Nicolinni's Ristorante on Restaurant Row

The space occupying the old Bennigan's location on "restaurant row" in Copley, Ohio had sat dormant for quite some time. After the national chain went belly up, I often wondered what would go into the space. There were some rumors floating around for a while about what would take its place, but it wasn't until the last two weeks that I got confirmation of the new owners. The first confirmation of the new restaurant's identity was from a longtime reader who emails me from time to time to let me know of her own culinary adventures. The second confirmation came when I read Lisa Abraham's short blurb in the weekly Wednesday food articles in the Akron Beacon Journal. The name of the restaurant was Nicolinni's and apparently it was the first Akron-based and third overall location of the Youngstown-based chain.

Stirred by the promise of another chance to try a Brier Hill-style pizza, I decided to go that very night to check it out for myself. The restaurant was located at 85 West Montrose Avenue, Copley, Ohio 44321. They can be reached at 330-664-0808. Parking was in the lot directly outside the building. I was actually surprised that the parking lot wasn't completely full as the restaurant had been open for only a couple of weeks.

Here was a shot of the roadside sign just off of the street:


Once inside, I discovered that due to a server shortage, the wait for a table was approximately twenty minutes. While I wasn't in a particular hurry, my other option, sitting at the bar right away, appealed to me and I decided to do that. After taking my drink order, the bartender left me with the two-sided menu to look over (top and bottom shot of each):





I looked two or three times for the Brier Hill pizza, but the only thing I could find even remotely close to a pizza was the Margherita Flatbread. When I asked the bartender about it, she confirmed that the pizza was only available during lunch and happy hour. Bummed out, I returned to the menu to make an alternate selection. Having never been to any of the Nicolinni's locations, I decided to look for some of their signature items. Interestingly, while some of the signature items were marked with a "N" logo, others had no such mark, but contained the phrase "signature item" in their description.

After placing my order, I handed the bartender my menu and returned to fiddling with my camera to make sure it was set up properly for when the food began to arrive. Unfortunately, I went from having no food in front of me to nearly everything all at once. In a move to get something in front of me sooner rather than later, the bartender had brought out my salad and bread prior to my appetizer thinking the kitchen was running behind. Sadly, within moments of the first round of food being delivered, another food runner showed up with my flatbread, too. I don't actually blame the bartender for bringing the salad early, as her intention was good. Her timing was just wrong.

Here was a shot of the house made focaccia:


This was actually quite good and had a nice layer of crunchy salt on top of the bread. I could tell from the minute I smelled it that it was fresh. It had a great chewy texture and the crust was nicely caramelized. The bread was an excellent way to start the meal.

Along with the bread came a cup of pesto dip:


This was a warmed oil that had been infused with a solid pesto flavor. While it worked well as a dip for the bread, the bread was so good on its own, that I didn't really use much of the dip. If you like pesto, you'll enjoy this oil. Extra points for it being served warm.

Since my entree came with a house salad, I had only to indicate that I would like it dressed with the house dressing, which I had presumed was Italian:


The salad was actually quite large and big enough for two entire servings (the bowl above came with tongs and a separate plate for actual plating of my portion). All of the ingredients were fresh and crisp, although the salad had sadly been overdressed as there was a puddle of dressing sitting at the bottom of the bowl. That being said, the dressing had a nice acidity to it and the salt level was just right. If you worry about over-dressed salad greens, ask for the dressing on the side and do it yourself.

Next up was the Margherita Flatbread:


The flatbread had been cut into six slices and would've made the perfect size appetizer for two to three people. I ended up only eating half and taking the rest with me. Traditionally, a Pizza Margherita is a thin crust pizza topped with extra virgin olive oil, tomatoes, basil, and sliced mozzarella. Nicolinni's version was somewhat true to this vision, although the cheese was heavy handed. Also, as you can see in the photo above, gentle reader, the tomatoes were sliced way too thick and felt totally out of place on this thin crust creation. The crispness of the flatbread was nice, however.

For my entree, I decided on going with Chicken Francaise:


The chicken breasts had been battered and fried until golden brown and then topped with what I assume was beurre blanc (being French-style chicken, after all). The chicken was perfectly cooked, being both juicy and very tender. The coating on the chicken was flavorful and not greasy and the sauce had a nice balance between the unctuousness of the butter and the zip from the lemon. I thoroughly enjoyed the chicken.

