Eating Little Italy, Part II

My hands still faintly smell like iron from the chains on the swings at Brush Park in Little Italy. I took the liberty of ordering some gelato from Presti's before walking down the hill to the park. The sun was still out and the breeze was faint enough to make sitting outside in a tank top tolerable. The gelato wasn't very good this time, so I didn't finish it. The views however, were spectacular. There's something picturesque about pre-dusk, edifices and verdure appear to be over-saturated in color and the sun shines in its brightest of bright effort before retreating beneath the horizon.

Friday night was for eating Little Italy. A friend and I went to Restaurant Etna (a location formerly occupied by Valerio's) on Mayfield. Valerio's moved to Battuto's former location farther east on Mayfield Rd.

Mount Etna is an active volcano on the east coast of Sicily, southern Italy. It is the largest active volcano in Europe and the largest of the active volcanoes in Italy. (via Wikipedia)

We started with the house Cabernet ($5 per glass) which was fairly bland for a cab. The wine list is extensive there, so I'm sure my frugality was my undoing. I was saving my money for further drinks, so I ate light with an antipasti plate - anchovies, soppressata, sun-dried tomato, olives and peccorino cheese, ($8.50) and a house salad ($2.50). Anne had the Ravioli Tre Formaggi ($13.50) which looked good, but she wasn't a sharer (but she ate my tomatoes!).

The menu is currently vast and a little hard to look at - but the server did apologize. To their credit, they'd only been open for a few days at that point. I'm actually very excited to go again. Peppe (the chef) was very excited that I knew him and brought us some Sicilian Tiramisu at the end of the meal - it's not as sweet and was absolutely wonderful (and gratis). Be sure to say hello to him if you go to Restaurant Etna. It is inexpensive, and a nice addition to Little Italy.

Jeff ran the 1st annual Derby Dash 5k in Ohio City, which was one of the most unorganized races I've ever been to. The course was short, and they got Jeff's time wrong. They tried to give him the 3rd place cash prize (he placed in fourth) and didn't initially give him the age group award. He did win a raffle though, and got some stickers, a pint glass, and a shirt (an XL, wtf). We ate lunch at the Great Lakes Brewery, and it was delicious.

Jeff and I got the sweet potato fries to start, and they were freaking amazing. They were shoestring cut sweet potatoes with honey, sage and thyme. We both also got the Old World Burger (smoked cheddar, bacon, fried onion straws and barbecue sauce on a pretzel roll) which has to have been one of the best burgers I've ever had. Jeff received a coupon for a free pint (for running in the race) and since he doesn't imbibe, I went for the Edmund Fitzgerald Porter. I really liked it a lot, and if I had another 30 minutes to finish it, I would have (I'm not an avid beer drinker, honestly - but it was extremely good. I'm just slow).

We went to brunch at the Beachland Ballroom and it was also very good. There are so many things I would like to try (including half of the cocktail menu)! K & J, we thought for a moment that we saw you. I think we were wrong. We have both gotten haircuts since the last pictures were posted.

Speaking of Beachland... The 4th annual Prom is on May 29th! Put on your best formal dress and be there! Only $5!

We have made more progress on the "Garden of Piggy Street". Pictures coming soon.

Until next time...

Bonus video: Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald - Gordon Lightfoot