Experiencing Modern Mexican At Momocho

Mid-week I received an email from Miss Penny (of Restaurant Dante fame) stating the obvious: It had been far too long since we had seen each other and we needed to get together now. Knowing by now to never question the sage advice that Miss Penny doles out on a semi-annual basis, a series of back and forth emails were sent between her, myself, and fellow foodie Edsel. While we knew that the jumping off point for tonight's festivities would be at the Velvet Tango Room for a few pre-dinner cocktails, it wasn't until Miss Penny made the wonderful suggestion of dining at Momocho Mod Mex that our path for the entire evening became clear. I called the restaurant to ensure a reservation and was given two options, 6:30 and 8:15 PM. Seeing as none of us had any place exciting to be on a Friday night, I went ahead and booked the three of us for the later time slot.

At the appointed hour, the three of us descended upon the VTR and promptly began to enjoy the spoils from another completed work week. In what can only be described as serendipity, who should walk into the bar around 7:00 PM but Momocho's very own Eric Williams and his wife. It seemed that the chef had taken the night off to celebrate his wedding anniversary. Edsel quickly leaned over to me, laughed and whispered, "Well, I guess the chef won't be making our dinner tonight!" Indeed not. I guess this would be a test of how well Chef Williams's staff had been trained.

Momocho Mod Mex was located at 1835 Fulton Road, Cleveland, OH 44113 and can be reached at 216-694-2122. Unfortunately, they are not on OpenTable.com at the present time, so you must call for reservations (and let me strongly suggest that you make one). Even though we had reservations for 8:15 PM tonight, when we arrived around 8:00 PM, the place was absolutely packed on both floors. While there was a small lot next to the restaurant for parking, we opted to park on a side street and walk to the main entrance.

Here was a shot of the front of the restaurant:


Once inside, we checked in with the hostess stand and were told that our table would be ready shortly. We were invited to have a cocktail at the bar while we waited. The bar area was not in a separate room, but took up half of the first floor space, the other half being dedicated to sit down tables for patrons. While there wasn't a single seat available at the bar, it fortunately didn't take long before the hostess let us know that a table on the second floor was now ready. We discovered that the tables were also packed on the second floor, but fortunately, most of the congestion caused by restaurant patrons without a seat was left on the floor below.

Before going any further, gentle reader, I wanted to take a moment to tell you that our dinner tonight at Momocho was going to be the first real low light test of the new Canon PowerShot G12 that I recently acquired. It wasn't an inexpensive camera and from the research I had done prior to its purchase, I knew of its reputation for being excellent in low lighting situations. While there was an actual setting for low lighting where the camera made all of the decisions for you, I opted instead to select most of the other settings myself and let the camera decide the correct shutter speed.

The reason that all of this was important was because it was pertinent to tonight's dinner. Several Cleveland restaurants are well-known (I'm looking at you L'Albatros) for their incredibly dim interior lighting. This makes taking credible and useful pictures next to impossible and I learned early on that even as advanced as the camera was that came with my HTC Incredible, it would either be too dark for the auto-focus to work properly, or if it did, I ended up with a picture that was so dark that no usable image was post-worthy.

Momocho was another restaurant notorious for its lack of light. In fact, it was so dark that it wasn't unusual to see patrons grab the lone candle adorning each table and hold it up to the menu in order to read it. Since I refused to use the flash on my camera if at all humanly possible, I was in essence setting myself up to fail. At least, I would have been with my cellphone camera. While I certainly won't claim that the photos I took were magazine worthy, for a medium such as this blog, if the intent was to give you an idea of what the food looked like, I felt like I achieved my goal.

[Ed. Note: I have since gotten much better at the low light photography through the use of a tabletop tripod and user-selected lengthy shutter speeds. The following pictures should not be an indictment of the poor performance of the camera, but rather the ignorance of the photographer.]

