Anniversary Food Shenanigans Part I: Hodge's in Cleveland
Last week it was my and my sig other's one year anniversary. Therefore, there were lots of food related shenanigans! Now for this one: I can't claim the most discerning palate ever, so feel free to take this review with as many grains of salt as you'd like.
I ended up getting free Cavaliers tickets in a promotion (I actually got featured on a commercial too! Fancy!) and so I planned a night out to go to Hodge's in downtown Cleveland, and then go to the game. They usually have a Tuesday two dinners, an app, and a bottle of wine special, but sadly they did not on game/event days.
So first off service was wonderful. My SO was late (ha!) so the waitress checked on me multiple times and made sure I had everything I needed in the meantime. The interior was also cozy while still being modern in a way I didn't expect. Plus they actually had the heat on which was GREAT since I often get cold in restaurants.
Once he finally got there she brought out some warm skillet cornbread.
Oh my god guys. This cornbread was GOOD. I think the butter was maple bourbon flavored, too, but I didn't care. This cornbread was something SPECIAL. Crisp, almost cookie like at the edges and dense and moist on the inside. It was very sweet, and it was not as much to SO's taste because of that (he prefers lighter more cakey cornbread). It wasn't like any cornbread I've had before (my own cornbread recipe that I adore is for the light fluffy kind) but I would eat that all day long for every meal (it would have been amazing with some bacon and egg).
Entrees:
I got the Braised CAB Beef with Middlefield cheddar pommes puree, heirloom carrots, and big red demi-glace and SO got the Fried Chicken with southern white cheddar grits, cornbread, jalapeno slaw, hodge's hot sauce and maple butter.
The potatoes were....meh. I didn't really taste the cheddar and TBH whipped potatoes are not to my taste. The carrots were really nice, though a touch underdone (again, that's totally a taste thing). The sauce had a really lovely texture and really tied the whole thing together. The beef was super tender and they did a really good job of trimming it so there were no really huge fatty bits, which is an issue I've had with these sorts of beef cuts out and about. My main complaint was that the whole thing lacked salt. A little bit more would have just made the dish really pop. (Can you tell I've been binging Top Chef?) I don't like using the salt shaker at restaurants, just because I always assume the person cooking knows way more than I do about how stuff is supposed to taste, but it really helped this dish. One thing they did wonderfully though, is the proportion of sauce to meat to potato. That's something that's often not great, but each bite had enough of each.
SO let me taste his fried chicken as well. The grits were lovely and creamy and I tasted more maple than cheddar. Same with the chicken, it was very well cooked and juicy inside (which was remarkable considering how thing each piece was, I wonder if they pounded it?), but sweet. The hot sauce too, was very maple/sugar forward with some hotness only on the back end. With the previously mentioned sweet cornbread it was just a bit too much sweet and not enough savory running through the entirety of the dish. And the butter was a little unnecessary and made the crispy crust on the chicken soften a little too much, and added even more sweetness.
Now, would I go back? Heck yes. It's a bit pricey but they have been running a lot of specials lately and it's really beautiful inside. Plus I'd go back just for that cornbread again.
I ended up getting free Cavaliers tickets in a promotion (I actually got featured on a commercial too! Fancy!) and so I planned a night out to go to Hodge's in downtown Cleveland, and then go to the game. They usually have a Tuesday two dinners, an app, and a bottle of wine special, but sadly they did not on game/event days.
So first off service was wonderful. My SO was late (ha!) so the waitress checked on me multiple times and made sure I had everything I needed in the meantime. The interior was also cozy while still being modern in a way I didn't expect. Plus they actually had the heat on which was GREAT since I often get cold in restaurants.
Once he finally got there she brought out some warm skillet cornbread.
Oh my god guys. This cornbread was GOOD. I think the butter was maple bourbon flavored, too, but I didn't care. This cornbread was something SPECIAL. Crisp, almost cookie like at the edges and dense and moist on the inside. It was very sweet, and it was not as much to SO's taste because of that (he prefers lighter more cakey cornbread). It wasn't like any cornbread I've had before (my own cornbread recipe that I adore is for the light fluffy kind) but I would eat that all day long for every meal (it would have been amazing with some bacon and egg).
Entrees:
I got the Braised CAB Beef with Middlefield cheddar pommes puree, heirloom carrots, and big red demi-glace and SO got the Fried Chicken with southern white cheddar grits, cornbread, jalapeno slaw, hodge's hot sauce and maple butter.
The potatoes were....meh. I didn't really taste the cheddar and TBH whipped potatoes are not to my taste. The carrots were really nice, though a touch underdone (again, that's totally a taste thing). The sauce had a really lovely texture and really tied the whole thing together. The beef was super tender and they did a really good job of trimming it so there were no really huge fatty bits, which is an issue I've had with these sorts of beef cuts out and about. My main complaint was that the whole thing lacked salt. A little bit more would have just made the dish really pop. (Can you tell I've been binging Top Chef?) I don't like using the salt shaker at restaurants, just because I always assume the person cooking knows way more than I do about how stuff is supposed to taste, but it really helped this dish. One thing they did wonderfully though, is the proportion of sauce to meat to potato. That's something that's often not great, but each bite had enough of each.
SO let me taste his fried chicken as well. The grits were lovely and creamy and I tasted more maple than cheddar. Same with the chicken, it was very well cooked and juicy inside (which was remarkable considering how thing each piece was, I wonder if they pounded it?), but sweet. The hot sauce too, was very maple/sugar forward with some hotness only on the back end. With the previously mentioned sweet cornbread it was just a bit too much sweet and not enough savory running through the entirety of the dish. And the butter was a little unnecessary and made the crispy crust on the chicken soften a little too much, and added even more sweetness.
Now, would I go back? Heck yes. It's a bit pricey but they have been running a lot of specials lately and it's really beautiful inside. Plus I'd go back just for that cornbread again.
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