Bier Markt

Bar-restaurant entrepreneur Sam McNulty brings worldly ideas to West 25th Street: Tastemakers
By wmcmanam
Plain Dealer, September 13, 2009, 12:01AM

Sam McNulty left town with a backpack and returned with a bar.

“I was backpacking through India when I randomly met this Polish guy,” says McNulty, a devotee of beer and traveling. “And it just so happened that he had worked in a Belgian-style bar in Australia.”

A light went off in his head.

It was a little blurry, he admits. After all, McNulty had been drinking all day.

But that light kept flickering until he returned to Cleveland — and until he opened McNulty’s Bier Markt.

Since 2005, the Belgian-style bar has helped make West 25th Street one of the area’s most happening entertainment districts.

“At first, I thought about opening a bar that served all kinds of international beers,” he says. “Then I realized: Belgian beer is my favorite — and there aren’t any in the area, or even Ohio.”
Read full article, click here.

Friday, June 20, 2008John PetkovicPlain Dealer Columnist
I’ve run from drunks, but I’ve never run drunk.

I did try to play basketball once while loaded. The ball kept on dribbling in my head even after I picked it up.

Drinking and dribbling is dangerous. So are most activities combined with imbibing, save playing in a rock band, I guess. Or rolling around on the grass. Or cuddling with your pet.

Cats and dogs, you see, live for the state of docile lethargy. Half the time they seem drunk even when they aren’t, just lazing around in a cow-eyed stupor.

Most dogs — but not Kyla.

The Irish Wheaten Terrier is the “official” Bier Markt Dog, according to the bar’s owner, Sam McNulty.

(I didn’t know that the bar had any unofficial dogs — well, except for this frisky dawg I saw the last time I was at Bier Markt, 1948 West 25th St., Cleveland. He had a thick St. Bernard-like neck, was lapping up beers and pawing a woman.)

Serving in that official role, Kyla is participating in the Third Annual Bier Markt Ohio City Run & Crawl — at 7 p.m. Saturday.

The 5K starts outside, you guessed it, Bier Markt and winds through the Ohio City neighborhood, its bars, homes and eateries. Festivities begin at 4:30 p.m. at the bar.

Registration is $25 and takes place at Market Avenue and West 25th Street. Call 216-623-9933. Or go to www.hermescleveland.com./roadracing/events/ohiocity.asp.
“We’re combining a bar crawl and a marathon race,” McNulty says. “Runners can even drink beer before and after the race.”

Bier Markt will serve all runners their first draft beer for 25 cents. Afterward, most joints, including Bier Markt, will throw parties. Market Square Park, meanwhile, will host live music and refreshments.

“Last year, we had 500 runners,” he adds. “People came in costume; we even had some dogs running in the race.”

Kyla has been training by running with McNulty, an avid jogger. She doesn’t drink beer, though.

“She doesn’t have a taste for it,” says McNulty. “But a lot of humans running do; beer, after all, has a lot of electrolytes.”

(Indeed. Buster Martin, a 101-year-old marathon runner from London, swears by it. The man is known to guzzle Guinness before, during and after races.)

That’s not to say that running and drinking works for everyone.

“One time, I drank a lot the night before I did a 10K,” says McNulty. “I was sweating Jameson and Belgian beer the whole time; my girlfriend didn’t like the smell, so I try not to do it much.”

His running partner would probably agree — that is, if she could talk.

Previous columns online:

cleveland.com/columns

jpetkovic@plaind.com, 216-999-4556.

Thursday, June 19, 2008
There’s a fancy saloon on West 25th Street, a stone’s throw from the West Side Market. The saloon, which boasts an equally fancy adjoining restaurant, is called McNulty’s Bier Markt.

The owners of McNulty’s know that the typical Clevelander does not spell “beer” with an “i” or Market without an “e.” But the business partners pride themselves on being different. They enjoy the fact that they may be the only bar in the region that stocks $17 bottles of Belgian beer and $2 cans of Pabst Blue Ribbon.

