Fat Fish Blue–Downtown Hot Spot

What happens when you take a former car repair facility in a parking garage near Public Square and turn it into a restaurant and bar featuring New Orleans flavors, party decor and add a

calendar of different music?  Well in Cleveland’s case you get Fat Fish Blue which has been a mainstay of Downtown for a couple of decades.  I know Fat Fish pretty well, when I worked downtown I parked in the garage above it and still use this garage when heading to Gateway events; I also used to come down on Wednesday nights when Fat Fish would feature Blues Legend Robert Lockwood and his band, so when Fat Fish came up on Groupon (the link is here)I was only to happy to check out how Fat Fish has held up over the years.

Located at 21 Prospect Avenue East (corner of Ontario), Cleveland, OH 44115, Fat Fish is close to Public Square, Tower City, E. 4th Street and Gateway. Presenting large glass windows and blue shades to the street, Fat Fish announces it presence and invites you in.  Once inside you are presented with a crescent shaped room  with a bar against the inside wall and a stage by the corner windows.  The found space features very high ceilings, exposed ductwork,  a nice assortment of plants, streamers and decorations.  The overall effect is festive and busy, with the greenery and the large windows to the street soften the effect somewhat.  On a Saturday afternoon I arrived and was quickly seated at a window table behind the stage.   The tables are simply set, they still have the wrapped cutlery with a little toy surprise inside combined with the crayons and paper topping to the table you now this is a place that wants people to have fun. 
The menu (which you can see here) describes the food as American Bisto Fare with a New Orleans Flair, which seems about right.  I figured I would sample a couple of different things to get an overview so I ordered the Buffalo Tails, a Shrimp Po Boy and a side of the Mac & Cheese.

First out was the order of Buffalo Tails, crawfish deep fried, tossed with a “hot sauce from hell” and served up with a blue cheese dip.  The portion size was ok, but the crawfish themselves were very small which when deep fried meant that they had almost no real taste of their own, the buffalo sauce was ok, but not nearly as hot as describe and the blue cheese dip was creamy and rich but lacking a bit of the blue cheese flavor you would hope for.  What resulted was a dish that was just ok, but certainly not one that I would order again.

Up next was the Shrimp Po Boy with French fries and the side of Mac and Cheese.  The Sandwich was pretty good with the best part being the large fried shrimp.  Were the crawdads were a disappointment, the shrimp were succulent and tasty with a nice crunchy breading.  The bread, lettuce and tomato were what you would expect, while the Cajun Mayo was a bit lacking both in amount and flavor; when I order a Po Boy I expect a real punch from the remoulade.  The fries were nothing special, but were hot and crisp.

Probably the most satisfying thing I tried was the Mac & Cheese, which was rich and creamy with some bread crumbs for textural contrast.  Instead of elbow macaroni Fat Fish uses a spiral pasta that really holds the rich mix of cheeses with a nice hint of smokiness. 

I came away from Fat Fish very impressed with the décor, the atmosphere, service and the entertainment they offer; the food is a bit uneven, with some items a bit disappointing, others are good solid renditions.  I had nothing that I would describe as a home run, but Fat Fish has developed a formula that works , if you check it out you may not get a gourmet experience, but you will probably have a really good time.

Battiste & Dupree Cajun Grill – New Orleans Greatness in South Euclid

B&D is a small place located in a small strip mall at 1992 Warrensville Center Road, South Euclid, OH 44121.  It has been around a while now and while there are lots of raves about the food there are also a lot of comments about the pace of service.  I headed over with a group of friends and had let them know that service would be “leisurely”, what we ended up with was a meal where the food was great, the service was a bit ragged, but always friendly and the pace was a bit too slow for most of my friends.  While we were a party of 5 and arrived at about 7:00pm on a Saturday, we managed to snag a table in about 15 minutes.  

My older brother lived for quite a while down in New Orleans and I was lucky enough to get down to visit him and experience the New Orleans style.   My trips included great food and drink, a welcoming party atmosphere and a slow pace that was great for a short while, but one that I couldn’t take for long periods of time.  Battiste & Dupree Cajun Grill has managed to bring a small slice of genuine New Orleans to our neck of the woods, with all of the great food, great atmosphere and slow service that you might encounter down in the Big Easy itself. 


The small dining room is up front by the windows and is decorated with posters, photos and other New Orleans decorations.   It has the feel of someone's collection jammed into a room just a little too small, the result if heartfelt and welcoming, but a little crowded. 

We finally got menus, although we had to share, since our waitress said they only have 4 menus for the whole place. The menu is a nice mix of cajun and creole favorites, although as we went through we found out that B&D was out of a couple of items.  This was explained to us as it was late on Saturday and they are closed on Sunday and Monday.   To me a place that occasionally runs out of an item means that they are using fresh food and I treat that as a good sign, but that’s me.  Our waitress was a fill in who was just helping out, so some of the problems we encountered may have to do with her not being familiar with the job.  We ended up ordering and then had to wait about 45 minutes for any of the food to come out. 


First up was a salad, which unfortunately was the wrong salad; instead of getting the house salad that was ordered we got the Steve’s Chef Salad.  Junior the owner explained that they were out of some of the ingredients for the house salad and took the salad off the bill, but left the salad for the table.  The salad was a wonderful mix of field greens and fruit with a spicy dressing that really woke up my taste buds, in my opinion a great start, but it will not be to everyone’s taste.

After this food started coming out slowly and individually; at B&D each dish seems to be prepared sequentially rather then consecutively, which results in some great food, but a bit of a disjointed dining experience.  My order of Crawfish Etouffee was wonderful, with a mess of the sweet crawfish tails swimming with some vegetables in a tomato sauce around a pile of jasmine rice.  The presentation was much nicer then I expected, the portion size was good and the aroma was enticing.  Upon digging in I found the dish to be perfectly seasoned, with a spicy heat that snuck up on me after the first few bites.  The crawfish were tender and flavorful, with just the right contrasting  texture from the vegetable bits.   With the tomatoes in the sauce, this was a bit of a different version of Etoufee then I am used to, but it felt right and genuine none the less.

We also had some of the sweet potato fries and they were hand cut, sweet and delicious.  The couple of Shrimp Po Boys at the table were large and looked great, I will be heading back to B&D to give them a try.  It did take quite a while for these to come out, but it looked like they were worth the wait.

After we had finished dinner and several of my friends had left because of the time crunch, Junior did bring over a massive slice of his German Chocolate Cake to make amends for the slow service.  Not one of the deserts I associate with the Crescent City, this was the best version of a German Chocolate Cake I have ever had.  The cake was moist with a thick topping of gooey frosting packed with coconut and wonderful pecans that danced across my tongue.  It was sticky, sweet, crunchy and utterly delicious.

I have to mention the owner of B&D Junior who was an incredibly gracious host.  He makes you feel welcome and as if you are his friend.   He handles each of the issues with class and understanding, obviously a man who loves his work.  B&D is a clear reflection of him, the food is excellent with a huge amount of time and attention paid to getting thing right.  The food is excellent, without the type of compromises you see most places when they do a “Cajun” dish in such a way that it is a pale reflection of the real thing. 

I am willing to wait for food that is this good and is priced reasonably for what you get, you will have to make your own decision on whether it is worth it or not.  My suggestion is to head over on a night when you are in no hurry and just want some really good food, however if you have no patience, can't handle bold flavors and spiciness this is probably not the place for you.   Within these parameters, this is a very high recommendation, give them a try.