Third Time's A Charm At South Market Bistro

Up until now, I have not had good success in obtaining a meal from Wooster's South Market Bistro. The first time I went, I had mistakenly used information from the Yahoo page I looked up on the Internet and hadn't verified that they still had lunch hours. Upon showing up to their doorstep (yes, yes, gentle reader, I should've called to confirm) for a mid-day meal, I quickly learned that no, they did not have lunch hours. Of course, this led to the wonderful discovery of both the Broken Rocks Bakery & Cafe and Tulipan Pastry & Coffee Shop just across the street. My second attempt at having a meal at South Market fared no better. While I did show up during the correct business hours, unfortunately, the entire restaurant had been booked for a special event and they weren't able to accommodate guests not on the list. Sigh.

So now, more than a year later, I decided to give my luck just one more try and showed up on a Friday night at 5:45 PM with no reservation. I hoped that I would be early enough that I could slip in and out before the tables filled up. As I drove past the restaurant, I was happy to see that most of the tables by the front window were devoid of patrons: a good sign (at least for me). I parked on the street and walked north about a block until I was standing outside the front entrance to the restaurant:


South Market Bistro was located at 151 South Market Street, Wooster, OH 44691 and can be reached at 330-264-3663. Parking was pretty much wherever you could find it, but fortunately, if you manage to find a spot on the street, there appears to be a generous three hour limit, so you shouldn't feel rushed to get in and out.

As I walked in the front door, I was greeted with a single room, longer than wide, and an semi-open kitchen at the rear of the room just past a small bar area. As my eyes adjusted to the new level of light, I realized that other than myself, there were only two other patrons currently in the restaurant and they were both sitting on stools at the bar. Unless the restaurant had lots of clients showing up right at 6:00 PM, I reasoned that accommodating a walk-in would be just fine. One of the servers greeted me with a smile and when I asked if they had room for me, she responded with an enthusiastic, "Absolutely." I have a funny feeling that her enthusiasm was due more to the time of my walk-in as a four top did the same thing an hour later and there was some consternation as to whether they could be sat. Handling walk-ins can be a tricky affair since you want to accommodate everyone without penalizing other customers who took the time to call and make a reservation.

Regardless, the server showed me to my table, told me of the daily specials, and left me with a menu to examine:




One of the draws of South Market Bistro was chef and owner Michael Mariola's focus on using local, seasonal ingredients in his dishes. The restaurant's menu felt small in some ways (at only two pages), but looking through the courses, there were at least four or five dishes in each category from which to select. I guess I've gotten so jaded over the years from having to make selections from menus that have entire pages (or two) dedicated to just chicken entrées that finding a menu which was succinct, yet complete, was quite refreshing.

While pondering my dinner choices tonight, my server brought over the bread and butter. Here was a shot of the pre-sliced breads thoughtfully served on a wooden carving board:


As soon as she sat the board down in front of me, I was highly suspicious of the bread on the left. Even though it had been a year and a half since I had eaten it, it looked very much like the European sourdough breads that Broken Rocks was serving. The minute I picked it up, inhaled deeply and took a bite, I was convinced it was the one and very same. The bread to the right was a thinly sliced focaccia with rosemary and crunchy grains of sea salt. When my server stopped back in to take my order, I think I surprised her a little when I asked if the sourdough had come from Broken Rocks. She admitted that it did and then further went on to tell me that the focaccia was made in-house. Both were absolutely tasty and fresh.

Along with my bread, a triangular wedge of softened butter accompanied the board in a small bowl:


I did try the butter on a bit of the sourdough and it tasted, well, buttery. But as Broken Rocks sourdough bread was a truly fantastic bread all on its own, I ended up using very little of the butter.

Seeing as all of the entrées came with a house salad, I decided to order a starter. As I scanned the menu for something suitable, I came across what the menu described as "mussels and fries," but I knew far better as moules frites. Having had this dish at several other Cleveland eateries (including L'Albatros Brasserie), I was excited to try South Main Bistro's version. I was a little concerned because of my disdain for poorly executed hand cut fries, but I put my trust in the kitchen.

After only a short time, I saw my dish placed on the pass and my server grabbed it and walked it over to my table. As she set it down, some pretty amazing scents wafted upward:


Consisting of mussels steamed open in a wine and butter broth with the addition of garlic, leeks, and spinach, it was then topped with super crispy slightly thicker than shoestring fries. The smell was amazing. As I dug into my first shell and retrieved the small nugget of mussel meat, I was rewarded with an incredibly tender and flavorful bite of food. I next turned my attention to the fries. They had clearly been seasoned when they came out of the fryer as the salt was nicely distributed along the entire surface of the fries, not just on the top. I tasted my fries and came upon what would turn out to be a theme running throughout tonight's dinner: salt. The chef running the kitchen liked aggressive seasoning. Not overly salted where I would send it back, but probably more salty than I personally would've used.