“There is a time and a place for every beer,” McNulty’s managing partner Michael Foran said, explaining the bar’s marketing concept. “Sometimes you want a complex beer, sometimes you don’t.”

Foran may have outdone himself, however, with a promotional stunt that was set to kick off Wednesday evening and continue through today, depending on the supply of an extremely popular locally produced beer. The promotion is called Christmas in June.

Bars all over the country have long exploited a theme party called Christmas in July. It’s an excuse to invite the regulars to empty the kegs. It’s a crass but lucrative play on Christmas.

But Christmas in June takes the drinking concept to another level. It’s akin to Michigan or Florida moving up their primaries. And that’s exactly what McNulty’s Bier Markt has done.

It has moved up Christmas.

But the twist on the story is this: The event was promoted using Great Lakes Christmas Ale, the best-selling Christmas ale in the United States last year.

That is a fairly gutsy move by the Bier Markt. The Great Lakes Brewing Co. is a geographical competitor of McNulty’s. Its restaurant and regional brewery is about 100 yards from the Bier Markt.

Furthermore, Great Lakes plans to host its own July Christmas Party and will mark the occasion by brewing a few kegs of its celebrated ale. People have been known to drive in from out of state to enjoy the festivities and the beer.

“So how did they get any of the ale?” a genuinely puzzled Patrick Conway, co-owner of Great Lakes, asked Wednesday.

“We haven’t brewed any yet.”

When informed that the forward-thinking people at the Bier Markt had saved a keg from last winter for the express purpose of a very early Christmas party — using his beer — Conway could not stifle a groan.

“The Germans say, Beer is like bread, it’s best fresh,’ ” Conway intoned.

“The fact that they’re serving beer that was made almost three-quarters of a year ago doesn’t speak well for its freshness. Please let the other bars around town know that we didn’t brew a keg for the Bier Markt. That would start a riot,” he said jokingly.

I think I could do with another Christmas holiday, one that doesn’t involve shopping malls or online sales. The more the merrier.

Before we got off the phone, I told Conway this particular column would probably require a little quality-control testing.

So I’m off to the Bier Markt to do some research.

Merry Christmas.

To reach Phillip Morris:

pfmorris@plaind.com, 216-999-5086

Previous columns online:

cleveland.com/columns

Leather & Laces

A costumed Ohio City steps up to the starting line for its annual run and bar crawl.
By Cris Glaser

The image of a dude in a cowboy hat and leather chaps still sticks in Bernie Thiel’s mind as the most memorable sight at last year’s Bier Markt Ohio City Run & Crawl. Natch, he’s curious about the outfits that will be worn by more than 500 runners at today’s race.

“I don’t know if that guy was going for the Village People look, but it was interesting,” laughs Thiel, a spokesman for the race and crawl. “Who knows? We may see a bigger contingent of costumers this year.”

The blowout starts with a pre-race barbecue, catered by the Bier Markt watering hole. At 7 p.m., competitors line up in six age brackets to run a 5K race throughout Ohio City. Afterward, athletes still wearing their runners’ bibs can get cocktail discounts at 15 bars and restaurants throughout the Lorain Avenue neighborhood.

“People fan out and do their own thing after the race,” says Thiel. “Everybody stays in their running gear and goes wherever the mood takes them.”

The party starts at 4 this afternoon at Market Square Park, at the corner of West 25th Street and Lorain Avenue. Race fee is $25. Call 216-623-9933 or visit www.hermescleveland.com.

January 1st, 2008 | http://northcoastlifestyle.com/?p=263
Happy 2008

Wow, what a New Year’s Eve. It was a great night of fine food and drink. We were able to enjoy it to the fullest courtesy of the Ace Taxi Cab Co. We made our way to Ohio City for the night with our first stop being the Market Avenue Wine Bar. It is a very nice place with great wines, but the crowd was rather dull. So we left there and stopped at the The Flying Fig for a drink at the bar. It was much more happening and the atmosphere was much more upbeat. We were building up our appetite for our four course menu at Bar Cento which we had reservations for the 10:30 seating.

