Cocktails for Kids

Crop Rocks' Steve Schimoler, chef and owner, and beverage manager Ryan Wilkins 

Guzzle for a good cause this Friday, Sept. 18 at 8 p.m. when the Gala speakeasy fundraiser takes over Steve Schimoler's new On Air Studio (part of the new trio of Crop venues in the Flats that also includes Crop Sticks and Crop Rocks).

Benefiting Cleveland Clinic Children's, the event features hors d'oeuvres by Crop Rocks, craft cocktails by representatives of the United States Bartenders Guild and live music by Brazilian jazz quartet Moises Borges and the David Thomas Jazz Trio.

Crop Rocks beverage manager Ryan Wilkins shares his Silk Road cocktail recipe, which he will serve on Friday to complement the Asian-influenced cuisine.

"We're trying to incorporate some Asian flavors and ingredients not only because they fit [Crop Sticks ] thematically, but because they go well with the food," says Wilkins. The drink features vodka, yuzu (a mild Asian citrus fruit) and fresh shiso.

If you're unfamiliar with the herb, you're not alone. "It's not a direct parallel to a more common herb in Western cooking," Wilkins explains. "It has a very vibrant, slightly spicy flavor with a little undertone of bitter. [It's like] a cross between cilantro and arugula."

Though shiso makes an appearance in a few other Crop Sticks cocktails, "This time I wanted to work with the shiso flavor but in a cocktail that would be very smooth and balanced without aggressive acidity," he says.

Order up on Friday or try your hand at mixology with the following recipe:


Silk Road

2 ounces Chopin Potato Vodka
3/4 ounce oleo-saccharum syrup (see recipe below)
1/4 ounce yuzu juice
small handful shiso leaves
small pinch salt

Dry-shake shiso leaves to bruise, then add other ingredients. Shake well and double-strain into chilled coupe glass. Garnish with microshiso leaf.

Oleo-saccharum syrup

Peels from two grapefruits and four limes (remove bitter white pith with a sharp paring knife or peeler)

3 cups sugar

3 cups water

Combine sugar and citrus peels in an airtight container and allow to macerate overnight. Remove citrus peels (straining sugar through sieve if necessary) and add sugar to medium saucepan. Stir in water, then simmer until sugar is dissolved. Cool. 

Tickets to the Gala are $40 presale or $50 on the day of the event.

Clearing the Table

Photo by Barney Taxel, Taxel Image Group

This happens often: My husband and I are enjoying a meal in a restaurant. It might be an established upscale place or a trendy new semi-casual spot. Doesn't matter what the price point. One of us finishes first and a server or bus person swoops in and clears the plate while the other person is still eating. We both hate this. It's disruptive and impolite. And according to my personal and professional knowledge, it's just plain wrong. Sometimes they even interrupt our conversation to ask if they can take away a plate that still has food on it simply because there was a pause in fork-to-mouth activity.
 
Last week, Giovanna Migrone — formally trained chef, culinary instructor and former owner of Battuto, a beloved but long gone fine dining establishment in Little Italy — posted this on Facebook: "It is proper service to wait until all parties are finished eating before your server ... clears plates. That way the person who is still eating does not feel rushed. Also, this allows for the plates to be cleared with the proper technique."

Photo by Barney Taxel, Taxel Image Group

This prompted me to raise the issue with more industry professionals. The responses were illuminating. It turns out that people in the business know what's right but their customers don't. Here are some of the responses I received:

Molinari's chef and owner Randal Johnson: Never clear until everyone is done, unless requested.

Flour chef and owner Paul Minnillo: The standard is don't touch anything until everybody is finished, but some customers don't like dirty plates left in front of them and they'll complain if we leave them there. So how and when to clear is the million dollar question.

Food writer and former editor and associate publisher of Restaurant Hospitality Stephen Michaelides: Nothing worse than a server — anxious to clear dishes — asking a guest not quite finished eating, "You still working on that?"

Cooking school founder Zona Spray Starks: Clearing dishes while others are eating is like saying, "Sorry, buddy, but you're finished too."

