[Ed. Note: This was written one day when I had sat down to write, poised my fingers over the keyboard and just sat there staring at my screen, suddenly devoid of anything to say. As a farce, I decided to start writing a food essay about how to write a food essay. This was the result and hopefully it will be a nice way to put a smile on your face on this bright Monday morning.]
The problem with writing good food essays is that they aren't something you can just crank out, like restaurant reviews.
With restaurant reviews, you basically spend a paragraph or two explaining how you came to know about a restaurant (the "set-up"). This leads into a paragraph about how to find and contact the restaurant. From there you basically spend the remainder of the review walking through the time you initially walk up to the front door until you leave some ninety to one hundred twenty minutes later, hopefully sated and happy. At the end of this epicurean odyssey, you spend a paragraph recapping some of the major points, make a recommendation and end with as pithy a quip as is possible. Et voila! A food blog entry is born.
Essays are different though. While the progression of a meal from start to finish provides a natural and effective way to lead readers from point A to point B, an essay must do the same without the benefits of visual stimulus, such as pictures, or the natural timeline of a meal. As a writer, I need to come up with a topic that I can not only expound upon for several paragraphs, but also have to think of a logical conclusion to neatly tie up the progression of my ramblings. Too add insult to injury, I additionally have to figure out a way to steer you from the premise to the conclusion.
On top of the simple mechanics of writing an essay, there is also the question of style. Should I be funny? Or serious? Do I treat my topic with reverence or insincerity? Often it isn't what you say in an essay that makes it valuable, but how you say it. For instance, when describing how a particular bite of food tastes, I could say, "The food was hot and it tasted good." Or, I could say, "Upon taking the first bite of what would turn out to be many, I was surprised and delighted that not only had the entrée arrived at the table with steam rising and swirling above the plate, but that as I chewed and released all of the flavor compounds onto my tongue, I was rewarded with a well balanced and at the same time nuanced and complex set of flavors." Wordy? Absolutely. More interesting to read than the first version? I suppose it depends on the readers interest level and tolerance for florid language.
Of course, always present in the back of my mind is my audience. In an only slightly twisted version of the timeless question, "If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?" ever present in my writing is, "If I write a food essay but nobody ever reads it, then why am I sitting here thinking about writing it in the first place?" Grappling with these issues is enough to cause serious writer's block. Once you've blocked, it can be hard to get the words flowing once again.
So you've picked a topic, a conclusion that you are working toward and a style or voice in which your exposition will express itself. What's next? Time for the essay to begin. Personally, I like to find someplace quiet. While I am able to successfully zone out and focus my entire attention on what I am writing, I have been known on occasion to simply start taking dictation from the conversations going on around me. If I'm not in a naturally quiet environment (and there are surprisingly few these days), I do the next best thing: cue up music with no English words on the Pandora app for my Android phone. If I can understand it, I will tend to write it down. Piano music works well. As does Techno dance music. Opera is especially good.
As with many of the restaurant reviews that I do, the hardest part I find is getting that opening paragraph written. A lot of people have a hard time getting that first sentence. Because I am attempting to achieve both an interesting opening as well as a bridge to the rest of the article, I try and provide a personal connection between myself, the restaurant, and the reader. A food essay will work in much the same way, only there is generally no restaurant involved and the topic may or may not be something the reader tends to care about. It is my job as the author to provide a hook that will keep the reader thoroughly invested until he or she reaches the end.
Another problem that I often have to look out for when writing an essay is what I like to call the "wandering middle." In attempting to connect the start with the finish, I have to make sure that my paragraphs take a logical and sensible path without too many detours in the middle. Nothing is worse than starting an article believing it is about one topic and halfway through realizing that you just wasted thirty to sixty seconds of your life wandering off in a direction that has no relevance to either the premise or the conclusion. I know when I come across essays like this on-line, I will read the first sentence of the following paragraphs to see if the author gets back on topic. If not, I, as I'm sure many of you out there, will simply cut my losses and move on.
The other vice I try and stay away from is being too preachy. While it is great to have a viewpoint and I hope I never stop learning new tidbits of information, I never want to come across as superior by belittling or showing disdain for the topic about which I am writing. Criticism is fine in my book, but negativity is right out. I always try and have balance on whatever topic about which I write. Too often I have been humbled by someone wiser than myself and I've come to realize along the way that if I have to take the lumps for something uninformed that I wrote, so be it.
Alright. So now we have a topic, a premise, a conclusion, points about what style or voice will be used to express the essay, and admonitions about staying on topic and not being preachy. With all of these considerations and rules being taken under advisement, is it any wonder that an essay will ever spring forth from mind to keyboard? I find it fascinating that the human mind can still organize thoughts into a coherent stream of characters, words, and sentences that articulates a writer's point of view such that someone else can pick it up, decipher it, and complete the knowledge transfer.
I suppose, in the end, the trick to writing a good food essay, or really any essay for that matter, is to know when you've reached a significantly satisfying conclusion and simply put the pen down.
