Weekend Bites

This was one of those weekends that I was soooo ready for. Our puppy was sick last week, so I had worked from home the last couple of days. By Friday, I was ITCHING to get out of the house. Well, we more than made up for it. We had some fun food adventures that I'll be sharing with you later this week, but for now I'll share the other weekend highlights.

Saturday brought the Grand Opening of the new Lilly Chocolates and Confections location in Old Brooklyn, so we swung through for some sweet treats.

But it also gave us a perfect opportunity to check out their new neighbor as well, the 2020 Schaaf Gallery + Studio. Featuring Cleveland-themed original and print artwork, as well as all kinds of crafting and art workshops and events. It's an adorable and warm space, with artistic activities for all ages being offered and artwork at very reasonable prices. Check them out!

What would any good weekend be without a stop at Old Brooklyn Cheese Co.? In addition to picking up a couple of delicious cheeses, I also learned an important piece of holiday news. They will be offering a CHEESE ADVENT CALENDAR, available to order next month. You may have heard the buzz about this year's new Cheese Advent Calendar offered by Target. Screw that! Get me the local and gourmet version from Old Brooklyn Cheese Co. Just take my money now. All of it. I'm in holiday cheese heaven with this news.

Saturday night, we headed out of our comfort zone and scooted out to Willoughby. Mainly so that I could finally get my hands on the Nut Smasher at Willoughby Brewing Company. It lived up to the beer hype.

After a fun (and boozey) Saturday night out, we needed a Sunday cure. So we headed to Touch Supper Club for brunch. We hadn't been since they reopened after a long process of renovations quite a while ago. I didn't see much change inside, and the menu was almost identical, but it was like saying hello to a long-lost friend.

After brunch, we headed down Lorain for some vintage shopping. Please, please someone go buy this adorable brass Chinese dumpling cart (pictured below) from Helm Collective! What a conversation piece. And you could style it in so many ways, plant stand, bar cart...I wish I had room for it.

As the rain kicked in, we headed home and curled up for the evening. Being so busy made the weekend fly by, but it was exactly what I needed after being cooped up. Thanks for a great weekend, Cleveland. I love you.

Taco (Thursday)- Touch Supper Club

This is the first official post of the new "Taco Tuesday" series that I will be featuring. It is simply an ongoing series of reviews of the overall taco scene in Cleveland, with a focus on Taco Tuesday specials. Since Touch Supper Club is the reader that challenged me to review Cleveland tacos, it is only fitting that they are the first review that I will share.

Touch Supper Club in Ohio City always has creative specials and events taking place. They have a late night menu, great happy hour (including free sushi every Friday), Burger Bash every Tuesday, and my favorite- Taco Thursday. They call it- F#@K Yo Dolla Tacos, and feature gourmet tacos for $3 or two for $5. The taco menu typically features around five different options, and it changes every week.

I've been twice now, and the tacos were exceptional on both visits. Last Thursday, "R" and I went and I enjoyed two tacos:

Kimchi BeefBlackened Shrimp with Pineapple SlawThe tacos are served on soft, warm flour tortillas, and are small enough that they are manageable to eat and yet filling. I had two tacos and a salad, and it was more than enough food for dinner. By the way, the Warm Mushroom salad with dried cranberries, Lake Erie Creamery goat cheese, mixed mushrooms, field greens, and creamy Parmesan basil dressing ($7) was outstanding.We both ordered it, and "R" is still dreaming about it.

But back to the tacos. They can easily be compared to the more popular Deagan's Kitchen & Bar tacos, and I'll have to visit them next so that it is more of a head-to-head comparison. We're truly lucky that the Touch food truck is a taco truck- so keep your eyes peeled for them on the streets of Cleveland. For all you taco lovers out there, get over to Touch and give them a try on Thursdays. Just ask for extra napkins, because they are juicy! Surprisingly, the tortilla holds up well and no tearing or sogginess occurred.

Have I mentioned that I'm super pumped to start this series? Mmm, tacos. Who's coming with me to the next place?

Touch Supper Club
2710 Lorain Avenue
Cleveland, OH 44113
(216)631-5200

Touch Supper Club Farm to Table Dinner

On Tuesday night, "R" and I attended the Touch Supper Club Farm to Table Dinner at Stone Garden Farms in Richfield. The setting was gorgeous, and it was a perfect late summer evening (you know, one with just a slight chill in the air once the sun went down).They were also unveiling their new food truck, which is about to hit the streets of Cleveland serving up tasty tacos.Touch had set up tables of 8 on the grounds of the farm, surrounded by interesting old buildings and beautiful gardens. Before the dinner started, we explored the buildings......poked around the gardens......and made some new friends.Then we settled into our table for a seven course meal served family-style, inspired by Stone Garden Farms. Many of the courses included produce picked fresh from the grounds, and our sixth course was a suckling pig right off the farm. But first up were Assorted Deviled Eggs with Fried Green Tomatoes.I love deviled eggs, and these did not disappoint. The kimchee and blue cheese eggs were my favorite two. The lightly battered fried green tomatoes were also a big hit at our table. This course was paired with a light, summery Cucumber Melon Margarita.