Here were three shots of Momocho's menu, top, middle, and bottom:




I came to tonight's dinner knowing that Momocho was famous for their guacamole. Not only was the guacamole by itself good, but the myriad of variations on that one dish made for an interesting assortment of flavors. Tonight we decided to start with the Guacamole Sampler:


From left to right was the goat cheese guacamole; a pickled corn, jalapeño, and crab guacamole; and finally a smoked trout guacamole. Adorning each bowl was a lime wedge that added a wonderful brightness to each of the samples. As far as guacamole goes, Momocho makes it just the way I like it: a little chunky. So often I see guacamole that has been pureed until it is baby food smooth. What struck me about each of the dishes tonight was that even though they were three totally different flavor profiles, the basic guacamole flavor was never lost. At the same time, each dish was distinct and unique. The pickled corn, jalapeño, and crab version, while well balanced, was probably the least favorite among my tablemates because of the slight chili heat. Personally, I absolutely adored all three.

Accompanying our guacamole appetizer was a basket of freshly fried, still warm corn tortilla chips that had been lightly salted:


Eaten by themselves, the chips were dangerously addictive. Add in some of the cool, creamy guacamole to this crunchy, salty platform and several of us at the table experienced the eyes-rolling-back-into-the-head phenomenon. If there was one complaint, it was one of excess. The bowls of guacamole were fairly large and since there were three of us and three of them, we each essentially ate one bowl. I think a fourth diner would've alleviated that problem. Not that it was a bad problem to have, per se, just something to note.

While I was tempted to order another appetizer (the roasted butternut squash and goat cheese empanadas ... the description just made them sound fantastic), instead I decided to go with one of the taquito dishes for dinner tonight. While they all looked interesting, the chancho (braised wild boar) really captured my imagination.

After a much needed break after our appetizers, our entrées finally arrived. Here was my chancho:


Here was a close-up of the wild boar:


Accompanying the meat were two condiments: salsa verde and a pickled jalapeño mustard crema:


Finally, in order to eat all of this wonderful looking food, I needed a way to get it to my mouth. Warm flour tortillas solved this problem nicely:


To eat, I simply took a pliable tortilla from the stack and used a fork to line the center with the braised boar and some of the vegetables from the bottom of the dish. I then added a line of salsa verde and the mustard crema, folded up the sides and took a bite. I experienced my second eyes-rolling-back-into-the-head moment for the evening.

It. Was. Divine.

The meat was rich and tender without being the least bit gamey. The salsa verde added a wonderful acidity and herbaceous brightness and the mustard crema added creaminess and a bit, just a bit, of chili heat. While the flour tortilla didn't add much in the flavor department, it was soft and pliable and served as an excellent mechanism for getting the food into my mouth. If I could only have this dish for the rest of my life, I would never get tired of it. It was simply that good.

Unfortunately, having finished our trio of guacamoles and chips earlier, I could only eat half of my entrée. You can be sure, however, that the remainder was boxed up and taken with me. I did try both Penny and Edsel's dishes (picadillo and albondigas, respectively) and while both were quite tasty, neither in my mind matched the pure brilliance of the chancho. Any thoughts or worries about Chef Williams not being at the helm of his own kitchen tonight were completely and thoroughly quashed by the food tonight.

Wanting to finish out the evening on a sweet note, the three of us decided to split the Flan:


Once again the kitchen showed great restraint and balance. While, yes, it was sweet, it wasn't overly so. The texture to the flan itself was neither too runny nor too rubbery. For those who don't care for "eggy" desserts, you will be happy to note that Momocho's version had a hint of egg without being overpowering. All in all, this was a fantastic way to end a fantastic meal.

Since Penny and Edsel had paid for their margaritas at the bar when we first arrived, when the check came, it was just for the food (and my water). For the three of us, with all of the food we had eaten, the bill came to just slightly under $74, including tax. With tip, each of us got out of there tonight for just shy of $30 a piece. With leftovers. Given our incredibly tasty meal, it was well worth the money. I honestly can't recommend Momocho enough. The food was inventive, fresh, reasonably priced, and most importantly, delicious. For some reason, this was only my second visit to Momocho Mod Mex in three years. You can be certain that it will now go on my regular rotation from this point forward.