Monday, January 10, 2011
Friday, January 7, 2011
Sometimes You Need To Bastardize The Homogeneity
Since I started writing this blog two years ago, I have stopped in occasionally to visit a childhood favorite of mine, Marie's Pizza and Chicken. This Wadsworth-based restaurant established itself on the south side of town where it's most major accomplishment was to win the Akron Beacon Journal's Best Pizza Award in 1976. From that point until the late 2000's when the new location opened up just north of I-76, the focus has been on what made the restaurant such a maven for locals: great pizza and simple, but delicious Italian classics.
When walking into the new building, one familiar with the previous location could immediately recognize that the new space tripled (and that's without the extra banquet room space) the amount of seating. In addition to starting out with a completely new space for the restaurant, the owner also decided to expand the menu, presumably in an effort to compete on a more level playing field with the likes of Applebee's just down the street, which never seems to have a shortage of patrons on the weekends.
Smartly, the dishes that made Marie's such a go to spot in the first place remained on the menu. Not-so-smartly, the expanded menu sought to include dishes that were well outside of their comfort zone, such as teriyaki-flavored dishes and sandwich wraps. When the new location opened several years ago, the place would be literally mobbed for lunch and dinner and in fact, I waited about six weeks before even attempting to try and get in. Since then, I have written about them three times, two of which were positive and the last, well, not entirely glowing.
I decided to include a fourth review not because I am a glutton for punishment, but because a) they have a newly printed and bound menu and b) I think I am at the point where I can conclusively recommend Marie's for only a handful of items on the menu, sadly most of the ones that made the original menu at their first location such a success.
When I sat down today, my server handed me the now tome-like menu. While not quite as bad as say, The Cheesecake Factory, it was certainly nowhere near the brevity of their first menu:
As I looked through the menu, I was actually filled with a bit of sadness. Besides the spelling mistakes I noticed, the menu spoke of the homogeneity of today's modern dining out experience. This menu had the same look and feel of almost every national chain restaurant; instead of standing out and counting on its individuality, the new menu instead emphasized the vast blandness of conformity. So sad.
While I have more or less stuck to the tried and true menu items from my youth, today I was feeling in neither a pizza nor pasta kind of mood. Since my last sandwich selection wasn't particularly good, I decided to try one of their newer additions, the Tuscan Wrap. While the sandwich came with potato chips by default, for an additional upcharge, I could add fried-from-frozen French Fries and a side such as coleslaw, applesauce, or cottage cheese. I chose the coleslaw, which came out first:
Essentially food service coleslaw (which, gentle reader, means that the kitchen simply portions each serving from the prepared and delivered container that someone like Sysco provides), this side was about as remarkable as every other version you could get at a national chain restaurant. Which is to say, completely unremarkable.
Things perked up slightly after our table received the complimentary garlic bread sticks and warm marinara dipping sauce:
Since I've described the bread sticks and sauce in a previous entry, I won't do it again here. Sadly, this was the high point of the meal for me.
After a little bit longer, our lunch plates arrived. Here was a shot of my Tuscan Wrap with French Fries:
Here was a close-up shot of the filling in today's wrap:
The Tuscan Wrap was a sun-dried tomato basil wrap containing grilled chicken, onions, green peppers, melted cheese and dried Italian herbs, I'm guessing oregano. While the ingredients in the wrap were definitely hot, my first taste of the wrap left me wondering if they had opened up an Italian Taco Bell in the kitchen as the flavors and textures reminded me of the chicken burrito I can get for $1.39 at the fast food giant. With how uniformly cut the chicken chunks appeared inside the wrap, it didn't take a stretch of the imagination to realize that the chicken had already been cooked and chopped and simply re-warmed for service.
Fortunately, the French Fries were the saving grace of this plate of food:
While they were fried-from-frozen (as confirmed by our server), at least they were fried properly, seasoned well, and were nice and fluffy on the inside. I ended up eating less than half of my wrap and about half of my fries before throwing in the towel and calling it quits.
Having eaten Marie's pizza about a week prior to this lunch, I do have to say that the pizza still captures a special place in my heart. However, should their pizza and pasta start to decline, even just a little, I would be entirely willing to write this once adored pantheon of carb-laden goodness off as a casualty of conformity.
As today's visit to Marie's was a celebratory one (my aunt's birthday was the day prior), we returned to my grandmother's condo to finish off the lunch with a small cake from Ann's Pastry located in downtown Wadsworth:
After expressing my desire to have a small cake (it was just four of us) that had REAL buttercream frosting and not the seemingly de facto standard of vegetable shortening sweetened with sugar, my mother managed to track down exactly what she needed at Ann's. While the cake had thoughtfully come adorned with just a single red rose, my mother decided to transform the cake into the poster child for breast cancer awareness by covering every available square inch on top of the cake with pink candles.
After singing Happy Birthday with some very, ahem, interesting clapping by my aunt (whom I promised I would not post the footage I captured on my camera), I set about slicing up four servings of the cake:
The good news was that this yellow cake was both tasty and moist. The bad news was that the frosting, although a buttercream, suffered from way too much sweetness; to the point where I had to seek out a glass of water to help tame it down a bit. I haven't had the opportunity to give a range of Ann's Pastry Shop products a try yet for the blog, so I don't want to condemn the entire shop just because the frosting today was over the top in sugar content. They've been around quite a long time (more than twenty years), so they must be doing something correct. I'll have to give them a more formal review at some point in the near future.