Unfortunately, the same thing cannot be said about my included side dish, the Whole Wheat Penne topped with Nicolinni's Homemade Marinara:


If you look closely at the photo above, you can see the problem in the bottom of the bowl: leftover cooking water. Whatever method was used to make this pasta, it needed an extra thirty seconds to drain properly before plating. In a bit of foreshadowing, when I tried the pasta without sauce, it was definitely overcooked and about a shade under mushy. It is fantastic that Nicolinni's is offering a whole wheat pasta option, but if they aren't going to cook it properly, then they lose points overall. The marinara sauce was thick and rich and had a nice balance of acidity and sweetness. To simplify: marinara good, pasta bad.

Since I ate about half of everything tonight, I had quite the doggie bag to go. Judging that I was pretty full already, I declined dessert and simply asked for the check. With tax and tip, it came to slightly over $32, which although sounds expensive at first, I took as much food home with me as I ate during dinner. $16 per portion was a reasonable amount to spend at a restaurant that seems to be positioning itself as upscale mainstream Italian. While I do plan on returning to Nicolinni's for another meal (probably during the day so that I can try the Brier Hill style pizza), as with most restaurant experiences, my visit today had some good and some bad. If they can work the kinks out, I suspect that they will achieve a nice fit somewhere between Olive Garden and Vaccaro's Trattoria.

More Brier Hill Pizza At Ianazone's

I've come to find since starting to publicly write about food several years ago that I have to be careful with the words I choose so as to walk the fine line between my own personal truth and respectfulness for the food or organization producing said food. I always love finding these geographic pockets of food tradition as these are the very thing that help us to identify ourselves as northeast Ohioans. Today's trip out to Howland, Ohio (just east of Warren) would be to sample yet another version of the Brier Hill Pizza which I first started writing about back in October 2009. Having tried the versions at Sunrise Inn, Avalaon Gardens, and most recently Capiranos, today's excursion was based on reader feedback stating that Ianazone's Homemade Pizza had, hands down, the BEST Brier Hill Pizza around. The gauntlet had been thrown down and I had no choice but to accept this culinary challenge.

The following lazy Sunday morning, I decided to make the seventy-five minute trek out to Howland to check them out for myself. Not wanting to show up to a closed restaurant, I first consulted Ianazone's website as well as the Yahoo Maps listing for this location. Oddly, the first link seemed to be the correct one, but the link associated with the Yahoo Maps listing seemed like a suitable match except that it simply went to a page stating that the domain was for sale. Perhaps it would behoove Ianazone Corporate to fix this discrepancy. The Howland location was situated at 8050 East Market Street, Howland, OH 44484 and could be reached at 330-856-9263.

The Sunday hours were listed as being from 11 AM until 9 PM (Editor's Note: See the end of the review for the actual hours). Since it was already 10 AM in Akron, I decided to head out the door in order to beat the post-Church service rush. Gentle reader, a bit of advice from me to you: if you are going to travel more than thirty minutes to a restaurant, even if the website says that they will be open, call the restaurant to verify.

I pulled into the parking lot of the pizza shop at roughly 11:35 AM, well past the opening time stated on the website. Here was a shot of the front entrance to Ianazone's:


As I walked up to the front door of the tiny shop, the lights were on, there were three people working in the back of the open kitchen and funnily enough, the front door was unlocked. I entered the building and one of the employees approached me somewhat cautiously and asked if he could help me. Normally, the first question out of most pizza shops was to inquire about the phone number associated with the order. I responded by saying that I'd like to order a pizza. The young man helpfully indicated that the pizza dough wouldn't be ready for another half hour to forty-five minutes. Since there was a lone table in the front of the store, I asked if I could simply wait there until the order was ready and he agreed.

Which, I happily did. As I sat there playing with my smartphone, I realized that after about twenty-five minutes without the Ianazone's phone ringing even once, I finally began to make the connection. I hadn't bothered to check the hours listed on the front window since the door had been unlocked. I now peered at the reflection of the sign in the front window and realized that the reason the dough wasn't ready and there weren't any phone calls was because they didn't open until 1 PM. Whoops! The good news, I suppose, was that because I was left to sit up front without the need for supervision, I was able to take a snapshot of the wall menu:


When the young man returned to the front of the pizza shop at around 12:10 PM to let me know that the pizza dough was ready to use and he'd have my order ready in about ten minutes, I copped to my obvious mistake of showing up early, indicating that I had been misinformed of their Sunday hours because of their website. That's when he pointed to one of the myriad of signs indicating that they were under new management and the Ianazone's website wasn't really applicable to them anymore. Fair enough, I suppose, but could you at least update your profiles under Yahoo and Google maps to make sure that correct store information is present? Incidentally, I will list the store hours at the end of this review in case you decide to go to this particular Ianazone's yourself.

