Restaurant Week in Downtown Akron

Last week was Downtown Akron Restaurant Week. It was developed by the Downtown Akron Partnership Junior Board to encourage residents of the Akron area to explore the burgeoning dining scene in Downtown Akron. The four-day event provided reasonably priced prix fixe dinner menus at a variety of Downtown restaurants, making it easy and enjoyable to try something new!

My good friend and fellow food lover, Bev, and I had reservations for Bricco on Tuesday and Cilantro on Wednesday evenings. There were plenty of options as most all downtown restaurants had some sort of special going on for the week. That made choosing among them pretty difficult.

At Bricco we were surprised at the small crowd during the dinner hours. And we certainly had time to take it all in, we spent four hours eating and chatting while watching the busy Exchange street traffic go by from our window table.

Dinner that night was $40 for two and consisted of our choice of appetizer, two soups or salads, and two entrees. We added a nice bottle of red wine to that and it was a lovely meal with more than generous servings. Our meal started with the Goat Cheese with Spicy Marinara appetizer, a salad each and then we ordered a Pizza with Grilled Chicken, Spinach, Roasted Tomatoes and Asiago Cream Sauce and the Tri-colored Tortellini with Marinara or Sauce. We split everything at the table and it was far more food that we could eat. I ate pizza and goat cheese marinara for two days over the weekend!

From our perch in the window we could see the hustle and bustle of the downtown crowd. On a beautiful late summer evening it was good to see people around. The only downside to the night was that someone broke into my car while we were enjoying our meal. Certainly there was no lack of police presence as it seemed that a patrol car turned onto Exchange from Main Street every few minutes. Too bad it was enough deterrent to keep someone from getting into the car.

What I learned from that experience is that if you have a car (like mine) that has a lock/unlock button on the arm rest, don’t leave your window above open any amount – these thieves manage to put a stick in through the window and push open the door locks. After rummaging through the car and taking what they wanted, they were nice enough to relock the doors behind them. How thoughtful.

The following evening Bev and I headed back downtown to dine at Cilantro. Cilantro combines an eclectic atmosphere with excellent and interesting food. Their eclectic menu features specialties from Thai and Japanese cuisines with variety of exotic spices. They also have a sushi bar.

Again, dinner was $40 for two and our meal started with Chicken Satay with Peanut Sauce, then our two entrees were Shrimps and Scallops with Sweet Chili Sauce and Chicken in a Pineapple. We shared a dessert of Coconut Ice Cream with Sweet Sticky Rice and Fresh Mango.

Cilantro was a delightfully pleasant experience. I’ve been there twice before and wasn’t quite as impressed as this last visit. The service in the past was extremely slow, which doesn’t make for a pleasant meal. In contrast, last week we were seated in the beautiful back room and our server was astounding to watch. He was attentive and fleet of foot and it felt as though he spent most of the evening running to attend to all of his customers needs. The food was delicious, our martinis well made and refreshing and we’ll be happy to return for another meal soon.

I'll be looking forward to more RestaurantWeeks whether annually or more often.  It was difficult to judge how many folks were out on Tuesday for the special menues, but we could tell on Wednesday that the majority of the Cilantro guests were choosing from the prix fixe. Good job DAP Jr., keep up the good work!

Eating around Akron - August 2011

Friday night I volunteered for a good friend of mine at the Meredith A. Cowden Foundation Six Courses for a Cure at the Sheraton.

Lynne has worked with this foundation since its inception and is a mainstay in its fundraising efforts by putting together the auction for each event. Five years ago Lynne contacted Single Volunteers and we brought a few people out to handle their inaugural event. Although SVWR disbanded several years ago, I keep going back to assist Lynne and the Foundation in their efforts.

The monies raised at this fabulous gourmet event will be used to fund a medical symposium dedicated to Graft vs Host Disease, its complex issues, research, education and resources available to patients and physicians. GvHD, which is a complication of a life-saving bone marrow transplant, results when the patient’s body is attacked by the new immune system created by the bone marrow transplant. Sadly, it can cause death if not controlled. This will be the only symposium in the world solely dedicated to this malady.

Six Courses for a Cure is the result of the creative genius of Roger Thomas, Executive Chef at the Sheraton Suites, Cuyahoga Falls and Pete Olsen, a partner in Purple Feet Distributing located in Macedonia.