Food writer and restaurant reviewer Elaine Cicora: The "rule" is to wait until all guests are finished to clear, but if a server sees someone is antsy — moving around plates, stacking on the flatware — then clearing is acceptable. Mainly, I think the problem is not that servers don't know the "rule" but that diners don't.

Crop chef and owner Steve Schimoler: We try so hard to wait till everyone is finished, but many of the diners don't know proper etiquette at all and push stuff around the table to clear it themselves. It's so rude for someone's guest who is speaking for a good part of the meal and can't eat as fast as the others who have wolfed their food down.

My daughter-in-law, Shelley Taxel, works at Naha in Chicago. She writes: From my service perspective, I find it awful to clear without everyone being done. However, if a guest gives one of the "signs"  — napkin in or on plate, pushing it completely aside, stacking other dishes on their plate — I clear it. The fact that it happens to you when you don't give any of these signs could be the result of poor training, a push from management to turn the table, or servers who want to get done and go home.

So the question is, what can those of us who prefer a clear line of demarcation between eating and cleaning do? I’ve tried to communicate subtley by saying we’re not in a hurry or that we’d like to take our time. But it doesn’t help. Would it be appropriate to speak more directly and ask our server to please not clear dishes until everyone at the table done or would this be offensive? Speak up. I want to know what you think.

Restaurant Scene-Ery

In terms of settings to eat and drink, the landscape has gotten much more exciting in the past week. Dante Bocuzzi and Steve Schimoler, the bold, visionary impresarios of these two new restaurant productions, each deserve a round of applause. I'm not talking about the food. What has me so jazzed at the moment are the places, not the plates. Both are something special and they couldn’t be more different.

I got my first view of Ginko, Bocuzzi’s Tokyo-style sushi lounge in Tremont, at a kickoff event last Wednesday night. I was last in here over a year ago, when construction upstairs was still in progress. This was a dark, dirty basement with a toilet in the corner. It’s hard to believe the transformation. The look is not like anything else in the town and hard to describe. My best shot: bento box, the tidy little Japanese compartmentalized container, meets Dr. Seuss … in the 22nd century. The small underground spot, tucked under Dante Restaurant, suggests a futuristic fantasy funland. One wall features irregularly shaped and back-lit glass panels in bright reds, blues and creams. It was designed by Giancarlo Calicchia, a multi-talented sculptor and painter and Bocuzzi’s business partner, and fabricated by Streets of Manhattan, a local studio. Another is covered in textured red paper that looks lacquered with black trim. Other areas are done in glossy white and black subway tile for a sort of uber-modern yin and yang effect. A couple of flat screens showed a steady stream of anime.

The room is dominated by a curving concrete sushi bar where water flows under glass. Suspended above it is a silvery drop ceiling in what I call a “fish breath” motif. It’s dotted with bubbles like the surface of a lake when the residents are biting. More counters and stools rim the perimeter. There are two spacious booths. A panel in the table can be removed and a hibachi set in the opening for on-the-spot cooking. That should make for a good time.

Over in Ohio City, at the corner of Lorain Avenue and West 25th Street, Crop, the next generation of Schimoler’s popular Warehouse district bistro and bar which closed in the spring, begins serving tomorrow night. I was there on Monday for a “housewarming” party. Housed in a former bank, built back when they were housed in palatial digs, it is without a doubt the grandest, most imposing and striking dining room in the city. My reaction on walking in midway through the remodeling was a deep inhale and an “oh my god” exhale.

The scale is over-the-top awesome. A high and ornate coffered ceiling, huge arched windows, fat columns and 1925 mural dominate. The restoration work has been meticulous, and the redesign inspired. There’s a bar at one end and space for a coffee shop and artisinal foods mini-market and wine store at the other where you can buy some of the products you taste. In between is an open kitchen with chef’s table seating at a counter. Theater lighting adds drama. Downstairs, the former vault, with its “don’t-even-think-about-breaking-in steel doors (one weighing 70,000 pounds, the other 90,000) and bronze gates, will be used for private (and surely memorable) gatherings.