For those interested in checking out this quaint little shop, it can be found at 121 High Street, Wadsworth, OH 44281 and can be reached at 330-335-7441.
When walking into the new building, one familiar with the previous location could immediately recognize that the new space tripled (and that's without the extra banquet room space) the amount of seating. In addition to starting out with a completely new space for the restaurant, the owner also decided to expand the menu, presumably in an effort to compete on a more level playing field with the likes of Applebee's just down the street, which never seems to have a shortage of patrons on the weekends.
Smartly, the dishes that made Marie's such a go to spot in the first place remained on the menu. Not-so-smartly, the expanded menu sought to include dishes that were well outside of their comfort zone, such as teriyaki-flavored dishes and sandwich wraps. When the new location opened several years ago, the place would be literally mobbed for lunch and dinner and in fact, I waited about six weeks before even attempting to try and get in. Since then, I have written about them three times, two of which were positive and the last, well, not entirely glowing.
I decided to include a fourth review not because I am a glutton for punishment, but because a) they have a newly printed and bound menu and b) I think I am at the point where I can conclusively recommend Marie's for only a handful of items on the menu, sadly most of the ones that made the original menu at their first location such a success.
When I sat down today, my server handed me the now tome-like menu. While not quite as bad as say, The Cheesecake Factory, it was certainly nowhere near the brevity of their first menu:
As I looked through the menu, I was actually filled with a bit of sadness. Besides the spelling mistakes I noticed, the menu spoke of the homogeneity of today's modern dining out experience. This menu had the same look and feel of almost every national chain restaurant; instead of standing out and counting on its individuality, the new menu instead emphasized the vast blandness of conformity. So sad.
While I have more or less stuck to the tried and true menu items from my youth, today I was feeling in neither a pizza nor pasta kind of mood. Since my last sandwich selection wasn't particularly good, I decided to try one of their newer additions, the Tuscan Wrap. While the sandwich came with potato chips by default, for an additional upcharge, I could add fried-from-frozen French Fries and a side such as coleslaw, applesauce, or cottage cheese. I chose the coleslaw, which came out first:
Essentially food service coleslaw (which, gentle reader, means that the kitchen simply portions each serving from the prepared and delivered container that someone like Sysco provides), this side was about as remarkable as every other version you could get at a national chain restaurant. Which is to say, completely unremarkable.
Things perked up slightly after our table received the complimentary garlic bread sticks and warm marinara dipping sauce:
Since I've described the bread sticks and sauce in a previous entry, I won't do it again here. Sadly, this was the high point of the meal for me.
After a little bit longer, our lunch plates arrived. Here was a shot of my Tuscan Wrap with French Fries:
Here was a close-up shot of the filling in today's wrap:
The Tuscan Wrap was a sun-dried tomato basil wrap containing grilled chicken, onions, green peppers, melted cheese and dried Italian herbs, I'm guessing oregano. While the ingredients in the wrap were definitely hot, my first taste of the wrap left me wondering if they had opened up an Italian Taco Bell in the kitchen as the flavors and textures reminded me of the chicken burrito I can get for $1.39 at the fast food giant. With how uniformly cut the chicken chunks appeared inside the wrap, it didn't take a stretch of the imagination to realize that the chicken had already been cooked and chopped and simply re-warmed for service.
Fortunately, the French Fries were the saving grace of this plate of food:
While they were fried-from-frozen (as confirmed by our server), at least they were fried properly, seasoned well, and were nice and fluffy on the inside. I ended up eating less than half of my wrap and about half of my fries before throwing in the towel and calling it quits.
Having eaten Marie's pizza about a week prior to this lunch, I do have to say that the pizza still captures a special place in my heart. However, should their pizza and pasta start to decline, even just a little, I would be entirely willing to write this once adored pantheon of carb-laden goodness off as a casualty of conformity.
As today's visit to Marie's was a celebratory one (my aunt's birthday was the day prior), we returned to my grandmother's condo to finish off the lunch with a small cake from Ann's Pastry located in downtown Wadsworth:
After expressing my desire to have a small cake (it was just four of us) that had REAL buttercream frosting and not the seemingly de facto standard of vegetable shortening sweetened with sugar, my mother managed to track down exactly what she needed at Ann's. While the cake had thoughtfully come adorned with just a single red rose, my mother decided to transform the cake into the poster child for breast cancer awareness by covering every available square inch on top of the cake with pink candles.
After singing Happy Birthday with some very, ahem, interesting clapping by my aunt (whom I promised I would not post the footage I captured on my camera), I set about slicing up four servings of the cake:
The good news was that this yellow cake was both tasty and moist. The bad news was that the frosting, although a buttercream, suffered from way too much sweetness; to the point where I had to seek out a glass of water to help tame it down a bit. I haven't had the opportunity to give a range of Ann's Pastry Shop products a try yet for the blog, so I don't want to condemn the entire shop just because the frosting today was over the top in sugar content. They've been around quite a long time (more than twenty years), so they must be doing something correct. I'll have to give them a more formal review at some point in the near future.
For those interested in checking out this quaint little shop, it can be found at 121 High Street, Wadsworth, OH 44281 and can be reached at 330-335-7441.