Meredith Cowden, Guest speaker
Dr. Steven Pavletic and
Dr. Adrianna Pavletic
Photo courtesy of Ernest J. Aranyosi

 After meeting Gerry and Marti Cowden at a family celebration and hearing the story of their daughter Meredith and her courageous battle against leukemia, Roger and Pete suggested the idea of a wine dinner to benefit the Meredith A. Cowden Foundation. Both Pete and Roger have hosted and participated in many wine dinners to raise funding for charities and worthwhile causes in northeast Ohio, specifically the Akron area.

The evening began with cocktails and hors d’oeuvres created by all of the participating chefs. The incredible six course dinner was prepared by Chef Brendan Meeker of Glenmoor Country Club, Chef Rick Carson of Nosh Eatery and Creative Catering, Chef Brian Goodman of The Greenhouse Tavern, Chef Jeff Jarrett of AMP 150, Cleveland Airport Marriott, Chef Kevin Altomare of Hudson’s and 3foodies.com and Chef Roger Thomas of Piatto Novo, the Sheraton Suites Akron/Cuyahoga Falls.

Over 100 items were up for bid on the silent auction tables and a dozen high end items were up for auction by Bob Hale between dinner courses, including a trip to Charleston, SC and a day riding in the Summit County Sheriff’s riot tank complete with shooting practice with laser and real guns.

It’s heartwarming to see a healthy Meredith in her early 20’s after learning of her illness when she was young. Leukemia is terrible, but once you think you have that cured, to find that she had to battle GvHD had to have been devastating for her and her family. Once that battle was won, the Cowdens took their energy and decided to help find a cure for the disease that nearly took their daughters life. The Cowdens are a portrait in people putting their beliefs into action and working hard to make a difference in other peoples lives.

Front Street Mall

BACK TO THE FALLS FOR LUNCH AND A SUNNY WALKABOUT
I was so taken by the walk I had last weekend on the Falls Riverfront, I decided to do it again Saturday afternoon in the sunshine. Everything looks a bit brighter in the sunshine, and the river is no exception.

This weekend was R.I.O.T. on the River and I stumbled into the festival around noontime. Sadly, there was little activity on the mall area even around the music stage. On stage was the band Red Letter, which is a pop/rock band of four siblings from Doylestown. They were joined on stage by their Dad, who was filling in on guitar for one of the brothers unable to make it this day. Their stated music goal is “to use the expressive nature of music to communicate that there is hope throughout the highs and lows of life.” Their message mostly relates to teens and young adults of this generation, bringing positive lyrics to a modern pop culture sound. I listened to most of the set and these kids are pretty talented. I hope they continue to do well.



The band Red Letter at RIOT on the River

RIOT is basically Christian Rock - young bands with good music and uplifting things to say.  They make a nice change of pace to other music which can be ugly or downgrading.  Give these people a lot of credit for putting this together - it's just a shame there weren't more folks there appreciating the performance of the afternoon.

Moving on, however, it was lunchtime and I was hungry.  Grumble belly always wins over music - no matter what the message may be.  There was a BBQ truck set up on the mall for the evening RIOT festival, but they didn't have any food ready this early so I stopped into the new Firehouse Grill I spotted last Sunday and had lunch.

UPDATE: Firehouse Grill closed their doors in 2021

The Firehouse Grill & Pub on Front Street is in the old spot that was occupied by the Cashmere Cricket a few years back. The Cricket was flooded out and finally closed two years ago, but I see it reopened on the other side of the mall. That is now on my list of “revisit places soon”.

The Firehouse is a local chain of bar and grills and I’ve eaten several times at the East Market location, my good friend Cathy is a fan of their dollar burgers. The atmosphere there is somewhat dingy and dirty, although the food is good if you like pub fare (which I do). I was hoping that the new location would be better and it was. A nice fresh space with a fully stocked bar and a few outside seats along the mall, this will make a good lunch spot as long as the weather holds.

The staff was friendly and service was good. It was a quiet afternoon so the cook was wandering and I personally thanked him for my burger. I ordered the lunch special – bacon, cheddar burger with fries – for $4.99 and it was quite good.

The only issue I had was the fact that smack in the dead of summer I was served a slice of one of those crappy hothouse tomatoes on my burger. Frankly I see no reason why a kitchen of any caliber cannot order up some local tomatoes during the peak of summer to add some real flavor to a plate.

Aside from that short rant, my lunch was excellent.  The fries are skinny and well cooked and I definitely could taste the bacon on my burger. 

