deep yellow, almost goldenrod, color of the donut and she said it was due to the number and quality of the eggs that are used in the batter. No artificial coloring is used at all.

Additionally, all their donuts are fried in lard. I'm assuming it is hydrogenated lard as that would be the more common product. I didn't want to push the counter person too much further because she had already started getting a glazed look in her eye when I asked about the frying fat used. In any event, the donuts always have a clean fried flavor without any of that "used oil" smell or taste. And even though they are fried, they are never greasy.

Next up, the jelly filled:



This uses the same egg-rich batter as the custard filled, but is injected with a seedless raspberry filling and glazed with a vanilla glaze. While the custard filled has always been my favorite, if they are out of those (and many times by noon they are), I am certainly happy to have one of these in its place.

Third on the list is the simple glazed donut. Not being quite as complex as the other donuts, these only cost $0.80 a piece.



There are no competing flavors in this donut. When you break it apart, you see the yellow eggy goodness and when you give it a sniff? Eggs, eggs, and more eggs! It almost has a brioche like quality to it and even more to a point, a Rich Man's brioche. Like I mentioned earlier, there is just a hint of cinnamon spice in the batter, too. In fact, if you look closely at the dough, you can see little specks of it. Amazingly tender, this really is a wonderful example of a simple glazed donut. And while I do like a hot glazed Krispy Kreme right off the line every now and again, Johnnie's glazed donut is much more restrained on the sugar and in the end, a more balanced product.

Finally, the specialty of the house, the Danish cruller. These are available with or without chopped peanuts:



This is similar in flavor to the plain glazed donut, only in cruller form. Because the two sides of the cruller are a little thinner, these tend to dry out sooner than a glazed would. Then again, if chopped peanuts are your thing, this guy is the one for you.

The one type of donut that I wasn't all that impressed with in past visits were the creme sticks. But I don't fault Johnnie's for that. They use the same wonderful donut batter for the donut itself. I'm just not a fan of the "creme" that most pastry and donut places use. Something about sweetened vegetable shortening just doesn't appeal to my palate.

I was originally going to end this write-up with:

"So, if you happen to be in the Massillon area and looking for an outstanding donut experience, I heartily recommend Johnnie's."

Um, no. I've changed my mind. Strike the above sentence.

DRIVE to Massillon and buy yourself some of these outstanding donuts. I think you will love them as much as I do. Just make sure you get there early enough to ensure that the custard filled chocolate glazed haven't sold out.

And if driving all that way seems like too guilty of a pleasure just for donuts, stop by the Riverbank General Store on your way back to pick up some wonderful Hartzler dairy products like milk, unsalted butter and ice cream. They also have organic grains and grass-fed meats as well as locally produced honey and maple syrup.

Lee's Korean ... For Dinner!

After I found out that I could no longer get my Korean fix during the days anymore at Lee's Korean BBQ, I decided to make a concerted effort to get there during a weeknight. So, after working a particularly long day, I decided to make the trip to Massillon and get my Korean groove on.

As always, the place was dead. I really have no clue as to how this place survives -- even with the merger to Colucci's. I started out with the Mandoo soup for my appetizer. Fluffy beef dumplings in a light broth with ginger, scallions, carrots, and eggs. This was a wonderful way to start out the meal:


Next up, my banchan and white rice arrived. These come automatically with each meal. In the banchan, you have pressed tofu, kimchi, cucumber, and what I believe to be some type of potato dish (left to right, front to back).


And a super awesome shot of my rice:


Instead of going with my normal order of Bi Bim Bap, I decided to go out on a limb and order something different. Looking over the menu, I decided to go with the O-Sam-Bulgogi, which is a mixture of pork and squid in a spicy chili sauce with onions and sesame seeds:


The sauce was quite good, but not particularly spicy, so I asked my server for an extra dish of gozhujaan, or spicy Korean chili paste. Overall, the flavor was spectacular. About 80% of the pork was nice and tender. 20%, not so much. I think it was more of the cut of pork than anything else. Unfortunately, while there were nice large pieces of squid in the dish, it was woefully overcooked and tough. So sad.

I only learned later on after the meal was over and I was settling the check with my waitress that they can make it much more spicy than it came out (and I asked for it spicy). So, the next time I go back, I may give this one another shot and get it "Korean spicy". Well, with my luck at getting food served at authentic spicy levels, hopefully it will come out correctly and not "American spicy".

Identity Crisis

I was decidedly in an ethnic cuisine sort of mood today for lunch. As odd as it seems, right in the middle of downtown Massillon, OH is a restaurant that serves both Japanese food and Korean food. Having gone there on and off for lunch over the last year, I'm always surprised that they are still in business as I am often the only one eating there during lunch.

Apparently about 3 1/2 weeks ago, the space being occupied by Lee's Korean BBQ is now being shared with Colucci's Ristorante. Lee's is now open only for dinner, while Colucci's is open for lunch and dinner. They share the space in the evening. So now you can get Japanese, Korean, and Italian all at the same location.

Upon arriving at the restaurant, my first clue that something was up was this sign leaning against the building on the ground:


My server explained how the new arrangement will work. She didn't really go into any reasons why Colucci's agreed to this arrangement, but I have to assume it is beneficial to both businesses.

The lunch menu was pretty straightforward: pastas, salads, sandwiches, and soups. They also have a daily special, today's was Swiss Steak. I asked my server if the restaurant has any specialties. She pointed out that the chef makes his own meat sauce. Lucky for me there just happened to be a spaghetti with meat sauce for $4.99. I also ordered the optional side house salad.

The house salad came with home made Italian dressing on the side:


The salad itself was nothing really special, it's Italian heritage denoted by two slices of pepperoni on top. The dressing was, sadly, too oily and seasoned quite blandly. I will give a slight pass to this though because vinaigrettes are notoriously hard to keep emulsified and as such, the taste I got with my fork before dispensing on my salad may have been tainted by the (small) layer of oil floating on top.

The server also brought out a bread basket:


Italian style bread which was a bit dried out. Fortunately the accompanying pats of butter were softened enough to be easily spreadable.

Finally, the main event:


Now, I have to say that just looking at the plate there are already two strikes against it. Problem one, and this is all too common, is that the pasta is WAY oversauced. Problem two, which isn't so immediately obvious from the photo is the puddle of water underneath the pasta. I know Americans want the sauce on top, but honestly, if done the correct way, the whole oversaucing and additional water drainage issue would just go away.

To its credit, the pasta wasn't mushy and better yet, the sauce was quite good. It actually took the concept of a meat sauce and elevated it by incorporating shredded pork as well. It's probably closer to an Americanized meat sauce with shredded pork than a true Ragu alla Bolognese (too much tomato product), but it was decidedly good nonetheless. The pork gave it an extra layer of texture and flavor and the sauce wasn't overly sweet.

And to be honest, I didn't mind the extra sauce this time around as it gave me a chance to keep tasting the sauce by itself. The meat sauce was definitely the star of the show.

It would be awesome if the chef offered a truer Italian style version of the dish where the pasta was tossed in the condiment before plating, but I guess we can't get everything we want in life.

The server also mentioned they have a garlic and oil sauce that is very good as well. Guess that means I'll have to go back and give it another go.