Italian Beef At The Dog House

My fascination with the Italian beef sandwich stems from a PBS documentary called Sandwiches That You Will Like. In it, the author travels all over the country looking at local sandwiches that make each area tasty and unique. Maine has the lobster roll, Philadelphia has the cheesesteak, Buffalo has the beef on weck, and Chicago has the Italian beef. Originally started by Italian immigrants as a way to use cheaper, tougher cuts of meat in the first quarter of the 1900's, this sandwich has been feeding hungry Chicagoans for quite some time. At its simplest form, an Italian beef sandwich is composed of a nice Italian sandwich roll, thinly sliced cuts of tender beef, topped with either a mild sweet pepper mix or spicy giardiniera, and is optionally dipped in the jus in which the sliced beef sits waiting for service.

It's an intoxicating mixture of textures and flavors and once you've had the real thing, impostors are easy to spot. Soon after moving back to Akron several years ago, I learned of a place called Nicolino's on Route 91 in Tallmadge that had brought several Chicago classics to the area. It wasn't until I actually stopped in one time to pick up a deep dish pizza that I learned that they also served Italian beef sandwiches, too. The next time I stepped in, you can guess what I ordered. Being a tad on the pricey side, I was disappointed with what I received. Essentially a salt lick on soggy, disintegrated bread topped with peppers and onions, this sandwich was a disaster. It wasn't until I traveled to Chicago back in August 2007 that I finally had a chance to try the real deal. And it was GOOD. The bun, while dipped, still held together. The salt level was much more controlled and the balance of spices and heat were spot on.

I recently received a tweet from another Cleveland foodie, @kyleroth, who mentioned in passing about a place serving Italian beef in Cleveland. We messaged back and forth a bit and I quickly learned that The Dog House located near the intersection of Coventry and Euclid Heights Boulevard was serving not only a selection of hot dogs (as the name would imply), but also Italian beef sandwiches. While I had @kyleroth's assurance that it was a good sandwich, I continued to put off a visit for a while until I could stand it no more.

I charged up the battery on the cellphone, grabbed the $1.00 off coupon for Grum's and headed up to Cleveland. The Dog House was located at 2767 Euclid Heights Boulevard, Cleveland, OH 44118 and can be reached at 216-321-0717. At the time of this writing, there appears to be no website associated with the restaurant. Parking was whatever was available on Coventry Road. I choose to park in the parking garage located across from Big Fun. The first thirty minutes were free and the addition of a quarter extended your time by another thirty minutes.

Here was a shot of the exterior of The Dog House:


Once inside, I quickly looked around to discover a quaint little shop with two small two-top tables and a bar seating area along one wall with stools that could seat another five to six guests. Fortunately, at 2 PM on a rainy Sunday afternoon, the place was pretty quiet. As I walked through the front door, I noticed a wall menu posted on the left wall:


This menu was repeated on the right wall, although individual hot dogs were also advertised, some classic, some made up specifically for the store's location (Case Dog, John Carroll Dog, Coventry Dog, etc.). For me, however, the menu was almost irrelevant as I knew why I was standing inside the restaurant. I placed my order for an Italian beef and a bottled water. The man working the counter asked if I wanted it sweet or spicy. Good sign. I ordered it spicy. He started to assemble the sandwich in front of me. The second good sign was that the beef was already ready to serve in the jus. At Nicolino's, they actually reheated the beef from cold for each order. After filling the bun with slices of beef, he topped it with the spicy giardiniera. I was beginning to wonder whether or not he was going to ask me if I wanted it "dipped." Fortunately, he gave me a variation of dipped, "wet." Of course I agreed. Sadly, here was where things started to go south. Instead of quickly dipping the entire sandwich in the jus, he ladled about a cup of broth around the sandwich. I innocently asked him if they made their own gardiniera. He looked at me a bit quizzically and stated that they don't make anything from scratch except the barbecue sauce. As is so often quoted from the Star Wars movies, I had a bad feeling about this.

