Mad Good Peppers

Last Friday was the perfect weather for dining outdoors. We headed over to Stone Mad Pub to check out their beautiful stone patio. The booths are actually made of stone and covered with nice little cushions to keep it comfy.

We grabbed a few cocktails as we waited to get a spot outside. My date ordered his favorite cocktail, an Old Fashioned. He has been trying them all over town. This was a fun one with mashed oranges and cherries at the bottom. I picked out the Charles Dickens. It was the perfect patio drink. It was refreshing and sweet with a great ginger flavor.

We wanted to try a lot of different things so we went with ordering appetizers and sides.

We started with the BBQ Shrimp appetizer. The grill and pancetta gave it a smoky flavor and I loved the sweet Guinness BBQ sauce.

I adore brussel sprouts and this is most certainly my favorite way to eat them...with bacon. The side of Curried Cream Corn was my favorite dish! I have never had anything like it. It had all the buttery and creamy aspects of cream corn with a mild curry taste. I just wanted to drink it!

I highly recommend the stuffed peppers. They used a nice spicy pepper. It is stuffed with a lovely rice and sausage mixture and there was a nice crispy texture to the rice. It all worked very well with the sauce, which was excellent.

Since we just loved hanging out on the patio we finished up with a few beer cocktails and enjoyed the atmosphere. This place is beautiful inside and out.

Check out Stone Mad Pub: They don't have a website, but you can see inside on Google Maps! Facebook Twitter

The Spice of Life

I've been wanting to try Spice for a while. Now that I have been there I am kicking myself that I didn't go sooner! So impressed with every aspect of this place. The food was incredible of course, but the atmosphere was so incredibly comfortable that I didn't want to leave. The staff was lovely and the food blew me away. I really can't wait to go back. Ramps are all the rage at the moment so I went with the Ramp and Potato Ravioli. It melted in my mouth. Perfection!

Specials are hard to resist. My dinner companion chose the Duck Two ways and I am sure glad he did. The crispy wing was to die for!

If you go to Spice DO NOT SKIP DESSERT! As lovely as that food was the dessert was a jaw dropper. Peach and Cardamom Semifreddo...I love just saying it. It was topped with a sweet and brittle honeycomb. The waffle was light as air. This is one of the most amazing desserts I've ever had.

Since I had no interest in leaving this cozy seat in the corner of a beautiful restaurant filled with beautiful people I ordered a cocktail, the Spring, Sprang, Sprung. It was a lovely, refreshing, girlie girl kinda cocktail and I loved every sip of it.

I am sad that it took me so long to discover such a treasure! If you've been please leave a comment on what you had. I hear the menu changes a lot. If you've never been, this is a must go! Bring a date!

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Toast! Flirting Through Food

It has been fun following Toast as they have prepared for opening! (Read their back story on Cleveland.com) Of course I jumped at the chance to come check out the soft opening on Wednesday night. The bar is absolutely beautiful! This is for sure going to be a great place to grab a drink before heading to the theater.

I was really excited to see that they make their own bitters. I ordered a Rooney to try the cherry bitters. I don't normally love gin drinks, but I loved this! It was so well balanced with a floral finish. The Old Fashioned was also fresh and well balanced. What a great cocktail spot! I can't wait to drink here again.

Onto the food...

For starters I tired the Start of Spring Pickles. It had pickled beets, fennel, red onions, carrots topped with micro greens. A colorful and tasty dish that you won't feel bad about indulging in!

I am a big deviled eggs fan. I love trying difference chefs' interpretation of this classic picnic food. I knew I had to try the Local Deviled Eggs - beet pickled egg, beer mustard, shoe string shallots. They did not disappoint! Rich in flavor and smooth in texture; they are now my favorite take on deviled eggs!

I'm also a cheese plate fan. It's something I like to order all over for comparison. I find it is often the non-cheese extras and how well they go with the cheese that make a cheese plate. The cheeses were excellent and extremely well paired with extras like apple butter, a fantastic onion marmalade, crazy good and large portion of pork pate, and a rabbit rillette, which I have never had before and found very enjoyable! This is a really diverse cheese plate and they paired non-cheese items extremely well.

I decided to end the meal with a macaroon. Nice balance of crunchy and creamy - it was like they were trying to flirt with the food!

Each item was well balanced, beautiful and perfectly prepared. Each item I ordered was flirting with me a little as the night went on and I am hooked! I shall be back for more! XOXO

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Choose Your Own Hotdog Adventure

I love Happy Dog! The concept of this place alone is brilliant! A hotdog, a bun and a list of 50 toppings to choose from, allowing you to create your own hotdog adventure! The list of 50 toppings can be overwhelming for a foodie because there are some outrageously unique creations on the list. Just to name a few:

- Bacon-balsamic marmalade - Oaxacan red chole and chocolate mole - "Alien" pickle relish - House made chunky peanut butter - "Everything Bagel" cream cheese

My trick to creating a delicious hotdog adventure has been to pick one topping I can't go without and build from that. I go with just one cheese, one sauce and two other things. I can craft a 4 toppings creation with a pretty good profile if I center all items around that must do topping. While, I love pimento mac-n-cheese and peanut butter, I don't love them together. Thankfully, those are both excellent with applewood smoked bacon. ;]

My latest adventure was centered around the Andy Cap Hot Fries (pictured up top). I added the Happy Dog sloppy joes, Rising Star Coffee and ancho BBQ sauce, and some cheddar cheese. It made for one badass combo!

There is also an extensive list of toppings and sides to go along with the tater tots/fries. (I am a sucker for a good sauce list.) With a $5 hotdog and $3 tater tots, you can have a cheap and filling meal, leaving you with some cash to burn on cocktails and pinball.

Happy Dog has events or music most nights of the week. I watched Friday the 13th in the basement lounge while the Crooked River Blues Band played upstairs. On weekend afternoons it's a fun lunch joint for families. There is something for everyone here! Try it and you'll be hooked.

Follow Happy Dog for info on music, events and find out about burger night:

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