Life, Liberty & Pursuit Of Your Boyfriend

Internet friends, I have a confession: I have lived downtown — East 4th, the premier entertainment and food district — for six months. I have visited all the newest restaurants, including several during opening nights. Yet, I still had never eaten at Lola.

I know. It hurts me too. Could I in good conscience move from 4th Street without eating at THE most popular joint in town? (At least I still have another six months)

Now, I previously had dinner at the old Lola (which is now Lolita), so I suppose technically I still need to eat at Lolita (again). Which was interesting in that a car ran into the front of the restaurant that night, and Symon gave our table seriously one of every dessert on the menu as an “apology” that we needed to enter through the kitchen. Uh, awesome! But I digress…

I finally had some food at the East 4th Lola last Friday. Not a full meal, mind you, just a couple apps to start our night of nosh, but it was SO worth it. With drinks, we had the Hawaiian Crudo “Teriyaki” and beef cheek pierogi. The tuna was gone in six seconds — it was incredible. I’m fairly certain AB licked the remaining sauce from the plate of the pierogi too. Wow. I’ve never had any pierogi prepared quite that way, and all the ingredients together was delicious.

We were careful not to get TOO full because we also had the “Best Thing I Ever Ate” viewing party at The Greenhouse Tavern. What a cute show, by the way. We don’t have cable (and not having the Food Network and maybe the Travel Channel is really the only complaint), so I’m not well-versed on all the “new” non-network shows. But, the interviews with the “top” food stars are interesting, and the show has some extremely fun editing done to make it all over entertaining.

Once at Greenhouse, we were presented with a couple bourbon (martini) drinks — I asked the name of it 20 times, but I still do not remember. Jonathan also shared a bottle of 2008 Rogue Old Crustacean — what a great beer! For how many times we visit The Greenhouse, there always seems to be something new on the menu — which keeps the restaurant relevant and our desire to keep returning. We can never try everything on the menu (although we came incredibly close once)!

While we knew Gravy Frites were DEFINITELY part of our meal (free frites to support their debut in the show), we also shared a couple firsts: pork pate and the foie gras torchon; and a second: the lamb shank ravioli. AB got it right when he commented that the bread crumbs complete that (ravioli) dish. I swear, The Greenhouse (and Chef Sawyer) can do no wrong.

Suzanne from Slightly Bitter in Cleveland joined us after dinner to imbibe in a few delicious cocktails. Which were more of that bourbon (martini) thingy…

Saturday was our east side adventure. I despise the east side (where I grew up, lived and worked for majority of my life), and having already been to that part of town three times in the last week, I was grumpy. BUT we had big plans. Mostly for food.

To give a little more love to Symon and his Cleveland ventures, we had lunch (ahem, breakfast at 11pm) at B Spot.  I had the Yo! burger and, of course, a Vanilla Bean Apple Pie Bacon Milkshake. Wow. Not only did I order it with all the words, but I finished the damn thing. *slurp*

AB ordered the “Smasher Surprise” - which was a loaded baked potato skin on top the burger. Chives, sour cream and all. It looked delicious. We definitely need to return on a day we don’t already have dinner plans.

As we were finishing up our lunch, what was so obviously a “Band” that showed up across the bar from us. You know the type — good hair, fitted jeans, cool hats, tatts. Definitely a band. There’s a good chance it was the guys from Flogging Molly, since I know they were in town last weekend. Moving on…

We needed Jeni’s ice cream. Actually, I think our east side adventure was concocted over the Bourbon Butter Pecan (Jeni’s) ice cream at our Greenhouse meal the night prior (oops, forgot to write that in there!).  We came home with two pints (I wanted five) — the goat cheese, cognac and figs; and the Thai Chili; and randomly, two boxes of Girl Scouts cookies. I have a new friend too in The Miles Farmer’s Market Cheese Lady who kept feeding me samples (and we brought home three block of cheese and an Israeli Feta!!!).

Our Saturday dinner plans were with AB’s parents at Chinato. I was anticipating my return to Zack Bruell’s newest Italian restaurant, especially after our opening night adventure was, well, less than spectacular. I understand how kinks need to be worked out upon a restaurant new open — I get it, and I’ll always give a second (or third) chance. Our first visit, EVERYTHING was wrong. The food was great — what they brought us — but there was everything from a missing appetizer, an incorrect salad, missing ingredients from entrees and horrible gaps in service (we were at the restaurant for three-and-a-half hours the first night, and too much time was spent without food or the tableware  to eat it with). I see though that nothing has been done in the way of hiring non-ditzy hostesses. OMG. A coat check and an OpenTable reservation is NOT that difficult to grasp.

We started by splitting few appetizers: the beef tongue (which I’ve never had), chicken livers and the tuna crudo risotto (which we orderd at our first visit to Chinato, and they never brought us…). I was impressed how tender and delicious the beef tongue was, especially after I wince on seeing one EVERY time I’m at the market. I hope that tuna risotto is on the lunch menu because I want to have that again. Now, please. It was NOTHING like the risotto presented to us on opening night (totally unlike the warm, hammy risotto mess from our prior visit).

For dinner I ordered the “Deconstructed” Ribolitta which was so flavorful (and was enough for two meals for me). The Pork (two way) entree that AB’s dad ordered was incredible. I’ll likely order that heart attack on a plate on our return (oh yes, we will be back). Too bad I couldn’t sample the boillobaise sauce that everyone was raving about because of my shellfish allergy — the words “best I ever had” were exchanged.

Now, I’m hungry. Time to pull some leftovers out of my fridge. Or could I get away with eating just ice cream and Girl Scouts cookies for lunch?

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