Interestingly, around the same time my order came up, around 12:20 PM, a car pulled into the parking lot and a man entered the store to pick up an order of his own. Ummm, I thought the store opened at 1 PM? Weird. Then again, I had pizza freshly out of the oven and a table at which to sit, so I put that thought behind me and quickly turned to my lunch.

Here was a shot of the Ianazone's pizza box:


I lifted the lid to reveal a thick crust pizza topped with red sauce, green and red bell peppers, and sprinkled with Romano cheese:


Steam rose from the pizza, an excellent indication of its freshness. I had ordered a small, which was a 12" pie cut into eight slices. As I lifted the first slice out of the box, I noticed that the crust was moderately stiff and held the toppings well. It was nowhere near as stiff as the version at Sunrise Inn. The other thing I noticed, especially after biting into my slice was that similar to the Sunrise Inn, atop this stiff crust was a soft doughy layer. While Sunrise Inn's doughy layer was cooked all the way through, I can't say the same thing for Ianazone's version. While it wasn't completely raw, it had just a bit of unpleasant chewiness to it.

The toppings definitely qualified this as a Brier Hill pizza. The acidity from the tomato sauce, the sweetness from the bell peppers and the sharpness from the Romano took me back to my three prior visits. The problem was that this particular pizza didn't seem to have a unique character to it. It's as if one of the national pizza chain companies, with all of their Research and Development money, came in and swooped up this regional specialty and decided to mass produce it to hundreds of millions of Americans. In the process of making it appeal to the masses, it lost that special quality that made it such a localized specialty. Don't get me wrong, the pizza wasn't bad, it just wasn't great.

After eating a few strategic pieces, I also attempted a side shot of a slice, to give you an idea of crust construction:


Since the dough being used for the Brier Hill pizza was likely the same dough that Ianazone's was using for all of their pies, if this type of crust isn't your thing, you most likely will not enjoy their other pizza offerings either. Personally, I could leave it, especially considering that if it took me seventy-five minutes to get to Ianazone's for so-so pizza, why not just drive the extra twenty minutes to Avalon Gardens to get GREAT Brier Hill pizza?

Knowing that I'd end up taking half the pizza home with me (which I did), I also decided to give Ianazone's chicken wings a try:


They had several flavors of wings listed on their menu and helpfully, you could get chopped garlic added to any of them. I ordered six traditional chicken wings for $3.00 and selected Hot Garlic as my flavor. The good news was that the chicken meat was incredibly tender and moist. The flavor of the sauce was good. The bad news was that the garlic really didn't do a whole lot (I suspect they were using pre-chopped garlic which has little flavor) and an even bigger transgression, the skin was pathetically pale and flabby. It was as if they had been baked in a really low oven so that the meat was done properly while avoiding any sense of crisp skin or coloration. In terms of heat level, the "Hot Garlic" registered in my mouth as slightly less than "Medium." If you enjoy spicy chicken wings, you'll have to kick the spice level up yourself when you get home.

Lunch today with a bottled water came to just over $13, which was a decent enough value since I got two meals out of it. Based on the pizza and chicken wings I did receive, however, should you be craving a good Brier Hill pizza or better chicken wings, I would say skip Ianazone's and look elsewhere. It wasn't bad, but neither was it memorable. Should this restaurant be a ten minute drive from your house, I would say check them out if you care to, but a drive to one of the better versions of this local cuisine is much more worth your time and money.

The hours for this Ianazone's location are:

Sunday: 1 PM - 8:30 PM
Monday: Closed
Tuesday through Thursday: 11:30 AM - 9:00 PM
Friday and Saturday: 11:30 AM - 10:30 PM

More Brier Hill Pizza At Capirano's

Capirano's Pizza and Catering has been on my radar for a LONG time. In fact, as I was going through my contact list earlier this week, I wondered if I was ever going to make it out there to try their take on Brier Hill-style pizza. Capirano's first came to my attention when I was doing research in connection with my meals at the Sunrise Inn in Warren, Ohio and Avalon Gardens in Youngstown, Ohio. Somehow a Google search managed to bring up their name in Newton Falls, Ohio, right off of Route 534. Today just happened to be one of those "blah" days, overcast and in the lower forties. I also happened to be in the Ravenna area with little to do and the thought that I needed to participate in something productive today rooted itself in my mind. When Capirano's popped into my head, I pulled it up on the GPS and within twenty minutes I had pulled into the tiny shopping plaza where the restaurant was located.