After a few cocktails we walked over to our main destination of the night, Bar Cento. Upon entering, we were led to our seats in the dining room. Chef Sawyer was very cordial as he walked over and greeted me and introduced himself to Erika. He was very generous in his servings all night, not just to us, but many tables all around us. We had one of the best meals, and dining experiences, that we have ever had.

We chose a nice red zinfandel to go with our tasting menu.

The first taste was the amuse [bouche] which consisted of “Roman Money”- green lentils, fricco piave cheese and rosemary and Sicilian tuna with fennel pollen, orange and alphonso olives. Yum. We then had our appetizers, seared foie gras with ox-tail marmalade, roasted marrow bones, brioche and parsley; Blue Point oysters on the half shell with horseradish grappa shooter and caviar trappannini.

Chef Sawyer explained the oyster dish as “entering the ocean and diving down deep” as you first take the horseradish grappa shot and taste the salty sea and then shoot the oyster. The food matched his explanation beautifully.

We have never had foie gras and this dish was amazing. We scooped the marrow out of the bone and it mixed with the ox-tail marmalade and the foie gras and placed it on the brioche which made for an unbelievable taste experience.

For the main entrée, we both ordered the Ohio premium beef tenderloin with braised beef, potato puree, broccolini and Sangiovese. The tenderloin was very tender and the entire dish was delicious. Since we both ordered the tenderloin, chef wanted us to taste the bollito misto with capon, beef brisket, veal, baby root vegetables and mustardo. We were very grateful to get to taste these items and leaves us to wonder what the rest of this incredible menu tasted like.

Before dessert, Chef Sawyer brought out a fluer-de-latte, hay-aged cow’s milk from Lombardia, a beautiful cheese that he insisted on us smelling before we tasted. It was a great cheese with a strong smell and flavor to match and worked as a great transition into dessert.

Then the dessert came. It was a plate full of assorted sweets. Chocolate champagne truffles, banana financier cake and the chef’s favorite; grandma’s cookie with Vin Santo. All of this with a glass of presecco

All of the food was phenomenal and we were very happy to spend our New Year’s Eve at Bar Cento. I predict big things for Chef Sawyer to come as he really knows how to create extraordinary dishes, excellent atmosphere and his charisma carries him through the front of the house.

Free Times Dining, Volume 15, Issue 35
Published January 2nd, 2008
By Douglas Trattner

http://www.freetimes.com/stories/15/35/stick-a-fork-in-it

As far as the restaurant scene was concerned, the past year was a particularly eventful one. Openings far outnumbered closings, which is good. And a solid number of those openings were high profile. Cleveland scored big time with top-talent chefs like Dante Boccuzzi, Steve Schimoler and Zack Bruell opening creative eateries with names like Dante, Crop Bistro and Table 45, respectively. Matthew Mathlage opened Light Bistro in the old Parker’s space and Andy Zelenkofske introduced Eastsiders to Marmalade, and then Melange. Sara’s Place, a gem of a restaurant, appeared in posh Gates Mills Village.

Careful trend watchers must have noticed a proliferation of gastropub-like eateries popping up, most notably Jonathon Sawyer’s wonderful Bar Cento, Willoughby’s popular Ballantine, Rocky River’s Wine Bar, Vince Cirincione’s very likeable Wonder Bar, and the too-new-to-know Joe Foodie’s Tavern.

And while we’re on the topic of pubs, there is no denying that cozy taverns are springing up around every bend. Brian Davis and Garin Wright opened the always enjoyable Buckeye Beer Engine, Josh Kabat installed Reddstone in the old Snicker’s Tavern building, “Lord of the Dance” vet Patrick Campbell opened P.J. McIntyre’s, Nick Sanders opened The Pub at Beachcliff Market Square, Michael Feigenbaum, of Lucy’s Sweet Surrender, presented Cafe Marika, and Ilona Simon, owner of Budapest Blonde, opened Budapest Blue in the old Halite space. The Gamekeeper’s Hospitality group reopened Welshfield Inn in Geauga County. Partners Chris Lieb and Jason Workman opened the Tremont Tap House in the old Starkweather Tavern.

