Cafe 56 - Holding Up Very Well

I have a long history with Cafe 56; when I worked downtown it was one of my favorite lunch spots.  C56 was located on the corner of E.4th and Euclid (long before E.4th became the hip place to eat and be seen).  Originally the idea was to offer 56 different salads (that's were the 56 in the name came from) with large portions and quality ingredients.  C56 has gone through expansion and contraction, but has managed to keep itself a good place to get quality food at an affordable price.  Now located at 1433 Som Center Road in the Eastgate Shopping Center at the corner of SOM Center & Mayfield Roads (map is here), C56 is low key, but worth looking for.

Once inside I was very pleased to see that C56 had been recently redecorated and looked sleek and new.  The decor is shades of gray with stainless steel accents, but the feel is softened by the free form art and tree branches on the wall.  The overall feel is modern but welcoming. 
I also noticed that they have come up with a new menu that is closer to their sibling restaurant 56W which I was very impressed by (the review for 56W is here).  The menu features rice bowls, salads, sandwiches, soups and large plates where you get to pick your protein, sauce, salad and side for $10.  Not quite as diverse or quirky as the menu at 56W, but still some solid choices available.  Since I was using a Groupon (try it here), I had $15 to spend, which meant planning to take some home.  

I picked the soup and salad combo for $7 and a Salmon sandwich for $8.  Starting out with the Portobello Bisque which was excellent.  A large bowl was filled with a rich and luxurious cream soup studded with firm mushroom pieces and accented by onioney chive pieces.  The soup was just the right thickness and had a wonderful balanced flavor with just a hint of acidity to balance out the creaminess.  Combined with woody mushroom flavor it was a great start to the meal.

I had the Salmon Club sandwich ($8) with avocado subbed for the bacon and it was very good.  A large portion of salmon was grilled perfectly, then separated into smaller pieces instead of being a single fillet.  The avocado, lettuce, tomato and aoili (think fancy mayonnaise) formed a welcome platform for the flavorful, but mild fish.  The portion of fish was so large that I put some on the salad I had to take home.  After having many poor versions of home made potato chips, C56 gets it right with crispy chips that were not overcooked.

The Caesar salad that came as part of the combo was smaller then the main menu salads, but still a large portion of crisp fresh romaine lettuce, crunchy croutons, shaves of Romano cheese and a wonderful thick version of Caesar dressing.  Since there was so much food, this went home for lunch the next day and it was a great salad.  All of the ingredients were fresh and flavorful, the dressing was nicely balanced and is one of the better interpretations of the Caesar flavors.   Accompanied by the pretzel bagel and topped with some of the Salmon from the sandwich, it was a good light lunch.


C56 has managed to tweak its menu and decor over the years to keep up with changing tastes, the current Cafe is a great place to get high quality food at an affordable price.  Flavors for the most part are simple and straightforward, but bold enough to work.  A great place to get some good food.

Yours Truly Restaurant - Good Clean Food

We were out for a weekday evening hike in North Chagrin Metropark and wanted to get something easy, so we headed over to the Yours Truly in Mayfield Village.  For those few who haven't stopped at one of their locations around town, Yours Truly is good wholesome food at affordable prices and has been around for almost 30 years. 

The Mayfield Village location is in the corner of the small shopping center at the corner of SOM Center Road and Wilson Mills (map is here).  The brick building with several large windows makes for a good setting for Yours Truly.  Once inside there is a short wait to be seated as they were full up, but things move quickly and we are soon seated in a comfortable booth.  The decor is a bit old fashioned, but balanced nicely and with some restraint, resulting in a comfortable and friendly feel.

The menu is fairly extensive, but hews mainly to American classics (you can see the menu here).  On Fridays, they have a very nice fish fry, but that wasn't available so I went with a scoop of the Tuna Salad on a garden salad.  The salad was fresh greens with tomatoes, cukes and shredded Mozzarella, topped with a generous scoop of very good Tuna.  At the table we also had the sweet potato fries, a chili dog and the choose two.  The food was simply prepared with good quality ingredients.  The flavors are simple and well presented in generous portions.  About the only surprising item was the honey mustard sauce that came with the sweet potato fries, because this was not a combination I had seen before.

Mindy described Yours Truly as "Clean" and I think she hit it on the head, the decor and upkeep is very good, the food is simple and value sized portions.  Eating at Yours Truly may not be the high point of your culinary experience, but you will come away satisfied and well fed and that is a good idea that has been going on for quite a while now.  I am sure that Yours Truly will keep up the good work.

