Flip-Flopping Over Flip Side In Hudson

It seems that when Chef Shawn Monday goes out, he goes out big. After leaving Downtown 140 in Hudson, Ohio and opening One Red Door around Labor Day in 2010, only a few short months later, he decided to utilize the space right next to his newest culinary creation and open up a second joint featuring upscale burgers and sides. Having only been open for several weeks, I decided to stop in for a Sunday lunch with longtime friend Ken and check out the highly anticipated menu at Flip Side.

Flip Side was located at 49 Village Way, Hudson, Ohio 44236 and can be reached at 330-655-3547. You can also reach them via email. Since the restaurant was in the First & Main shopping district area of Hudson, there were a myriad of free parking options. I ended up parking on the square and walking to the front of the restaurant.

Here was a shot of the entrance to Flip Side:


Once inside, I discovered a fairly small space, seating for perhaps thirty-five patrons with an additional eight to ten seats at the bar. The decor was fairly simple and the colors relatively monotone. That being said, the restaurant had a casual feel to it that should make diners of all ages feel welcome. And speaking of all ages, that was exactly the cross-section of people eating lunch when I arrived. Ken had arrived prior to me and put in our name for a table. Considering that they weren't taking reservations, a ten minute wait for a table seemed entirely appropriate.

After finally being sat, our server left us with the menu to peruse:







It was clear from reading the menu that Chef Monday was trying to occupy a very similar burger-space that Michael Symon's B Spot Restaurant up in Beachwood (and soon Strongsville) currently addressed. While Symon was using Pat LaFrieda beef from New York state, Monday had committed to offering burgers using local Ohio raised, grass-fed beef. Price points on the menu were quite similar between the two restaurants, with your basic burger starting somewhere around $6 and topping out at roughly $10. Sides were in the neighborhood of $3.50 to $5.50. Similar to B Spot's menu, Flip Side also offered milkshakes with adult "mix-ins," if desired.

Knowing how large the sides were at B Spot, I almost suggested to Ken that we split a side. However, something held me back, perhaps the desire to try more than one side for this review. Looking over the menu, many of the burgers sounded good, but when I saw that the Shawn's Burger had both bacon AND a fried egg on it, I knew I was sold.

After a short wait, our food finally arrived at the table. Here was a shot of my Shawn's Burger:


The crown of the brioche bun had been nicely grilled. I assumed that the heel had also been toasted, but since it contained all of the ingredients for my sandwich, it would've been a bit messy to verify this hunch. In addition to the bacon and fried egg, there were thick cut slices of spicy pickles, flat top onions, and a very mild farmhouse cheese. A small cup of mayonnaise was provided for pre-consumption application. I added a light layer of the creamy condiment, topped off my burger and proceeded to cut it in half, thus releasing the golden goodness from the fried egg:


I had ordered the burger to be cooked medium rare and sure enough, it was exactly to my specification. As I attempted to pick up the first half, I noticed the first problem. The heel of the bun had become completely sogged out and lost all integrity. This led to the not wholly unwelcome consequence that this was a MESSY burger to eat. Between the very juicy patty and the runny egg, I basically ate the entire first half before stopping to clean myself up with the extra requested napkins.

So, how was it? It was very good. Chef Monday clearly understood the concept of layering flavors and textures. I quite liked how the pickles lent some spice and acidity to balance out the fattiness from the other ingredients. They also added a much needed crunch to each bite of the sandwich. While I prefer the slightly more aggressive seasoning of B Spot's burgers, Flip Side did a good job of keeping all the flavor elements in balance. The only other downside I found was that while I did enjoy the running egg yolk, since the egg had been cooked sunnyside up, there was a substantial bit of undercooked egg white as well:


While I didn't find this too objectionable, I am fairly certain that others might have a problem with uncooked whites. I had actually assumed that the egg would have come to the table cooked over easy to address this problem, but I do admit that the sunnyside up egg had a more dramatic visual appearance.

For my side, I decided to go with the Chili Rubbed Onion Rings with Remoulade:


When this plate was set down in front of me, I had two initial reactions. "Boy, those look great!" was the first thing that popped into my head. "Wait, is that a full portion size?" was the second. For $5, there should have been at least twice the amount of onion rings on the plate as there were. That would be the portion size of the onion rings at Symon's restaurant. One of the complaints I had heard prior to my visit today from doing my research on the Internet was that people were concerned with the value of the food. Today's serving of onion rings went to reinforce that point for me.

