Time to make another road trip and it seemed that Cleveland, Ohio was the place to go. I contacted a friend that I used to work with that has settled down in the Cleveland area and asked if he might be interested in seeing what his area had to offer. Joe said yes and took a few days off work to join me on my trip. I took a 630a flight to Cleveland and hit the ground running. The first stop was a small neighborhood joint called "Lucky's Cafe". On DDD while Guy cooked with the owner, Iron Chef Michael Symon, a Cleveland native, came and joined in for a very fun episode. Joe got a sandwich and I got the Mac and Cheese and it was wonderful. Joe's wife is from Venezuela so we stopped at a Latino Grocery store to get some items for his wife and then we continued on to the famous market in the downtown area. For dinner Joe and his family joined in as we headed to an area on the west side of the city called Lakewood and an awesome joint called "Melt Bar and Grilled". Melt is all about the Grilled Cheese! This place is so popular that we waited on a Monday night for an hour and it was worth every minute of the wait! I got a sandwich called "The Parma-gheddon" named for the town of Parma. The sandwich was a grilled chees with a Perogie in the middle and it was AWESOME. The menu was huge and it seemed that you couldn't lose with anything that you ordered. The next day Joe and I went to lunch with Joe's brother and nephew to a unique place called "Sterles Slovenian Country House". Sterles is a traditional Eastern Europe restaurant serving meals that you would get at a Polka Hall. The food was plentiful and delicious. For dinner Joe and I headed to a trendy place called "Momocho Mod Mex", sort of a trendy Mexican joint and it was packed. Little did I know at the time but when the greeter saw that I had the book with me she gave Joe and I the most unique table in the place. It was sort of a "Chef's Table". The cooks were our servers and they explained to us all the ways they prepared the foods that were served there. We started with a sampler plate of guacamole's, one laced with bleu cheese, one with crab meat and one with bacon, all were excellent but the bleu cheese type was the best. For my main meal I got Pork Belly Taquitos. I had never had Pork Belly but had seen it cooked often on the many chef shows I have seen on TV. They were beyond delicious. The whole dinner was great and I really was thankful for the special treatment from the entire staff there. My last day in the area I was on my own and I went to lunch at "Geraci's Italian". I must say that it was OK. I spent the afternoon with a friend from work who had retired in the area. Arlene and Earl are really special people so it was great to see them again. The last place I tried was the "Parkview Niteclub" a neighborhood bar with really good food. I tried the Salmon BLT and it didn't disappoint.
Finally after about 3 years on the air Guy came to DC to feature some of the local joints. The first place was a brick oven pizza joint in Upper Northwest DC just off River Road ans next to a famous bookstore called "Politics and Prose". The joint is called "Comet Ping Pong". It is a very good pizza place that has a Ping Pong hall built into it. I tried two different types of pizza, one was featured on the DDD episode called the "Yalie" which has Clams as it's topping, Guy loved it and the pizza is very good and the crust on the brick oven is awesome. The other was a soft shell crab pizza, also very good. One of the unique things there (besides the Ping Pong hall) is that there are no signs on the walls, so finding the rest room can be an adventure! Just push on the wall and you might fall in! I would return to Comet for another fun visit, but that's for a future blog!
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