More Lunch Adventures At Continental Cuisine

As adventurous as I am about my dining choices, sometimes I just get into a routine. Not necessarily over the seemingly limitless choices of restaurants, but when I find a great dish, I mean a REALLY great dish on a menu, a visit to the restaurant isn't so much about exploring other items which could also be equally as tasty, but rather enjoying the same thing over and over again. It's kind of like when I crave a specific type of food, the associated restaurant immediately pops into my head as well. Thus it is with Continental Cuisine in the Fairlawn area located directly across from Summit Mall. While their menu has a variety of Mediterranean-inspired dishes, I always end up ordering the chicken shwarma with a side of French Fries. Oddly enough, today I met up with a friend who also goes to the restaurant for exactly one thing, the gyro with the same side of fries.

So, in the spirit of change, even though both of us were still considering ordering our old stand-bys when we arrived, in an interesting twist of fate, by the time we got around to placing our order, both of us decided on giving their pizzas a try. Made from a homemade pizza dough, they were available in both small (10") and large (14") sizes and could be made from standard pizza toppings or many of the other Mediterranean ingredients available on the menu.

My friend decided to order the small Meat Lover's pizza, substituting the gyro meat for the ham:


And while I didn't try a slice of his, I thoroughly enjoyed my version, the small Mediterranean:


Topped with black olives, eggplant, tomatoes, and onions, each bite had a little bit of salty and sweet flavor to it. While the tomato sauce was fairly basic and didn't really stand out, the crust was very tasty and quite well done.

Here was a close-up shot of a single slice:


And here was a closer shot of the crust:


The crust had that nice balance of crunch and chew. I don't think Continental Cuisine aged their pizza dough, but I could definitely tell from the delicious flavor that it was definitely made in-house. With the addition of some dried red pepper flakes, I pretty much devoured my pizza (as did my friend). I had heard good things about Continental's pizza from other people and now I can confirm that they are all true. Was this crust in the Pantheon of all-time greats for me? No, there are definitely better out there. But this was far better than any chain pizza and I'd have no qualms recommending them to pizza aficionados out there.

About a week and half after my last visit, I decided to stop back in for another lunch, this time flying solo. While I was tempted to fall back into old habits, I decided to take a chance and try something else from the menu. Feeling in a red sauce kind of mood, the only option which would appease this lust (besides the pizza, which I already had) was the Lasagna. The menu indicated that all of the entrees came with either a house salad or their fantastic French Fries. I opted for the house salad because a) I've already talked about the French Fries and b) French Fries with Lasagna? Really? Um, no.

A few minutes later, my server returned with a quite large salad:

I had asked him if the restaurant had a house dressing and sure enough, they did. This rather simple lettuce and chopped tomato salad had been dressed with a lemon, garlic, and olive oil vinaigrette. The garlic wasn't particularly present visibly in the vinaigrette, but after a mouthful of greens, I could definitely taste it. While I would consider the salad a bit too overdressed, I found that the dressing was well seasoned and slightly acidic, a perfect dipping sauce for the pita bread that had arrived with the salad:

While the salad wasn't particularly inspirational with it's fair share of lettuce stems and very out-of-season tomato chunks, the accompanying pita bread was fresh and soaked up the extra vinaigrette nicely. I had to remind myself that I still had the lasagna coming, so I didn't want to fill up on bread. While most items I've ever ordered at Continental Cuisine have come out of the kitchen with surprising speed, my server informed me that the lasagna takes a bit longer to come to the right temperature. I'd say I waited maybe five minutes longer than normal, so it wasn't a huge problem.