SATURDAY AT D'AGNESE'S

Bev and Terri sent out an invite to join them at D'Agnese's to listen to the smooth jazz of the Stingers. The Stingers are an Akron-based band that includes Bill Brauning (bass), Bill Moriarty (keys), and (last night) Jim Yarnell on drums. Seems this group is fluid and at times includes horns and other players. Last night it was just Bill, Bill and Jim and they did a terrific job of trying to keep the attention of five women who where were busy gossiping around the dinner table (that was my group in case you didn't figure that out!).

They moved from samba and cha cha to smooth jazz and we were tapping our tootsies all evening.  By breaktime, our table was the only one populated and the guys stopped over for some lively conversation before finishing up the evening. 

The food was good, most of us ordered appetizers and shared.  There was calamari all around the table, Bev had my favorite - the roasted beets with salad - and I ordered another pizza.  Dessert was ordered all around too, with the clear favorite being the banana cheesecake.  With a glass or two of wine, good music and lots of chatter, it was a very pleasant evening indeed.

HOT BLUES AT LOCKBOTTOM IN AKRON

Wednesday night was one of those times when many good things come together to create a truly entertaining experience.  As part of an experiment for use of the new Lock 4 in downtown Akron, the City is presenting jazz and blues bands for each Wednesday night during the month of August to see if there is a good local audience for this type of entertainment.

I missed the first concert last week, but made a point to attend this week to see Aces & Eights, a blues band out of Cleveland.  My friend Nancy joined me and we ran into an old friend, Garry, as we settled on the lawn for the first half of the show.   We could not have asked for a more perfect evening, weather-wise and the crowd was friendly and lively and obviously there to enjoy the music.  By mid-concert there were a couple hundred others clapping and tapping our feet along with the band.

First, let's talk about this fantastic band.  Aces & Eights consists of Dave Morrison on harmonica and vocals, Tim Matson lead guitar and vocals, backed up by Ray DeForest and Fred Debay, and Jimmy Yarnell on drums (hope I got all those names right!).  These guys got us started on a lively mix of Chicago blues, jump blues, R&B, and soul and were joined shortly by Becky Boyd on vocals who really got our blood pumping with her strong, bluesy voice.  Check out more about Becky and Tim Matson at http://www.myspace.com/beckyboydtimmatson.

This group does not play many dates together and that's quite a shame because they are great and an obvious crowd pleaser.  They had lots of folks dancing and laughing along, in particular with a spin on a tune written by Tim Matson called Fridgedaire Man - or in this case 'Cold Fridgedaire Woman" sung by Tim and backed up by Becky and Dave Morrison.   What a hoot!  In our favor, the various members are parts of other bands that play the area regularly.  I'm gong to do my best to track down Becky and hear her sing again. 

Now to chat briefly about the venue.  I get the impression that this was an idea of Dave Lieberth, our capable Deputy Mayor, and what a good idea it is.  A smaller area than Lock 3, Lock 4 is a more intimate, friendly environment.  With all the steps built into the landscape, it's far more comfortable too.  Free parking surrounds this little park and if you can figure out your way through the Cascade deck, you can park practically on the Lock.  There was a beer and pop wagon and a Dim Sum truck on location for anyone hungry or thirsty.  The rush of the water through the canal adds to the ambiance but never overrides the sound of the music.  And best of all - it was FREE!
I think this idea is a hit and I hope they find a location to bring these concerts indoors for fall and winter.  As we all discussed at intermission, there is so much really good local talent, finding a venue where we can go to listen in Akron would be terrific rather than driving up to Cleveland and finding our way home late at night. 

REALLY? OH COME ON! AND A THANK YOU TO THE CITY OF AKRON

Monday’s Beacon reports that someone (let’s hope it’s just one lone individual) has been stealing plants out of various gardens supported by Keep Akron Beautiful. Just how low do you have to be to steal actual plants from a garden? Especially ones that are meant to enhance your neighborhood? As a first year gardener I could almost foresee deer munching on my vegetable plants or MAYBE some poor hungry soul stealing vegetables as they matured in the garden – but to steal FLOWER PLANTS? That’s really low.

Over the past couple of years I’ve admired the beauty of the gardens put out by KAB. They are artistic, well tended, beautiful and never fail to bring a smile to my face as I drive by on my daily grind. Each spring I anticipate the planting of the plot across from the new Metro Transit building. It’s a pop of vibrant color as I drive into the city from home each morning.

