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| The Village of Clarkston, MI, where beauty is in the eye of the Beer-holder |
Showing posts with label Italian. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Italian. Show all posts
Motor City Eating: Parker's Hilltop Brewery/Bigalora
Ice Cream Chronicles (Yr. 4) - Who Could Ask For More?
At the Coppa....Coppa Gelato...the coldest spot north of Scioto (okay, I can hear the collective groan out there.)
To get serious again, I had always considered gelato something of a sipper, much like a higher gravity beer: it's something you take a little time to swirl around your mouth and savor. Not that you can't savor its frozen cousin ice cream, but I'm definitely more likely to gobble down ice cream a lot faster depending on the circumstances and the quality..
To get serious again, I had always considered gelato something of a sipper, much like a higher gravity beer: it's something you take a little time to swirl around your mouth and savor. Not that you can't savor its frozen cousin ice cream, but I'm definitely more likely to gobble down ice cream a lot faster depending on the circumstances and the quality..
This is until I spied one of the chalkboards at Westerville's Coppa Gelato, which conveniently points out that a serving of gelato has roughly half the calories of a comparable serving of ice cream.
Whoa! Maybe I've been going at this the wrong way the whole time.
Ice Cream Chronicles (Year 4) - A Taste of Tuscany
As I've entered year four of these chronicles, I've begun to realize that the world of frozen confections is much more than just ice cream. I've ventured a touch beyond that when it came to Whit's and their frozen custard, but I figured why should I be limiting myself? Time is short, and there's plenty of places I haven't gotten to yet.
So why not gelato, ice cream's silkier Italian cousin? And why not start in a place where you can find two ladies having a deep conversation in that very same language in the corner of the cafe?
So why not gelato, ice cream's silkier Italian cousin? And why not start in a place where you can find two ladies having a deep conversation in that very same language in the corner of the cafe?
The Mitchell Report: Marcella's Ristorante
I found it a little surprising that after nearly ten months of posts, I haven't had the chance to write on a restaurant owned by ubiquitous local restaurant maven Cameron Mitchell.
It's not like I haven't been to any of their locations yet, nor have there been any that I'm not eager or willing to try. I think it's really the sheer number of restaurants under the Cameron Mitchell fold that makes it tough to get a true feel about a place through multiple visits. Suffice it to say, similar Bay Area restaurant mavens like Thomas Keller, Cindy Pawlcyn and Dennis Leary have nothing on Mitchell in regard to raw numbers of restaurants. At last count, there were fourteen locally-based locations under twelve different concepts. And there are more on the way, with the second location of Hudson 29 due to open in New Albany this spring.
Interestingly, my last visit to a Mitchell-owned restaurant told my spouse and I what we needed to know in one single visit. Marcella's Ristorante, which opened up in both Polaris and the Short North areas of the metro in 2007, is geared toward casual Italian eats and small plates. And based on our experience, the latter is a perfect way to experience this eatery, and preferably with a lot of friends in tow.
The place was slammed on our visit, not surprising with its location in the destination neighborhood of the Short North and relative proximity to the Columbus Convention Center. Moving around the space during this time was a bit of a swerve and dive with both patrons and service personnel; it seemed a lot more people can squeeze within Marcella's smartly appointed interior than one would think could fit. With the large number of people and background music, it was fairly loud but not quite to the level of deafening.
Our horde grabbed a selection of appetizers and a pepperoni pizza and this proved to be perfect for both filling up our bellies and allowing casual chatting. While wine is the main beverage focus, cocktails and some select craft beer, including Ohio-based Great Lakes and Four String, are available. Everything we had was quite good, with perhaps the group favorites being the Melted Pecorino appetizer with apples and truffle honey and the Arancini.
The staff of Marcella's appeared to be veterans at handling the crowds: food came out in fairly quick order, and beverages and empty plates were tended to as one would expect on a normal day.
Perhaps on a slower day my spouse and I might actually come in for a more relaxed experience to enjoy some of their entree offerings. Or perhaps we will go back and enjoy the small plates/appetizer side of the menu again; after all, we figured out that Marcella's does this quite well.
Marcella's Ristorante
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| Marcella's menu (which has more than just the "Small Plates" if you want to go that route) as well as photos of its interior and bar area. |
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| From top left: Beef Carpaccio; Parma Prosciutto Bruschetta; Melted Pecorino with Crostini, Apples and Truffle Honey; the Cheese Plate and Pepperoni Pizza joined the Arancini (not pictured) for our meal |
The staff of Marcella's appeared to be veterans at handling the crowds: food came out in fairly quick order, and beverages and empty plates were tended to as one would expect on a normal day.
Perhaps on a slower day my spouse and I might actually come in for a more relaxed experience to enjoy some of their entree offerings. Or perhaps we will go back and enjoy the small plates/appetizer side of the menu again; after all, we figured out that Marcella's does this quite well.
Marcella's Ristorante
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