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
More Tasty Lunches From Market Gourmet
Being so close to Market Gourmet @ Montrose has been a very good thing recently during my daily lunch excursions. Since opening his doors in late August, Chef Jeff Winer has been attempting to not only establish his small shop selling gourmet food and wine, but also running a lunch and (early) dinner counter serving up tasty soups, salads, sandwiches, and sides. As his customer base has grown, he has added high-quality items that only continue to enhance the experience for his guests.
One of the principles that Jeff is committed to is seasonality of food. As the summer and fall have come and gone, certain produce items that were once tasty and easy to come by (such as tomatoes) are now impractical, either because they are too expensive to use or just don't taste good this time of year. Because of that, a new menu has rolled out that "tweaks" their current menu. Many of the favorites will remain, such as the house roasted turkey and beef, but the tarragon chicken salad will have to be put to bed for the season.
While my last visit consisted of me talking about the roasted turkey sandwich on the ciabatta roll, today's first of two lunch visits represented a continued exploration of other popular menu items. For lunch today, I decided go with a California Chicken sandwich on sourdough bread, a bag of the Cracked Pepper & Sea Salt Dirty potato chips, and a can of diet soda:
The day that I stopped in, Market Gourmet was running a special: For only $1.50, you could pair any bag of chips and can of soda with a salad or sandwich. Which meant that for only a few dollars more than a "value" meal at one of the myriad of fast food restaurants in Montrose, not only could I have a much better TASTING lunch, but also a healthier one, too. After paying for my meal, I retired to one of the newly installed tables to enjoy my spoils. Originally thinking that people would prefer to take their food to go, he has wisely added four tables to the small space, two two-tops and two four-tops.
Here was a shot of my grilled California Chicken sandwich:
And a shot of the interior layers of the sandwich:
In addition to the grilled chicken, the other layers included applewood smoked bacon, avocado, micro arugula, Jarlsberg cheese and pesto aioli. As with all of the sandwiches I have tried at Market Gourmet, what struck me about today's choice was the emphasis of balance in flavors and textures. The grilled sourdough and crisp bacon added some wonderful crunch while the tender chicken and mashed avocado had a wonderful creaminess. The arugula worked well to add a bit of peppery flavor and the bacon added just enough smoke and salt to balance out the other flavors. Was this my favorite sandwich so far? No, but it was a darn good one.
Accompanying my lunch today was another favorite of mine, Cracked Pepper & Sea Salt potato chips from Dirty:
Entirely basic in their seasoning, the chips are super crisp, fried in a heart-healthy oil, and honestly, just taste great. I noticed that Market Gourmet was frying up their own chips during this visit, but having already paid for this bag, I resigned myself to trying them out the next time I go back. All I know was that the Dirty chips were an excellent pairing to an already excellent sandwich. Chef Winer admitted that he didn't realize how well the chips would sell, but when offered a quality product like these, it came as no surprise to me that they literally flew off the rack.
One of the principles that Jeff is committed to is seasonality of food. As the summer and fall have come and gone, certain produce items that were once tasty and easy to come by (such as tomatoes) are now impractical, either because they are too expensive to use or just don't taste good this time of year. Because of that, a new menu has rolled out that "tweaks" their current menu. Many of the favorites will remain, such as the house roasted turkey and beef, but the tarragon chicken salad will have to be put to bed for the season.
While my last visit consisted of me talking about the roasted turkey sandwich on the ciabatta roll, today's first of two lunch visits represented a continued exploration of other popular menu items. For lunch today, I decided go with a California Chicken sandwich on sourdough bread, a bag of the Cracked Pepper & Sea Salt Dirty potato chips, and a can of diet soda:
The day that I stopped in, Market Gourmet was running a special: For only $1.50, you could pair any bag of chips and can of soda with a salad or sandwich. Which meant that for only a few dollars more than a "value" meal at one of the myriad of fast food restaurants in Montrose, not only could I have a much better TASTING lunch, but also a healthier one, too. After paying for my meal, I retired to one of the newly installed tables to enjoy my spoils. Originally thinking that people would prefer to take their food to go, he has wisely added four tables to the small space, two two-tops and two four-tops.
Here was a shot of my grilled California Chicken sandwich:
And a shot of the interior layers of the sandwich:
In addition to the grilled chicken, the other layers included applewood smoked bacon, avocado, micro arugula, Jarlsberg cheese and pesto aioli. As with all of the sandwiches I have tried at Market Gourmet, what struck me about today's choice was the emphasis of balance in flavors and textures. The grilled sourdough and crisp bacon added some wonderful crunch while the tender chicken and mashed avocado had a wonderful creaminess. The arugula worked well to add a bit of peppery flavor and the bacon added just enough smoke and salt to balance out the other flavors. Was this my favorite sandwich so far? No, but it was a darn good one.
Accompanying my lunch today was another favorite of mine, Cracked Pepper & Sea Salt potato chips from Dirty:
Entirely basic in their seasoning, the chips are super crisp, fried in a heart-healthy oil, and honestly, just taste great. I noticed that Market Gourmet was frying up their own chips during this visit, but having already paid for this bag, I resigned myself to trying them out the next time I go back. All I know was that the Dirty chips were an excellent pairing to an already excellent sandwich. Chef Winer admitted that he didn't realize how well the chips would sell, but when offered a quality product like these, it came as no surprise to me that they literally flew off the rack.