Regardless, I hoovered up every last mussel and fry and then used the leftover sourdough bread to mop up as much of the steaming broth as I could muster. It really was that good. Toward the end of my appetizer, I heard my waitress talking to a nearby table who obviously saw what I had ordered and asked her about it. When I overheard her say that the mussels were accompanied with the restaurants signature truffled fries, I thought to myself, "Did I miss something? None of these fries had any truffle flavor of any kind to them."

In fact, when she stopped by to pick up my empty plate, I asked her specifically about the statement she had made to the other table and she confirmed that they were indeed truffled fries. I didn't disagree with her, but it did make me think that maybe I should've tasted them more carefully. I reviewed the photograph of the menu I had taken earlier on my smartphone camera and the menu listing said nothing of truffled fries, even though they were available as a side item.

The mystery was solved when she returned with my house salad with mustard vinaigrette:


It seems that when she took my plate back to the kitchen, she actually asked the chef and he confirmed that the fries served with the mussels were simply seasoned with salt. Phew! I thought my taste buds had taken a hiatus on me. As I turned my attention to my salad, I was happy to see that the greens were only lightly dressed. The croutons appeared to be a small dice of the focaccia I had eaten earlier and then toasted. Several thoughts popped into my head when I started to eat the greens.

While I could definitely tell that the greens were dressed, I got almost no flavor from the vinaigrette. This let the bitterness from the greens shine through. The olives, a welcome addition, added mouthfuls of more salt. On the occasion when I would get a crouton or two, I would get more hits of salt and rosemary. So, as I sat there and ate the salad, the two flavors that kept returning to me were bitterness and salt (there it was again). I don't know that I would call this salad unbalanced, but it definitely could've used a sweet component to it, perhaps some dried fruit.

When my server stopped to check in on me, I asked her which of the gentlemen in the kitchen was in charge.

"Oh, that would be Eric."
"Eric?" I responded. "I thought Mike Mariola was the chef."

She then proceeded to tell me how he rarely spends much time in South Market Bistro anymore after their sister restaurant The City Square Steakhouse opened up two years ago across the street. And, in fact, the chef wasn't spending much time there either since he was looking to open up a new venture, a beer and burger joint, in Fairlawn fairly soon. So, it seemed that he left Eric in charge of the kitchen at South Market Bistro with Eric's wife Liz taking care of various front of house tasks (bartending, hostessing, managing).

She returned just a few minutes later with the risotto I had ordered for my entrée:


Layered into the risotto were some of the same Killbuck Valley shiitake mushrooms I had eaten before at the AMP 150 Mushroom Dinner, fresh spring peas, corn, Mascarpone, garlic, and Parmesan. In addition to the ingredients listed on the menu, fresh greens and carrots had been folded into the risotto as well and it had been topped with a fine chiffonade of fresh tarragon. While I could have had the kitchen add some grilled shrimp for a small upcharge, I decided to go with the vegetarian version that was listed on the menu.

Texturally, this risotto was about as perfect as they come. Creamy, rich, and with just a little resistance in the rice, the bowl of starchy goodness didn't fail to deliver. The individual components such as the corn and green peas exploded with just a bit of vegetal sweetness when I tasted them. This sweetness was critical because as my previous two courses had been, the risotto was once again aggressively seasoned. At first I thought it was okay, but as I dug around to find one of the mushrooms to try on its own, I realized that it had given up its own earthy flavor and had been overtaken by salt.

While I had been fine with the prominence of salty flavor in my first two courses, by this point, I think my tongue must have been suffering from salt fatigue as I only managed to get about half-way through this, even with multiple refills on my water. Of course, the risotto had been quite filling, too, but I knew that I could've eaten more. I chose to stop on purpose because I didn't want to be chugging bottles of water after leaving the restaurant.

I chose to skip dessert today, but managed to get a photograph of the dessert menu so that you could see what was available:


It seemed that Jenis ice creams and sorbets were featured prominently on the menu and while I am a HUGE fan, knowing that I will be stopping in for my yearly fix at the upcoming Ohio Linuxfest in Columbus coming soon, I declined to indulge tonight and simply asked for my check instead. My meal tonight, with tip and tax, came out to roughly $35. Which, for a three course meal, wasn't a terrible deal. I will proffer that I selected one of the more inexpensive entrées, however, and the meat courses will run you about $10 more.

