rockandroller

Thanks again everyone, I'm printing the thread today and will report back which places I got a chance to try when I return next weekend!

Great story, and the Wolf Lady anecdote is the perfect epilogue.

Color me ignorant but what's a "$200 blow-out"?Agree with 2 Amy's. Near the erstwhile Eastern Market is Mangialardo's, a very good hoagie shop. It's Mon-Fri only, I think at 13th and Penn SE. Get the G-Man on a hard roll. Thanks, Kevin ← A blowout is when women go to a salon just to have their hair professionally blow-dried so it's really, really smooth, soft and glossy, and often much straighter than normal. It takes a lot more skill, time and detail than most people can do at home. You usually get a blowout with a haircut, but in bigger cities, women go to salons JUST for a blowout, not related to a cut, so their hair will look nice. A good blowout can last for several days if you don't work out and take care of how you sleep on it.

Oh my God that is awful. Thx for letting me know.

LOVE pizza, awesome. thx.

Hi! I have an upcoming business trip to DC and would love some suggestions for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The challenge I seem to be faced with when I visit is finding places that are really casual and aren't horridly expensive while still offering good food. You know, holes-in-the-wall, street stands, diners, places to get a cheap pizza or a good sandwich. Everytime I ask the concierge for suggestions for a VERY CASUAL place I end up being seated by the bathrooms because I'm underdressed and don't have a $200 blow-out and a $400 purse. I have one "nice/expensive" dinner planned (Obelisk) but am looking to fill out the few meals I'll have free with good places instead of eating at the hotel. I'll be stuck in the hotel for quite a few meals, but should have at least 2-3 days to visit other places. I'm staying near the Farragut North metro stop. I have no problem taking the Metro or walking, so it doesn't have to be in the neighborhood, though breakfast places close to the hotel would be great. Healthy would be another plus, particularly at breakfast, but not 100% necessary. Like, a place that serves organic pancakes with locally-farmed blueberries or something. I'll have access to this thread til 5/13. Appreciate any suggestions you may have! Thanks!

You've had many good suggestions already. I too suggest happy hour at Lolita. Lunch at Lola is another option to keep things inexpensive but still try Michael Symon's great food - I highly recommend the bologna sandwich. I think Michelle's bread at the West Side market is awesome as she doesn't use trans fats and knows what's in everything. I like getting most of my cheeses from the small Mediterranean/Greek market inside the west side market - it's one of the only places I can get some greek imported cheeses but they have several other kinds as well, and a great olive selection. I also recommend Slyman's for good and inexpensive corned beef, it's really the best in the city - they're open for lunch only. I'm not as familiar with the E side but it sounds like you got a lot of good suggestions. I also suggest the Little Bar and Grill for a burger - they are owned by the same people who own Johnny's, which is a very nice place downtown (but $$$). The Little Bar is is the alley that runs next to Johnny's, off W. 9th street. Their burgers are made from scraps of steak at Johnny's and are very tasty. If you're willing to venture slightly west of downtown, the Borderline Cafe in Lakewood (about a 15 minute drive) has great breakfast.

I hear a lot of people talk about Lucky's these days - is this the original location that was just down the street from Hotz' in Tremont? It seems so small there that they could be serving brunch. But I haven't been there in a long time. I know I'm jumping into the thread late, everyone's suggestions are great. I too highly recommend Carrie Cerino's, Lola and Lolita. I think I sold a stranger on pig ears last week at the West Side Market when I told him about how yummy they were when I had them at Lolita. And I've probably drug 70 friends to Lola since they opened, including several from out of state and everyone loves it and it's really helping to re-define "cleveland dining" in their mind, which makes me so proud. I held a big dinner with my friends at Carrie Cerino's a few weeks ago, some people had never been there, some had only been for weddings and weren't impressed. EVERYONE loved their meals and all are planning to come back. I love it when we can do things like this to help change people's minds and show them the great food that's available here. We just had a great, small gathering at Momocho last week. Really good and unique food for this area. I just wish they'd turn down the music; our throats were sore from shouting and we were only in there about 1.5 hours. I wanted to throw out the Borderline Cafe for breakfast in Lakewood (on Detroit just before the bridge/border between Lakewood and Rocky River). It's very unassuming and inexpensive (but note: cash only) but good and offering some nice, different choices. Also, Stino da Napoli in Rocky River (on Detroit just west of the Lakewood/RR border across from Heinen's) has some really, really excellent food - tiny restaurant and very small menu but prepared with TLC, I've never had a bad meal there. For informal bar eats, I really like the Moosehead Saloon in Westlake (on Dover north of Detroit) I like the places everyone mentions but it ends up being pretty pricy for us to dine at places like this all the time - we more frequently go to places like the Moose and Borderline for affordable, cheap but good eats.

