Cleveland specialty grocers

redfox · March 4, 2005

We're about to move from the D.C. area to Cleveland (Cleveland Heights, actually) and I was wondering if people had recommendations for particularly good specialty grocers. We've seen Westside Market, and I know I'll be going there often, but would love to hear about people's favorites for other gourmet or "international" shops. I'd particularly love to hear about good places to get Japanese, Indian, and Mexican/Latin American ingredients, but any and all beloved groceries are welcome!

Edited March 4, 2005 by redfox (log)

edsel · March 4, 2005

There's a book called Cleveland Ethnic Eats that is quite useful for finding the various small ethnic stores in the area. The book is small enough to keep in your glove compartment. (I do).

I live west of Cleveland, so most of the stores I go to would be a bit out of your way. I do go to the big Asian grocery at the corner of East 30th and Payne. It's got a variety of Asian foods but is tilted towards Chinese. I don't recall any Indian foods there, and the japanese selection is pretty limited.

There's a small Indian grocery in North Olmsted (across from Great Northern mall), but that's probably twenty miles from Cleveland heights. I'm sure there must be something closer to you.

There used to be a couple of Japanese groceries in Coventry (I think) - it's been years since I've gone there.

Anyways, the book is very handy and was recently updated.

torakris · March 4, 2005

Cleveland Heights is the best place in Ohio!

Ok, I was also born and raised there so I am a bit biased..... :raz:

I second Ethnic Eats. it is a great book.

my favorite place in the area is Sunland Asian Food on Mayfield Road in Lyndhurst

map

there is another shop , more Korean than anything else in the same area (can't remember the name) on the corner of Mayfield and Belvoir but I have found a lot of the stuff on the shelves to past the experiation date....

Also farther down Mayfield in the Golden Gate shopping Plaza is World Market this place actually has a pretty decent selection of stuff and it also a very short distance from half price books where i buy most of my cookbooks when I am home. :biggrin:

If you don't mind driving a bit, head down to Solon (not as far as it sounds) to the Mustard Seed Market, this place is great! The only place I have ever found gobo (burdock root) in Ohio, this is the place to go for Asian vegetables.

They also just opened up an Indian grocer on Mayfield just before Golden Gate, called Lakshmi Plaza it has a nice selection and quite a bit of fresh looking vegetables.

I will be back in Cleveland for about 6 weeks this summer...... :biggrin:

Heather Marks · March 5, 2005

We're about to move from the D.C. area to Cleveland (Cleveland Heights, actually) and I was wondering if people had recommendations for particularly good specialty grocers. We've seen Westside Market, and I know I'll be going there often, but would love to hear about people's favorites for other gourmet or "international" shops. I'd particularly love to hear about good places to get Japanese, Indian, and Mexican/Latin American ingredients, but any and all beloved groceries are welcome!
←

Aside from some of the stalls at the West Side Market, some of my favorite ethnic groceries are Lakshmi Plaza on Mayfield Rd. in Mayfield Heights (Indian), Gallucci's downtown (Italian), plus there's an asian grocery at Mayfield and Richmond (can't recall the name). A Mexican grocery just opened up on Mayfield just East of The Greens of Lyndhurst near Brainard Rd., but I haven't had a chance to shop there yet. Downtown, you can find a lot of chinese ingredients at Asia Plaza on Payne Rd. There is also an Asian grocery in the same strip as Lakshmi Plaza and Apna Bazaar (another Indian grocery several stores away from the first).