To find some of the most explosive growth on the restaurant landscape, one must look toward the ethnic food sector. Andy Himmel led the charge with his uber-popular Nuevo Latino restaurant, Paladar, which he opened in the old Bossa Nova space. Scott Kim closed Matsu to open Sasa Matsu, a sort of Japanese tapas bar, at Shaker Square. Peppermint Café, an offshoot of Coventry’s popular Thai restaurant, Mint Café, opened in Pepper Pike. Zocalo, a Mexican cantina and “tequilaria,” opened on East Fourth Street. Ricky Ly’s Thai Classic Gourmet, a 155-seat pan-Asian restaurant, sprouted in Beachwood. Flying Cranes, a café serving Japanese lunch fare, appeared on Larchmere Boulevard. Il Bacio, an Italian boite, replaced Tutto Giorno in the old Salvatore’s spot. Agave, a Mexican restaurant, opened in Westlake’s Crocker Park. Strongsville finally landed a good Thai restaurant with the opening of Sweet Mango. And finally, Pasha, an upscale Middle Eastern restaurant, took over the Solon spot where Anthony’s and Dolce once operated.

The local independent food scene got a much-needed boost in the area of quick, casual breakfast, lunch and dinner spots. Dish, a deli run by chef Donna Chriszt opened in the Take-a-Bite spot, while Dish Global Deli, run by chef Heather Campbell, took over the old Opa! space. Industry veterans Tom and Joy Harlor bought Le Oui Oui Café and turned it into Le Petit Triangle Café. Kathy Brown, the original owner of Snicker’s, opened Latitude 41n, an all-day diner. Grumpy’s Café reopened following a fire, long delay and relocation. Ruthie and Moe’s Diner finally reopened, this time as Somer’s Diner. Grill at Bainbridge Commons, a cozy suburban eatery, opened this past year, as did Market Café & Wine Bar, which settled into the AmTrust Building. Organic Energy, a health-conscious café, opened at the Shoppes of Solon, not far from another newcomer, Original Harvey’s Barbecue. Bob Holcepl, owner of City Roast coffee, opened Crepes Deluxe in a stand at the West Side Market. Thee Olde Factory, which closed a few years back, reopened as The Factory. Blue Planet Cafe opened inside The Cleveland Museum of Natural History. And Matthew Moore, the soup savant who launched Souper Market, opened a spin-off in Lakewood.

Patios continued to spring up in new locations, like the massive one that graces Cyrus Waterfront Restaurant, which opened last spring. Brennan’s Colony, a Cleveland Heights institution, added a sprawling, adult-only patio. Beach Club Bistro added a 20-seat alfresco dining area out front. The Mad Greek, a decades-old restaurant, just recently added a charming back patio, as did Tinker’s Creek Tavern. Boulevard Blue and Der Braumeister both boosted their alfresco dining capacity.

The Neapolitan-style pizza trend continues to expand, with delicious thin-crust versions popping up at Lolita, Bar Cento and La Gelateria.

Gimmicks make for great conversation (and sometimes, great dining). Ron Heinbaugh opened Cheddar’s, a macaroni and cheese restaurant that did so well, it took over his original concept, Snicker’s. In North Olmsted, diners get to cook their own dinner on super-heated stones at a place called Steak on a Stone.

The chains continue to infiltrate the home turf, albeit at a slower pace. Bice Ristorante opened in Tower City Center; McCormick & Schmick’s landed at Beachwood Place; The Rusty Bucket Corner Tavern surfaced in Solon; and First Watch, Fatburger and Five Guys Famous Burgers are sprouting like mushrooms.

Many restaurants underwent changes, both subtle and severe. After a decade of serving food, Lola began its first lunch service. After 11 years of operation, Lemon Grass changed ownership. Baricelli Inn chartered a new course by moving away from fine dining. The original Winking Lizard in Bedford Heights moved to a new spot next door. The Flying Fig unveiled a sharp new logo and look. The Italian Cafe in Shaker Heights changed its name to Via Van Aken. Chez Francois converted an upstairs office space into a martini and wine bar called Touche. Bangkok Thai moved from a carry-out storefront to a bona fide restaurant.