When my lasagna did arrive, I heard it before I saw it:

Apparently having come straight from the oven and plated on a ceramic dish, as my server set it in front of me he admonished me to not touch the deep walled dish in which the lasagna rested. Visually noting the voracity of the still bubbling cheese and sauce, I took him at his word. After dropping off my dish, he asked if I wanted any of the extras; I opted for dried oregano and red pepper flakes:

Of course, before I added anything to the dish, I wanted to taste it on its own first. First impressions? If you like lots of gooey melted cheese and lasagna absolutely swimming in sauce, then Continental Cuisine's version will be right up your alley. While the menu had implied that the lasagna was made with meat sauce, they were only half-telling the truth. There was indeed meat in the lasagna, but the sauce was instead a marinara. I tried the marinara by itself and found it on the sweeter side of the scale. For me it was borderline almost too sweet, but there was enough acidity from the tomatoes to keep it from going too far. The cheese was of your standard shredded mozzarella variety and was either melted into a molten Napalm or crusted with a nice golden brown color on top of the actual piece of lasagna.

When I finally managed to get to the lasagna, I was neither wowed nor disappointed. Sadly, the layers of pasta and meat got lost amongst all of the red sauce in the dish. I did end up adding a little bit of oregano and red pepper flakes, but that wasn't so much to correct the seasoning as it was to just make the flavors a little more interesting. While I've been a big proponent of the other dishes I've had in the past at Continental Cuisine, this one left me feeling just a little flat.

In addition to the pita bread brought out during my salad course, the lasagna also came with a small plate of cheesy garlic bread:

In addition to the single slice of toasted bread, there was even MORE shredded cheese sitting next to it, just in case I hadn't gotten my cheese fix from the lasagna. The bread was toasted nicely with a prominent but not overwhelming garlic flavor. I suppose for those who think that there can never be too much cheese on a dish, this would suit them well, but for me, I would have liked it better sans cheese.

All criticisms aside, I did end up eating the entire dish of pasta as well as my garlic bread, if that says anything. While I don't think I will be ordering the lasagna again (or the house salad unless the tomatoes are actually in season), I have had so many other great meals at Continental Cuisine, that I know I will be returning time and again for either the pizza or their Mediterranean wraps and the still amazing French Fries. I heartily suggest you check them out if you haven't already.

Be Prepared To Wait At Mary's Pizza Shop

Mary's Pizza Shop has been on my "To Eat" list for quite some time now. I'm not sure exactly how I came across a reference to the small rural eatery, but I've known that a visit would require a significant time commitment as the drive alone was more than an hour each direction. When I recently had a Friday off of work, I decided to make the trip, hoping to arrive for a late lunch in order to avoid the crowds. While this strategy would normally work like a charm, when I arrived in Lisbon, Ohio at 1:30 PM and finally managed to track down the store, I was disheartened to discover that the lights were off, the doors were locked, and there wasn't a soul to be found inside that could help me out. The fact that no hours were listed on the door only compounded my confusion.

Not quite ready to call it quits, I decided that I would find an alternative for lunch and then return to Mary's for dinner. That was how my visit to Steel Trolley Diner came about. In fact, when I revealed to the STD folks about my original intention during my visit, they absolutely insisted that I must stick around for dinner. They were also helpful in telling me that Mary's wasn't just a take-out joint and that I could eat my pizza at the restaurant. After I finally managed to track down a library where I could work out the afternoon hours, I hopped back in my car and returned to the scene of my earlier disappointment right around 5:30 PM.

Mary's Pizza Shop was located at 301 North Beaver Street, Lisbon, OH 44432 and can be reached at 330-424-3559. While the address listed claims that the shop is on North Beaver street, the storefront actually faces High Street, just west of the intersection of Beaver and High. Parking was in one of the six or seven spots directly in front of the building. There was no website associated with the restaurant at the time of this writing.

