Still Spot On

Barney Taxel, Taxel Image Group

  I celebrated the arrival of Wine Spot on Lee Road in Cleveland Heights with a 2012 post. A recent visit made it clear that much has happened since then and there are many more reasons to put this place on your go-to list.

Barney Taxel, Taxel Image Group

    There's still the same eclectic array of wines, craft beers, and hard ciders from around the world for sale. But now there are 12 beer taps and a six seat bar; an extensive selection of hard to find vermouths, digestifs and apertifs; cheese and meat boards to go with your drinks- charcuterie supplied by Saucisson; and a high speed chiller that can get a bottle ice cold in seven minutes.

Barney Taxel, Taxel Image Group

  Owners Adam and Susan Fleischer also secured a full liquor license and so they are pouring shots — only the really good stuff of course — and mixing some creative cocktails along with full glasses of everything they sell. Those in a tasting mood can order beer, wine or whiskey flights.
  Since New Year's eve is almost here. it's worth mentioning that the store is stocked with a variety of bubbles-champagne, cava and prosecco among them. But I am totally smitten with something Adam encouraged me to try. It's a dry sparkling white wine called Gruet Brut, made in the French methode champenoise. Not sure which feature amazes me more: how delicious and aromatic it is, with notes of grapefruit and green apple; that it's only $14.99 a bottle; or that it comes from New Mexico. Finds and recommendations like this are what The Wine Spot is all about. And I'm so glad to have them in my neighborhood.

Apple of my Eye

Photo from Rittman Orchards

Lots of apples look good but many don't deliver on their promise. Sinking my teeth into one that is mealy, mushy and relatively flavorless is a particular kind of disappointment. I'm always on the watch for varieties that are all an apple should be, especially this time of year when local ones are available. And I just found a new favorite at Zagara's Marketplace in Cleveland Heights.
 
Called Macoun, its creamy white flesh is crisp, juicy and sweet-tart. The pros, using the language of wine writers, describe it as "complex" and "aromatic" with "hints of berry, strawberry and spice notes." The skin splits and snaps like the casing of a properly made sausage when you bite into it. A hybrid of McIntosh, which I generally find insipid, and Jersey Blacks, an American heirloom varietal, the Macoun was developed in 1909 and named after a Canadian pomologist. It's a real all-rounder, great for eating fresh, cooking down into sauce or baking. I am definitely using them for my Thanksgiving pie this year.

Barney Taxel, Taxel Image Group

Unknown by me until now, I discovered that Macoun's have something of a cult following in various parts of the country and their seasonal arrival is eagerly anticipated. I did some asking around and learned that a few area growers have them for sale on site and at the weekly markets they attend: Sages Fruit Farm, Eddy Fruit Farm, Huffman Fruit Farm and Rittman Orchards. Keep your eyes out for these dark skinned beauties — it might be love at first bite for you too.

The 3 F's

In January, Julia Moskin wrote an article for the New York Times about female chefs starting to get their due in the kitchen. I actually explored the same topic, with a focus on Cleveland's culinary lady lights, in a piece published back in 2006. Three of the women I wrote about — Karen Small, Pamela Waterman and Donna Chriszt — along with Ruth Levine and Britt-Marie Culey, will come together Dec. 4 to show off their prodigious talents in support of the Cleveland International Film Festival. They'll be serving dishes inspired by childhood favorites, playing off the theme "just like mom used to make." Dubbed Chef, the event will be a night to celebrate food, females and film. And it's also great fun.

Photo, Taxel Image Group

Karen Small, longtime chef and owner of the Flying Fig in Ohio City, really needs no introduction. Pamela Waterman left the restaurant world and now runs Duet Catering in Rocky River. I recently blogged about Chriszt and her new gig running the kitchen at Table 45, as well as about Culey and Coquette Patisserie, which she opened at the start of the year in Uptown. Levine, almost always seen in a white coat and apron, owns Bistro 185 with her husband, Mark, in Collinwood. Janine Poleman,​ founder and director​ of Agencie Campaine​, a wine sales and marketing company, also joins the lineup.

Photo, Taxel Image Group

My husband and I are hosting this shindig at Taxel Image Group, our Prospect Avenue photography studio and culinary prop heaven, something we've done seven other years. After everyone's had time to mix, mingle, eat, and drink, I'll introduce the women, give them a chance to talk about themselves and then lead them in a conversation on the theme and down memory lane with lots of audience participation.