On my second visit, I noticed that not only was the new menu available in paper take-out form (as it was last time), but the new wall menu had also been posted. Seeing as I didn't even consider taking a new photograph of the wall menu until this very moment as I'm writing these words, I obviously don't have a shot to include in this review. That being said, Jeff did indicate that the website has the current menu on it, so I'd advise you to take a look there if you'd like a preview. Fortunately, only a few menu items changed, and the more popular items definitely stuck around.
Between my last review and this one, I've covered both the roasted turkey and the California chicken sandwiches. Today, I decided to go for a sandwich with which I have truly fallen in love: House Roasted Beef and Brie on a toasted pretzel roll. I had this sandwich on my second visit to Market Gourmet and other than the last time when I had the California chicken, have had this particular sandwich enough times since then that the staff feigns surprise when I order something different.
In lieu of the chips (which I talked about from the last visit), today I decided to pair my sandwich with a bit of the soup du jour, Jambalaya, and another of the diet Sierra Mists that were located in the reach-in cooler next to the tower of chips. After assembling and paying for my meal, I retired to one of the open tables and took a photo of my lunch:
Between my last review and this one, I've covered both the roasted turkey and the California chicken sandwiches. Today, I decided to go for a sandwich with which I have truly fallen in love: House Roasted Beef and Brie on a toasted pretzel roll. I had this sandwich on my second visit to Market Gourmet and other than the last time when I had the California chicken, have had this particular sandwich enough times since then that the staff feigns surprise when I order something different.
In lieu of the chips (which I talked about from the last visit), today I decided to pair my sandwich with a bit of the soup du jour, Jambalaya, and another of the diet Sierra Mists that were located in the reach-in cooler next to the tower of chips. After assembling and paying for my meal, I retired to one of the open tables and took a photo of my lunch:
Here was a close-up shot of the Jambalaya:
Naturally thickened with the starches that came out of the rice during cooking, this soup was at that perfect spot between a runny liquid and a thick viscous stew. That being said, the rice hadn't fallen completely apart and still had some nice texture to them. Between the natural spice in the andouille sausage and some additional cayenne, the soup had a moderate amount of spice to it which gently hit me at the back of my throat. The seasoning was quite well done and had I not had a sandwich to think about, another bowl of this would've definitely filled me up for lunch today.
That being said, it was time to turn my attention to the reason for my visit today:
That being said, it was time to turn my attention to the reason for my visit today:
Here was a side shot of the sandwich:
As I mentioned in my first review, Chef Winer roasts all his own turkey breast and beef for use at the Market Gourmet. This meant that neither meat had any of that chemical or overly salted taste to them that I find so common in deli cuts you get elsewhere. While I am a big fan of hot roast beef sandwiches, I have never been a huge fan of the cold deli cut version. Until now. The roast beef is tender, seasoned so that it enhances the flavor of the meat instead of taking over, and tastes like no other cold roast beef I've ever eaten before.
A generous heaping of roast beef had been placed on a split and toasted pretzel bun along with fresh lettuce and several slices of a mild Brie. The piece de resistance was the binder that brought it all together, a sweet mustard that was generously applied to both sides of the split bun. The Brie had slightly melted from the heat of the warmed bun. In one bite, you had sandwich perfection: tender, creamy, crunchy, salty, sweet, and tangy. The only sensation missing was spiciness, but fortunately, the lingering heat from the Jambalaya took care of that for me. If you don't think you are a cold roast beef fan, I implore you, gentle reader, to give this sandwich a try. As much as I like to explore a menu, I find myself coming back to this sandwich time and again because it is just so DARN good!
Between my sandwich and my soup today, I definitely left Market Gourmet with a full stomach and a happy mouth. Having only being open for such a short period of time, Chef Winer has seriously impressed me with his food. It has consistently been fresh and tasty and I've already dragged at least one co-worker with me for lunch and a number of others have actually stopped by my desk when I did take-out and asked what I was having and where I got it. Market Gourmet is open Tuesday through Thursday from 10:30 AM until 6:30 PM, Friday from 10:30 AM until 6:00 PM, and on Saturday from 10:30 AM until 4:00 PM. With seating for twelve people inside the shop, you should now be able to snag a seat for lunch if you want to eat in, or simply call ahead and place your order and they'll have it waiting for you when you arrive to pick it up.
The Montrose area is, for sure, a mecca of national fast food and casual chain sit-down restaurants. As such, these see a plethora of patrons who have no idea that for only a couple more dollars, a little store next to Laser Quest has some of the best soups, sandwiches, and salads the area has to offer. Just as with the conclusion in my last review, I would highly encourage you to stop by and check them out for yourself. You won't be sorry that you did.