Your pictures and descriptions are great as usual. Sounds like a wonderful addition to Cleveland. I heard somewhere that the small plates focus was only going to be temporary for them, any truth to that? I know MS tried to make a go of small plates at Lolita and Clevelanders just didn't seem to get it. Are the small plates part of a larger menu or is it all small plates (which I would LOVE, by the way)?

Yay!

I took some business colleagues to Lola for dinner last night before the Cavs game. Everyone loved what they had. I decided to try a couple of new things as I've tried just about everything I want to try at this point, so I got the fresh bacon & poached egg app and the squab entree. I asked about the squab as I was worried it would have a lot of little bones and the server said it only had 2 bones (true) and that it was kind of like duck breast, which I love. The bacon/egg was innovative as heck and lovely, though I like an egg done more than over easy but that's splitting hairs. The bacon was WONDERFUL and nobody at my table had ever seen fresh bacon before, and the frisee with it was a great, crunchy compliment. However the squab was really surprising. It was very, very rare, like really, really rare red meat, almost blue in the middle. Kind of like seared tuna, which I don't like. I'm not into rare stuff and have only recently gotten my amateur palate to the point that I actually like "medium" steak instead of mid-well, so this was quite a surprise. I have to admit I was squeamish about eating bird that's prepared at such a rare temp, and I couldn't finish my entree. The texture was kind of weird since it was so rare. Other than it being so rare I did like the taste and everything with it was great (what's not to love with a big slice of foie?) but I probably wouldn't get it again. Just wanted to throw that out there for people considering this dish so nobody else is surprised. Or maybe it's just me. I am an Ohioan, after all.

Happy Belated birthday, Beth! Sounds like a wonderful celebration. Great pix and descriptions as usual, Edsel, looks delish.

We just went this week for my birthday lunch with my department to try out the lunch menu. It was fabulous. I highly recommend the pork schnitzel and the bologna and egg sandwich.

due to the horrid snowfall here in Cleveland, my flight was cancelled and we've had to reschedule the trip for 2 weeks from now at end of Feb/beginning of March, so if you have more thoughts, keep 'em coming.

Just wanted to thank everyone again for their suggestions. I'll be printing this thread out tomorrow morning (Wed 2/14) so if you have any other thoughts, please post today. Thanks NYC!