Second course was a Heirloom Tomato Panzanella Salad with wild lamb quarters (a green, as our table learned), arugula, and goat cheese.Paired with it was a Ketchup Martini- my least favorite drink of the evening (whoa, strong and spicy), but fun. I really enjoyed this salad, and it included some of the sweetest and flavorful tomatoes that I've had yet this summer.The third course was a Stone Garden Salt Roasted Beet Salad with romaine, candied walnuts, strawberry rhubarb vinaigrette, and Danish blue cheese. This was a table favorite, but the salt-roasted beets were just a tad too salty in my opinion. I think it lost some of the great earthy flavor of the beets. But the five different varieties of beets were picked straight from the farm, and it doesn't get any fresher than that! Next up was the Garden Beans with toasted cumin, lemon and feta cheese, tomato salad, and toasted pine nuts. It was paired with a sparkling white wine, and is the chef's "favorite summer side dish".

Now we moved into the "main courses", which started with a Grilled Smoked Salmon with heirloom tomato bread pudding, oven dried cherry tomatoes, and a leek corn slab bacon compote. This dish was paired with a refreshing Lynchburg Lemonade.Let me state that I typically hate salmon. It's always too "fishy" for me, and I would never, ever order it out. This was my favorite course of the evening. The bread pudding was outstanding, and I absolutely loved the Rose Hip Gastrique that Chef Fisher had whipped up for the meal. The fish was mild, with a nice crisp to the outside.

Now it was time for the main event, the Roasted Suckling Pig.This was served with smoked sweet potatoes, house-made BBQ sauce, and a slightly sweet red wine. The sauce was exceptional, and several of us dipped our utensils into the jar to savor just that flavor by itself. My first piece of pork was very fatty and too tough to cut into, but the platter kept refilling itself and I enjoyed some delicious smokey, tender pork.

The last course was a Blue Berry Pie with white cheddar cheese ice cream, and was supposed to be served with a Ginger Peach Cobbler cocktail. Unfortunately, as our server made his way to our table he tripped over a chair leg in the dark and down went the tray of drinks. Alas, we didn't get to try the cocktail but it sure sounded good! I am not a pie lover, but I did pick at a few bites and watched as everyone else at the table happily cleaned their plates. So it must have been good, because we were all feeling stuffed at that point.

With our bellies full, we wandered over to the roaring bonfire and continued to listen to the beautiful live folk music that had entertained us all evening. It was a perfect ending to an unique, and delicious, meal on the farm.For more pictures from the evening, check out the album on my Facebook Fan Page.

Thank you to Touch Supper Club for providing me with a media pass to come check out the event and the debut of their new food truck. It was a fun and tasty meal, and one that we won't soon forget. The opinions above are 100% mine.

Taste of the Browns Winner and an Upcoming Event

Today is a good day...because someone has won my Taste of the Browns giveaway! Drum roll please....congratulations to @masongoodman! Mason- email or DM me on Twitter to claim your two general admission tickets. If I don't hear from you by Monday, then I will select another winner using random.org. Thank you to everyone that entered! It's a fantastic event that I hope you consider attending. Tickets can be purchased here, and all proceeds benefit the Cleveland Foodbank.

As we head into fall, Clevelanders are busy soaking up the last days of summer. This often means dining outdoors. Which leads me to an upcoming event that I think is worth sharing. Touch Supper Club is hosting a "Farm to Table" dinner at Stone Garden Farm on Tuesday, August 30th from 7-11PM. The event includes a multi-course meal with beverage pairings, Richfield grown hand-rolled cigars, live folk music, a bonfire, and...the unveiling of their new food truck.

Touch has been teasing us for quite a while through social media that they were working on a food truck, and I personally can't wait to see it in all its glory. I think it will be a great addition to our growing food truck scene.

I will be attending the Stone Garden Farm event on a media pass, but "R" is joining me to enjoy the event in his hometown. I think that you should come as well, and soak in the last rays of summer. Tickets can be purchased online here, and the first 20 people to purchase also receive a $20 gift card to Touch Supper Club.

