Cleveland restaurants serve up success
TEXT OF STORY
Kai Ryssdal: Here’s one of those recession-related conundrums that makes covering the economy so interesting: At the same time that many Americans are eating in more — or if they do go out it’s straight to the McDonald’s dollar menu — there are an amazing number of high-end restaurants opening and succeeding. A lot of them in places that have been clobbered by a falling economy. Places like Cleveland, Ohio. Dan Bobkoff of WCPN has more.
DAN BOBKOFF: I didn’t expect much from Cleveland’s restaurants when I moved here three years ago. I had an East Coast snob’s opinion of Midwestern cooking.
Boy, was I wrong.
BOBKOFF: So what are you thinking of ordering?
MICHAEL RUHLMAN: I could order anything on this menu and be happy.
I’m at lunch with food writer — and Cleveland food booster — Michael Ruhlman. We’re sitting in a new restaurant called L’Albatros. It’s an old carriage house, with bold artwork on the brick walls. Our waiter comes over to help us decipher the appetizer.
WAITER: It’s braised tongue and oxtail terrine, with pickled mustard seeds. Next to it is kind of a roulade of sorts of pork with dried figs.
I think there was some rabbit in there too. Foodies, take note. Here in the rust belt, you can now get a world class meal for about what you’d pay at an Olive Garden.
RUHLMAN: Can you believe that? Duck Confit, pork belly, two different kinds of sausages, and some great white beans, for $14 bucks? You cannot beat that!
This restaurant opened up just last year at the height of the financial crisis. Yet, owner and Chef Zack Bruell says L’Albatros is thriving. Cleveland’s low cost of living means those with jobs can generally afford some nice meals. And, he says, there’s a demand now for interesting food.
ZACK BRUELL: The sophistication level has changed dramatically in the last 25 years. I would never have thought of doing this concept 25 years ago.
In the next few weeks, Bruell will open his fourth new restaurant in five years. And, he has competition like never before.
From chefs like Dante Boccuzzi, who’s putting the finishing touches on two new restaurants in Cleveland’s up-and-coming Tremont neighborhood. It’s gentrification, just blocks from once-bustling steel mills.
DANTE BOCCUZZI: Soft benches, nice coffee tables.
Boccuzzi made his name in big cities like New York, where the pace is fast and failure is common. Cleveland’s cheap rent and lower start-up costs make opening here a less risky bet.
BOCCUZZI: Everything about it is a lot less. And that was one of the main draws that brought me back to Cleveland. Just the whole market itself. There’s a lot of great restaurants, but it’s not like there’s 3,000 of them, like New York City.
But 20 years ago, chefs like Boccuzzi likely wouldn’t have had much luck in smaller cities. What changed? Americans got a lot more food-savvy. They started to ask what’s in their meals and where the ingredients came from. “Organic” and “local food” entered the lexicon. Enrollment went way up at U.S. culinary schools. And, let’s not forget the rise of the Food Network.
IRON CHEF: The next Iron Chef is Chef Symon!
Michael Symon, Cleveland’s hottest chef, put his city on the culinary map when he won the Food Network’s Iron Chef competition two years ago.
ANDREW KNOWLTON: He was definitely, has become the poster child for Cleveland and every city needs a poster child.
Andrew Knowlton is the restaurant editor for Bon Appetit Magazine. He and Cleveland food writer Michael Ruhlman were both judges on that show. Knowlton says the burgeoning foodie scene in Cleveland is a microcosm for what’s happening nationwide, and that the availability of great ingredients from local farms gives the Midwest an edge.
KNOWLTON: The food revolution is going to happen in the flyover states. It’s not about New York and San Francisco.
Then, maybe I’m not a snob. Good food is now mainstream.
So, in Cleveland, where the food’s great, I’m Dan Bobkoff for Marketplace.
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