And after long waits and more work than most of us can imagine, Ginko and Crop are ready for guests. So go and see what I’m talking about for yourself. Both are pretty much guaranteed to knock you out before the first bite.

Park It

Since word was that Cropicana was attracting huge crowds from Day 1, I was waiting for some of the hubbub to die down before making my maiden visit. From what I was hearing, that’s an exercise in futility: Unless it’s cold and raining, the place is pretty much packed every night. So I got myself down there recently for a look see with a few of my favorite beer swillers, margarita sippers and onion ring enthusiasts.

There’s an outdoor kitchen, equipped with a big smoker, and bar, plus another bar and small dining area indoors. We were lucky and snagged seats under the canopy. Those who didn’t filled picnic tables scattered around the grass adjacent to the dock. There were lots of folks in team-ware, on their way to and from volleyball games. Others came armed with Frisbees. Dogs, lots of them but all on leashes, greeted one another with friendly sniffs, seemingly absorbing the friendly, relaxed, be-and-let-be vibe of this spot. Kids scampered off to play on the slide. The soundtrack was either too loud or get-down perfect depending on your personal point of view. (Live music on the weekends: Check website for schedule.) We had a nice breeze, a glorious sunset over the lake and a few hours of highly entertaining people watching.

Steve and Jackie Schimoler are managing the seasonal county-owned Wendy Park venue at Whiskey Island Marina for the summer while the second iteration of their Warehouse District restaurant, Crop, is under construction in Ohio City. It’s definitely a step away from what they usually do. Food comes in paper-lined plastic baskets, and you eat it with plastic tableware. But they’ve clearly figured out how to make guests happy and make the casual, mostly self-serve waterside restaurant a destination.

The menu has the usual options for this kind of beach scene without any fancy flourishes, which is just how most folks like their hot dogs, hamburgers and french fries. But the Schimoler style shows up in other choices and daily specials such as chile lime popcorn, lamb tacos, smoked wings and cherry chipotle ribs.

The whole experience is more funky Caribbean island than Cleveland lakefront, a sort of tiki bar meets Camp O-Hi-O. The Schimolers' formula is proving so successful that there’s talk of building a pedestrian bridge that will make it easier to get there from Ohio City and the West Bank of the Flats. But that’s a story for another year. Right now, unless you have a boat, a car’s your best bet. Take the Shoreway, follow the signs for Whiskey Island, and wind along the access road until you arrive at what looks like a big party in progress.

Mixing It Up

Professional chefs have a lot of secrets. And I’m not referring to what they do after hours. What I’m talking about are the techniques and tools that help them make magic in the kitchen. Most of this knowledge takes time and effort to acquire and the specialized equipment is out of reach for the majority of home cooks. But Saturday, November 20 is a gamer changer.

It’s the Vitamix one day only annual factory sale. Chefs swear by these high powered, high performance, heavy duty machines. At the flick of a switch it can mix, blend, shred, chop, juice, knead, churn (no kidding), and pretty much pulverize whatever fruit, vegetable and grain you throw in. According the manufacturer’s specs, a Vitamix does the work of ten different appliances and performs fifty tasks without a single specialized attachment. Prices are the best you’ll find and this year for the first time ever, the chef- inspired Vitamix Professional model will be available for direct purchase by consumers.

The event runs from 9-AM-5 PM. Some local chefs will be on hand to put the product through its paces. Jonathon Sawyer (Greenhouse Tavern), Steve Schimoler (Crop Bistro & Bar), Andy Dombrowski (Chinato), and Chris DiLisi (of the soon to open Flour Restaurant in Moreland Hills) will be doing demos throughout the day.

The Cleveland company is located at 8615 Usher Road. Free parking is available.

I've lusted after these for years. And did I mention there’s a model that comes in a delicious shade of red? To anyone thinking of giving me a gift- it would be quite the piece of eye candy on my counter.