Also, my husband and I own and run a store called Heather's Heat and Flavor at Legacy Village in Lyndhurst (east suburb of Cleveland), selling herbs, spices, hot sauces, salsas, BBQ and other specialty items.

edsel · March 5, 2005

[...]
Also, my husband and I own and run a store called Heather's Heat and Flavor at Legacy Village in Lyndhurst (east suburb of Cleveland), selling herbs, spices, hot sauces, salsas, BBQ and other specialty items. ←

That sounds great. How long have you been open? I don't remember seeing you listed in the directory. Do you stock lots of hard-to-find peppers? There used to be a shop in North Olmsted (just down from the Indian grocery) that sold nothing but chiles and and related products. They had really awesome dried chiles, including some Peruvian Aji Amarillo that I've never seen elsewhere. I'll have to stop by your place next time I'm out east.

ronnie_suburban · March 5, 2005

. . . Also, my husband and I own and run a store called Heather's Heat and Flavor at Legacy Village in Lyndhurst (east suburb of Cleveland), selling herbs, spices, hot sauces, salsas, BBQ and other specialty items.
←

Welcome to the eGullet forums, Heather. Can you give us some more details about the products you carry? Your store sounds intriguing.

=R=

torakris · March 7, 2005

plus there's an asian grocery at Mayfield and Richmond (can't recall the name). A Mexican grocery just opened up on Mayfield just East of The Greens of Lyndhurst near Brainard Rd., but I haven't had a chance to shop there yet. There is also an Asian grocery in the same strip as Lakshmi Plaza and Apna Bazaar (another Indian grocery several stores away from the first).
Also, my husband and I own and run a store called Heather's Heat and Flavor at Legacy Village in Lyndhurst (east suburb of Cleveland), selling herbs, spices, hot sauces, salsas, BBQ and other specialty items.
←

The store at Mayfield and Richmond is Sunland Asia Foods the one i mentioned above, in my opinion this is the best Asian store on the East side, of course there aren't too many to begin with. I think the Asian store you are thinking of by Lakshmi is the old Sunland location, unless something opened up since August when I was last there.

I visited Heather's store last summer (twice :biggrin: ) and loved it, lots of great spices and a selection of sauces that would blow your mind. I worked my way around the store eating all of the samples...about 3 times :raz: It was probably the only store in Legacy Village that is worth the trip (and I live less than 10 minutes away...). Of course the gelato at La Gelateria is good, but I prefer the location at Cedar-Fairmount.

Also a great place to stop for both food and some shopping is Amir's on Mayfield at Green Rd. Great Lebanese food and lots of middle eastern ingredients.

Amir's

NancyH · March 7, 2005

Redfox - welcome to the Greater Cleveland Area! I moved here about 9 years ago.

First - Amir's retail operation (ie the restuarant) has closed :sad: , though I understand that their manufacturing and distributing operations are still running and in fact increasing their capacity.

Second - Heather's store rocks! We are replacing all of our spices as we use them up with products from Heather's store. They are reasonably priced and given the level of quality an outstanding value. This means that while you can find large bottles of some spices cheaper at the big box stores, the quality of Heather's products makes them well worth their cost. And you will find many spices that are not available in major stores. The hot sauce and condiment selections are excellent - for New Year's Eve, we got a rasberry salsa that tasted almost fresh (I usually despise bottled salsas). As someone else noted, virtually everything in the store can be tasted, so you always know what you are getting.

And - Ronnie S - FYI - the Wasabi root we bought in October at Matsua is growing happily in a pot in our basement under a shop light - we'll let you know if it actually makes it to propagation!

Third - please look up the Cleveland Food & Wine Forum on Cleveland.com - we have a vibrant community of local (and some not so local) folks who love to indulge in and talk about food and wine. http://www.cleveland.com/forums/food .

Fourth - egads this is getting long - for meat and poultry, Mr. Brisket delivers. His meats are of excellent quality, though a bit more expensive than elsewhere, I have generally been very satisfied. I was skeptical that his meat was so much better than the grocery until New Year's, when we ordered 2 ducks and a chicken to roast. What could be so special about a little chicken? It was picked clean in no time - I am told it has to do with the chicken being cold plucked instead of hot plucked - all I know is that it was incredibly delicious. The fresh ducks were so fresh the heads were still on them! http://www.misterbrisket.com.

Finally - if you are willing to travel a little: the best eggs I have ever tasted come from The Blue Egg Farm (and poultry is available in season by order). http://www.breychak.com 26140 Akins Rd.Columbia Station, Just West of Strongsville, Just South of North Olmsted and Olmsted Falls.