Speaking of location, Capirano's Pizza and Catering was located at 119 Ridge Road, Newton Falls, Ohio 44444 and can be reached at 330-872-3777. They also have a website located here. While there were about four businesses in the small shopping plaza, there was plenty of parking in the lot in front of the stores.

Here was a shot of the front of the store:


Once inside, I noticed two small tables. I got the sense that Capirano's was mostly a take-out and delivery joint, but as I found out after getting my pizza, the tables are available if you want to eat your pizza there. At the top of the front wall was the regular menu:


And to the right and below the window in the above picture was the daily specials menu:


While regular pizzas are available in 6", 12", 14" and sheet trays, the Brier Hill pizza (and I'm assuming all of the specialty pizzas) were only available in the three largest sizes. I opted for the 12" for $8.50 and was informed it would take about twenty minutes for my pizza to be ready. Knowing that I had no other place to be, I indicated that it wouldn't be a problem and opted to wait. Of course, my plan all along was to wait and have a chance to discover as much as I could about Capirano's version of Brier Hill pizza. I discovered that there was a common heritage between all three pizzas in usage of peppers and Romano cheese (instead of Mozzarella). That seems to be where the commonalities ended. It turned out that Capirano's uses the exact same pizza sauce on their Brier Hill pizza as their regular pizzas. Happily, their pizzas also turned out to be lightly sauced, similar to Avalon Garden's version rather than the thick layer that I had found at the Sunrise Inn.

I also asked about their pizza dough and the gentleman behind the counter assured me that the pizza dough was made fresh every day. While I didn't see any evidence of a floor standing mixer that a business of this size would need to make enough dough for daily orders, there was quite a bit of the kitchen I couldn't see because it curved around a corner in the back. Based on the flavor of the dough when I ate my pizza, however, I'd have to agree that it was homemade.

Entirely visible to customers, however, were the deck ovens used to cook the pizzas:


The process, as best I could document it, was that the pizza pans were brushed with oil before the pizza dough was pressed in. Sauce, toppings, and cheese were added and the pizza baked 95% of the way through in the deck ovens. At the very end, a spatula was used to free the mostly-cooked pizza from the pan where it spent about 15-20 additional seconds in direct contact with the actual deck itself, presumably to crisp up the crust slightly. It was then removed with a pizza peel and placed into a box, cut into the appropriately sized portions and handed to the customer:


As I sat down to eat this, I noticed steam rising out of the corners of the box. After opening the lid, I was rewarded with eight slices of Brier Hill-style pizza. Notice the gray mist on the right side of the next photograph ... that was steam:


I also noticed that my pie today had both red and green bell peppers on it, something that neither of the other two restaurants did. I picked up a slice and set it on a couple of napkins:


Honestly, it wasn't a bad slice of pizza. From a typical pizza perspective, I would've loved for the crust to be a little darker. I think that would've given the pizza a deeper depth of flavor. Sadly, a majority of Americans like their pizza crusts blond and this would definitely appeal to that demographic. With the use of the Romano cheese, this pizza definitely reminded me of its brethren at the two other pizza joints I've eaten at. The sauce, however, didn't do a whole lot for me. It wasn't that it was bad. It just wasn't as distinctive as the other versions. The pizza crust by itself had a decent enough flavor, but I also realized that it was being helped along by whatever kind of oil had been used to brush the bottom of the pizza pans.

I ate half of my pizza today (I was definitely hungry), packed up the rest and brought it home for an evening snack. Capirano's version of Brier Hill-style pizza wasn't bad, but it didn't capture the nuances and real balance of flavors that you get when you order a pie from Avalon Gardens. Then again, I didn't have to drive all the way to Youngstown in order to get one either, so there is that, too. Would I get another pie from them again? If I was in the area and didn't want to have to drive to downtown Youngstown ... definitely. I don't think that they are the definitive Brier Hill pizza, but sometimes being the only option in town can be a good thing.

