La Pizzeria - Little Italy's Newest

During this year's Feast of the Assumption in Little Italy, they were handing out coupons for La Pizzeria, which was suppose to be open by Fall 2009; well it has taken a bit longer then that, but it is finally open this week. Located at 2188 Murray Hill Road (the corner of Murray Hill and Cornell) (see map here) across from the Baricelli Inn, they have taken the corner space that used to be a gallery and transformed it into a nice little spot to pick up some reasonably priced good food. Walking inside you will find a nicely set up small space with four tables and a service counter. The old space nicely mixes the old such as the tin ceiling with modern fixtures and a green and red paint scheme to provide a warm inviting feel. The place is obviously set up for mainly takeout and delivery, but eating at the shop is just fine. The menu is based around pizzas, calzones, subs and gellato with some salads, wings and pastas thrown in. The prices are reasonable and while nothing seems terribly innovative or new, if done well this kind of food is very popular. I had a small mushroom pizza and was very pleased. Cut into 6 slices the pizza was excellent with a thin crust that was turned up at the edges to make it seem almost deep dish. The crust was probably the highlight of the pizza, with a good crisp to the bottom and a very pleasant flavor, no flavorless bread here. The sauce was a nicely balanced tomato sauce, with a fresh tomato flavor that complimented the pizza. The cheese mix covered the pizza nicely and had just the right cheesy bite from the provolone mixed with the mozzarella. The overall pizza worked well together, it was cooked just right with all of the elements coming together well. I probably should have waited on the first piece, since I had a bit of a cheese slide, but once everything had set the other pieces were no problem. There is a gellato case up front, but it will be a little while until they have any to serve. La Pizzeria is an interesting idea, but seems to duplicate a lot of what is available in the area; put this up in Beachwood, or Shaker instead of in Little Italy and it would be fairly unique. As it is, this seems well set up to appeal to the neighborhood and to the Case Western Reserve students, but has a lot of direct competition. They seem committed to high quality food at a reasonable price, here's hoping they succeed and thrive.

Mitchells Homemade - Incredible Ice Cream

If you are looking for the top ice cream in Cleveland you have to go to Mitchells Homemade with locations in Beachwood, Solon, Rocky River and Westlake. The stores are bright and modern decorated in white and light colored wood with multicolor accents. But the reason to go to Mitchells is not for the decor, it is for the decedent ice cream that is loaded with premium ingredients and flavors. I find Mitchells ice cream to be very rich and dense. The flavors are bright, which is necessary since the ice cream is dense and rich. Among my favorites are the double chocolate chunk which puts large hunks of premium bittersweet chocolate into an incredibly chocolate ice cream; carmel fudge brownie, which has brownie pieces swimming in a sea of vanilla ice cream with an incredibly flavorful carmel sauce and key lime pie, which has graham cracker crust pieces to offset the sweet and tart key lime ice cream. The flavors are well though out and balanced, as an example, the carmel sauce is taken to a little darker stage then most places, which gives you just the hint of the burnt sugar taste to offset the sweetness. Prices at Mitchells are not cheap, with a single scoop running over $2.50 and a double scoop coming in at just under $4.00, but you get a very high quality product, served in a good portion and you are supporting local ownership. Mitchells of course offers a wide variety of drinks, sundays and other ice cream treats. You will also find pints of their ice cream for sale at Heinen's and in certain high end local restaurants. Mitchells is probably not an everyday stop, as you are getting a product with alot of calories and fat, but for an every once in awhile treat it is hard to beat; the calories and fat make for one of the best tasting ice creams you will find anywhere. Go out and exercise and burn off enough calories so you can stop by and get some.