Fathead Brewery - Westside Saloon

I have been meaning to give Fathead Brewery a try for a little while, have heard good things about it; so I managed to get across town this weekend and see what is going on. Fathead is located 24581 Lorain Road, North Olmsted, Ohio (map is here) at the intersection with Columbia Road, not far from Great Northern. The space used to be a large farm market that has been made over into a spacious restaurant and brewery. The bar is in the front with a big dining room taking up the back room. The feeling is one of lots of space with the beamed ceiling and room between tables. Overall the look is nice and clean with a warm feeling. Of course there are TV's with sports playing, but less then at most bars around town. I sat at the bar, unfortunately since I was on the motorcycle I had to pass on having a beer; they offer a wide selection on tap, including both their own house brewed beers and other specialty beers. Instead I took a look at the menu of starters, pizza and sandwiches (go here to take a look). I settled on the Walleye sandwich; while there are some items, this menu caters to the carnivores. The walleye was an 9" sub bun with a couple of nice sized pieces of the fried fish lettuce and tomato served with a very good tarter sauce and a large helping of homemade potato chips. The fish was good, although some parts had a bit of a fishy taste which can happen with walleye. The overall portion was large and as I said the tarter sauce was one of the better ones I have tasted, with some nice bright flavor notes to compliment the fish. The chips were ok, unfortunately not that crisp despite being quite well cooked. For $9 a very big portion and quite filling and that seemed to be the norm here, watching other food come out Fathead seemed to tend towards the Flintstone's style portions of food, big and meaty. Overall a nice place, being a Pescatarian, I am probably not their key demographic. A good place to head if you want some quality beer and large portions of food at decent prices. Hopefully I will get back there and try some of the beers. Once again, I will remind you that if you like the blog, please consider making a donation to Bowl For Kids Sake for Jewish Big Brothers Big Sisters; any amount would be welcome and more information is available at this post. Thank you.

Primanti Brothers - Pittsburgh's One Worthy Contribution

As a true Browns fan I hate to give any credit to Pittsburgh, but I flew out of the Pittsburgh airport for my recent trip to South Florida and got another couple of chances to stop at Primanti Brothers for some excellent grub. I made two stops (lunch leaving and coming home) at the Primanti Brothers restaurant in Moon, PA, right next to the airport and I have to admit that their food is good. For those who are unfamiliar with Primanti Brothers, if you have been to a Pannini's location in the Cleveland area you will get an idea since Pannini's basically copied what Primanti has been doing for a very long time. Based around their sandwiches with coleslaw and french fries in the sandwich, Primanti offers good food at affordable prices in a sports bar setting. For my first lunch I had a Tuna Sandwich. The tuna is loaded onto thick cut Italian bread and then topped with a heap of coleslaw, french fries, tomato slices and provolone cheese. The tuna was great, simply prepared with a little mayo. The coleslaw, which has a vinegar dressing, was a great contrast with a crispness and tartness yet just enough sweetness to make it sing. The fries are fresh cut and come out hot and overflowing from the sandwich. As a whole this was an exceptional sandwich, big, flavorful and more than filling. About the only complaint I had was that the bread, although thick cut, could not stand up to all the fillings, making it a bit hard to eat by hand. At $6.29 it is a very good deal. Primanti offers the option to get a slice of pizza for $1.25 with any sandwich and I decided to give it a try and I was very happy I did. The slice was nicely sized and came out piping hot and fresh. This was a very traditional pizza, but it was almost perfectly executed. The crust was thin but crisp, with enough stiffness to be picked up with no sagging; the bottom was dusted with corn meal to keep it from burning in the pizza oven and adds a nice little extra note. The sauce was nice, with good tomato flavor and thinly spread so the cheese could adhere to the crust properly. The cheese was good, providing a nice even coat without being overly thick and had a nice little cheesey twang to it. This slice reminds me of why I really like pizza, it is a balancing act of all of the elements to make something flavorful and satisfying. Lunch on my way home was the Colossal Fish and Cheese sandwich. For $6.99 you get an really big piece of fish, nicely fried and then topped with the same toppings as above. The fish was very good, flavorful and fresh and worked even better with the toppings then the tuna. The amount of food on this sandwich was staggering and I was more then filled by the time I was done. Other then being located in the Pittsburgh area and having all sorts of Pittsburgh sports paraphenalia, Primanti Brothers is a real winner and well worth your time if you are any where nearby. You can check on the various locations at http://www.primantibrothers.com/. I will try to get to one of the Pannini's to give you a direct comparison soon.

Grums Sub Shop - Solon

Grums Subs Shop has been a mainstay of Coventry for what seems like forever. Located in a small takeout only store near the corner of Coventry and Mayfield Roads, the shop has supplied high quality subs for generations. Now those who don't get down to Coventry can enjoy these great subs, since Grums has opened a new location at 28500 Miles Road in Solon in the new shopping center next to Miles Market. Grums seems to favor corner stores as it has taken over the space briefly occupied by the revival of Harvey's BBQ. As opposed to the Coventry store, the Solon's Grums, is plain with none of the atmosphere of the original store, which features alot of brick and wood, along with flyers and other signs of the area. The Solon store, while curently a bit vanilla does provide for seating and is clean and functional, hopefully over time they will add some decor. For those who have not had a Grums Sub, these are excellent subs made with high quality ingredients. In comparing them to the national chains, you will find that there are fewer choices and the prices seem higher, but you get value and quality for your money. First lets talk bread; Grums uses large crusty loaves, that are about twice the width of most place, providing a perfect canvas on which to prepare the sandwhich. Because of their size, a half sandwhich at Grums is about the same as a footlong at Subway or its ilk. I usually get the Seagrum, which has Tuna, Mayo, Lettuce, Tomato and Provolone Cheese. Everything is very fresh and with high quality and taste being the key. Grums offers a full menu of hot and cold subs, salads and a couple of extras. When you get tired of bland foods quickly thrown together and want a real quality sub sandwich head over to Grums and see what a real sandwhich should be, it may not be the cheapest, but certain things are worth paying a little bit more for.

Dibella's Subs

OK I am not one for chains, but I am always looking for a good sub sandwich. Until I find a good local sub shop near by, Dibella's has become my current sub of choice. They are a small regional chain that has opened up 2 stores on the east side of Cleveland. One on Richmond Road across from Tri-C East and the other on Aurora Road in Solon. The shops are a bit bigger then the your average Subway or Quiznos, with a long sub line and plenty of seating. Very good subs here. They bake the bread in the stores and it is good, a bit crusty on the outside, with a nice soft middle and good flavor for both the white and wheat. I especially like the everything bread, topped with onions, poppy seeds and sesame seeds. Now the subs themselves, they are well stuffed with proper layering of quality ingredients. I of course have the Tuna and find it to be good quality with not too much mayo. I love that in addition to the cheese, lettuce, tomato and onions you also have a choice of hot, sweet and banana peppers. A couple of other differences you will notice, the hot subs are made on a real griddle the old fashion way, not run through a conveyor belt oven. Also this is a sub shop, salads are not on the menu. For desert there are chocolate chip cookies which may be expensive, but they are yummy. The cookies are just how you want them, a bit crisp around the edges with the soft, chewy middles. Dibella's has a complete menu of cold and hot subs, so if you need a bite give them a try. You can find there website at http://www.dibellas.com/default.asp