Alright, fine, it was a small portion, but when I finally went to try one of these rings, I was pleasantly surprised to find an expertly fried ring that was thick enough to have some texture, but not so thick that it was still raw. The batter to onion ratio was also very good, having enough batter to convey some of the seasoning and spices, but not so much that it was doughy or undercooked. The chili spice sprinkled on top also gave it a nice little kick. The sauce remoulade, while perhaps not a traditional remoulade, complimented the rings nicely. I ate about half of them with the provided sauce and the other half with the tableside ketchup.

Ken decided to get the Mikey Fries:


These fresh cut fries had been triple cooked and served with grated Grana Padano, salt, and truffle oil. Curious as to what "triple cooked" meant, our server explained that properly cooked fries are first blanched in oil at a lower temperature to cook the potato without coloring it and then finished in oil at a higher temperature to crisp up the outside and give it that appealing golden brown color. "Fine," I responded, "that takes care of two cookings. Where is the third?" Oddly, his answer was, "Oh, they're blanched twice."

I wasn't sure what kind of odd chemistry Chef Monday had employed here, but I couldn't imagine why you would need to blanch a fry twice before finishing it in hot oil to crisp it up. What I could not argue with, however, was the perfect fry job on these potato sticks. Incredibly crunchy on the outside without being the least bit oily, they were equally light and fluffy on the inside. While both Ken and I picked up on the salt, cheese, and fresh herbs adorning the fries, neither of us got any truffle oil smell or flavor. For those who know the heavenly smell of truffle oil, it is an aroma that is hard to miss.

Our meal now complete, Ken and I decided to split the check evenly, even though he had a coke and I simply had a glass of water. With tax and tip, it basically came out to an even $20 per person. Granted, had I gotten my burger of choice at B Spot (Red Hot) and a side of the onion rings, with tax and tip it probably would've come out to a similar amount. The difference would be that I'd be taking home a sizable portion of leftover onion rings for consumption later in the evening. At Flip Side, not so much.

Additionally, while Symon has more or less perfected the burgers at B Spot, my Flip Side burger today suffered from a sogged out heel and a sunnyside up egg that could've been cooked a tad more. Be aware that while refills were free, Ken's glass of Coca-cola was $2.75, which seems a bit pricey for a product that costs pennies per glass. I'm going to recommend Flip Side, because at the end of the day (or the meal), it was still a pretty darn good burger. Should they correct some of the minor flaws I experienced in my meal today, I think I would even move it to very, very good burger status. If getting a price-no-object, grass-fed beef burger in a hip new restaurant is your cup of tea, gentle reader, Flip Side will deliver with reliability. For those looking for a cheaper option of an equally crave-inducing burger, might I suggest Swenson's or Skyway?

Sharing A Meal At One Red Door

As part of the 2010 Taste of Hudson "challenge," similar to the one I created at the 2010 Taste of Akron, I targeted three vendors whose restaurants had yet to be reviewed here on the blog. This year, the three selectees were the North End Restaurant with Chef Jeff Jarrett (who has since departed to open up a new restaurant, Palate Restaurant & Lounge), Blue Canyon with Chef Brandt Evans, and a relative newcomer to the First and Main scene, One Red Door with Chef Shawn Monday who had recently left another Hudson institution, Downtown 140, to open up and run his own restaurant.

Realizing that the restaurant had opened up right around the same time as the Taste of Hudson, I wanted to give him and his staff a couple of weeks to get settled into their routine and work out any kinks in both the front of the house as well as the back. While it seems like it would be great to be the first person publishing a critical review of a new restaurant, often until things calm down and the staff discovers its groove, the experience of eating at a newly opened restaurant can vary wildly.

Five weeks after they opened, I contacted my good friend and public relations/marketing guru Jayni (designer of the awesome business cards for the blog) and asked if she would join me for dinner. After agreeing on a time and date for our meal, when the day finally came, I drove over to Hudson with great anticipation. One Red Door was situated in the First and Main district, specifically where Vue Restaurant used to be located. The address for One Red Door was 49 Village Way, Hudson, OH 44236 and they can be reached at 330-342-3667 or at info@onereddoorhudson.com. They also have a website (Warning: Heavy Flash content with music turned on by default). Free parking was either at curbside parking spots on the street or in the parking garage a five minute walk from the restaurant.