Edited March 7, 2005 by NancyH (log)

torakris · March 7, 2005

First - Amir's retail operation (ie the restuarant) has closed , though I understand that their manufacturing and distributing operations are still running and in fact increasing their capacity.
←

NOOOOOO!!!!

I had been going there forever..... :sad: :sad:

ronnie_suburban · March 7, 2005

And - Ronnie S - FYI - the Wasabi root we bought in October at Matsua is growing happily in a pot in our basement under a shop light - we'll let you know if it actually makes it to propagation!
←

Outstanding! I can't wait to hear how it turns out. :smile:

=R=

redfox · March 8, 2005

Thanks for all this great information. It seems like the Cleveland area is going to be very good to us in terms of food (and other ways too, I hope!). We've been looking into CSAs, as well, and the duplex we're renting has the nicest kitchen I've ever had, so I'm excited.

Heather Marks · March 8, 2005

. . . Also, my husband and I own and run a store called Heather's Heat and Flavor at Legacy Village in Lyndhurst (east suburb of Cleveland), selling herbs, spices, hot sauces, salsas, BBQ and other specialty items.
←
Welcome to the eGullet forums, Heather. Can you give us some more details about the products you carry? Your store sounds intriguing.
=R=
←

Thanks for the invitation, but I think some of the other posters did a much better job describing my store than I would. If you'd like to see what we carry, we do have a product listing on our Web site www.heatandflavor.com, but we're not quite ready for online sales (sometime this year perhaps). We do ship phone or e-mail orders. I'm headed to the Fiery-Foods Show in Albuquerque this weekend to visit vendors and find some new sauces to carry. I'll be sure to report back what's new and "hot"!

redfox · May 8, 2005

I just wanted to pop back in and say thanks again for these suggestions. Now that we have a slightly better idea of where things are, we're going to pursue checking out more of them. We have plans to go to Mustard Seed Market later this week, and will probably do the drive up Mayfield, browsing at markets like a cow in clover, next weekend.

On a related note, we recently discovered Abba's on Cedar, around Warrensville Center Road -- the kosher market is nice enough, and we enjoyed our sit-down deli meal, but the main attraction was the pita. Holy COW, was it good! The texture is excellent and it is tangy in a way I've never encountered before. Is anyone here familiar with this bread? I wonder if it involves sourdough leavening, or yogurt in the dough. I'd go again and ask (and maybe I still will) but I was too shy when we went before.

torakris · May 9, 2005

I don't think I have ever seen Abba's, I did a quick search and it is in the location of the former Corky & Lenny's, I wonder how long it has been there.... I don't remember seeing it last summer and I spent quite a bit of time in the Cedar Center area.

In the same article I also found this:

Whole Foods Market (an upscale gourmet food market) will open its first Ohio store at the corner of Cedar and Warrensville, Rothschild reports proudly. "That section will be all new tenants."

The article discusses the renovation of the whole Cedar Center area.

Does anyone know anything about when whole foods will open? I will be in Cleveland for about 6 weeks this summer and would love to see it...

redfox · May 10, 2005

Does anyone know anything about when whole foods will open? I will be in Cleveland for about 6 weeks this summer and would love to see it...
←

I don't actually know anything about it, but I can't imagine it will be terribly soon, as there's no demolition or construction going on at any of the corners of that intersection right now. (I was there this morning for a doctor's appointment, so this is a very up-to-date report!)

ronnie_suburban · May 10, 2005

According to the Whole Foods web site, the store is in development with the opening date still TBA.

=R=

torakris · May 10, 2005

darn! :angry:

maybe next year...

jglazer75 · May 10, 2005

Whole Foods Market (an upscale gourmet food market) will open its first Ohio store at the corner of Cedar and Warrensville, Rothschild reports proudly. "That section will be all new tenants."
←

Is it just me, or does anyone else find the development there at Cedar Center to be really bizarre. I went to high school at Heights in the late-80s/early-90s and lived in University Heights. I used to walk to and from school quite often and walked right past Cedar Center just about every single day; holy cow that whole area has changed. In the last 10 years or so just about every store that was there has moved out. My guess is that it because of the added traffic to Beachwood Place and that whole area a little further up Cedar. Although even back in the day it was less a "hub of the Jewish community" and more a "hang out for high school kids and gangs."

