We live three blocks from this huge, new, music, food, beverage and event venue, and never saw it melting into the neighborhood as the insides of a very old brick building saw a different light of day with each new layer of the remodel forming a personality suited to all who enter. Everywhere you look quality reaches out to impress. The comfort of the furniture alone is enough to entice repeat customers.
For such a large facility to have the acoustics of a real living room and not a concert hall amazed me the most. I could talk to my husband and not be at all bothered by those talking around me – even with my new hearing aides.
The wait staff were casual, friendly and helpful. These days that means a lot.
Like so many other new restaurants opening in the Cleveland area, they offer vegan and vegetarian options.
Now granted, they’ve only been open about six months with no advertising beyond social media and are still working out some kinks, but they aim to please and that means something too.
I started with tater tots. Although it’s served with an animal-based sauce, they gladly provided me with a chimichurri sauce as a substitute. The best tots I ever had bar none. I never saw tater tots look like these. Spectacular. I wouldn’t order the chimichurri again, since it was way too oily and it didn’t looked like it was made with dry herbs plus it separated too easily. I settled for ketchup.
I then ordered an Impossible burger, but the bun wasn’t vegan, so they substituted a bunch of greens on which to support the burger, which I enjoyed.
When inquiring what contained animal product, there was a loose leaf binder notebook that the waiter referred to, which was very helpful. We were assured that all the items we ordered could be made vegan and that the base product contained no animal.
Steve ordered a basil pizza with hand-selected toppings, since we weren’t having cheese. We were also told that the crust contained no animal product. It was the best pizza I had in a long time and pliable enough to eat without bruising my gums. they were also out of fresh basil so substituted spinach.
The two vegan salad dressings were like water, so either they were made that way or whoever served it up didn’t stir up from the bottom. It was truly like water consistency. Although these are small issues when you’re just opening and cooks aren’t familiar with the menu, watery dressing has nothing to do with the absence of animal product. Except for the condiment issue, we enjoyed it.
I was definitely going to come back – especially for the pizza.
Before I left I suggested to the waiter that it would be beneficial for non-animal eating customers to have one animal-free selection in each category on the menu. He immediately passed it onto one of the owners of the building, whom Steve and I had chatted with outside before coming in. He said his eyes popped in consideration of it, which was a good thing. We’ll see.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the wood burning ovens. That day the scent permeated the entire venue space! I felt like I was at a resort.
ANIMAL-FREE SOUS-CHEF™ 