A Visit To North End Restaurant

When last I mentioned Chef Jeff Jarrett and the North End Restaurant and Wine Bar in Hudson, Ohio, it was during this year's Taste of Hudson event. Just as with my idea at the 2010 Taste of Akron, instead of trying to do the impossible and eat the food from every single one of the vendors, I singled out three or four restaurants on which I hadn't done any type of formal review and sampled their food as a pre-cursor to an official visit and review. Chef Jarrett's food at the Labor Day festival had really impressed me and my companions and I decided that today would be the day for my unannounced visit. Since Chef Jarrett obviously knew what I looked like, I wasn't sure how long my visit would remain anonymous, but I figured I'd at least give it the college try.

The North End Restaurant and Wine Bar was located at 7542 Darrow Road, Hudson, OH 44236 and can be reached at 330-656-1238. Parking was located in a fairly large lot just outside of the building. From Darrow Road (aka State Route 91), the sign for the restaurant was clearly visible on the west side of the road:


And here was a shot of the entrance:


It should be noted that the market portion of the facility opened earlier in the day, 11 AM every day except for Sundays and Mondays. While the website lists lunch hours, I can assure you that only dinner is currently being served starting at 5 PM on the days that they are already open. I had stopped in one other time to try them for lunch only to discover that while the doors were open, the only item being sold was retail wine and beer. Tonight I decided to stop in at around 5:30 PM on a Wednesday evening. Fortunately, while there was a scheduled wine tasting later in the evening, the number of patrons here for dinner was small.

After being seated, my server left me with the menu:





An interesting thing to note on the menu was that Italian bread was available for $3. I've heard of restaurants that only serve bread upon request or have started charging for the service, but the North End was the first restaurant where I've actually come across this policy. I thought about ordering some of the bread to accompany my meal, but by the time my entree arrived today, I knew that I would be too full to appreciate it. Next time, for sure.

As usual, I decided to go with multiple courses in order to see how well played out the menu was. For my appetizer, I started out with the Crispy Pork Belly:


The fanned slices of ultra-tender pork belly had been plated atop kimchee that had been pureed and then brushed onto the plate. Sitting next to the pork was an arugula salad with a brunoise of red onion, plums, and fresh peaches and dressed with a light citrus vinaigrette. I first tasted the kimchee shmear and was rewarded with a wonderful spicy and sour flavor with a bit of spice aggressiveness towards the front of my mouth. When I combined a bit of the pork, salad, and kimchee puree, I was pleased to discover crunchy (from the seared outer edge of the pork belly), creamy, sweet, spicy, and tangy.

While I thought the salad by itself could use a touch more salt, when everything was combined together and eaten as one forkful, this was an amazingly rich and complex dish. I would have never pictured myself being a lover of pork belly, but Chef Jarrett's take on it was delicious and satisfying. For those concerned about spice levels, I should mention that the heat from the kimchee was quite mild and unless you have a complete aversion to anything spicy, you really will enjoy the playfulness of the dish.

For my second taste of the evening, I settled on a cup of the Soup du Jour, which in today's case was the Lobster Bisque:


When this small cup of happiness first arrived at my table, I was completely taken with its terra cotta color and intense seafood aroma. As I dug into the viscous liquid, I noticed that not only was the lobster completely infused into the soup, but there were additional bits of lobster floating throughout as well. Upon tasting my first spoonful, I was again presented with sweet, salty, tangy, creamy, and spicy, but a different spicy. This time the spice hit me gently in the back of the throat, a sure sign that cayenne chili powder had been used to give this bisque some zip. I found myself eating spoon after spoon of this delicious course until sadly, I reached the bottom of the cup. I'm actually thankful that the bisque only came in the smaller "cup" size as had a bowl of this been placed in front of me, I probably would've licked the damn thing clean and been too full for my entrée afterward.

Speaking of entrées, tonight I decided to try the North End Chicken:


Consisting of an Airline cut chicken breast seared to a wonderful golden brown, it rested on top of shredded dark meat from the chicken, goat cheese dumplings, and various cuts of regular and Dragon carrots. All of which had been enhanced by a pan sauce finished with butter and drizzled with a touch of white truffle oil. I decided to try the sauce first and work my way up to the chicken breast. The sauce was exactly what I expected it to be and I could taste the richness from the butter and the slight zip from the fresh herbs that the chefs had thrown in right at the end before plating. What delighted me was the almost earthy headiness that could only come from a drizzle of the white truffle oil.