Answering My Questions About Brier Hill Pizza

After my recent meal at the Sunrise Inn in Warren, Ohio, I discovered that the Brier Hill style pizza actually originated in the Youngstown area. Conflicted about the sauce that topped my pizza at the Sunrise, I decided that further investigation was needed to fully flesh out the answers to my questions. Since I happened to be visiting friends in the Deerfield, Ohio area over the Memorial Day weekend, I decided that an excursion seemed only natural. I decided on a restaurant that was identified in the Wikipedia page for Brier Hill that also served Brier Hill style pizza, Avalon Gardens. They are located at 1719 Belmont Avenue, Youngstown, Ohio 44504 and they can be reached at 330-747-7800. There is currently no website. If you know your Youngstown geography well enough, Avalon Gardens is just up from St. Elizabeth's Hospital.

As you approached the restaurant, this was what you saw from the street:


Parking was to the left of the building. Streetside parking was available if you parked on one of the side streets.

Once inside, I realized that I was glad to have brought my regular camera because it was DARK. This was actually a bar up front with tables in the back of the building. Once my eyes adjusted to the new level of light, I was able to make out a seating area of about 40 chairs. I don't know if they fill up on Friday or Saturday nights, but my guess would be that if they do, you'll be waiting a while for your seat.

My server did bring me over a menu, but unfortunately, I had forgotten to set my camera to the "close-up" setting, so all the shots were blurry. Fortunately, I figured the problem out before the food started arriving and the rest were decent.

Make no mistake about it, I was definitely here for the Brier Hill pizza. However as I looked over the menu, other items started jumping out at me. The potato gnocchi for one. The fact that you could get the gnocchi with their homemade sausage was another. When my server finally returned to take my order, I decided that I would be leaving with lots of to-go containers with my leftovers. After a couple of questions about items I was interested in, my server more or less convinced me that nearly everything on the menu is homemade. The exception to this was the bread they bring you at the start of your meal. But a nod went in their favor because they got the bread from a local bakery.

Warning my server that I was going to be ordering more than what one person would normally eat at one sitting, I went for the potato gnocchi with their house red sauce and homemade sausage and a large Brier Hill pizza with pepperoni. The gnocchi also came with a side salad. It turned out that they made their own blue cheese dressing and after my last bad experience with this dressing at the Chicken Manor Family Restaurant, I was excited to try something that sounded like it might live up to the hype.

First up, a shot of the bread basket and bread:



This was nice bread. Even though it wasn't made in-house, it had a nice crust and a soft, chewy crumb. Actually, this bread was far better than most I've had at local mom and pop places. And in an eerie sort of throwback to my Parasson's garlic bread and California French dressing obsession, the leftover blue cheese dressing was a much better spread than the whipped butter provided in the basket.

The bread was quickly followed by my salad:


The composition was a typical garden salad and was neither inspirational nor discouraging. But the dressing; oh, the dressing! This was what homemade blue cheese dressing is all about. Rich, creamy, and thick with sizable blue cheese chunks. Absolutely divine. Everything about this homemade version demonstrates why bottled can never beat fresh.

My potato gnocchi came out first:


These gnocchi were cooked to a perfect al dente. They were light and airy but at the same time had a nice chew to them. They were tossed with the house tomato sauce and the homemade sausage that had been advertised on the menu. The sausage had the wonderful taste of fennel seed in it, but at first seemed to lack any heat. It was only after I chewed and swallowed the sausage that a gentle and subtle wave of heat emanated from the back of my throat and moved forward into my mouth. The combination of the heat, the sweet, and the acid from the tomatoes was amazingly tasty. In addition, I could tell that some of the sausage had a nice crusty exterior to it. I surmised that the sausage must have been cooked separately to get it nice and crispy and then combined with the house red sauce and finally tossed with the gnocchi. When my server stopped by my table to check on me, she confirmed my hunch. In the end, I was very glad I decided to add this dish to my tasting menu.