This weekend I stopped by the garden at the corner of E Market and North streets to admire the flowers and the fountain. I’ve driven by hundreds of times and never saw anyone around so was surprised to see a gentleman sitting by the fountain enjoying the cool, wet spray on a hot summer afternoon. As I snapped a few photos, the fountain reminded me of our trip last summer to Savannah Georgia where public squares are a common and prolific site, many complete with statues of prominent citizens or lovely fountains. To say that this display in Akron is more lovely is by no means a stretch of the imagination. The squares in Savannah were mostly untended and unimaginative. KAB is doing us proud here in Akron!

WEEKEND CHORES

Since it was so darned hot this weekend I stayed close to home and pretty low key just trying to stay cool. Cleaning out the garage on Saturday morning turned out to be just as much fun as it sounds…which is not much. However, since I lost a couple of good sized tree limbs in the storm last week I had another chance to play with my new chain saw. I’ve used it enough that I had to learn to tighten the chain and speaking as someone with ZERO experience with that sort of thing it was an adventure that required a long study of the instruction guide and some experimentation with the screw driver and wrenches. After about 20 minutes of reading, trying, reading again and trying again I finally figured it out and am now happy to say that I got the saw ready to go again tonight on the second limb. YEAH!

I’m not a power tool expert by any means but I sure have a lot of them handed down by Dad or purchased in an emergency (like the chain saw). Learning to use these is something that I now firmly believe every kid should be taught by their Dad (or Mum). My Dad never showed me about any of these things so they’re all scary and I’m a bit timid around them. However I’ve gotten the hang of the chop saw and the chain saw, so look out trees, here I come!

FIRESTONE COMMUNITY DAYS

This was the weekend of our neighborhoods traditional pre-July 4th celebration. Generally there is a festival, a band, a parade, a symphony concert performance, all followed by fireworks. This year there was no money for fireworks and the symphony was replace by a dance troupe. The festival was aimed at families with small kids – and there were a lot of them about! Inflatable rides for the youngest and greasy fair food for the rest of us. It was very hard not to succomb to the call of the funnel cakes. 

The most anticipation was for the parade that kicked off at 4 and lasted nearly 30 minutes with drum corps, baton twirlers, fancy cars and even a few floats. Got my hand shook by a few local politicos running for office and some candy tossed at me by folks riding in the fancy cars.

A band called Morning After played in the park at 5:30 and the performance by the Doug Varone & Dancers group kicked off at 8:45. The band - pretty good – the dance troupe, not so good. I remember seeing this same group last year when they were here for a performance at Glendale Cemetery and we left before intermission. What little I saw this year looked just like the last performance and it was no better.

Maybe it’s one of those “I’m too old to appreciate this” things, but these youngsters were not doing anything that resembled dance to me. Most of the performance was spent laying or rolling around on the stage. Even their web site main photo is a shot of a bunch of them laying on the stage. How is that ‘dance’? I’m not stodgy when it comes to this stuff - I like Dancing Wheels, ballet, hip hop – dancing of most kinds. This stuff I just don’t get and I don’t think I was alone. A survey of the crowd showed folks laying on their blankets staring up at the beautiful clear sky enjoying the cool evening.

In all it was a shame we didn't have firesworks this year.  I wonder if part of the reason was to ensure that we were all snug in our homes before too late.  Although I had totally forgotten the incident, it was on this date last summer that we had the big fight on the next street over with a hundred or so youth giving a beating to a local family.  When speaking to my journalism class last week about writing a piece on the community festival, the only thing any of them recalled about Firestone Park was the big fight.  Sad. 

THANK YOU CITY OF AKRON

I have to say that I really do appreciate the City of Akron bringing new things to us as part of the summer celebration series and I attend a lot of these shows all summer long. So far the only thing that I walk away scratching my head over is the dance show from Saturday. Everything else is huge kudos to the City for doing all of this and organizing so many fun things for us all to enjoy.

DOWNTOWN MASSILLON HOTEL

A coworker of mine co-manages this Hampton Inn property owned by our company.  Over the past few years, the going's on at the hotel have been a source of intrigue to those of us here who are not familiar with the inner workings of a small hotel.  Recently given a status of "Outstanding" by the Hilton Corporation we're all proud of the staff and it's accomplishements.  Huge congratulations to the staff and to my coworker for a job well done!

PHOTO WALK AKRON

This past weekend I participated in an interesting activity called a Photo Walk. Recently I've taken up photography as a new hobby - well, let's be honest, it's just taking snapshots basically, but I'm having a lot of fun with this and wanted to find a way to learn more about photography in general. I have a new camera and a keen sense of wanting to photograph stuff, so off I went in search of some new friends with the same sorts of interest.