You can see pix to accompany this post at: Pigall's pix Last week I went to Cincinnati on business. I was charged with selecting a great place for my the boss and I to eat while in town; he knows I'm a foodie and I usually "find" great places for us on all our trips (thanks to wonderful foodie networks like eG and Chowhound). These meals are one of the few nice perks about traveling for work. For example, we recently went to Rathbun's in Atlanta, and the last time we were in DC we went to Ray's the Steaks. For this trip, after doing a little research I picked Jean-Robert at Pigall's as so many people said this was THE best place in town and the menu sounded really intriguing. Fellow eGulleteer vogelap helped make our visit even more special. Here's my (amateur) review. I couldn't figure out how to post pix in the actual review here (if anyone knows, let me know and I'll re-post/edit the post; my tech skills are not so great). As the boss is allergic to all shellfish and some seafood, we requested in advance that the kitchen avoid seafood dishes for us, a request with which they kindly obliged. The menu is prix fixe, 3-course or 5-course. The 5-course has set courses which include some seafood but the 3-course allows you to select your courses so we went with the 3-course. To start, an amuse bouche was brought out. A small bite of duck confit with cream cheese and pistachio in puff pastry, an herbed egg mousse with tiny bits of frisee greens and a side of rutabaga soup. The soup was served in a tea cup and saucer and was topped with a tiny bit of Chantilly truffle cream. Each bite was heavenly! I selected the goat cheese for my first course. It was a generous serving of warm goat cheese surrounded by puff pastry, served with Belgian endive and roasted grape and onion marmalade. Presentation was so attractive; I really hope my pix come out ok. Boss had the pumpkin soup and quiche for his first course. The quiche was made with dried fruit, cream cheese and mushrooms. Very tasty. Our next course was a surprise gift from the kitchen; I think vogelap had something to do with this! A generous slice of foie gras topped with a slice of dried apple topped with cracked pepper and a duck reduction sauce. It was melt-in-your-mouth goodness. To think that there are people in our own country trying to get foie banned, especially considering factory farming practices makes me sick. The foie was served with a glass of ice wine and I suggested we toast to foie. Next were the main courses. I had the duck breast with kumquat which was served with a side of couscous topped with roasted julienne veggies. The duck was sliced breast meat and was cooked perfectly. I enjoyed the side dish though it would have been nice to see a less commonly-used grain such as polenta or quinoa, but it was a great compliment to the duck. Boss had the rack of lamb which was served with a balsamic sauce and stuffed vegetables. It was very good though I think slightly undercooked for him as he left quite a bit on the plate; he likes lamb but prefers it cooked throughout and ordered it medium-well; it looked more like a medium to me, some pieces possibly mid-rare, but the taste I had was perfect as-is; to each his own. For the last course, I had the pear-caramel tart with cashew crust and espresso ice cream. Boss had the warm chocolate cake with caramel ice cream and toasted almonds. I think I made the wrong choice with my dessert - this was the only thing I got at Pigall's that I wasn't thrilled with. I pictured the tart as having a strong caramel and pear taste and being somewhat rich. Instead there was a fairly plain pastry tart crust and the topping was sort of like a dried nut/pear mix; crumbly almost like a cereal, and with nothing cementing it to the crust. I also couldn’t distinguish an espresso taste to the ice cream at all. I ended up picking out the filling from the crust since it was just sitting on top and just ate that. It was good, just not great. Boss' warm chocolate cake was wonderful, very rich and when you broke into it, a warm chocolate river flowed over the plate which was delightful. Courses were served with excellent timing and thoughtfulness and as I said, presentation was delightful. Our server, Michael, took very good care of us; he was very attentive without being obtrusive or hovering at all, only appearing at the right times. Maitre d' Michael was very warm and friendly and helped make our visit special. We were told Chef had left for the day due to a very heavy travel schedule and fatigue (I can relate!) so unfortunately we didn't get to speak to him, but we hope to return on a future trip to do so. All in all a wonderful, memorable meal!

I'm glad to have all the suggestions AND the feedback/input. Everyone won't agree and I can take all the info and then make my own decisions. It's quite possible that even if everyone DID agree and I went to a place all agreed upon, I might not like it. My choices will likely be based on what's close by and what I'm in the mood for. Having lots of choices is just what I want, so I appreciate all the options and thoughts, including whether or not you personally like a place that's been suggested.

Oh yeah, re: Smith & Wollensky, I should have mentioned I want to avoid chains unless they are local chains like a good pizza chain or something. But thx for the idea. We did Ray's the Steaks in DC and it was awesome.

Thanks everyone, all of you, for the suggestions. I will be printing out the thread and taking it with me next Weds on the flight to figure everything out. We tend to keep drinking to a min. on the trips for a couple of reasons: it can't be expensed back and I have a LOT of appointments and running around to do and I can't do it if I have 3 or 4 drinks with dinner, I'm a small-framed female and I don't have the tolerance. I know NYC is more expensive for nicer places, that's why I was saying your down and dirty, jeans-acceptable suggestions are also welcome.

I would say yes to the first question. We can't be spending $100 pp on dins. Lunch max is maybe $50pp inclusive. Cheaper and still good is of course, better.