I took my tray to the tiny table by the front window:


Here was a close-up shot of the Italian beef sandwich itself:


Notice how dry the bun is? That's because all of the jus was at the bottom of the styrofoam container:


The implication of this was that only the spine, or the bit of bread holding the two halves together had touched the jus. And even in the relatively short period of time between him ladling on the jus and me picking it up to eat it, the spine completely disintegrated. This meant that each time I tried to pick it up and take a bite, I had pieces of meat and giardiniera falling out every which way. Fortunately, these pieces fell back into the waiting styrofoam below. As for the bread itself, it wasn't the sturdy Italian roll I had eaten in Chicago. It was more like the Orlando Italian Hoagy rolls you can find at your local supermarket.

The beef was tender and juicy. The giardiniera was good and spicy. However, the same problem that had plagued Nicolino's version from several years ago also seemed to beleaguer this sandwich, too: WAY too much salt. There was so much salt, in fact, that it was hard to taste anything else. From first bite until last, all I could taste was salt and heat. I normally don't drink an entire bottle of water with a single meal, but in this case, it was a requirement.

I threw away my garbage, returned the tray to the front counter, thanked the gentleman who took and filled my order, and walked out into the still rainy and gray Sunday afternoon. While I would probably be curious enough to return and try one of the specialty hot dogs, one thing I am sure I will not be returning for is the Italian beef. I'd rather wait several years to have the real thing than a pale version I could get more often. I would hate for someone who had never actually tried this sandwich to eat this one and think it was representative of what you receive when you order this in Chicago.

Dejectedly, I walked away from the restaurant towards Coventry Road until I remembered that I still had that $1 off coupon for Grum's in my pocket. I might not be hungry now, but I certainly would be later and a Turkey Ridge might very well just hit the spot.

Experiencing The Big M At Tommy's Restaurant

I have been fortunate to have had the opportunity for the last couple of weeks to help out a good friend, Diane, with her stand at the North Union Farmers Market located on the main campus of The Cleveland Clinic. While I occasionally got to take a nibble or two of food in between helping customers, for the most part my focus was on selling as many of Diane's wonderful pies as I could between the hours of 10 AM and 2:30 PM. By the time the market was over and we had repacked Diane's car, I was feeling somewhat famished. Being so close to the Coventry Road area, I decided to head over and satisfy two needs. The first need was to gain immediate sustenance. The second was to stop in at Grum's and purchase a whole Turkey Ridge to bring back home with me for later.

After parking my car in the garage directly in the middle of the Coventry area, I walked out of the garage and took a picture of Tommy's exterior from across the street:


Located at 1824 Coventry Road, Cleveland Heights, 44118, they can be reached at 216-321-7757. You can also check out their website by clicking on this link. I remember going to Tommy's for the first time when I started attending college at Case Western Reserve University. It has remained virtually unchanged, even after all of these years. Tommy's has always served a wide range of customers, from meat-eaters to vegans with a very tasty menu. Their prices are a bit higher than I remember from twenty years ago, but whenever I have a chance to check them out, I take the opportunity. I will warn you, gentle reader, that Tommy's is as popular a place now as it was back then. If you intend to show up on a Friday night at 6 PM for dinner, expect there to be a lengthy queue.

Today, however, I showed up around 2:45 PM and was rewarded with a mostly empty restaurant. I was seated by the front window and handed a menu. Here were some photos I took of the menu:






There are a few signature items for which Tommy's is known: Spinach pies, meat pies, hummos, French fries, and of course, thick and rich milkshakes. Fortunately and unfortunately, portions are large at Tommy's. Fortunate if you happen to be in a large group and want to share the 12 ounce serving of French fries. Unfortunate if you are just looking for a side of fries to accompany your meat pie. The hummos appetizer is very good, but at more than $7 for this plate of food, this would be more like my entire meal than a warm-up to the main event.