The Art Museum is best known these days for it's new-fangled addition - I prefer the interest of the original building and the details it holds.

Through a mutual friend I stumbled across the Photo Walk. This is a global network of photographers (pro and amateur) that gather in a specific location and then wander the area to take pictures. The local group's second walk was Saturday here in Akron. We all started out together at Lock 3 park and then scattered to all parts of downtown seeking things of visual interest.

The alleyway next to my work building blooms beautifully in spring.

At the end of two hours, we all met up for dinner at Lockview and compared our days work. It was absolutely astounding what some of these folks came back with. Many of them have an eye for the obscure and an ability to look at an everyday item and see the beauty or uniqueness in it. To you and me a batch of wet paving stones just looks like wet sidewalk - but to one lady it turned into a rainbow of colors reflected in the wet surface. A pair of bike stands turned into a Peace symbol when looked at from about knee level.

Quaker Square back entrance is vivid with a bright splash of red

Each of us seemed to have a different field of interest, one woman had an uncanny ability to get birds to stand still for her, I like buildings and architecture, one guy seemed fascinated by structures such as steps and fencing. They all were valid, all different and all fun. Steps become a bit of artwork when adding color Considering that we all began and ended at the same location, we each set out in different directions and saw many, many different things. By the end of half an hour, I'd totally lost touch with any of my fellow walkers (and there were 30 of us wandering around). I managed to connect with my friend at one point and then next thing I knew, she'd disappeared again around another corner not to be seen again until we met up for dinner an hour later. As we all were comparing shots over dinner and we kept saying "where were you, I didn't see THAT?". For some of my fellow walkers, this was their second time in Akron for the same event and still they all managed to find new things to see.

Unless you use the walkways downtown you would never see this lovely bit of sculpture crossing from Cascade Plaza to the Akron City Center mall.

I think that's one of the things I love about our area - there is a lot to see. Big things and little things. If we keep our eyes open we can discover something new every day. For me, standing behind a camera gives me a chance to focus in on the small details that most of us just fly by. For other times, it's a great way to chronicle what I've been doing for future reference. Heaven knows my memory isn't what it was!

How many people notice the lovely artwork on our buildings downtown? This eagle rests over the Cascade entrance of the First Merit building.

No one says our pictures are either good nor bad - they are simply what we saw. Some of us saw deeper than others and have far more imagination, all of which makes this so much fun.

CLASSIC JAZZ COMBO AND A PAIR OF HISTORIANS

The University of Akron Jazz Studies Program continued its Jazz Fest with the Joe Augustine Trio on Wednesday night at Stage Door. As always, this group is smooth, cool and jazz-sexy. There’s something very 1950’s about jazz piano accompanied by a base and drums. Jack Schantz once again came up on stage to join in a set or two. You can close your eyes and imagine yourself sitting somewhere in the basement of a smoke-filled New York club listening to Nat Cole or Vince Guaraldi.

The event drew a larger crowd than the previous night so it was great to see so many there. Hooray for the University – they’ve done a bang up job putting this together.

WALKS AROUND AKRON
Thursday night the Akron Library presented a talk in their series called “enjoying the Great Outdoors”. Russ Mussara and Chuck Ayers came to chat about their book “Walks around Akron” that’s been documenting our city for over 27 years and continues to do so via regular articles in the Akron Life and Leisure magazine.

These two are quite obviously good friends as well as good collaborators and they’ve given us a peak into the everyday out-of-the-way places around town most people either take for granted or just never stop to see.

As I take some more baby steps into my hobby of photography, it was nice to hear some advice from these two about how to see the world around us in new ways. Chuck suggests that we take each day and each opportunity to see our everyday surroundings as though you were only going to be right here, right now, for just today and take it as though it was the first time you’ve seen it. “Like a mini-vacation” he said. When we walk into a new place, we tend to see things with a sense of openness and that is how we should approach our everyday lives.

Chuck reminisced that at times he would be busy sketching something for their articles only to have Russ tap him on the shoulder, point behind him and say “did you see that?”, which would be a completely new, and sometimes quite unexpected, view of why they were at a particular location. So we need to learn to take the time to look past the obvious, sometimes even at the back of things, in order to discover the unique views.

I liked that bit of wisdom – seems as though it might be appropriate for other things in life as well. Face value isn’t always the best view – learn to look deeper for true beauty.