Here was a shot of the storefront:


When I pulled in, I was happy to discover that not only were the lights on, but only one other car had pulled into the lot. This meant that I would more than likely be able to snag a table. As I walked through the front door, I noticed a small area with a cash register in front of me, three tables with chairs to the left, and this colorful mural hanging on the wall to the right:


Looking at the tables, I found them to be completely unoccupied. "Great!" I thought to myself. That was when fate intervened. A man from the kitchen walked to the register and asked me for my name. I replied that I hadn't called an order in and was simply walking in off the street. He looked at me in utter disbelief.

"You picked probably one of the worst times to walk in."
"Why?"
"It's going to be at least an hour and fifteen minutes for your order."

I realized the gravity of my error and while I initially thought of just turning around and walking out the door, since it was still early in the evening and I had already gone through so much to try out one of their pizzas, I decided to stick it out.

"Can I wait at one of the tables?"
"Sure, suit yourself."

Wanting to keep things simple, I ordered a large pepperoni pizza. Which, at eight slices, I figured I could eat half at the restaurant and then take the rest with me when I left. Having placed my order, I grabbed one of the paper menus and retired to one of the smaller tables to see everything that Mary's offered. Here were shots of the complete menu:





As it turned out, Mary's DID have lunchtime hours, only they were from 10:30 AM until 1:00 PM. My goal of arriving to a post-lunchtime crowd was admirable, except for the fact that the restaurant was closed between 1:00 PM and 3:00 PM. Ah well, lesson learned. I also learned by studying the last page of the menu that Mary's had a unique pizza sauce, slightly sweet with herbs, garlic, and crumbled Italian sausage.

As I sat there whiling away the time, I was amazed at how busy this little pizza shop was on a Friday night. Every ten seconds, the phone would ring and I would hear, "Mary's Pizza Shop. Can I help you?" In the hour and a half that I was inside the restaurant, no one else ever did come in and sit down to eat their food; the entirety of their business during that time period was take-out. Fortunately, the hour and fifteen estimate for my pizza had been a little on the long side. About fifty minutes after taking my order, the same gentleman I had spoken to earlier called my name out.

I walked to the cooler, picked out a bottle of water, and proceeded to pay for my dinner. When I asked him if it would be okay to eat the pizza there, he grabbed a paper plate, knife, fork, and napkins, and handed them to me along with my pizza. When the full weight of the pizza had been transferred to me, I was immediately surprised at how heavy it was. I had been expected an eight slice pizza equivalent to a Papa John's, Dominoes, or Little Ceasar's.

Instead, when I opened the cardboard lid, I discovered something in thickness more equivalent to a Chicago deep-dish pizza:


I immediately realized that I should have ordered the smaller four slice pizza. While this definitely wasn't classic Chicago deep-dish, the slices were large and deep:


The cheese appeared to be mostly melted and I immediately began to understand why the pizza had taken so long to cook. Given the caramelization on the naked portions of sauce, the homemade dough and sauce must have had a head start in the oven to get parcooked. At the right moment, the toppings of choice and cheese were added. In an unusual twist, the toppings (the pepperoni in my case) were placed under the cheese. Given that the cheese was only mostly melted, I would surmise that this step occurred only during the last few minutes.

Using my knife and fork, I managed to free one of the slices and transfer it to my paper plate:


Cutting the first piece, I stabbed it with my fork and lifted it to my mouth. The crust was nicely cooked and the bottom had a soul satisfying crunch to it. The interior dough was cooked completely through, but still soft and doughy. The prominent layer of cheese added a richness and creaminess. The sauce was definitely interesting. It had the texture of a meat sauce and while I would have preferred a bit of spice, I definitely got the sweetness from the sauce and the savoriness from the Italian sausage. While I could visually see the pepperoni, the flavor was completely lost. Being a lover of crispy pepperoni on my pizzas, by burying it underneath the cheese, it was rather limp and greasy.