Not knowing how long it would take to get from my job to the restaurant, I showed up thirty minutes before our reservation time. After taking a picture of the front door,


I decided to check in with the hostess to let her know that I had arrived and would be having a cocktail in the bar. After settling down in one of the seats at the bar, I proceeded to order a favorite pre-dinner cocktail, a Grey Goose Martini, up, with bleu cheese stuffed olives:


Execution-wise, the martini was okay. I've had versions of this cocktail where the bartender shook the vodka and ice so thoroughly that a thin, almost imperceptible layer of ice crystals floated on top of the liquid. As you sipped the drink, the finely distributed crystals would instantly melt in your mouth. Today's cocktail, while cold, also came with sizable unmelted pieces of ice which definitely did not melt upon sipping.

The cocktail aside, however, it was listening to the bartender's banter with the other guests at the bar that caught my attention. When I am by myself at a bar (or a restaurant for that matter), I am usually engaged in checking websites or email messages on my smartphone. In addition to that activity, I am usually multi-tasking and listening in to the conversations happening around me. As the bartender was regaling several of the other patrons about a woman who had complained that the service had been off during the restaurant's first week of business, my ears perked up and I tuned in.

"Of course there were some problems," he told the complaining woman. "We've only been open for a week."

I saw this as my chance. "So have all the kinks been worked out yet?" I asked.

"Oh, yeah. We've been open for a little over five weeks now and it's all good."

In case you're wondering, gentle reader, I am somewhat playfully using a technique called foreshadowing.

As I continued to sip my cocktail and wait for my guest to arrive, the banter of the bartender actually turned a fair bit crass, dutifully detailing his theory on why his current wife had never gotten pregnant with prior sexual partners. I understand the need to talk to your audience in order to connect with them, but this didn't seem quite appropriate given the surroundings.

Jayni arrived promptly at 6:30 and after a quick return trip to check in at the hostess stand, we were promptly shown to our table and handed the single page menu. I opted to take three photographs, one of each "pane" of the menu:




In addition to catching up with a friend, my dining companion was excited to be joining me on one of my anonymous blogging expeditions and wanted to know all about my "process." I explained that other than trying to taste as many flavors as possible, just order what sounds good. To that end, we agreed to split one item from the Tastes, one from the Flatbreads, and one from the Shared items. When our server finally returned with our drink orders, I indicated that we'd be splitting the first part of the meal. Since the Shared item was a salad, he helpfully suggested that the kitchen could just split it onto two plates. After placing our order, Jayni and I got down to the serious business of catching up, something we had both been too busy to do for quite some time.

It was at this point I noticed the first glitch in service tonight. Other tables had bread plates with bread on them. Ours remained empty. No worries, I thought to myself, I'm sure he'll back around with the bread basket. Sadly, I was mistaken and by the time our appetizers arrived, skipping the bread course just seemed like a foregone conclusion.

First up were the warmed olives with oil and herbs:


Serving plates of warmed olives seems to be a trendy thing to do nowadays as I've seen it at all sorts of other restaurants. Warming the olives, in theory, will help release more of their natural flavor and the fresh herbs used help to provide a counterpoint to their flavor. Tonight's olives were small Nicoise olives and a larger, unexpectedly sweeter green olive (whose name I never got). These were okay and if you're into warmed olives, this would be right up your alley. I, however, was not particularly enamored by them (and to be fair, nor would I be at most restaurants).

Next up was the three cheese marinara flatbread with parsley and basil:


Made with actual Italian 00 flour, I wanted to see what Chef Monday's take on this thin crispy bread would be. When the flatbread arrived, I inspected both the top and the bottom. While there was definitely freshly chopped parsley sprinkled on top, I didn't detect any sign of fresh basil as the menu had suggested. The bottom of the pizza had been browned only to the point where the crust was mostly blond with a spot of tasty brownness every now and again. One of the hallmarks of a nicely cooked pie (or flatbread in this case) is the presence of a nice brown caramelized crust.

I took a bite and while I could taste the sharpness from the cheeses and the richness from the marinara sauce, the flatbread only achieved half of its raison d'etre. While it did have a nice crispy crust, it lacked the chewiness in the crumb that was the hallmark of a really good Neopolitan style pizza. Which, okay, technically it wasn't being called a pizza on the menu, but let's call a spade a spade. It wasn't a bad pie, in fact it was better than average. It just wasn't great.