After seeing that the only side available on the menu was the 12 ounce serving of French fries, I asked my server if I had any other options. Sadly, even though she ha recommended to management time and again that they offer smaller portion sizes on the menu (only to be rebuffed), she pointed to a small rack of pre-packaged potato chips and suggested I might want to pair a bag of chips with my lunch. At a cost of only $0.99 with a portion size that looked normal for an adult, I quickly agreed and picked up a bag of Dirty's All Natural Sea Salt and Cracked Pepper chips:


While I have been known in the past to order one of Tommy's fantastic spinach and onion pies, today I decided I wanted something a little heartier. After considering my options, I decided on ordering the "Big M." Containing a combination beef and lamb patty, my Big M also came with lettuce, tomato, onions, green peppers, mozzarella cheese, and their unique barbecue sauce. After about fifteen minutes, my Big M arrived at my table and after I added some of the salt and pepper potato chips, I took a photo of my lunch platter:


Here was a close-up shot of the front of my Big M:


And the back of it:


Overall, I really enjoyed the flavors of my Big M pie, although the notion of it being a pie in the traditional sense of the word was a bit convoluted. Yes, it did have a top and bottom crust and it was filled with a cooked meat patty, melted cheese, fresh vegetables and sauce. But this pie wasn't shaped like a cut wedge from an entire pie. Each portion was it's own complete entity. I'm not sure exactly how they cook these because the vegetables were nicely crisp and fresh while at the same time the patty was hot, the cheese was melted, and the top layer of "dough" was nice and crispy.

After cutting into my Big M, I decided to take a side shot of the pie, revealing the meaty interior:


The combination of flavors was excellent. The lamb and beef played well together, neither of which overpowering the other. The barbecue sauce was excellent, as always. The sauce that Tommy's uses has a very muted flavor, and is neither overly smoky nor sweet. It added a nice cooked tomato flavor and mild acidity to compliment the fresh tomato that garnished the meat pie. Overall, the Big M was a hit except for one little minor detail. The crust on the bottom of the pie sort of alternated between being soggy from the meat juices of the patty resting on top of it and, well, um, burnt in other spots:


The soggy I didn't mind so much. The burnt wasn't very pleasant at all. Fortunately there were only a few pieces of burnt crust, so I was able to remove them pretty easily. That being said, with how busy the restaurant was on a Wednesday afternoon at 3 PM, there really shouldn't have been anything wrong with my pie.

Finally, the potato chips:


These were lovely ... crispy, not oily, and a lovely balance between salt and cracked pepper. I was a little taken aback when I read the list of ingredients on the back of the package to find that they had several forms of sugar in them. I can only imagine that the sugar was added to help balance out the saltiness of the chips, because the chips certainly didn't taste sweet. Looking at the amount of sodium in a single serving may help to back up my assertion. Because the flavor of the cracked pepper was so prominent, perhaps they needed to use a more aggressive hand when it came to the salt (460 mg of sodium per serving). To balance the saltiness, they added a touch of sweetness, too. Either way, it was a nice compliment to my Big M.

My hunger now sated, I paid the check, collected my coat and cellphone and headed down Coventry Road to purchase my Turkey Ridge for a late dinner. Apart from the bits of burnt crust on a small portion of my meat pie, everything was tasty, well balanced, and I felt like I was doing something healthy for my body. Since everything is a la carte, the check can start to get a little pricey if you go nuts with appetizers, sides, and milkshakes. Eating with a group can help to minimize those costs and spread them around. I heartily recommend Tommy's for breakfast, lunch, or dinner, especially if you have anyone in your dinner party with food restrictions. With lots of very cool shops within walking distance from Tommy's, you could make an entire afternoon of eating and shopping.

A Wonderful Culinary Discovery at Pacific East

While originally planning a dinner outing for a group of out-of-town college friends, I discovered that several of my friends expressed an interest in sushi. The fact that two of us had eaten the pristine sushi at Pacific East on Coventry Road in Cleveland Heights prior to this led me to suggest that we return for an encore meal. I have eaten at this location and at the location in the Eton Collective in Beachwood and I have always had wonderfully fresh and delicious sushi in both spots.