A generous heaping of roast beef had been placed on a split and toasted pretzel bun along with fresh lettuce and several slices of a mild Brie. The piece de resistance was the binder that brought it all together, a sweet mustard that was generously applied to both sides of the split bun. The Brie had slightly melted from the heat of the warmed bun. In one bite, you had sandwich perfection: tender, creamy, crunchy, salty, sweet, and tangy. The only sensation missing was spiciness, but fortunately, the lingering heat from the Jambalaya took care of that for me. If you don't think you are a cold roast beef fan, I implore you, gentle reader, to give this sandwich a try. As much as I like to explore a menu, I find myself coming back to this sandwich time and again because it is just so DARN good!
Between my sandwich and my soup today, I definitely left Market Gourmet with a full stomach and a happy mouth. Having only being open for such a short period of time, Chef Winer has seriously impressed me with his food. It has consistently been fresh and tasty and I've already dragged at least one co-worker with me for lunch and a number of others have actually stopped by my desk when I did take-out and asked what I was having and where I got it. Market Gourmet is open Tuesday through Thursday from 10:30 AM until 6:30 PM, Friday from 10:30 AM until 6:00 PM, and on Saturday from 10:30 AM until 4:00 PM. With seating for twelve people inside the shop, you should now be able to snag a seat for lunch if you want to eat in, or simply call ahead and place your order and they'll have it waiting for you when you arrive to pick it up.
The Montrose area is, for sure, a mecca of national fast food and casual chain sit-down restaurants. As such, these see a plethora of patrons who have no idea that for only a couple more dollars, a little store next to Laser Quest has some of the best soups, sandwiches, and salads the area has to offer. Just as with the conclusion in my last review, I would highly encourage you to stop by and check them out for yourself. You won't be sorry that you did.
Monday, January 3, 2011
Fulfilling A Promise To Return To Virtues
The last time I visited Virtues Restaurant located in the Ann and David Brennan Critical Care building at Summa Akron City Hospital, my experience wasn't just a little off, it was outright bad. Between poor back of house execution of the food and ill-timed food running by front of house staff, I could only come to one of two conclusions. Either the restaurant was having a really (and I mean really) bad day or it was in the throes of extinction, mere days from shuttering the windows and closing the proverbial front door. As I stated at the end of my prior review, I made a promise to return for another anonymous meal. I kept that promise when I returned exactly two months later on a Monday evening with no reservation.
My last visit had been on a Wednesday evening and I had found the restaurant strangely empty save for three or four tables of people. While tonight's crowd mirrored that first visit, it didn't particularly surprise me because Monday's are often a restaurant's slowest day. After checking out the menu posted on the outside of the restaurant, I approached the hostess stand and was quickly shown to a table with a partial view of the open kitchen. While I didn't see Chef Zifer running the line, he was definitely in the restaurant as he made several appearances to check on the food coming out of the kitchen.
Since I have already posted the regular menu from Virtues, I only needed to snap a photograph of the weekly specials:
While there were several items that caught my eye from the weekly specials, I still wanted to re-explore the rest of the menu, too. The thought occurred to me that I should re-order the same meal I had eaten before in order to see if it had improved. While the Thai BBQ salad and the Pan Roasted Bell and Evans chicken over tagliatelle were actually still available, the seared scallops over butternut squash risotto had been a weekly special during my prior visit and was no longer available. Instead I decided to stay within a similar theme as last time and order a multi-course meal to test the mettle of the hopefully re-tuned restaurant staff.
Based on feedback I had received from my previous review, a number of readers had suggested that I needed to try the signature roasted eggplant soup. In a fortuitous turn of fortune, each entree came with either a cup of soup or a house salad. While I would have gladly paid the $3 for a cup of soup all on its own, I was happy to save a little bit of cash and still get to try the soup.
After placing my order, my server verified the order in which I wanted the courses to arrive at my table, walked away to put the order into the system, and soon returned with something that was woefully missing during my first visit, warmed rolls and butter:
The basket contained a whole wheat roll and a white roll, both of which tasted good and were fresh.
Along with my rolls, my server also brought my cup of Roasted Eggplant Soup:
This was adorned with a few pieces of roasted peppers and eggplant and a drizzle of oil. I tasted the soup by itself and was happy to discover a well balanced dish. The sweetness from the roasted eggplant played well off the salt in the soup and the background had a nice hint of garlic and herbs. When I mixed in some of the roasted vegetables on top of the soup, I got an even bigger hit of vegetal sweetness. I can see why others have recommended this soup so highly as it was pretty darn tasty. In fact, I skipped the Saltines supplied with my cup and went straight for the dinner rolls to sop up the remnants in the bottom of my cup.
For my salad course, I decided to go with a half order of the Roasted Tomato and Mozzarella Napolean:
From this angle, you have the Napolean in the front of the shot, a red onion marmalade next to that, and a slightly dressed salad at the opposite end. Here was the same salad, but from the opposite perspective:
As with the soup, this salad was all about balance. While I expected the red onion marmalade to add sweetness, what surprised me was the addition of maple syrup in the balsamic dressing. The salad had been ever so lightly topped with the dressing and I think had the salad been fully dressed, it would've been too sweet. The salad artfully sat in a Parmesan frico "bowl," which while a little difficult to cut, added a nice salty, umami flavor to the rest of the dish. I was a little concerned about getting a good tomato at this time of year, but roasting them had the effect of concentrating the flavors. I was actually a little surprised at how large this salad was for $5 (remember, I got the half portion). I cleaned my plate and had I not had an entree coming, would've gladly polished off another plate of this.
