FEATURE
THE
BEST THINGS WE ATE IN CLEVELAND IN 2021
By Douglas Trattner I, LIKE MANY PEOPLE, abstained from indoor dining between March 2020 and spring of this year, when I made a couple visits to the Wolstein Center. Looking back over the past year of dining, a theme emerged: all of my favorite meals were enjoyed inside a restaurant (except for barbecue, naturally), proving that take-out is no substitute for the dinein experience.
Mare Seafood Platter at Acqua di Luca
Even the tallest, priciest seafood towers never manage to live up to our expectations. A few raw oysters, a couple chewy clams, some watery boiled shrimp – all of it tepid, none of it worth the tariff. Acqua di Luca scraps the predictable tiered tower of chilled seafood in favor of a resplendent platter of buttery,
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wine-steamed shellfish. Roll up your sleeves and celebrate with a mountain of king crab legs, shrimp, mussels, clams, calamari, scallops and a whole lobster.
Gujarati Thali at Annapurna Indian food fans in Cleveland don’t come across many thalis, those large circular platters containing myriad small vessels of food. Annapurna in Parma offers two different versions, both more than worth the drive. But the Gujarati edges out the Punjabi thanks to a more exciting blend of breads, curries, pickles, chutneys and dessert. And like everything served at this mom-and-pop shop, it’s vegetarian.
Sunday Gravy at Cent’s Pizza I might have eaten more pizza in
| clevescene.com | December 29, 2021-January 11, 2022
2021 than in any previous year (save for those thrifty undergrad ones). But I also managed to enjoy better slices than ever thanks to new entries like Chatty’s, Pizzeria DiLauro, Boom’s, ETalian and Cornerspot. But the best pizza award goes out to Cent’s, which opened last summer in Ohio City. Vincent Morelli not only is making some of the best Neapolitan-ish pies in town, he’s dishing them up in a festive tangerine-colored dream world.
Chicken Chow Mein at Cafe Everest I can’t recall the last time I ordered chow mein, but it likely was decades ago. Ruined in childhood by plates of soggy, soupy, salty adaptations, why would I. Café Everest, a Nepalese and Indian restaurant in the Bellaire-Puritas neighborhood, opened my eyes to a whole new
world. The version prepared here stars firm, not soft or flabby, noodles that are just barely coated in sauce. The predominant flavors are garlic, ginger, cumin and chile, with only a few dashes of soy sauce.
Brisket at Joe’s Barbecue I have only one issue with Joe’s Barbecue: it’s located 45 miles from home in rural Brimfield Township. Joe Menendez works magic out of a wood-sided trailer parked on a small gravel lot. Inside that wagon sits a 1,000-pound offset smoker turning out whole racks of ribs, half chickens, sliced turkey and pulled pork. But it’s the bark-blistered brisket, seasoned with nothing more than salt and pepper and smoked over wood for 14 hours, that bothers my dreams. Succulent, drippy, bendy beef pudding it is.