The goat cheese dumplings were only slightly tart and were completely tender without at all being mushy. The least successful part of the dish, the carrots, were a tad undercooked. Actually, the smallish coins of carrots underneath the chicken were okay since they were small, but when I cut a piece from the larger varieties lining the sides of the plate, I was surprised to find that they still had a bit of their raw flavor and crunch.

The chicken itself, as you can see from this shot, was incredibly moist and juicy:


While the breast meat was great, I think I enjoyed the scattered shredded dark meat even more. Either way, I really savored this dish and with all of the components going on, I was happy to see that everything was perfectly seasoned ... which was a good thing since nary a salt nor pepper shaker could be found at any of the tables in the restaurant. By the time I finished my entrée, it was roughly 6:30 PM, approximately an hour after I had first arrived and about a half-hour before the beginning of the wine tasting. When my server approached me about dessert, I politely declined and asked for both the check and Chef Jarrett if he wasn't in the weeds.

Moments later, Chef Jarrett appeared from the kitchen, looked at me and exclaimed, "You were supposed to tell me when you were coming!" I laughed and responded, "No, no. It doesn't work like that." In the end, tonight had turned out to be a completely anonymous visit and I'm glad I had a chance to review the food as if it was meant for any other regular diner. Chef Jarrett and I talked for a few minutes before he had to return to the kitchen to finish preparations for the impending wine tasting.

With tax, my meal tonight came to slightly under $32, which for the three very tasty courses I enjoyed this evening, I felt was well worth the price. Having finally had a chance to eat a proper meal inside the actual restaurant, I am quite excited about returning for many more in the future. If you haven't had a chance to try out the chef's inventive and tasty menu, I would suggest you stop by and give them a chance soon. I don't think you'll be disappointed.

[Ed. Note: I contacted Chef Jarrett to let him know when this review would be published on the blog (he asked me to let him know when the review would go live) and he informed me that he has officially turned in his notice at North End Restaurant in order to pursue his own place. As information becomes available to me of the chef's future endeavors, gentle reader, I will be more than happy to pass along these details to you. And, of course, when North End replaces Chef Jarrett with a new chef, you can expect a re-review of the food.]

A Tasty Sampling Of The Taste Of Hudson 2010

It seems as though festivals celebrating the local restaurant scene are now in full force and quite popular. With people looking for a great way to celebrate the Labor Day weekend, there are several popular choices this year from which to pick. In Cleveland, there is both the Ohio Natural Gas Taste of Cleveland (the PR and marketing people need to work on that name, no?) and the Oktoberfest in Berea. If you live closer to Akron than to Cleveland, there is also the Taste of Hudson. About a week ago, I was contacted by good friend and fellow food blogger Kathy from Carano's Cucina and asked if I wanted to join her and her husband, Nick, for a walkthrough of this year's festivities at the First & Main shopping district in Hudson.

Because of our diverse schedules, we drove and parked separately and then met up around 2 PM. Parking was a bit tricky as the parking deck was essentially closed. I ended up finding a parking spot on Atterbury Boulevard, just east of the train tracks. Streetside parking was available for free and I took advantage of it. As I walked toward the area where the festival was being held, I knew that I was heading in the right direction when I saw this sign advertising the festival:


I proceeded to walk to the corner of Library and Park (where the Coldstone Creamery was located) and noticed the first of two booths where money was being exchanged for magnetic striped cards that would then subsequently be used to purchase food. The other booth was located at the corner on the opposite side of the square at the intersection of First and Village Way:


There were actually two lines: one for credit card payments and the other for cash transactions. Needless to say, the line for the credit cards was long and the one for cash was blissfully short. Fortunately, I had brought enough cash with me today that I totally avoided the long lines. I decided that $20 worth of credit ought to be enough to get me all of the samples I would need to write up this entry. The nice thing was that I could always go back for more if I needed it. I didn't specifically ask, but at other festivals similar to the Taste of Hudson, there aren't refunds for unused money at the end of the event, so spend wisely.