It was during our appetizer noshing that service issue number two reared its ugly head: refills. Jayni was a Diet Coke drinker and as such, had finished her first glass in no time flat. When the server came over to check on us, she asked him for a refill. When he returned to the table a second time, sans refill, she had to remind him again before he brought her another beverage. Had this happened once during the meal, it would be pretty easy to brush off. However, this happened several times, going from the slightly inconvenient to quite annoying.

Our third appetizer was a poached Bartlett pear salad with hazelnuts and crumbled bleu cheese:


What you see in the photograph was a half portion of the salad as my dining companion and I split this. Both of us felt that the full size salad would've been enough for an entire meal. You may want to keep that in mind should you decide to order this on your visit, gentle reader. The salad was flavorful, the salad greens were dressed nicely in a hazelnut vinaigrette, and the textural balance between the creamy cheese and the crunchy toasted hazelnuts worked quite well. In short, this was a tasty salad. The pear had been properly poached and as such was soft without being mushy and turned out to be a nicely sweet contrast to the tangy and salty elements in the dish.

Having finished our starters, our server now returned to the table to take our entrée orders. Jayni ordered the chicken, which I was also considering, but instead ended up going with the pan seared Grouper with lobster gnocchi and Maine lobster jus. When I asked our server if the kitchen cooked the fish to a specific temperature, he looked puzzled and asked me what I meant. "Uh, oh," I thought to myself. I started to try and explain my question but realized that his continued look of apprehension over this line of questioning meant that for sure there would be a breakdown in communications. I changed my tune and simply said, "However the chef recommends it will be fine."

After some time (and still with no bread and Jayni's glass of Diet Coke sitting empty), our dinner plates finally made their way out of the kitchen. In what turned out to be another service hiccup, after removing our salad plates from the table which contained both of our knives, the server never came back around with new cutlery to replace the removed pieces. When our entrées arrived, I had to point out that we would be needing two new knives and it took several minutes for him to return with the proper silverware. I have a funny feeling that with the multiple service mistakes we had experienced tonight, it wasn't necessarily One Red Door's issue, but this particular server.

Continuing forward, here was my grouper:


The grouper had been pan seared on the presentation side (the side you see first) and the crust on the fish was an enjoyable contrast to the soft, creaminess of the flesh underneath. I'd say the fish came out somewhere between medium and medium-well, which meant while it was moist, it could've been just a touch moister. The potato gnocchi accompanying the fish was also caramelized and, just as with the fish, served as a nice contrast to the interior of the small potato dumplings.

The lobster portion of "potato lobster gnocchi" was simply pieces of cooked lobster meat tossed in with the gnocchi. Sadly, the lobster meat was a bit chewy and honestly, other than the Maine lobster jus served underneath the fish, it felt a little out of place. The broth, however was properly seasoned (as was the entire dish) and the sautéed spinach located underneath the grouper was a nice touch. The only real complaint I had about the dish was the perceived value. At $25.50, this was the second most expensive item on the menu and both Jayni and I felt that the portion seemed small for that price point.

Not normally a dessert person, when Jayni suggested that we split one, I quickly agreed. Here was a shot of the dessert menu:


Figuring that Jayni's sweet tooth needed to be satisfied more than mine, I gave control of the dessert selection to her. She picked the Maple Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting and Candied Walnut:


At $8, this seemed on the high side for desserts in northeast Ohio. While the cake had a very good flavor and the crumb was incredibly moist, what Jayni and I noticed almost right away was that there wasn't any textural contrast to the cake. One would assume that if the cake had been adorned with a candied walnut that there would be chopped walnuts inside the cake, too. Not so. Even the carrots, normally added in their crunchy raw state, had softened to the point where they didn't add a contrast either. Don't get me wrong, it was a good piece of carrot cake. But it didn't wow either one of us. The other thing that both of noticed was that there wasn't anything particularly impressive about the presentation; an average size piece of cake, sitting on a white plate sprinkled with powdered sugar and adorned with a sliced and fanned strawberry (albeit a tasty one).

While we did finish the cake, it left us both feeling like it could have been much more than it was.

For the two of us, between tip and tax, it came to $100 (not counting my cocktail earlier in the evening). While I think you will get a tasty meal at One Red Door, the service blips between the bartender and our server were a bit too obvious to ignore. While the bartender may have been referring to the kitchen working out its kinks, I think the front of house staff needs to undergo the same level of scrutiny as the back. With the dish I had tasted from One Red Door during the Taste of Hudson had left me slightly worried, tonight's dinner definitely redeemed them in my eyes. I definitely recommend that you check them out.

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.