We said goodbye to a number of old friends at places like Battuto, Fanny’s, La Tortilla Feliz, Luchita’s on the Square, Halite, and Opa! Also leaving us in the past 12 months were Velocity American Bistro, Crust and Crumbs, Café Limbo, Machu Picchu, Chris & Jimmy’s Diner, Savy’s Deli, The Pub on Lee, Matsu, Max’s Deli, Falls Grille, Shanti’s Kitchen, Osiyo Tea House and Strickland’s Frozen Custard.

Chefs on the move last year include Michael Herschman, who left Vivo for the Cabin Restaurant; Scott Popovic, who joined the team at Certified Angus Beef; Jeff Fisher, who took over the kitchen at Touch Supper Club; and Ben Fambrough, who left Sans Souci to do his own thing. Michael Symon scored huge by earning the Iron Chef title.

So what’s in store for 2008? How about Pacific East of Eton and Ariyoshi, two new Japanese restaurants due to open any day. We can also look forward to the reborn Anatolia Café, slated to open in a month or so. Ricardo Sandoval is juggling two new openings, Felice’s Urban Eatery and World Restaurant. Terry Tarantino, of La Dolce Vita fame, is closing in on an opening date for La Strada World Café. Rick and Fabio Salerno, the folks behind Lago and Gusto, are preparing to open a wine bar at Shaker Square. Brothers Lounge is gearing up for a major grand opening. Jonathon Sawyer’s second restaurant should go live this year. And Stone Mad, Pete Leneghan’s life’s work of a bar, is set to open soon.

Mille Grazie
Give thanks to Ohio City’s new Roman-style Bar Cento.
By Elaine T. Cicora
Published: January 2, 2008

http://www.clevescene.com/2008-01-02/dining/mille-grazie/full

As if we needed another excuse, Bon Appétit recently dubbed the French fry the “indulgence of the year.” That might explain why we’re so powerless right now, with about 100 of them staring us in the face.

Pulled up to a bare tabletop inside Bar Cento, chef Jonathon Sawyer’s earthy new workshop in Ohio City, we find ourselves helpless against their allure, the seduction beginning the moment a sincere (if slightly frazzled) server sets the fragrant little morsels before us, heady rosemary perfume trailing in their wake.

It would be wrong for us to suggest that these noshes represent the peak of Sawyer’s culinary prowess. After all, the guy rocked the kitchens at two of Michael Symon’s properties, including Tremont’s sexy little Lolita and the critically acclaimed if short-lived Parea in the Big Apple. It’s a huge score for Cleveland that he returned here to ply his craft.

Nevertheless, my knot of usually chatty gal pals falls silent as we stuff fry after crunchy fry into our mouths, until at last a humiliating combination of satiety and guilt forces us to throw in the environmentally sensitive, post-consumer, recycled brown paper towels that Sawyer provides as napkins.

No matter how tempting, though, diners do not live by French fries alone. Thus, we push on to the rest of Sawyer’s brief, focused menu of enoteca-inspired pizzas, pastas, entrées, and rustic bar noshes, an often-heady blend of local artisanal ingredients and Roman sensibilities.

Take those warm olives: green Castelvetranos, wrinkled black Moroccans, and giant purple Alfonsos, tweaked with the addition of orange peel and fresh ginger — bright, mouthwatering blasts of citrus and salinity. Or the antipasto plate, loaded up with smoked prosciutto, spicy coppa, pistachio-flecked mortadella, and sheer sheets of slightly sweet salami. Ivory wedges of aged provolone and nutty toma cheeses, along with some pickled carrots, onions, and garlic cloves, complete the mini-feast.