After meeting up with Kathy and Nick, we proceeded to walk the entire square, looking at restaurants, menus, and judging whether or not the food looked interesting enough to brave the lines. Instead of trying to write up the twenty or so vendors that were participating this year, I decided to adopt the same tactic that served me so well for the Taste of Akron 2010; I would visit the booths for the restaurants I was interested in doing a proper review at some point in the future.

The initial item on today's culinary agenda was a visit to the booth for Blue Canyon (warning: gratuitous use of Flash) in Twinsburg, Ohio. As it turned out, Chef Brandt Evans had also shown up and was talking with an attendee when we visited his booth:


Both Kathy and I decided to try the Beef Brisket Sandwich with Coleslaw. At only $4, this was a very large sandwich and a very good value:


Here was a shot of the guts of the sandwich, crown removed:


And finally, not to be outdone, the crown of the bun itself:


This was a very tasty offering. The brisket was tender, juicy, and had just the right amount of smoke to it. The sauce used to dress the meat was well balanced between smoke, sweet, and acidic. The bun was fresh and held up to the wet ingredients in the interior. The only real issue I had with the sandwich was that while there were certain bites that contained enough coleslaw to act as a nice foil to the meat, other bites seemed completely devoid of any of the crunchy salad. A simple fix? A bit more coleslaw, please.

Having finished my brisket sandwich, we walked around the square until we came upon the target of my next tasting which just happened to be located directly in front of the new restaurant bearing the same name, One Red Door. They were also serving up a variety of adult tastes today:


One Red Door only recently opened its doors having replaced the much loved Vue Restaurant. While there was around three or four options on the menu, the Macaroni and Cheese with Smoked Brisket at $5 called out to me:


First, the good news. For being held and served out of a chaffing dish, the pasta was in remarkably good shape. It was cooked properly and had a nice chew to it. The smoked brisket was also cooked to the point where it was still tender and easily shredded under the weight of my plastic fork. The sauce on the brisket was assertively smoky, sweet and sour. I do think that Blue Canyon's brisket was a little better, but only marginally so. The bad news was that the cheese sauce dressing the pasta was completely lost in the boldness of the brisket. Even just eating the macaroni and cheese by itself, I couldn't help but think that I would've enjoyed it much more had it been made with a bolder cheese flavor. I enjoyed the viscosity of the cheese sauce, enough that it coated the noodles well, but it was not swimming in a pool of sauce mornay. Overall, while this dish wasn't bad, it was today's last place finisher.

Finally, having made it completely around the entire square and back to where we started, we stopped at the last booth on my agenda today, the North End Restaurant and Wine Bar:


I still had $11 left on my dining card and it looked like I would be rounding out my experience at the Taste of Hudson today with two of North End's menu items. First up, for $4 was the Goat Cheese Stuffed Peppadews:


These were little nuggets of heat, sweet, acidity, and goat cheese flavored goodness all rolled up into one. According to Chef Jeff Jarrett who was working the event today and stopped over to chat with us when he recognized me, these are commonly served right out of the jars in which they are brined. The brine was the reason that each of these little bites had a wonderful hit of acidity. The goat cheese flavor was actually subdued a bit and the mild spiciness from the peppadew rolled around in my mouth as I chewed each morsel.

The final item on my tasting schedule for only $4 was the homemade Potato Gnocchi with Braised Beef Short Ribs:


A combination of potato gnocchi that had been crisped up in a mixture of butter and oil and a braised beef short rib that was so tender it could be cut with only a minute amount of pressure from my plastic fork, the meat literally melted in my mouth. The gnocchi, not to be outdone, had a truly delightful potato flavor to it and the contrast of textures between the soft interior of the pasta and the crusty outer exterior made it a truly delicious bite to eat. Kathy also got the gnocchi and short ribs and she proclaimed her love for the dish as well. Of the three restaurant booths I visited today, this dish was by far my favorite. Then again, I'm a complete sucker for a well executed plate of gnocchi; it's sad that so few restaurants seem to be able to pull off a good version.

As with my experience at the Taste of Akron this year, I know that I can expect some fantastic meals at all three restaurants when I finally get around to officially reviewing them. The Taste of Hudson 2010 will be happening today, Monday, September 6th from 11 AM until 6 PM. While there were plenty of vendors whose food offereings I didn't have a chance to sample today, I would suggest that if you are looking for wonderful food in a fun atmosphere, you make it a point to stop out and pick your own favorites. $20 was enough for me to work my way around the square and it should be plenty for you, too.