After ditching my car in the public parking deck in Coventry (which by the way, gentle reader, they have installed new parking meters that only accept quarters now ... don't do as I did and only realize this after putting in a handful of dimes wondering why no minutes were accumulating on the read-out), I walked up the road to 1763 Coventry Road, right across the street from Grum's Sub Shoppe and saw this awning outside of the restaurant:


Once inside, I sat down and waited for my friends to arrive. The first thing I noticed that differed from my last visit was the creation of a separate Malaysian menu:


In prior visits, there was always just one menu devoted to mostly Japanese dishes. A small portion of that menu was dedicated to a few of their Malay specialties. I was actually happy to see this new menu; it was replete with an exciting array of dishes that I had heard about in my various epicurean travels but had never had a chance to try. Along with the Malaysian menu, there was also the traditional Japanese menu:


Having originally picked Pacific East because of their sushi, I was now beginning to rethink my strategy a bit. Perhaps a combination of Japanese and Malaysian cuisines would be on my radar tonight. When my dinner companions finally arrived a few minutes later, they also made the same startling discovery. As a result, we ended up ordering a mixture of cuisines, but most of the ordering would be from the Malaysian menu.

My one associate decided to do a maki roll and nigiri starter. He ordered the eel maki roll and a piece of the uni nigiri:


Having had uni several times before, I could never understand why everyone always raved about. Honestly, the problem I had always had with uni was a textural issue. I won't go into what the issue I had was, but let's just say it reminded me quite a bit of the experience of having sinusitis. That being said, I had never even considered trying the uni at Pacific East before. Knowing how good the rest of the sushi was, I decided to give it one more try and piggy-backed an extra piece on my friend's order; the second piece of uni nigiri you see sitting on that plate was for me.

My friend went first and ate his piece. He confirmed that it was indeed very good uni. At least I knew that I now had the opportunity to try a piece of uni that had been positively confirmed by someone with a more educated palate than mine. I dipped the rice quickly in just a little bit of soy sauce and put the entire thing in my mouth. I chewed slowly to make sure I experienced the texture to its fullest and to allow the flavor to develop in my mouth. What was the verdict? I have to give props where they are due; this was by far the best version of uni I have ever eaten. I can also see why some people compare the texture of uni to foie gras. It has that same sort of mouth feel to it. The flavor was briny and fatty. Was I able to swallow the piece in my mouth? Absolutely. Would I ever order this again? The answer lies somewhere in the middle of "maybe" to "probably not". At least I finally knew what good uni was supposed to taste like.

Shortly after, my appetizer arrived, the chicken satay with peanut dipping sauce:


Having had this dish numerous times at Thai restaurants, Pacific East's version was good, but not great. The chicken had decent flavor and was nicely grilled. The peanut dipping sauce was a bit of a letdown for me though. You could definitely taste the peanut, ginger, and fish sauce flavors, but it really didn't have any zip to it. Granted, the menu indicated that it wasn't a spicy dish, so I can't fault them too much for delivering on that promise, but still, that would've really elevated this dish in my mind.

My dining companion who ordered the eel and uni appetizer decided to order the chicken rendeng:


Served with plain rice, this was quite good. The chicken was tender and flavorful and you could really get a nice sense of the lemongrass and coconut milk infused into the dish. The dish is marked as a "medium" spice level on the menu and that was how my friend ordered it. To my palate, this dish was more of a mild than a medium. For customers who can't do heat at all, this would definitely be spicy. For those with a more adventurous palate, you might want to ask them to take it a few spice levels higher.

I decided to order the laksa:


The menu describes the laksa as, "Noodles in full of flavors - slightly creamy infused with coconut milk, seafood, egg, tofu, chichen and bean sprouts, chili and spices." Interesting translation to English aside, this was a really lovely dish. The menu indicates that this is a "spicy" dish. Knowing my penchant for extremely spicy food, I asked the waiter if there were different levels of spiciness. He indicated that there really weren't, but he'd be happy to bring me a side of chili sauce so that I could adjust it myself. It turns out that the cook was happy to make it hotter for my taste and it came out already adjusted. I'd say the spice level was somewhere between medium and spicy. It was definitely spicier than my friend's chicken rendeng, but not so spicy that I couldn't taste the other ingredients in the dish.