This is part of the Film (and other Arts) Feasts series. We always get a full (and enthusiastic) house — and all the programs sell out fast — so the time to get your tickets is right now.

Nature's Bounty

Ben Bebenroth's idea of bringing people out to area farms for dinner just doesn't get old. The chef and owner of  Spice Kitchen and Bar has been doing it since 2005, and I've attended these Plated Landscape Dinners multiple times, most recently earlier this month at Muddy Fork Farm near Wooster. It was as magical and memorable as ever.

The weather, the astonishingly good food, and grower Monica Bongue, who supplied just-picked ingredients including the asparagus served for our first course, made the event perfect, and that's a word I don't use often or casually. The long table, set up in a grassy space between the rhubarb patch, some fruit trees and the chicken coop, was covered in white linen and set with wine glasses and wildflowers. Six minute eggs and freshly made hollandaise came out of the temporary outdoor kitchen. Walleye, skirt steak and bread were grilled on a grate suspended over a campfire. Before the meal, guests got tours of the beautiful property from Bongue, who operates the farm with the help of her husband, as well as passed hors d'oeuvres and an excellent cocktail featuring ginger syrup and tequila. Well-paired reds and whites were poured with every course. Service, under the watchful, seasoned eye of Jess Edmonds, who favors dresses and cowboy boots, was impeccable. Ducks waddled by, the dog barked, the hens clucked, birds sang, breezes blew, the sun set with a gorgeous glow, the band played on and the world was a happy place.

You can make reservations for your own enchanted evening. There are dinners scheduled through October. My husband, Barney Taxel, took photos that show why you should.

  

A Timeless Dram

Photo by Barney Taxel, Taxel Image Group

Age is the defining characteristic of quality scotch and bourbon. At least it has been until serial entrepreneur and marketing genius Tom Lix came up with a patent pending process that transforms the making of brown spirits. It truly creates the taste and smoothness of age without the time. He can produce a bottle in under a week that can compare to a 10 or 12 year old version.  I wouldn't have believed it was possible if I hadn't visited his downtown distillery and tried his Cleveland Whiskey for myself.

Photo by Barney Taxel

It's dark in the bottle, a gorgeous honey-amber hue in a glass. The aroma was rich and complex. It had none of the bite or harsh alcoholic "heat" - though it is 100 proof- that usually comes with young  (and therefore inexpensive) whiskey. The mouthfeel is round and silky. An added splash of water smooths it out even more. This is comparable to a very fine high end bourbon. And it will sell for a fraction of the price.

This hometown product is a kind of miracle. Certainly something revolutionary and new. Lix calls it "a disruptive technology and a game changer." I call it amazing. And the timing couldn't be better. Whiskey is trendy. The demand for brown spirits is high and growing, and manufacturers can't keep up.

 The production facility is housed in a start-up incubator run by MAGNET (Manufacturing and Advocacy Growth Network) on East 25th Street, near Cleveland State University. I can smell his space before I see it- there's a yeasty smell from the grain fermenting in the mash cooker. Lix makes some of his base spirit, essentially "white lightening" or legal "moonshine" himself.  The still is a polished gleaming copper column and network of pipes. The liquid that comes out of it normally goes into a barrel. But not here and exactly what next is secret. Lix is willing to tell me, and other reporters he's talked to, about it but nobody is allowed to see the actual machinery. I can hear it humming behind a curtained wall. It reminds me of that scene in the movie when Dorothy and friends get their first audience with the Wizard of Oz. 

Photo by Barney Taxel

Lix holds up a used and charred barrel stave and explains how his trademarked pressure aging technology aggressively pushes the alcohol in and out of pores of the wood, speeding up what normally occurs during years in a cask. Since his focus is aging, and his ability to produce base spirit limited, Lix is also buying rough six month old bourbon and running it through his system to produce Cleveland Whiskey. The day I visited he had  6000 bottles are waiting to be filled.

After a long wait, he got final approval of his labels and is official listed with the State of Ohio Liquor Commission. Cleveland Whiskey should be in local bars and restaurants and in retail stores before St. Patrick's Day. Look on the website for more info on where to find it. It's adds another and most welcome way to buy local.