Anyway. I can remember buying baseball cards and comic books at the Comic Shop in Cedar Center; my guess is that I would have fork over cash to Borders or Barnes and Noble these days :sad:

Sorry for the diversion. But to add quickly food related: Corky's rules (one of the best delis in the city) and resides now (I believe their only location) on Chagrin Blvd and second: Is Bialy's Bagels still on Warrensville and Silsby? It used to be a great little bagel shop, but I think it's gone now.

Edited May 10, 2005 by jglazer75 (log)

torakris · May 11, 2005

Sounds like you were at Heights when all of my sisters were there.... :biggrin:

I lived just down Warrensville in Cleveland Heights but lived at Cedar Center during my high school years as all the cute guys used to work at Bernie's (now called Marc's, but it will always be Bernie's to me) :hmmm:

I love to shop at Bernie's (Marc's) I have gotten some great food deals there, one time they had boxes of couscous for $.88, I picked up a year's supply. :biggrin:

That area sure has changed though I go back every year to year and a half and last summer the area looked so sad, half the stores were gone. I am so glad to see they are renovating it. I just hope they get some for interesting stores in there. I was dissapointed with that shopping place they built on the corner where May Co used to be, how many more Targets and shoe stores do we really need?

torakris · July 4, 2006

I have heard that a new Asian market has opened out on Miles Road (near Randall park Mall), has anyone been?

Palladion · July 5, 2006

You're talking about CAM (Cleveland Asian Market), right?

It's big and clean. Actually, it's huge. I don't remember all that much about the place, as I wasn't able to spend that much time inside. I think prices were about the same or better than at Tink Hall.

They didn't have all of the produce I was looking for, but they do have a decent selection. More choices that Tink Hall, but still not all encompassing (particularly for Japanese foods). They may not have some of the specialty herbs that Tink Hall does (lately, Tink Hall always seems to have Thai Holy Basil in stock, which makes me happy).

They have a nice prepared food area, with various Chinese foods available (including roasted duck, which they cut up for you when you purchase it).

I remember that a lot of my Japanese friends bought nattou there (and seemed to be happy they were able to find it).

torakris · July 5, 2006

Alex,

what/where is Tink Hall?

Palladion · July 5, 2006

Tink Hall (sometimes spelled Tink Holl) is the name of the Asian grocery store that used to operate out of the Asia Plaza (same building as Li Wah restaurant). They moved a few years ago to a newer, larger location on E. 36th street.

Tink Hall carries a lot of various asian ingredients, but it definitely doesn't have everything. Hana (up on Mayfield Road) is probably better for Japanese ingredients, but I haven't been there since I came back from Japan. In fact, I just read about Hana in the Plain Dealer; they've apparently started selling prepared Japanese foods. Check out the article here: http://www.cleveland.com/food/plaindealer/...8220.xml&coll=2

-------

Alex Parker

torakris · July 5, 2006

Thanks for the article!! Hana has been been favorite Asain store for a couple years now, it is also one of the closest.... :biggrin:

I just food some pictures of CAM on someone's blog, it looks huge.

mhjoseph · July 7, 2006

Thanks for the article!! Hana has been been favorite Asain store for a couple years now, it is also one of the closest....
I just food some pictures of CAM on someone's blog, it looks huge.
←

I visited CAM last week and it IS HUGE and clean! I was impressed by the fact the vegetables are clearly labled in English and the overhead signs above each aisle indicate what types of products are contained therein just like in any American supermarket. There is just a huge selection of products.

Back to the Whole Foods discussion, construction is well underway with many of the outer walls in place. The sign in front states "Early 2007 opening."

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