After eating about only one quarter of my gnocchi, I stopped and set it aside because the main event had arrived, my Brier Hill pizza with pepperoni:


All the pizzas served at Avalon Gardens come in two sizes, 8" and 12". This was the 12" and was cut into eight slices; definitely enough to feed at least three people. While there were a lot of similarities to the pie I had at the Sunrise Inn, there were also a number of differences. The construction of the pie was identical. Thicker, crispy crust on the bottom with softer dough on the top side, topped with sauce, toppings of choice (again with the obligatory green peppers) and sprinkled with grated Romano cheese. One of the first things I noticed about Avalon Gardens's version was much less sauce than the version served at the Sunrise Inn. I tasted the sauce by itself (as this was ultimately the question I had with the other version) and it did have the same sort of tart and tangy undercurrent as part of its flavor. However, it was nowhere near as pronounced.

Finding myself staring at the green peppers that dotted the surface of my pie, the epiphany I was looking for finally surfaced and the pieces of the puzzle started falling into place. What I was perceiving as acid in the sauce at the Sunrise Inn was actually the bitterness of green peppers. The traditional green peppers that topped every Brier Hill style pizza weren't there as some random topping. The original creators of this style of pizza were employing an age-old tradition that cooks everywhere use. They were advertising what was in the sauce, but was no longer visible to the naked eye because the cooked sauce had been pureed. Honestly, I think a large part of the problem with the Sunrise Inn's version of this pie was due to the fact that they use SOOO much more sauce on their pizza. The inherent bitterness of the green pepper was subsequently amplified and that was what I was picking up on when I ate there. Since Avalon Gardens's version had the same green pepper bitter undercurrent, it was clear to me that this particular sauce is definitely as much a part of the Brier Hill experience as the construction of the actual pizza itself.

And how was Avalon Gardens's version of this Brier Hill classic? Simply put, it was delicious. It was the perfect blend between crust, sauce, toppings, and cheese. This is the version that I recommend people seek out. Not only is it something unique that only exists in this part of Ohio, but the result also tasted great, too. To that point, I brought back about 3/4 of my uneaten pie to my friends' house and invited them to try a slice. A few people balked because it didn't look like what they normally got from Dominoes or Pizza Hut. To which I said, "Um, that's the point!" While I think there were a few people who probably wouldn't order this if they had to pay for it, I also had a number of initial nay-sayers who were pleasantly surprised with the flavor and said that they really liked it.

Here are a couple of more shots of the pizza. First, a shot of the side of the pie, similar to the one I took at the Sunrise Inn:


And finally, a shot of a slice on my plate:


I find it to be a real treat when I can tell others about a restaurant that has the perfect mix of desirable qualities; a local mom and pop establishment that serves something unique and homemade and has that most important quality of all, it tastes great. From the fresh pastas and pizzas to the sauces and salad dressings, I thought Avalon Gardens was a true winner. I urge you to stop by and check them out if you are ever going to be in the Youngstown area. Heck, even if you aren't going to be in the Youngstown area, I think this restaurant qualifies as a wonderful one-tank trip and destination food stop.

  

Brier Hill Pizza at the Sunrise Inn

I am always looking for new and unusual places to try. I rely a lot on word of mouth to discover new places to go, but sometimes I'll find a reference on the Internet that piques my interest enough to take the time to check it out, especially when it is a good forty-five minute drive away. Such is the case with the Sunrise Inn located in Warren, Ohio. I found a reference to the Sunrise Inn on Road Food. After looking at the photos on their website, I checked out user comments on Yahoo Maps for the same restaurant. Every place I went to pointed at one thing: their unique pizza and how you couldn't get it anywhere else. People actually made comments about how much they crave this pizza when they haven't had it in a while. Sufficiently intrigued, I decided to make a journey to this mecca of pizza goodness.

There are two locations for the Sunrise Inn, one in Warren and one in Niles, Ohio. The one in Warren is located at 510 East Market Street, Warren, OH 44483 and can be reached at (330) 392-5176. There is no website at this time. Now, I thought I had done all my homework in making sure I knew how to get there, but Google Maps lied. I chose to take I-76 west until I got to Rt. 45. Once on Route 45, go north until you hit Market Street and make a right. At the very next intersection, it isn't apparent from the street signs, but Market Street veers off to the left. Alternatively, continue going straight until you hit Elm Street and make a left. The very next intersection will be the location of the restaurant. There is ample free parking both behind the restaurant and across the street from it. Here is a picture of the restaurant from the parking lot across the street:


And a picture of the intersection where the restaurant is located:


The restaurant actually comprises three of the "stores" in the building and you actually walk in the door farthest to the left. The stores hours listed on the door are the giveaway that this is the correct door. I got there around 12:45 or so today, so seating wasn't an issue. After being seated, I started looking over the vast menu. Now I won't say the menu is unfocused, even though it is very large, as the Sunrise Inn focuses mainly on homemade soups, sandwiches, and lots of Italian specialties.