Hi all, I'm sure this is asked a lot so I hope you'll be tolerant of my asking for suggestions. Am coming to NYC on business next week. Honestly, I haven't been to the city in years and years and I was nowhere near as foodie-conscious as I am now and am overwhelmed at trying to decide where to eat. I live in Cleveland so I want to make every meal a good one and don't know where to begin (and have a very short time to plan). I'm traveling with my boss. He trusts my choices and know I pick excellent places for us to eat on these trips no matter the destination so he's charged me with putting together the itin. Can you all help me with some options? Generally speaking, I like anything down and dirty ethnic to nice-but-not-too-nice. By that I mean meals can be $5 but no more than about $70 for dinner PP max. We are going to a Relais/Gourmand place this week on business and that's really pushing the business expense envelope, for example, as their prix fixe is $74pp. By "not too nice" I mean if everyone there has a $200 blowout, $300 shoes and a $400 handbag, it's not for me. Also not for me: touristy places, seafood places and Asian of all kinds is probably out unless they have a safe kitchen for cross-contamination issues: my dining companion has a shellfish allergy so it's easiest to just avoid places that focus on seafood. And no matter how good a restaurant is in a hotel, I'd like to avoid those if possible as I eat in enough hotels during these travels. Everything else is fair game; I just took him to Rathbun's in Atlanta last week and got him to eat bone marrow and next week for my birthday lunch I'm taking the department to a place that serves beef cheek, among other things (our lovely Lola, if you ever get to Cleveland). I even had pig ears for the first time a few weeks ago. But I love continental cuisines as well: a good slice or a hearty hoagie (grinder? what's the correct term in NY) or a big bowl of yummy pasta and good garlic bread or a great steak are all great too. Here's the stats for the trip and meals I need suggestions for: Weds 2/14 dinner. Yes, it's V-day so I want to avoid anything special and over the top expensive. We are staying at the Waldorf that night so something around there would be ideal though we can cab/subway somewhere if it's a short/inexpensive ride; have to keep business expenses reasonable. Thurs 2/15 I have to eat in hotels for breakfast and lunch. Looking for place for din that night. I will be staying at the Westin NY at Times Square that night. Fri 2/16 I will need a place for lunch; I'll be either near the Westin or traveling to the Grand Hyatt NY (at/near Grand Central). Will need a din location, am staying at the Hyatt that night. Sat 2/16 I need breakfast and dinner. I will be waking up at the Hyatt but checking out and going to, yes, a 4th hotel. It's a busy trip. I will be going to the NY Marriott East Side which is on 525 Lexington. I am going to a show that night at the DR2, location is listed as "located at 103 East 15th Street (between Union Square East and Irving Place)" so something near there would be great. And for drinks after. Thank you all my wonderful eG friends in advance for your suggestions and help! Any non-food related tips you'd like to impart are also welcome.

I've been wanting to get there to try the sausage & lentils dish. Now I'm really motivated!

Just wanted to check in to the thread to let people know I chose Rathburn's tonight, just got back from dinner. It was EXCELLENT, thanks everyone for the recommendations. Does anyone know if Keith is on eG? I'd love to PM him about my experience.

Thanks everyone!

I'm returning to ATL for my 2nd time. There are a lot of great threads with tons of info and mouth-watering posts about Atlanta but unfortunately, I only have one night for a dinner of my choosing (I'm there 2 nights but the other night my dining companions are choosing the dinner location). Dinner will be this coming Monday night the 22nd. I'm staying in Midtown but will have a car. (note: I would also love suggestions for a great lunches in Midtown). Trying to decide between Rathbun's and Food Studio for dinner Monday night. My dining companion knows me for having a reputation as a foodie and always picking great places for us to go. Previously when we were in ATL we dined at Ecco on my suggestion and a great, cheap BBQ place my ATL friends suggested for lunch. My dining companion can't eat any shellfish and isn't a big fish lover. I like fish but not shellfish or other types of seafood. Other than my aversion to seafood I like everything else; sweetbreads, marrow, "normal" foods like steaks and chops, pasta, everything. I tend towards a Mediterranean diet (particularly Greek and Italian) but am open to whatever when traveling. Which place do you think would be better, Rathbun's or Food Studio? And *please* make a recommendation for dress code at your suggested place; what does "casual" mean in Atlanta? I've found "casual" in DC to surprisingly mean if you wear jeans and a dress shirt you'll be sat next to the kitchen and away from other diners. Thank you eGulleteers!