When I had eaten about three-quarters of my first slice, I managed to get a nice photograph of the layers:


This pizza is definitely not for those who prefer thin crust pies, although the menu does list a thin crust pizza available as well. For me, the two biggest nitpicks (and honestly, with something so unique as this pizza, they were minor) were that the sauce was too sweet and I completely lost the flavor of the pepperoni. I might as well have simply ordered the pizza with cheese alone. I'm curious as to how other toppings flavors would fare, too. While my original goal was to eat four of the eight slices, in reality, I gave up after two. The rest came home with me where I reheated and devoured the rest of my pie over the next 24 hours.

I can completely understand how if this was the pizza you grew up on, you might be endeared to it for life. I feel the same way about Marie's Pizza in Wadsworth. As an outsider, would I be willing to repeat my trip today only for this pizza? No. Not because it wasn't good, but because this wouldn't be a flavor that I would crave enough to make the drive. That being said, if I was within twenty minutes of Lisbon, would I make the detour? Absolutely. The pizza was tasty and I've not come across anything like it in my travels for the blog.

As you can tell by my impromptu visit, make sure you call ahead (at least 45 minutes) before you plan on showing up or you will be waiting around, just like I did tonight. While it was definitely worth the wait, giving the kitchen a head start will ensure that whether you choose to eat it in the restaurant or take it home, your wait time will be minimal and your pizza still hot. I definitely recommend giving Mary's Pizza Shop a try if you are in the area.

Trying A Hangover Burger At Steel Trolley Diner

When life recently handed me lemons, I decided to turn the tables and make lemonade. And in a strange serendipitous twist, it was delicious lemonade. I had decided to take a Friday off of work and when I checked my list of places "To Eat," I discovered an addition I had made some time ago: Mary's Pizza Shop in Lisbon, Ohio. Today being a lovely sunny and mid-sixties kind of day, I thought it would be the perfect time for a road trip out to eastern Ohio. By the time I had packed up my car and brought up GPS directions to Lisbon, it was nearly noon. Given that my estimated time of arrival was approximately 1:30 PM, I thought that this would be a perfect way to avoid the lunch crowds at what I can only imagine was a very popular restaurant.

Sadly, when I arrived at the quaint little pizza shop, I discovered a closed and locked door and nary a light on inside the place. Resigned to the fact that perhaps Mary's didn't have lunch hours, the fact that I was still hungry hadn't changed. Since I had driven this far, I decided to pull up my Google Maps application on my smartphone. In just a few moments, I gleefully discovered that less than two tenths of a mile away was a restaurant called the Steel Trolley Diner. While at first the name didn't jog any memories in my brain, I would later realize that I had been exposed to Steel Trolley Diner's food once prior at the 2009 National Hamburger Festival.

After finding a spot to park at a metered space on the street, I began rummaging around in my change cup to find several quarters for the meter. Much to my surprise, a single quarter actually bought me two hours' worth of time. I pocketed the rest and walked to the corner of Lincoln and Jefferson to discover the sign for the diner:


Technically, the diner was located at 140 East Lincoln Way, Lisbon, OH 44432 and can be reached at 330-424-3663. Upon turning the corner, I was presented with the front door:


Once inside the main door, I was completely taken aback to discover that the place was not only hopping at 1:45 PM on a Friday afternoon, but that it was completely packed. I stood by the door for a few minutes until I realized that there was a couple of empty stools at the opposite end of the counter, near the rear of the diner car. I took a seat and the incredibly friendly staff immediately welcomed me, rightly pegged me as an out-of-towner, and offered me a menu:









The breadth of the menu actually surprised me. This was a diner car, right?

In addition to the regular menu, a white board to my left also contained today's daily specials:


Since I hadn't had the opportunity to try one of Steel Trolley's burgers at the National Hamburger Festival, I decided to focus my search for sustenance on that part of the menu. When I saw the Hangover Burger, with its fried egg, I stopped right then and there. Burger? Check. Melted cheese? Double check. Fried egg? Ding! Ding! Ding! We have a winner! All the burgers were a meaty half pound of ground beef that started out as a frozen patty and were griddle-steamed on the flattop. What exactly does "griddle-steamed" mean?