It was clear from my meal that Chef Eric was not afraid of using salt; indeed he was incredibly consistent with it. While this works well for some chefs (such as Jonathon Sawyer at the Greenhouse Tavern), tonight's dinner was truly teetering on the precipice of excessiveness. Which was a shame because the flavors and textures of my food were simply marvelous and were it not for that one issue, I would be jumping up and down, flagging down complete strangers on the street, telling them to make the drive to Wooster to check out this quaint little bistro with its big flavors and seasonal menu. While every other part about my experience tonight was excellent, timidity with seasoning in the kitchen will get you about as far as excessive boldness; a happy medium should be where the restaurant needs to strive.

Old World Hungarian Pastries at Tulipan

While wandering around the downtown area of Wooster, Ohio on a recent trip, I just happened to find a quaint little pastry shop and cafe snuggly tucked away in a series of little shops and restaurants. What I had found was owner Elizabeth Lakatos's charming Tulipan (pronounced twee-li-pan) Hungarian Pastry and Coffee Shop. Located at 122 South Market Street, they can be reached at 330-264-8092 and the website is located here.

Thinking that this would be a lovely way to cap my lunch at the Broken Rocks Bakery and Cafe, I decided to investigate further. Here is a shot of the front of the shop:


And a picture of the door to the cafe:


When I walked in, I instantly fell in love. Glass case after glass case of wonderful Hungarian treats were on display. I asked the woman behind the counter whether the various pastries were made in house and she pointed to the back of the restaurant at a sign indicating that there was a bakery in the basement of the restaurant. Everything, she said, is homemade. Here is a bit of what I saw in those glass cases:




Tortes, strudels, Kolachy, oh my! Dorothy would've had a field day and I knew I was in for a real treat, too.

Behind the glass cases are the equipment for freshly brewed teas, coffees, and various espresso concoctions. Here is a shot of the bar behind the pastries:


And a shot of the handwritten menu posted on a chalkboard on the wall:


Tulipan also offers various breakfast and lunch items such as rolled omelettes, pastries (obviously), open faced sandwiches made with decidedly European spreads and daily homemade soups.

But today, I was here to try some of these Hungarian pastries for myself. I decided that to accompany my treats, I would order a nice single shot of unsweetened espresso:


This was a nicely bitter and refreshing cup of espresso and really helped to cut through the sweetness of the desserts. The only problem I had was that there was no crema on top of the liquid. I know, a stickler to be sure, but a proper cup of espresso should have the crema.

Following the suggestion of the woman helping me with my order, I decided to try two of Tulipan's desserts. First up is a lemon-glazed Hungarian cheesecake:


This was a wonderfully creamy cheesecake filling layered on both sides (top and bottom) with cake layers and finished with a sweet lemon glaze. This was the sweeter of the two treats I had, but it was still so well balanced. The texture from the layers of cake were a nice touch to what Americans normally think of when they order cheesecake. The filling was a lighter, creamier style than the New York variety, and the whole bite just sort of melted in your mouth. Of the two desserts I had, I think this one paired better with the espresso I ordered.

My other dessert choice was a slice of the classic European dessert, the Dobos Torte. Tulipan's version was on par with any that I've had in the past:


Seven layers of impossibly thin vanilla cake sponge and rich creamy chocolate buttercream frosting were topped with a nice crunchy layer of caramelized sugar. Not only impressive to look at, but delicious as well. Despite all of that cake and frosting, the sweetness on the Dobos Torte was very controlled. It was an excellent study in the difference between American desserts and classic European desserts. I truly enjoyed Tulipan's version, although getting that fork successfully through a crunchy caramel layer all the way to the plate was definitely a challenge. But a fun challenge, nevertheless.

I briefly chatted with Elizabeth Lakotos after I had finished up my pastries and she graciously allowed me to take all of the lovely snapshots of her shop without even really knowing who I was or what I was up to. The next time I return, I hope to get some additional time to talk with her about the simply marvelous products she serves to her customers. I heartily suggest you give Tulipan a try the next time you are in downtown Wooster. You won't be sorry you did.

Broken Rocks Cafe And Bakery Saves The Day

Thankfully, Wooster, Ohio has more to offer culinary-wise than just the South Market Bistro. I have now been twice rebuffed from this eatery. The first time I tried to go, it was on a day that the restaurant was completely closed. Not to be beaten again, I checked the Local Yahoo website listing for the South Market Bistro and picked a day that they would be open for lunch. Unfortunately, it didn't occur to me to also check South Market Bistro's actual website for hours. Sadly, when I arrived at my destination, I discovered that while this restaurant may have been open for lunch in the past, they were now only open for dinner. Crap!