"Touch" This- Brunch and Science

It has been a while since I've written about one of our favorite brunch spots close to home. Heck, it's been a while since we've been there...but that changed two weekends ago. Continuing the celebration of "R's" 31st birthday (man, we celebrated almost as much as his 30th), we decided that on Sunday we wanted to head to the Great Lakes Science Center in downtown Cleveland. After brunch, of course.

If "R" is ever in control of the remote, which I admit happens very rarely, you can bet that the History or Discovery Channel are on. Yawn. He loves Modern Marvels, How It's Made, etc. and we've talked about checking out the Science Center for years now. So heading there on his birthday weekend made perfect sense. But I needed some fuel first if I was going to spend hours looking at (playing with) science.

We ran through the list of our regular brunch spots, and Touch Supper Club quickly flew to the top of the list. Their brunch menu has almost anything that you could want, it's reasonably priced, and it all comes with a small cup of fruit. Score. I settled on the Eggs Wellington ($8) - two poached eggs and steak on a toasted English muffin with hollandaise sauce.
As you can see, the dish is served with a side of tator tots. Come on, who doesn't love tator tots! The spicy ketchup that they serve with the tots makes me feel a little less like an excited toddler and more like an adult enjoying a fried potato puff. Overall, the dish was very good. The eggs were slightly under-done for my taste, but I just made sure to smother them in the hollandaise. "R" got the Chorizo & Corn Bread ($7)- biscuits and gravy style. This inspired us to try to recreate this dish at home. The gravy wasn't quite as good as Lucky's Cafe or the Tremont Tap House, but it was solid. We just loved the addition of chorizo verses standard sausage, and we'll certainly be trying our homemade classic with corn bread instead of biscuits.

With our dishes being only $8 and $7, with the addition of coffee, our bill was pretty cheap for a delicious and filling brunch. For those of you that enjoy them, they also have a great Build-Your-Own Bloody Mary bar. Then we headed out to the Science Center and spent a couple of hours playing with their exhibits, learning (yuck, hehehe), and watching Under the Sea in the OmniMax theater. It was a great little Sunday spent #HappyinCLE!

Touch Supper Club
2710 Lorain Avenue
Cleveland, OH 44113
(216) 631-5200

Tater Tot Love

I've written about Touch Supper Club before, but we just had brunch there yesterday for the first time and I was really impressed. I've heard that they put on a great brunch, and the menu certainly looked extensive online- but it has taken us two years to get there on a Sunday! I'm glad that we finally did, and I think this may be a new Sunday tradition...

First, their brunch hours are 11AM - 5PM- which I think is fantastic. Many brunches end by 2 or 3PM, but this allows late brunchers (such as ourselves on this occasion) sneak in later than we would have been able to anywhere else that we've been. Second, the prices are really reasonable. Dishes ranged from $5-$10, with most of them falling at $6-$8. Almost all of the dishes come with fresh fruit and tater tots. I recommend asking for the house-made (or at least altered) ketchup with the tots. C'mon, who doesn't LOVE tater tots?! I had a serious flash back to my childhood.

"R" and his family members ordered the Stuffed French Toast with berries foster and cream cheese ($6), Touch Burger grilled-to-order angus, fried egg, crispy copa, and touch secret sauce ($7), and the Veggie Omelet with tomato, green pepper, mushroom, onion, and cheese ($6). "R" and I have had Touch's berries foster as a dessert before, and it was just as tasty and sweet for breakfast! The burger looked well-executed, and his brother slurped it down quickly. Honestly, any time an egg is put on top of a burger- my ears perk up! The omelet was huge, and I do mean HUGE. The vegetables were fresh and the omelet's edges were slightly browned- just right.

I had the Steak, Egg & Cheese Bagel with steak, egg, and cheese ($7). The sandwich came on an everything bagel, which added great flavor to the otherwise neutral ingredients. The other thing that brought it all together was the "Touch Secret Sauce", which was generously pooled around the sandwich. I would love to know what was in that sauce! It was creamy and buttery without overpowering the dish. Note- I ordered my egg over-medium instead of the traditional scrambled that it is served with. I will certainly try other menu options when we dine there again, but I'll be back for this sandwich.

P.S. Purse hooks at the bar ladies!

Touch Supper Club
2710 Lorain Avenue
Cleveland, OH 44113
(216) 631-5200

Happy Hour at Touch Supper Club

Last night, we headed over to Tremont for a quick bite to eat at South Side. As we walked in the door, we were surprised by the packed house and long wait for a table. We quickly turned on our heels and scrambled back to the car. While weighing our options, we decided to pop over to Ohio City and dine at Touch Supper Club instead.