The wonderful advantage of sitting at the counter was that I got to watch my lunch being made from beginning to end. When someone ordered a burger, the line cook went to the freezer, grabbed a frozen patty and threw it on top of the flattop. This was followed by a generous dousing of water and then a partial covering with a lid. Every so often, another patty was added and the process repeated. After flipping a patty, water was again applied to generate even more steam. While this ensured a properly cooked (meaning done) and steaming hot burger, the downside was that there was almost no caramelization on the outside of the finished burger.

I was also looking forward to the runny goodness from the egg yolk and when I saw that the egg that had been put onto a secondary flattop being used for breakfast items and hashed browns had its yolk broken, I was a little disheartened. Not wanting to make waves, I just decided to let my dreams of goldenrod gooey-ness dripping down my chin go the way of the Dodo.

With the final flourish of her spatula, the cook assembled my finished burger, rammed a serrated steak knife straight through its very heart, and slid the basket in front of me. Even before cutting the burger in twain, I noticed the oddly branded crown of my sandwich:


S ... T ... D ... oh, I get it! Steel Trolley Diner. That being said, one unfamiliar with this Lisbon legend might come to the same prurient conclusion as would most fourteen-year-old boys. I bisected the burger and took a shot of all the layers of my sandwich:


What I hadn't taken the time to bother reading while perusing the menu was that not only did the burger come with melted cheese and an egg, but also a sausage patty as well. This sucker must have been about two-thirds of a pound of meat in total. Overall the burger was quite tasty, although like I mentioned earlier, I didn't get the caramelization that would've made the burger even better. Other than that, it was nicely seasoned and you could taste each distinct flavor from the others.

Along with my burger, I decided to splurge and order a basket of the fried-from-frozen onion rings:


While the onion inside each ring easily detached from the crispy outer coating, I will have to concede that these rings were expertly fried: crispy on the outside without being greasy, seasoned nicely, and the onion had a bit of meat to it. They reminded me quite a bit of Jerry's Cafe in Orrville, Ohio. Did Steel Trolley Diner's version best Jerry's? They were pretty darn close, but I still think Jerry's has the edge on fried-from-frozen onion rings.

To accompany my rings, the same cook who had prepared my burger suggested I give some of their homemade horseradish mayonnaise a trip as a dip for the rings:


Just as with the spicy mayonnaise dip that Jerry's served, this was a welcome accompaniment to the onion rings, helpfully cutting through some of the fattiness. Honestly, I didn't think of it until after the fact, but the spicy mayonnaise would've made a great spread for my Hangover Burger as well. If horseradish is your thing and your server doesn't mention it, make sure you ask for it by name.

Normally, I wouldn't bother including a photograph of the check, but in today's case, my check came adorned with something I haven't seen in nearly thirty years and didn't even realize was still available:


Yes, that's right, gentle reader, that was a piece of Bazooka Joe bubble gum, complete with comic inside the wrapper. I hadn't seen this gum since I was a young boy living in Stow. I vividly remember riding my bike up to the local Lawson's on the corner of Fishcreek and Stow Road and plunking down my penny or nickel to pick up the grape or cherry treat. Ironically, it wasn't until I put the gum in my mouth and began to chew it that another memory popped into my head: we always used to buy so many pieces at a time because ten minutes in and the flavor had completely been leached from the gum. Ah well, the memory was nice while it lasted.

While I personally would've enjoyed my burger had it spent more time grilling and less time steaming, I immensely enjoyed my impromptu stop today at Steel Trolley Diner. The charming decor, the friendly people, and the diner style food make this little restaurant a must stop if you are traveling through or near Lisbon. Would I drive the hour it took me to get here for another meal? Given that I came across the very scenic Rt. 172 to get here, yes, I would. And as you'll see from my next blog entry on Mary's Pizza Shop, you might just want to stick around for that, too.