Divided into “traditional” and “modern” stylings, Sawyer’s thin, brick-oven-baked ‘zas are stunners too, topped as simply or as daringly as desired. (Foie gras and blood sausage, anyone?) We go with the traditional salsiccia, with sweet Italian sausage, fresh mozzarella, and a bit of well-balanced tomato sauce; roasted potato wedges made a hearty $2 add-on. Nor can we resist the modern Sunnyside, an eye-opening combo of trembling shirred eggs in crispy pancetta nests, garnished with freshly ground black pepper. Both offer an irresistible interplay of plush toppings and crisp yet slightly chewy crust.

It doesn’t hurt, either, that we discover the perfect partnering wine, a 2003 Louis M. Martini Sonoma Valley Cab, hidden among the 100 or so bottles on the big, annotated wine list. It’s the right choice, not only for its soft tannins and dark, jammy overtones, but also for its reasonable $21 price tag. Thanks to a retail license, Bar Cento can sell all its wines to go, at around half off the menu prices; for red-wine fans, this is definitely one worth toting home for other casual dinners.

Meanwhile, for non-oenophiles, there’s a lineup of classic European cocktails, including the Negroni and Bellini, and a list of aperitivos and digestivos, like Campari, Sambuca, and homemade limoncello. The vast beer collection from next door’s McNulty’s Bier Markt is also at diners’ disposal.

Speaking of beer, the menu reaches out to suds fans with a collection of “Belgian beer snacks,” including the de rigueur veggie burger and a magnificent Ohio premium beef burger on a potato-brioche bun, loaded up with deeply caramelized onions and soft Belgian cheese, ripened in Chimay Grand Cru. On the other hand, a portion of Duvel-steamed mussels tastes surprisingly flat, with a watery broth not worth sopping up with our dense Siciliano bread.

Also somewhat dull is a portion of handmade gnocchi: A Thursday special, the Roman-style dumplings look like marshmallows and taste mainly of mashed potatoes. A brown-butter sauce, with bits of oregano and parmesan, isn’t enough to wake up the snoozy flavors. Equally unremarkable: the pumpkin ravioli, which although decidedly al dente, have little pizzazz. Sawyer says he typically garnishes the ravioli with amaretto-cookie crumbs, which would have helped considerably; somehow, though, the crumbs seem to have escaped our portion.

Still, as we tuck into dessert — toasted slices of semolina cake, an authentically European-tasting combo of olive oil, hard flour, and almond flavoring, sided by tiny scoops of amaretto-orange sorbetto — we could hardly feel happier. In a city anchored by a thousand neighborhood bars, Sawyer’s sassy, old-world update is worth heaving into the mix. Here’s hoping it sticks.

Where:
1948 West 25th Street, 216-274-1010, www.barcento.com. Hours: 4 p.m. to 2 a.m. Sunday through Friday; noon to 2:30 a.m. Saturday.

Details:
Antipasto Plate $9
Warm Olives $4
Pommes Frites (large) $9
Sunnyside Pizza $9
Ohio Beef Burger $9
Semolina Cake $5

The Year of Eating Famously
In 2007, even bad news is good news for Cleveland restaurants.
By Elaine T. Cicora

http://www.clevescene.com/2007-12-26/dining/the-year-of-eating-famously/

Published:Scene, December 26, 2007

The weather is wicked, the economy sucks, and if gas goes any higher, we might soon have to learn to cook at home. But believe it or not, for Cleveland foodies, 2007 was a banner year. Scores of new restaurants opened. The national media came sniffing around like hungry hounds (and left happy and full). And, of course, native son Michael Symon rocked the entire country with his closely watched ascension to Iron Chefdom.

Yes, it’s been a great year for gourmands and gourmets alike. Don’t believe it? Let’s go to the highlight reel:

The Eyes of the Nation Were Upon Us
From Tony Bourdain’s controversial No Reservations segment on the Travel Channel to Michael Symon’s victory on the Food Network’s Next Iron Chef, Cleveland’s food scene has been sliced, diced, and served up in style by national media pundits.

Take this summer’s stopover by Food & Wine operative Kristin Donnelly. Naturally, her three-day feeding frenzy included Symon’s Lola and Lolita. But she also introduced the nation to Lucky’s Café in Tremont; Light Bistro, Momocho, and Flying Fig in Ohio City; Fire on Shaker Square; and Northfield Center’s Babushka’s Kitchen.