They have been voted "Best Happy Hour" for many reasons. First- they have free sushi on Fridays, and it is actually pretty good. Second- they have several tasty dishes and drinks on their happy hour menu that allow you to dine pretty cheaply. Third- the atmosphere is fun and you can feel the energy in the room. Now the average age of the patrons last night was about 28. I have only ever been there on a Friday night, but I imagine that the crowd is more diverse throughout the week and in particular for their famous Sunday brunch.

We secured two seats at the bar (Ladies- they have purse hooks under the bar as well. I've decided this is my new quest in life- to search out bars and restaurants in Cleveland that have hooks for our "goods"), and placed our drink order. My only complaint is that their wine by the glass options are limited. Thankfully, both the Chardonnay and Pinot Grigio that I've had there have been good selections. We settled on the Loaded Flat Bread - ($10) Grilled flat bread, oven dried tomatoes, herbed lake Erie creamery goat cheese, kalamata olives, and roasted garlic. The combination of these ingredients was magic. The creamy goat cheese blended with the salty olives and whole cloves of roasted garlic left me wanting more. We also tried the Tempura Green Beans. We first experienced a similar dish at Flying Fig (also Ohio City), so we were looking forward to trying this version. The beans were heavily coated in a soft, dense tempura batter, and the dish was served with a spicy mustard aioli. Their version wins!

Touch is a little off the beaten path of Ohio City's trademark restaurants, but it is worth the two-block trip. The crowd is always a little eclectic, and the food is mostly spot-on. Stay away from the lamb ravioli! If you're looking for a different scene, and easily one of the best happy hour spots in Cleveland- check it out.

Touch Supper Club
2710 Lorain Avenue
Cleveland, OH 44113
(216) 631-5200

Weekend of Exploration

I felt like Christopher Columbus last weekend. We were all over Cleveland, poking our heads (and tummies) into different restaurants and bars. It was fun, and delicious! It all started with Touch Supper Club in Ohio City on Friday night. I admit that I was a wee leery to try out this spot. This place has evolved over time, and while they still boast to have some of the best live music and dancing in Cleveland, they are quickly becoming well-known for their happy hour specials and growing menu items. If you are going to check them out, and I suggest that you do, hit it up on a Friday night for FREE SUSHI during happy hour. It was delicious, and the platters didn't stop coming out of the kitchen while we dined.

We started with the Delirium Mussels- Delirium tremens steamed jumbo mussels, bacon, garlic, and herbs served with belgian frites ($9). The mussels were swimming in a tasty garlic broth, with a small drizzle of creamy sauce that had just a little kick to it. The belgian frites are best eaten after letting them soak in the broth for a while! I then moved on to the Mac and Cheese- Cottswold, vermont cheddar, port salut, taso ham with petite peas ($11). When I took my first bite, I didn't like the dish. Oddly enough, it grew on me as I continued. One thing to note is that the kitchen staff forgot to include the petite peas, which is never a good sign. Their attention to detail and presentation is obviously lacking. "R" had the Lamb Ravioli– Arugula and tomato feta salsa ($16). The dish was served cold (still not sure if that was on purpose or not) and lacked flavor. I took one bite and turned down his offer of more. The dish was quite disappointing. The shining star of the meal was the Berries Foster dessert. The warm puff pastry was smothered in raspberries, black berries, and blue berries and topped with two mounds of melting vanilla ice cream. It was quite a way to end the meal. The only other thing worth mentioning is that the restaurant serves cucumber water. The slight hint of cucumber is refreshing and left us wanting more!

After leaving Touch, we headed over to West 25th Street. I wanted to check out Bar Cento's new bar called Speakeasy. They opened this new establishment in their basement, and I was curious to see what they had done. We walked through the packed house of Bar Cento/Bier Markt and wandered down the staircase. We turned the corner and were sadly disappointed. "R" exclaimed that it felt like a dark dungeony basement, and apparently we weren't the only ones who felt this way because there was only about eight people at the very large bar. We turned on our heels and headed back out to the street.

We ended up at Market Avenue Wine Bar's new location across from the Great Lakes Brewing Company. It's cozy atmosphere and extensive wine list was a perfect end to the evening. The exploring did not end on Friday night, so stay tuned for another blog post later this week!

Touch Supper Club
2710 Lorain Avenue
Cleveland, OH 44113-3470
(216) 631-5200

Bar Cento
1948 W 25th Street
Cleveland, OH 44113
(216) 274-1010

Market Avenue Wine Bar
2526 Market Avenue
Cleveland, OH 44113-3434
(216) 696-9463