Wanting to give the Bell and Evans organic chicken another chance, instead of ordering it over the tagliatelle, I decided to instead go with it accompanying a barley risotto:
Here was the same dish, but from a different angle:
In place of the several strips of unseasoned tenders that plagued its previous incarnation, this time the plate came out with an airline cut consisting of the breast and drumette. The breast had been sliced into thirds and a mushroom and roasted red pepper beurre blanc had been drizzled on top of the chicken. A timbale of barley risotto had been unmolded onto the plate next to the chicken and artfully adorned with several strips of roasted red peppers. The final element on the plate, organic spinach, had been combined with fresh chevre, shallots, and pine nuts.
The chicken was nearly flawlessly executed. It was seasoned properly and cooked until it was safe to serve, but still juicy and tender. The only complaint I had with the chicken was that the skin was a little on the flabby side. The beurre blanc added a wonderful richness to the chicken and the acidity from the sun-dried tomato helped to cut through the fattiness of the sauce. The barley risotto had been finished with cheese, presumably Parmesan, and had a nice saltiness to it without being overpowering. The barley had been cooked so that it was slightly chewy without being mushy. The one weak point I had with this plate was the spinach. While the goat cheese and pine nuts were a nice addition, in the end the spinach had been oversalted. I took several bites of the spinach from different spots on the plate just to make sure I hadn't accidentally hit a lone salty spot with my first bite. I finally came to the conclusion that yes, it was definitely too salty.
When my server came over to clear my plate, he listed the possible desserts tonight, but I was so full that I simply asked for the check. As opposed to my previous visit, this time the check only came to $27 with tax. This was primarily due to the fact that my soup was included in the cost of my entree and I had subbed the soup for the much more expensive butternut squash risotto I had ordered last time. I also mentioned during my last meal at Virtues that I felt the amount of food I had received during my entree didn't feel like it lived up to its price tag. This time around, I had no problem with that particular issue and felt that for $27, I had received both good food and good value.
After paying my check, I asked my server if the chef was available for a few minutes. He indicated that he would check and just a few moments later, Chef Zifer came out to my table. I stood, introduced myself, and invited him to join me at my table, which he graciously did. I more or less gave him the same rundown of my experience tonight as I gave here to you, gentle reader, and he was very happy that my experience this time around at Virtues was much better than my last. He also apologized for my previous meal, which I neither required nor expected, but was still happy that he did so. He also offered to comp my entire meal tonight, but knowing that I wanted to be able to write about my experience tonight without any encumbrances, I politely turned his offer down.
We chatted for about ten minutes and he gave me a little background on both himself and the restaurant and it was then that I discovered that the restaurant's busy time was during the day, not the evening. While the daytime saw anywhere from 200 to 250 covers, during the evening the number was closer to 70 to 100. Chef Zifer invited me back for lunch in order to experience the restaurant running at full production and I intend to take him up on his offer.
While I am happy to see that it appears my first visit did turn out to be the restaurant having a bad day, it just goes to underscore the fact that even when a restaurant normally operates as a well-oiled machine, the randomness of life can occasionally through a wrench in the entire affair and bring the delicate structure crashing down. While I imagine that Chef Zifer took my previous critical review with a grain of salt (after all, it was just a single review), I also think he reaffirmed tonight that one can never sit still in the restaurant business. If you aren't looking for ways to continuously improve and innovate, life (and your customers) will simply pass you by.
Based on the strength of my meal tonight, I recommend that you stop in and give them a try. If Virtues hasn't solved its consistency issues, I am sure that will bear itself out in the comments.
My last visit had been on a Wednesday evening and I had found the restaurant strangely empty save for three or four tables of people. While tonight's crowd mirrored that first visit, it didn't particularly surprise me because Monday's are often a restaurant's slowest day. After checking out the menu posted on the outside of the restaurant, I approached the hostess stand and was quickly shown to a table with a partial view of the open kitchen. While I didn't see Chef Zifer running the line, he was definitely in the restaurant as he made several appearances to check on the food coming out of the kitchen.
Since I have already posted the regular menu from Virtues, I only needed to snap a photograph of the weekly specials:
While there were several items that caught my eye from the weekly specials, I still wanted to re-explore the rest of the menu, too. The thought occurred to me that I should re-order the same meal I had eaten before in order to see if it had improved. While the Thai BBQ salad and the Pan Roasted Bell and Evans chicken over tagliatelle were actually still available, the seared scallops over butternut squash risotto had been a weekly special during my prior visit and was no longer available. Instead I decided to stay within a similar theme as last time and order a multi-course meal to test the mettle of the hopefully re-tuned restaurant staff.
Based on feedback I had received from my previous review, a number of readers had suggested that I needed to try the signature roasted eggplant soup. In a fortuitous turn of fortune, each entree came with either a cup of soup or a house salad. While I would have gladly paid the $3 for a cup of soup all on its own, I was happy to save a little bit of cash and still get to try the soup.
After placing my order, my server verified the order in which I wanted the courses to arrive at my table, walked away to put the order into the system, and soon returned with something that was woefully missing during my first visit, warmed rolls and butter:
The basket contained a whole wheat roll and a white roll, both of which tasted good and were fresh.
