Flying High At The Flying Fig

I've been wanting to try Karen Small's Ohio City-based restaurant, Flying Fig, for quite some time. I have read many positive reviews of the food and given that my out-of-town guests wanted something uniquely Cleveland, I figured after our fantastic meal at Chinato, a visit to her restaurant might just be the perfect cherry to top off that metaphorical sundae.

Flying Fig was located at 2523 Market Avenue, Cleveland, OH 44113 and can be reached at 216-241-4243. They have an on-line presence which contains directions, menus, specials, and lists their hours of operation. While there was no parking directly on Market Avenue, there were plenty of spots to park located on the street only a block away.

Walking up to the front of the restaurant, I snapped this photograph of the main window:


Even though Mike and I had shown up for our reservation a half-hour early, the host inside was more than happy to seat us right away. Fortunately it wasn't too busy and we had our choice of an inside or outside table. Commenting on how nice of an evening it was, both Mike and I agreed to sit outside at one of the sidewalk tables. This would also bode well for my photography since the inside of the restaurant was fairly dark.

We were left to peruse the single page menu:


While most of the menu items looked vaguely familiar to what was available on the on-line version, what I didn't realize until later was that tonight was the debut of the Ohio Pork Trio entrée.

Along with our menu came tonight's bread service:


Here was a shot of my bread plate:


While I wouldn't call this a European style artisan bread, it was quite tasty and was fresh and delicious. A quick check with our server revealed that it was made in-house as I had suspected. We ended up going through two plates of bread between Mike and I since it was so good and we were quite hungry.

To maximize our flavor experience tonight, Mike and I decided to split two appetizers and then each order our own entrée. While there were many tempting items to try from the appetizer portion of the menu, when I saw cornmeal crusted chicken livers, I was sold:


Here was a shot of my portion:


Served up with candied bacon, scallion and citrus salad dressed in a maple and mustard vinaigrette and dotted with fresh chevre, the flavors in this appetizer really sang in my mouth. The crunchy coating played nicely with the creaminess of the livers and the goat cheese. The candied bacon added a bit of sweet and salt and the acidic vinaigrette helped to cut through the fattiness of the dish. The only thing I didn't care for was the fact that the chicken livers were cooked completely through. I would've preferred mine a bit more on the medium side as they were a little dried out and a little bit mealy.

For Mike's appetizer, he decided to go with the Tempura Battered Green Beans:


Served with both a soy-ponzu and caramelized chili pineapple sauce, this was a large plate of food on which to nibble. Here was a shot of my portion of tempura beans:


While the soy-ponzu sauce may have been the more traditional of the two sauces, I have to admit that the caramelized chili pineapple dipping sauce was heavenly. It essentially hit sweet, salty, sour, and spicy notes, all at the same time. The green beans were nicely battered and fried and while Mike thought they were perfectly fried, I thought they were just a touch greasy. However, the didn't taste greasy in the mouth. And paired with the pineapple sauce, I was quite taken with this dish. In fact, after we ran out of beans, I started dipping my bread into the sauce.

As I mentioned earlier, the Ohio Pork Trio was a brand new dish debuting at tonight's dinner service. Of course, I didn't know that until after I had ordered it, but I'm glad I made that choice. Here was a shot of my entrée tonight:


First I'll talk about the non-pork items on the plate and then move my way around to each of the pork preparations. Besides the trio of pork, the plate also contained a cheddar chive spoon bread and sautéed kale. Both items were a nice touch and while distinctly different from the pork items, helped to tie the entire plate together. The kale had been spiced with a bit of pepperocino (red pepper flakes) which gave each bite a bit of spicy kick. The spoon bread was quite moist and the flavor of the cheddar cheese came through quite easily.

The first preparation of pork was the tenderloin:


I tasted the sauce by itself and it tasted of apples, which would make sense because apples and pork have an affinity for each other. The menu had said that the tenderloin was rhubarb glazed and while I didn't get a distinct flavor of rhubarb, there was a hint of sourness to the outside of the pork. I had ordered the pork to be cooked medium and that was exactly how it arrived. Overall, this was a delicious component of the dish.

Next up was the pork belly:


Served with what tasted to me like a tamarind based sauce, the pork belly was certainly cooked long enough for all of the connective tissue to break down. While this pork component was good, it wasn't great. The meat was just a tad dry and while the sauce helped, it couldn't make up that much ground. The spice rub that had been used on the crispy exterior added a lovely depth of flavor and savoriness to the dish.

The final pork component of the plate was the Root Beer-Chili Glazed Ribs:


Not sure what to expect from a "root beer" sauce, I tried a bit of the sauce on the plate first. Outstanding! The root beer flavor was there, but just barely. The chili heat was nicely balanced with the sweet and the salt. I bit into a rib to discover nearly fall-of-the-bone meat which was enhanced, but not overpowered, by the sauce. I was concerned with using my hands to eat this part of the meal since the rest of the plate was definitely knife and fork. However, my server confirmed my choice when she checked in on us and told me that I absolutely should be eating them with my hands. I am not normally a rib person, but I can tell you that I could've eaten an entire rack of these ribs, especially paired with the root beer chili sauce.