Being that South Market Bistro is located exactly in the middle of beautiful downtown Wooster, I figured there had to be something else good to eat within walking distance. And boy, how! I saw an Italian restaurant called El Grande that looked promising, but what really piqued my interest was when I rounded the corner onto East Liberty and stumbled upon the Broken Rocks Bakery & Cafe. They are located at 123 E Liberty St, Wooster, OH 44691 and can be reached at 330-263-2949.

Here is a shot of the front of the building:


What convinced me to walk through the front door was a little blurb posted in the window talking about how the owner had developed a sourdough culture and that had fueled his bakery and now this cafe. Real sourdough bread? I'm SO there. I was there around 12:45 pm and the place was maybe 1/3 full. Fortunately, my hostess sat me near the front of the building where there was a lot of light coming in through the windows. She handed me the menu and walked away to get my glass of water.

The menu is divided into standard areas, soups, salads, sandwiches, pastas, pizzas, and entrees. The front side is here:


And the back side is here:


Everything is made from scratch and today I had a choice of four different soups. They had tomato and roasted garlic, sausage and lentil, asparagus and shiitake (vegetarian option), and another one that I have now forgotten. Because it was lunchtime, there was also a smaller lunch-specific menu that listed the daily specials.

While I sat there pondering what to order, I decided to take some ambiance shots of the restaurant. First up, the bar area across from my table:


There are additional tables behind the half-wall on the left side of the photo. In the very back of the space is the open kitchen and bakery.

A shot of the lovely table adornments, each table having it's own set of flowers:


Having decided to go with the asparagus and shiitake soup for a starter, my server brought some of their signature sourdough bread and nicely softened butter for me to try prior to the arrival of the soup.

Here is a shot of the bread:


And a close-up of the crumb:


This was excellent bread! A very good example of an Eastern European sourdough. The dough contains a blend of both wheat and rye flours and the sourdough component was not overwhelming in the way that a San Francisco sourdough can be. This had a mildly acidic kick and was absolutely fresh and wonderful. The irregular hole structure in the crumb also tells me that this was a more highly hydrated dough which makes them harder to handle. Clearly this was handmade by someone with knowledge and expertise.

Shortly after my bread arrived, my soup arrived:


The soup was hit and miss. Besides the lovely pieces of asparagus and shiitake that were in the soup, it also contained bits of onion and potato as well. The concept for the soup was a good one, but it missed in two ways. First, the soup base was not pureed well enough. This meant that the potato could be "felt" on the mouth. This gave the soup a gritty texture as opposed to a smooth one. Second, the soup lacked a flavor punch. It wasn't that the soup lacked salt; it didn't. But it just didn't have the kind of character that grabbed hold of your taste buds and didn't let go.

For my sandwich, I decided to go with the Blue BBQ burger with Jo Jos. Here are some shots of the burger and "fries":



The burger is a half-pound ground beef burger from a locally sourced farm served with Maytag blue cheese, a homemade spicy BBQ sauce, a honey Dijon mustard dressing, and lettuce and mild red onion served on some of the bakery's focaccia bread that has been split and grilled. I ordered it medium and that was how I received it. This sandwich was fantastic. The burger was hot and juicy, the various toppings and sauces all complimented each other so well and the Maytag blue cheese added the nice sharp, salty flavor that really brought everything together. The grilled focaccia also helped to keep the integrity of the sandwich as there was plenty of liquid coming out of this guy.

Jo Jos, for those of my gentle readers not from the northeast Ohio area are simply potato wedges that are baked or more commonly fried. Sometimes they are battered, sometimes not. These jo jos were simply fried until crispy on the outside and creamy on the inside and then treated with a bit of seasoning. Served with a side of ketchup, I wouldn't call them the ultimate version of this Ohio delicacy, but certainly a tasty version.

After the bowl full of soup and the 1/2 pound burger and jo jos I had just enjoyed, the thought of dessert was simply too much to think about. However, I did decide to take a photo of the dessert menu, in case you want to check it out:


Doesn't the Apple Pecan Crisp sound just delicious? Yum. Next time I go back to Broken Rocks, I'm definitely going to have to check out the actual desserts they serve.