I noted on the menu that all of their pizzas take between 30-45 minutes to make. This was fine with me as I had come specifically for this experience. I decided to order the "Old World" pizza with pepperoni. Knowing it would be a while before I got my pizza, I also decided to give a bowl of the homemade wedding soup a try. After placing my order, my server brought out some fresh bread. Here is a shot of the bread basket:


These were nice thick slices of a homemade Italian loaf. The crumb was dense and had just the slightest smell of a pre-ferment in them. Unfortunately, I don't believe the baker used enough salt in the bread because it had sort of a flat flavor to it. Dunked in the soup, however, the bread became more of a vessel to move the soup to my mouth and the lack of salt wasn't an issue.

My wedding soup came out shortly after my bread arrived:


This was a very good soup. It was nicely seasoned and all of the vegetables and pasta were very tender and delicious. Hidden underneath the surface were the standard mini-meatballs as well as something I've never had in a wedding soup before, eggs!


I've had eggs stirred into soups before (e.g. egg drop soup) and know how that looks and tastes. But the cook at the Sunrise Inn actually cooked these eggs first in a pan or on the flattop and only after they had cooked and taken on some color were these sliced up and added to the soup. The eggs were completely tender and had absorbed much of the flavor of the broth.

It took another fifteen minutes after I finished my soup for my pizza to come out. A large consists of eight slices and looks like this:


Let's talk about this pizza for a moment because what I didn't realize in doing my initial research into the Sunrise Inn was that I was tapping into a tradition that started in Youngstown. This pizza is done in the style of the old Brier Hill Italian restaurants once popular in Youngstown. According to this Wikipedia page, Youngstown used to have a very popular Little Italy located on and around Brier Hill that specialized in this very unique form of pizza. Made with a thick layer of sauce and topped with grated Romano cheese instead of Mozzarella, every pizza comes with green peppers as a topping regardless of what additional toppings you order. It seems that the tradition is alive and well at the Sunrise because that is exactly what I received.

Here is a shot of a single slice on my plate:


And a shot of the pizza from the side showing the layers from crust to topping:


Everything here is made from scratch with the exception of the pepperoni. The pepperoni are actually sliced about twice as thick as normal pepperoni and add a nice salty, spicy kick to the flavor. The dough is very interesting because it isn't limp at all. You can pick up an entire slice without having to worry about it folding over and all of the toppings sliding off. Just above the crispy layer is a nice soft doughy one. So you really do get two dough textures in each bite.

The sauce ... this is where the Brier Hill tradition really comes through. You get a nice thick layer of sauce. I do prefer my pizzas more saucy than less, but you really have to love sauce in order to fully enjoy this version. The sauce is intensely tomato-y and thick. And here is where another uniqueness comes in: acidic. I don't know how they got the sauce to be so acidic, but you notice it from the moment you put it into your mouth. I imagine that they need to make this sauce from canned tomatoes so that they can get a consistent sauce, but I have never come across canned tomatoes that lent this level of acidity to the final sauce, even without the pinch or so of sugar for which most sauce recipes call.

I don't know that I want to say that the sauce was bad because I don't have any other frame of reference for this style of pizza. Maybe the level of acidity in the sauce is completely in-line with other Brier Hill style eateries. However, if this is the pizza you grew up with, I can completely understand how you crave this and this alone. Heck, I would think pizza sauce from any other restaurant would just appear to be flat and boring. I think I need to make a second road trip out east to Youngstown and track down one of these other eateries and do some comparison eating before delivering a final verdict. If I were judging this sauce solely based on what I tasted today, I would say that the acidity needs to be toned down quite a bit.

After finishing my filling bowl of wedding soup, I only managed to consume two of the eight slices of the pizza. The rest came home in a box with me for later:


Even if you end up trying the pizza and don't care for it, there are many other homemade items available for your pleasure. Did I discover a unique taste today at the Sunrise Inn? Absolutely. And I think if you were ever looking for a nice day trip in northeast Ohio, this would certainly qualify as an interesting place to go. For those who love sports memorabilia, the walls are filled with actual photographs and memories from eras long gone by. For those who are there for the food, there are plenty of great options from which to choose.