After finishing our entrées, I was entirely too full to think about ordering a dessert, but apparently Mike was lured in by the fresh seasonal berries on a shortcake with organic, barely sweetened whipped cream:


While I don't normally include pictures of items I don't try myself, Mike did allow me to have a taste and I have to say it was as lovely and refreshing as I figured it would be. Composed of a trio of blackberries, raspberries, and blueberries, the only component Mike didn't find particularly inspiring was the shortcake. He felt it was too close to something he would find at Bob Evans. Having worked at Bob Evans during high school as a line cook, I can assure you that on this point, we disagreed.

I am so happy to have finally had a chance to try out this marvelous little eatery on Cleveland's near west side in Ohio City. Both Mike and I had a great dinner and even though Mike isn't really into the whole locally sourced food scene, I am glad to see that I have another option when I want to dine out at a restaurant whose chef understands the need to offer local and sustainable menu items. The fact that the food was prepared well and tasted fantastic just makes me want to return soon and return often. I highly recommend you check out Flying Fig restaurant and if you can swing it, dine al fresco on the sidewalk. On a cool summer evening, it's the only way to dine.

A Second Visit To Light Bistro

For our second evening out in Cleveland, I decided to take my friend Chris to another favorite of mine, Light Bistro. I have written once before about Light Bistro and thought that after the upscale-ness of Lola Bistro, Light would be that nice blend of excellent food, more laid back service, and certainly a more approachable price point. I have had a handful of meals at Light and have always walked away a happy diner.

We were fortunate to get a parking spot on the street just down from the restaurant and walked in through the front door promptly at 6:30 PM. We were warmly greeted and shown to our table by the large front window, fortuitous for me since my camera phone doesn't have a flash on it (nor did I want to use the flash even if it had it). We were handed menus (which appear in my previous post on Light) and soon thereafter, a small bag of fresh hot bread and butter arrived at our table:


Inside was a mixture of regular French style bread and a Parmesan cheese crusted bread. Here was a shot of my bread slathered liberally with some of the nicely softened butter:


The bread was wonderfully fresh and warm and the butter almost instantly melted into the tight crumb. The crust had a nice chew to it and the bread had a slight tang to it, indicative that a starter had been used.

One of the aspects of dining at Light that I really appreciate is the division of the menu into smaller tapas style plates as well as larger entrées. Depending on who you are dining with and the table's preferences, you could make up your entire meal on small plates alone or a mixture of small and large plates. Tonight Chris and I decided to share two of the tapas plates and then we each got our own entrée.

First up was a platter of bacon-wrapped dates:


These porky nuggets had been stuffed with almonds and Valderon cheese. Valderon cheese is actually a blue-veined cheese and thus, had quite a strong flavor. While these were delicious, the problem was that between the bacon and the blue cheese, the sweetness and flavor of the dates were almost entirely lost. The almonds lent nearly no flavor and in fact, if it weren't for the occasional crunch of the nut, I might have thought that they were left out entirely.

Our second tapas was from the more modern section of the menu, the creamy polenta with braised oxtail:


The polenta was definitely creamy and the braised oxtails were completely tender. Topped with a little bit of Ricotta Salata (salted Ricotta), to me this was a nice blending of flavors. Texturally it probably could've used some contrast as everything was a tad on the soft side. Chris felt that the polenta added nothing to the dish and could've easily been left off. I disagree in that the polenta added just a touch of sweetness to balance the savoriness of both the beef and the cheese.

For my main course, I decided to stray from the entrée section and ordered the Kobe beef burger with pommes frites instead:


I normally don't go all agog when I see a Kobe beef burger on a menu (which seems to be all the trend nowadays), but when I saw that it was topped with a mushroom duxelle, truffled creme fraiche, arugula, and Fontina cheese, that just sounded too good to pass up. I ordered my burger medium; here was a shot of the interior of my bisected burger:


This was a bit closer to medium rare than medium, but I was happy to eat it anyway. The bun had been nicely grilled and stood up well to the onslaught of juice that came from this patty. The burger was seasoned properly and tasted "beefy." I could taste the Fontina and the earthiness from the truffled creme fraiche, but the arugula didn't do a whole lot for me. As for the mushroom duxelle, I wasn't exactly sure where it existed on the burger. Looking at my photograph, it appears that it may be between the arugula and the slice of cheese, but I certainly didn't get any mushroom flavor when I took a bite. Which was sad because I love the flavor of duxelle. At $16 for this burger, I don't think what I received was worth the price. Next time, if I'm in the mood for a burger, I'll stick with the "regular" beef burger at only $12.

The pommes frites that came with the burger were quite good though. The potato sticks were crispy on the outside and just a little bit creamy on the inside. I think my preference would be for a thicker cut of potato, but these were just fine and served as a nice foil to the burger. By this point Chris had finished his entrée and had begun stealing fries from my plate. He wasn't sure why I hadn't sent my burger back to be cooked to the correct temperature, but honestly, it didn't bother me that much. In the worst case, they would refire the burger and fries and I'd be sitting there for ten more minutes watching him eat.

Overall I think that I enjoyed my experience at Light Bistro tonight more than Chris did. The food was better than average, but not outstanding. I didn't bother to ask if Chef Matt Mattlage was running the pass tonight, but honestly it shouldn't matter. I still think that Light Bistro is a great place to eat, even if they had a somewhat off night tonight. Considering that an off night at Light Bistro is comparable to a great night at some other restaurants at which I've eaten, I'm not too concerned. I would suggest that if you happen to be in the Ohio City area just west of downtown Cleveland that you give this eatery a try; I think you'll be happy with the entire experience.