I'm very happy that I stumbled upon the Broken Rocks Bakery & Cafe after my original plans were dashed. I'm also happy to discover that Wooster is much more than a one-restaurant destination stop. If you are planning a trip into Wooster, or if you already happen to live there, I heartily recommend you stop in and try some of the delicious bakery and restaurant items that they have to offer.

A Trip to Wooster for Lerch's Donuts

If you happen to find yourself near Wooster, Ohio, you might want to take a moment to find one of it's hidden treasures. A friend of mine alerted me to the presence of Lerch's Donuts (Twitter feed here) and suggested that I give them a try. Unfortunately, I had a problem. The website only lists their permanent location as "Portage Square Plaza". Both Google and Yahoo had a hard time putting an exact address to that search term. Fortunately, another Wooster-related site that allows users to comment on local businesses had an entry on Lerch's along with their location information. Specifically they are at 2312 Akron Road, Wooster, OH 44691. Akron Road also happens to be Rt. 585, the same one that connects Barberton to Wooster.

Unable to verify when their hours were (having a website is nice, but leaving off things like a street address and business hours seems a little pointless, no?), I decided to throw caution to the wind and drive down anyway as it was a lovely day. After weaving around left and right turns on Rt. 585, I finally came to the intersection of Akron and Portage Roads and immediately saw what I was looking for, a tiny little fair-style cart sitting in front of what used to be Hawkins Market (which has huge lettering by the way, hard to miss) on the right hand side of the road.

I pulled off and found a place to park and walked up to this:


The menu is simple: donuts, French waffles, and freshly squeezed lemonade. And even the donuts were simple: plain, sugared, or cinnamon sugared. While this one location I was at is permanent, there are two other carts that travel local fairs and festivals. Clearly the menu is short and sweet because they know what they are good at and this is exactly the food product they are trying to provide. No artifice at all.

Looking over the prices, I decided to get the "6 donuts for $3" deal. Two of each please. I walked away with this:


I normally try to avoid getting parts of my hand in the shot, but it was an extremely windy day today and had I let the bag go, it would have either a) fallen over or b) been moving so much that I wouldn't have gotten a good photograph. I decided that I'd better do the taste test while sitting inside my car.

Having worked so well for my Swensons post, I decided to do the food-on-the-knee photography again. These are smaller donuts (much like The Fractured Prune) so there is no need to feel guilty about eating a couple at a time. Here are the three kinds:


At the top is the plain, at 4 o'clock is the cinnamon sugared and at 8 o'clock is the sugared. They are all made from the same basic cake donut batter, but then finished in different ways (again like The Fractured Prune). Here is a shot of the interior of the plain donut:


I was quite surprised when I went to lift the donuts up off the napkin to finally eat them. I found no grease spots whatsoever. This lack of greasiness definitely translated to a wonderful light-tasting experience when eating them.

In doing my research on Lerch's before making the decision to go, on more than one occasion I came across comments from both websites and people who said that these made-to-order donuts were superior because you received them right out of the fryer. Now this may very well be true if you hit them up first thing in the morning or when they are close to running low on inventory, but when I got there and ordered my six, the woman simply walked over to a set of trays, slid one out and filled my bag. I didn't have the presence of mind to ask when the donuts had been fried, but it had been long enough that they were the same temperature as the outside air.

When I finally had a chance to try them, I decided to start with the simplest of the three, the plain donut. It had an interesting "crunch" to the outside. More of a resistance than a crunch really. I liked it. The donut itself was nice and fresh on the inside and what really surprised me a lot was the controlled level of sweetness. It wasn't cloyingly sweet like a Krispy Kreme is. I also found that even with the cinnamon sugared and sugared donuts, they were equally as restrained on the sweetness factor. I found that I rather enjoyed them.

I ate three of them sitting in my car and then brought the other three home with me. I tried them again several hours later and found that while the flavor was still the same as it had been earlier, that elusive "crunch" was now missing; effects of the room's humidity no doubt. I'm going to go out on a limb and propose that they are probably at their peak when right out of the fryer and dredged in the cinnamon and/or sugar coatings.

Would I purposely drive the forty-five minutes it took me to get there again just for these donuts? Probably not. If I was within fifteen minutes of their location, would I change course for some of these donuts? Absolutely. And if one of the two extra Lerch's carts happened to be at a fair or festival I was attending? Perfect.

And before I forget to mention it, I asked the woman working behind the counter what their hours of operation are. Hours of operation are from 6:30 am - 6:30 pm, although the closer you get to 6:30 pm, the less inventory they may have available to sell.

While these donuts probably wouldn't appeal to the extreme sweet tooth readers out there, for everyone else they are a nice treat and I definitely recommend them.