The egg noodles were nice, sort of like ramen noodles. They were tender to the tooth and while you couldn't really pick up any of the egg flavor from the actual noodle, the dish was studded with hard boiled eggs to reinforce the flavor. The broth was a lovely mix of spicy and creamy; the coconut milk acted to reduce the spicy edge from the chilies. The seafood mentioned in the menu description actually refers to several shrimp that were in the bowl. These were a nice size, but they were a slight bit overcooked and just a touch rubbery. However, that is really the only criticism I have of the entire dish. It was quite delicious and I would order it again when I return. Actually, to be honest, the Malaysian menu is so thorough now that you could order from it the next twenty times you go to the restaurant and still not have worked your way through everything.

To our great surprise, what had initially been an outing for some wonderful Japanese delicacies morphed into an almost all out Malaysian culinary odyssey. I don't know of any other Malay restaurants in Cleveland, Akron, or Canton, so if you want to try out this wonderful cuisine (and I seriously suggest you should), give Pacific East on Coventry Road a try. And don't forget to get at least a little bit of sushi or sashimi while you are there, too.

  

Weekend in Cleveland

On the first Thursday of every month, the only surviving member of the First String Band plays with fellow musicians at the Barking Spider on Case Western's campus in University Circle. Every six months or so, myself and a few other fraternity brothers will take a road trip back to Cleveland to hear this ensemble play. It's a great way to relive a bit of our past glory, catch up on what is going on in each of our lives and in general, just a nice way to spend an evening. We also usually take the next day off of work and bum around, revisiting some of the old restaurants and haunts we did in days past.

So it goes again. Even though yesterday was January 1st, it turns out that the Spider would be open and the group we wanted to hear would be performing. So we checked into our room at Glidden House (CONVENIENTLY located right next door to the Barking Spider) and headed to Coventry to see what was open for dinner.

We decided to eat at a new place, Tree Country Bistro, located where the Que Tal used to be. It is now a Japanese / Korean / Thai restaurant. This appealed to all of our group since we could each get what we wanted. My friend Mike ordered sushi, and ended up getting the Snow Mountain:


He reports that this was quite good. It had tempura eel that was then wrapped in a maki style roll and topped with crabmeat (well, the fake kind used in California rolls). I decided to go with a Thai curry and opted for the green chicken curry:


It also had peas, green beans, bamboo shoots, green peppers and eggplant. The flavor was excellent, but the heat level was nowhere near what I had asked for (confirmed by another taster in our group who also likes spicy foods). I ordered this Thai spicy. I even went so far as to say, "Not American Spicy. Thai Spicy." And what did I get? Barely warmer than mild. As with other Asian restaurants, I am finding that just because the menu says that spice levels are 1-3 or 1-5, the upper number is never the absolute limit. When I brought the spice level issue up with our waitress, she only then admitted that Thai spicy was probably closer to 5 than a 3 (which according to our menu was the spiciest level). *Sigh*

Today for lunch we decided to hit up an old favorite, the Mad Greek on Fairmount in Cleveland Heights. This has always been a favorite of mine as they make such an excellent grilled pita (I know, it's the simple things in life, isn't it?). The prices were noticeably higher than they have been in the past and the lunch menu was a much more pared down from what we've seen the previous times we went. However, the foods and flavors were outstanding. We decided to start by splitting an order of hummos and grilled pita bread:


It almost looks like a bowl of oatmeal, but I can assure you it isn't. This was very good, if not a bit too much of tahini in the hummos. The grilled pita is like crack and you most assuredly will run out of it before you finish the amount of hummos they give you. Fortunately, additional pita is free of charge. The pita is reasonably fresh and what really gives it it's "crack-like" status is that before serving it, they brush each side with olive oil and throw it on the flat top to slightly caramelize each side. So, so good.

For my lunch I decided to go with a standard: gyro with fries.


The fries were quite good, crispy and hot. The gyro was also delicious, with its blend of spiced meat, the tomatoes, onions and the yogurt sauce.

Tonight we'll be tackling another favorite old haunt, the Euclid Tavern. More on that in my next post.