GNO and a Winner!

Let's pick a winner for my Blogiversary gift certificate giveaway... Random.org assisted, and a big congratulations goes to...Alana! I hope that you enjoy the $25 gift certificate to D'Vine. Email or DM me on Twitter with your address, and I'll drop it in the mail. Thank you to everyone that entered, and for all of the kind words about my blog turning 2. It's been an amazing year, and I've loved sharing it with all of you.

Now on to the regularly scheduled post:

Last Friday was Girls' Night Out with some of my favorite ladies. A plan was made to start with dinner and drinks at Market in Rocky River.
This was my second visit to Market, and I wasn't too thrilled with my meal the first time so I was looking forward to giving it another shot. I (try to) always believe in second chances. While the company was fantastic, I still left that night feeling underwhelmed by the food and service and annoyed at how loud it is in the main dining area. Unless someone else is planning, I think that this was my last trip there to dine. It just isn't for me. This statement makes me feel old, but I just prefer to have a quieter, more intimate setting when dining with friends or "R". If I wanted to shout to my friends to be heard, then we would have gone straight to a bar or club. I blame it on the high ceilings and wood interior. It just doesn't make for great acoustics.

But on to the food...We started with an order of the Pretzel Crusted Pickle Chips- dill pickle slices, pretzel crust and homemade French onion dip ($9). I had shared an order of these last visit, and they were just as good (if not better) this time. The tangy pickle with the crunch of the pretzel crust is delicious. We also shared the Salsa Flight- mango salsa, pineapple salsa, sweet corn salsa served with fresh tortilla chips ($8). All were decent, but kind of typical.For my entree, I ordered the Short Ribs- Szechaun braised shortribs, wasabi mashed potatoes, and house veggies ($21).
Our server had suggested this dish once I narrowed my options down to two, so I went with it. The meat itself was tender and didn't require much use of my knife, but they were much fattier than recent shortribs that I've had at other restaurants. I've totally been on a shortribs kick lately. So this meant that I had to inspect and tear away several large pieces of fat before really digging in. Yuck. The house veggie of the night was green beans, which were cooked well. The slight crunch added great texture to the dish. But then there were the wasabi mashed potatoes. I am a big fan of spice and heat, and love wasabi with my sushi...so I thought, "Why not- this sounds interesting" when I ordered. Well, wasabi can be easily overdone since it is such a powerful flavor, and in my opinion there was just too much punch in the potatoes for them to be truly enjoyable. I should have known better.

Overall, this trip was better than the first in terms of food (but still not great). But I still think they have a ways to go on the restaurant side of things. Both times that I have dined there the service has been pretty bad. Our server this trip left us alone with the menus for far too long, and once our meals were finished the dirty plates didn't disappear for about 15 minutes. Even as the restaurant traffic significantly thinned, we felt a little neglected. There really should be no excuse at that point.

Finally, we paid and then high-tailed it to Around the Corner for some drinks, laughs, a Cleveland Snookie sighting, and even some booty-shaking (which resulted in free shots- thanks, "A"). Another fantastic Girls' Night Out for the books!Market
1137 Linda Street
Rocky River, Ohio 44116
(440) 799-4292

This Little Foodie Went to Market

Market is the semi-recently opened creation from the team behind the Rocky River Wine Bar (just down the street), and I had the chance to check it out last night with two fabulous foodie friends. Market celebrates craft beers and high-end "bar" food. Since this is Cleveland Beer Week, I was anxious to take some of your suggestions from my BREWzilla giveaway post and try some new beers this week. Market sounded like the perfect place to do that!

The very first person to comment on that post, Adam, suggested Southern Tier's Pumpking. So when I saw it featured on Market's draft beer list, I knew that I had found my first Beer Week contender. I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised. I really liked it! I have taken small sips of "R's" pumpkin beers before, but I have never ever ordered one for myself. I think that is the beauty of Beer Week. At least for me, I have taken it on as a personal challenge to experience beer in a whole new light. I'm looking forward to Ales on Rails tomorrow night, and BREWzilla on Saturday evening. Anyone attending either event? What other Beer Week events have you been to this week? I digress...back to Market.

As I approached the restaurant I saw that valet parking is complimentary, which is a great perk because parking didn't appear to be too easy at that end of the street. I was the last to arrive and found out that the restaurant won't seat you until your entire party is present, so keep that in mind. Luckily, the space is quite large and there were several open tables. We were seated right away (well, after they seated us at a large booth and then immediately moved us to a small table- odd). We were each given a two-sided food menu and then one beer menu to share, which was a little annoying. It's Beer Week, baby- bring on the beer! I was antsy to choose. One additional thing to note about the space is that it is not only large, it is very open. The high ceilings and open dining area made for a very loud room. There were times that I had to have my dining companions repeat themselves during conversation.

Now, on to the food. The three of us decided to share the Pretzel Crusted Pickle Chips- Dill Pickle Slices, Pretzel Crust, Homemade French Onion Dip ($7). Other than being slightly dried out, this was a fun and unique appetizer to start with. I was torn between several of the sandwiches and entrees, so I narrowed it down and asked our sever to make a suggestion. He steered me towards the Market Reuben- Smoked Beef Brisket, Swiss Cheese, Cole Slaw, Special Sauce, Marble Rye ($11). It sounded like an interesting twist on a classic sandwich, so I went for it. I opted to swap the side of chips for house fries for an additional $1. Diners can also choose from sweet potato fries (which looked amazing at the table next to us), side salad, or Cesar salad. Unfortunately, the Reuben was a little dry and didn't pack a whole lot of flavor. The slaw was bland, and the seasoned fries were only okay. I was seriously regretting not ordering the sweet potato fries instead once I saw them!

All in all, their menu had some very appetizing descriptions and catchy names for their dishes. I hope that my sandwich selection was not a reflection of the overall quality of their food, and that I simply made a poor choice. I think going back to try the Deep Fried Uncrustables (yes, the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with the crust removed) dessert is worth the trip alone. They certainly have imagination in the kitchen.

Market
1137 Linda Street
Rocky River, Ohio 44116
(440) 799-4292