The national radar zeroed in on Flying Fig in October’s Gourmet magazine, where Karen Small’s nine-year-old boîte was tapped as one of America’s Best Farm-to-Table Restaurants, alongside such sustainability heroes as Berkeley’s Chez Panisse and Chicago’s Frontera Grill.

In April, Beachwood’s Red the Steakhouse made Playboy.com’s Top 10 Steakhouses list, sharing space with Craftsteak in Vegas, Keefer’s in Chicago, and Cut in L.A. And Table 45, executive chef Zack Bruell’s long, cool pour of contemporary hipness at the InterContinental Hotel, was named one of the 20 Best New Restaurants of 2007 by Esquire’s longtime critic, John Mariani.

Then there was Bourdain’s wintry visit, instigated by Cleveland’s top foodie, author Michael Ruhlman. Airing in August, the No Reservations episode not only put a gritty face on our fair city, but the choice of restaurants — which included Lola, Hot Sauce Williams, Sokolowski’s University Inn, and, in particular, Cincinnati-based Skyline Chili — left some regional restaurant boosters gnashing their teeth. Still, any press is good press if it brings foodies and their wallets to town, which this just might. (Gritty is the new trendy!)

Much less controversial — and a lot more fun — was the Food Network’s six-part search for the Next Iron Chef. Lola’s Michael Symon mowed down the competition, earning the right to join Mario Batali, Bobby Flay, Cat Cora, and Masahuru Morimoto in Kitchen Stadium. In the process, he also heated up some national lovin’ for his hometown, and probably did more to boost the potential for food tourism here than any restaurateur in Cleveland history.

The Brain Gain
If you’re still hungry for more optimism — and these days, no one would fault you for that — consider the arrival of some top-notch culinarians, guys who had made a name for themselves in some of the country’s biggest markets, but came (or came back) to Cleveland to carve out new territory.

Making the biggest splash was 36-year-old Dante Boccuzzi, a world-traveling Parma native with an impeccable résumé: Culinary Institute of America grad, two-time James Beard Foundation Rising Star nominee, and former executive chef at New York’s award-winning Aureole, to mention a few highlights. Boccuzzi opened Dante in Valley View this fall, with a tightly crafted menu that ranges from thin-crusted gourmet pizzas and delectable homemade pastas to foie gras, steak, and caviar — all of it delicious and worthy of some national press of its own.

Then there’s Steve Schimoler, the entrepreneur, food scientist, and occasional drummer who opened Crop Bistro in the Warehouse District this summer. Included among the Long Island native’s dozens of ventures are running restaurants up and down the East Coast, holding the post of VP of product development for Vermont’s Cabot Creamery, and consulting for Ben & Jerry’s (if he had anything to do with the Mint Chocolate Cookie, the dude’s a certified genius). Schimoler landed in Cleveland in 2005 as director of innovation and development for Nestlé North America. At Crop, he’s put together a menu of inventive, labor-intensive, and explosively flavorful dishes, treating impeccable ingredients to a dose of modern culinary technology for a dining experience unlike anything else in the city.

And don’t forget Jonathon Sawyer, another Cleveland native who’s returned home after solid performances in the Big Apple. Sawyer’s spent time at Kitchen 22, Aureole, and Parea, Michael Symon’s well-received but short-lived outpost, where Sawyer served as chef du cuisine. He launched the casually classy Bar Cento in Ohio City this fall with a menu of simple but carefully executed pizzas, pastas, and enoteca-style nibbles. Still in the works: a New York-style gastropub that he hopes to launch sometime in 2008.

With these guys’ help, the tables of Greater Cleveland are loaded with good things to eat. Raise a fork and dig in.

http://www.cleveland.com/living/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/living-0/1194946430307190.xml&coll=2

http://www.freetimes.com/stories/15/28/sasa-matsu-in-shaker-square-asian-grill-in-lakewood-and-chef-jonathon-sawyer-of-bar-cento