Parkview Niteclub - Fieri Find

Part of what inspired me to start C-Town Eats was watching Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives on the Food Network; Guy Fieri finds restaurants around the country and spends some time in the kitchen and tasting the food. The places are usually a bit funky and the food is homemade and usually in big portions. Not too long ago Guy finally hit Cleveland and taped some segments at local places; Melt (see my review here), Geraci's (long time Eastside Italian), Lucky's Cafe in Tremont, Momoco in Ohio City, Frank Sterle's Slovenian Country House on E.55th and Parkview Niteclub. I had a passing familiarity with all of them except for Parkview so I took a look at their website (located here). I had not seen the episode, but saw online that Parkview smoked their own Salmon (video link is here) so I had to try it out. Looking for a place to have a casual dinner with a couple of friends on Saturday, this seemed like a great opportunity, so we headed west and had a great meal.

Parkview is located at 1261 W.58th Street in Cleveland, a couple of blocks North of Detroit Ave. and not far from the Gordon Square neighborhood. Parkview is on a corner where the neighborhood ends and has a view of the Lake and Downtown; the outside is a classic Cleveland neighborhood bar with a brick first floor and a wooden second story. A little alcove out front serves as a wind break for the couple of steps up to the front door.

Inside is even more of a classic Cleveland dive bar feel. A large wood bar covers one wall with a good sized dining room spread around a small dance floor. The decor is old school eclectic with enough stuff to keep you looking for quite a while. One interesting new touch is the electronic frame with pictures from Guy's visit on the middle of the bar. The overall feeling is casual and friendly.

After ordering a couple of draft beers (and Parkside has a nice selection of drafts) we took a look at the menu (see here) which has some great items and variations from the typical bar menu. We decided to start with the fried asparagus and they were sensational. As you can see from the picture they come arranged on the plate with the dipping sauce in the middle. The asparagus were wonderful with a very crisp but thin batter that acts as a perfect

isp but thin batter that complimented the fresh vegetable, then dipped into the chipotle ranch sauce they were a wonderful mouth sensation. The sauce had a wonderful hot and smoky taste that perfectly complimented the asparagus. About the only thing I could think to complain about is how quickly they disappeared off of the table.

Next up were the entrees, I had the Caesar Salad topped with the smoked salmon and it was excellent. The Caesar Salad was a very nice sized portion with a very good dressing; the real surprise was the Salmon. Hot smoked and served hot, the portion was quite large and very flavorful. Instead of the delicate flavor I am used to from Lox, this fish tasted more of cooked salmon, but the smoke flavor came through, especially as it cooled off. This was one of those exceptional meals that got better the more I ate of it. Dan went with the Smoked Salmon BLT which was a very large piece of the salmon served on a Ciabatta Roll with bacon. Dan said it was excellent and mentioned that the mayonnaise tasted especially good. Paul had the Walleye sandwich which was also very good. Prices were very reasonable and we had a great time. Parkview is a real find and worth the trip, this is a neighborhood bar that serves up exceptionally good food at bargain prices. Add in the funky atmosphere, some good bands on Wednesday and Saturday nights and I will be heading back to try more of the menu. Not only do I recomend it, but Guy Fieri does as well.

Souper Market

I was out in Lakewood and wanted to get a quick meal so I stopped in the Souper Market at 14809 Detroit Avenue, Lakewood, OH 44107; this is the 2nd location for SM, the first is in Ohio City at 2528 Lorain Avenue, Cleveland, OH 44113. Souper Market deals up soups and salads. The Lakewood location is a small store front in the middle of downtown Lakewood, it does have a counter with some stools, so you can eat there or take out. I ended up picking up a bowl of the Cream of Asparagus and Crab soup and a Greek Salad. The Crab and Asparagus Cream Soup was good, just the right thickness, creamy without being too dense. It had a good quantity of crab meat, but seemed a little light on the asparagus. While nice it seemed a bit underseasoned to my taste; while the cream base was good I didn't get enough flavor from the crab and asparagus and there was no contrast of any kind. The salad was made to order and was very good, fresh greens with tomatoes, feta, onions and pepprochinis topped with a very good garlic herb vinaigrette (I had them leave off the olives). The greens were fresh and crisp, with the feta and the dressing providing good flavor compliments. With the soup you get a big hunk of very good crusty bread; the perfect compliment for both the soup and salad. Souper Market makes soups from scratch using quality ingredients, I have found that some of the seasonings is a bit mild to my tastes, but it is worth giving it a try.