Along with my rolls, my server also brought my cup of Roasted Eggplant Soup:
This was adorned with a few pieces of roasted peppers and eggplant and a drizzle of oil. I tasted the soup by itself and was happy to discover a well balanced dish. The sweetness from the roasted eggplant played well off the salt in the soup and the background had a nice hint of garlic and herbs. When I mixed in some of the roasted vegetables on top of the soup, I got an even bigger hit of vegetal sweetness. I can see why others have recommended this soup so highly as it was pretty darn tasty. In fact, I skipped the Saltines supplied with my cup and went straight for the dinner rolls to sop up the remnants in the bottom of my cup.
For my salad course, I decided to go with a half order of the Roasted Tomato and Mozzarella Napolean:
From this angle, you have the Napolean in the front of the shot, a red onion marmalade next to that, and a slightly dressed salad at the opposite end. Here was the same salad, but from the opposite perspective:
As with the soup, this salad was all about balance. While I expected the red onion marmalade to add sweetness, what surprised me was the addition of maple syrup in the balsamic dressing. The salad had been ever so lightly topped with the dressing and I think had the salad been fully dressed, it would've been too sweet. The salad artfully sat in a Parmesan frico "bowl," which while a little difficult to cut, added a nice salty, umami flavor to the rest of the dish. I was a little concerned about getting a good tomato at this time of year, but roasting them had the effect of concentrating the flavors. I was actually a little surprised at how large this salad was for $5 (remember, I got the half portion). I cleaned my plate and had I not had an entree coming, would've gladly polished off another plate of this.
Wanting to give the Bell and Evans organic chicken another chance, instead of ordering it over the tagliatelle, I decided to instead go with it accompanying a barley risotto:
Here was the same dish, but from a different angle:
In place of the several strips of unseasoned tenders that plagued its previous incarnation, this time the plate came out with an airline cut consisting of the breast and drumette. The breast had been sliced into thirds and a mushroom and roasted red pepper beurre blanc had been drizzled on top of the chicken. A timbale of barley risotto had been unmolded onto the plate next to the chicken and artfully adorned with several strips of roasted red peppers. The final element on the plate, organic spinach, had been combined with fresh chevre, shallots, and pine nuts.
The chicken was nearly flawlessly executed. It was seasoned properly and cooked until it was safe to serve, but still juicy and tender. The only complaint I had with the chicken was that the skin was a little on the flabby side. The beurre blanc added a wonderful richness to the chicken and the acidity from the sun-dried tomato helped to cut through the fattiness of the sauce. The barley risotto had been finished with cheese, presumably Parmesan, and had a nice saltiness to it without being overpowering. The barley had been cooked so that it was slightly chewy without being mushy. The one weak point I had with this plate was the spinach. While the goat cheese and pine nuts were a nice addition, in the end the spinach had been oversalted. I took several bites of the spinach from different spots on the plate just to make sure I hadn't accidentally hit a lone salty spot with my first bite. I finally came to the conclusion that yes, it was definitely too salty.
When my server came over to clear my plate, he listed the possible desserts tonight, but I was so full that I simply asked for the check. As opposed to my previous visit, this time the check only came to $27 with tax. This was primarily due to the fact that my soup was included in the cost of my entree and I had subbed the soup for the much more expensive butternut squash risotto I had ordered last time. I also mentioned during my last meal at Virtues that I felt the amount of food I had received during my entree didn't feel like it lived up to its price tag. This time around, I had no problem with that particular issue and felt that for $27, I had received both good food and good value.
After paying my check, I asked my server if the chef was available for a few minutes. He indicated that he would check and just a few moments later, Chef Zifer came out to my table. I stood, introduced myself, and invited him to join me at my table, which he graciously did. I more or less gave him the same rundown of my experience tonight as I gave here to you, gentle reader, and he was very happy that my experience this time around at Virtues was much better than my last. He also apologized for my previous meal, which I neither required nor expected, but was still happy that he did so. He also offered to comp my entire meal tonight, but knowing that I wanted to be able to write about my experience tonight without any encumbrances, I politely turned his offer down.
We chatted for about ten minutes and he gave me a little background on both himself and the restaurant and it was then that I discovered that the restaurant's busy time was during the day, not the evening. While the daytime saw anywhere from 200 to 250 covers, during the evening the number was closer to 70 to 100. Chef Zifer invited me back for lunch in order to experience the restaurant running at full production and I intend to take him up on his offer.
While I am happy to see that it appears my first visit did turn out to be the restaurant having a bad day, it just goes to underscore the fact that even when a restaurant normally operates as a well-oiled machine, the randomness of life can occasionally through a wrench in the entire affair and bring the delicate structure crashing down. While I imagine that Chef Zifer took my previous critical review with a grain of salt (after all, it was just a single review), I also think he reaffirmed tonight that one can never sit still in the restaurant business. If you aren't looking for ways to continuously improve and innovate, life (and your customers) will simply pass you by.
Based on the strength of my meal tonight, I recommend that you stop in and give them a try. If Virtues hasn't solved its consistency issues, I am sure that will bear itself out in the comments.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
