Great New Foodie Destination: Hodge's Downtown Cleveland

Last night was Hot Hubby's 35th birthday and to celebrate I took him to dinner at Hodge's Downtown Cleveland. This new restaurant, founded and run by food truck pioneer and proud Cleveland native Chris Hodgson, opened a couple of months ago. For the past two years, Hodgson has been feeding us on the streets from his trucks, Dim and Den Sum and Hodge Podge. Now he has a permanent location from which to serve his upscale takes on classic comfort foods.

And he does not disappoint.

The restaurant itself has a comfortable, masculine-country feel to it, with simple decorating, beautiful old-wood paneling, and perhaps the most comfortable armchair-like seats I've ever sat in at a restaurant. We sat in the smaller upstairs dining area, which afforded us a nice view of the large bar area while distancing us enough from the noise of the bar that we could actually carry on a conversation without needing to raise our voices. I really appreciated that.

Our dinner started with a gratis amuse bouche from the chef of tater tots with a parmesan & bacon topping served with creme fraiche dipping sauce. We munched on those while perusing the varied dinner menu and trying to decide what we wanted to try. We decided to start with the Hodge's Honey Ribs. These were perfectly cooked - the meat fell right off the bone, the outside had a nice crisp to it and the inside was tender, juicy, and deliciously flavorful. The honey mustard glaze provided a sharp yet sweet tang and accompanying sherry slaw was well-balanced complement.

For dinner, Hot Hubby ordered the "Unfried" Chicken and I opted for the French Onion Ravioli. We were also treated to a skillet of cornbread to accompany our meal. I adore cornbread, and this was some of the best I've ever had. This is when we discovered that the value for the price at Hodge's is better than expected. The "Unfried" Chicken was a half-chicken, beautifully roasted and perfectly cooked. Like the ribs, it was falling off the bone and incredibly juicy. The accompanying macaroni & cheese was served in a cast iron dish and was also very tasty.

My French Onion Ravioli was, not exaggerating, the best thing I have eaten in a very long time. Describing it as ravioli with a French Onion Soup sauce is too simplistic. The homemade ravioli were stuffed with ricotta and gruyere, which provided a smooth flavor and texture to balance the tang of the French Onion reduction. It was seriously so delicious. I can see myself being hard pressed to try new things the next time we visit because I'll want to eat this again and again.

We ended our meal with a brownie sundae topped with Mitchell's Hodge Podge ice cream. The brownie was crispy on the outside and gooey on the inside, and we joked that Hodge's sister Catie had to have a hand in the ice cream recipe as it was chock full of the puppy chow that she sold like hot cakes on The Great Food Truck Race.

We got a laugh when our bill was delivered to us on a tray in a red envelope printed with "THE DAMAGE" in silver letters. And while the bill wasn't cheap (we'd also each had a cocktail), the value was excellent. Portion sizes were large, and we appreciate that most of the food served is locally sourced. All in all, we're already looking forward to our next visit.

The Greater Cleveland Aquarium = Awesome

We finally made it to the new Greater Cleveland Aquarium on Saturday, the one-week anniversary of its opening. My first impression as we walked from our car to the Powerhouse was, "Holy smokes, I am SO glad we purchased our tickets online."

Quick tip: Purchase your tickets online at the Aquarium's website. This allows you to go straight to the front of the line and enter the aquarium immediately. Also, please note that strollers and wagons are not allowed in the aquarium most days right now because of the large crowds.

I wish that I'd had my camera available to take a picture of the monstrous line waiting to get in when we arrived. There were easily 200 people waiting in line. It was so wonderful to see such an interest, especially because we didn't have to wait in that line.

The visit was a surprise to Little Girl; she knew we were going somewhere but she didn't know where until we actually entered the aquarium and she saw the first tank of fish. My first thought was how peaceful the aquarium felt, even teeming with hundreds of people as it was that afternoon. The lighting is subdued, with the focus being on the tanks and the fish. Most of the tanks are open at the top which, weird as it may sound, added to the tranquility of it all. You could almost imagine yourself sitting lakeside or pondside and just watching the fish swim.

Little Girl was like a child transported. She absolutely loves fish and I thought her little body was going to explode with excitement when she realized where we were. She was so excited to see each and every fish in all the tanks. She wanted to know what each fish was called and I'm fairly certain that she made my mother take a picture of just about every fish in every tank in the building. Even Little Man, snug in his carrier, was enthralled by the sights and sounds around him.

As someone who remembers Friday and Saturday nights at the Powerhouse eating dinner at TGIFridays and then hitting Howl at the Moon for some drinks and dueling piano entertainment, I was very interested to see how they had incorporated the original character of the power plant into the design of the aquarium. I wasn't disappointed. You definitely feel as if you're walking through a historical building as you travel from area to area within the aquarium, and one of my favorite features was the skylight that let you look up the side of one of the 200-foot-tall smoke stacks. I also got a kick out of the spiny lobster tank that now occupies the base of one of the other stacks of the building.

As someone who has been to many great aquariums in the country, including the National Aquarium, the Boston Aquarium, and the Monterey Bay Aquarium, I was particularly pleased to see how the touch pool was designed and implemented. Gone are the days, apparently, of shallow pools and people just sticking their hands in the water, lifting out sea creatures, and poking and prodding at them. This is a wonderful thing. The touch pool here is about five feet deep and staffed by folks in wetsuits who slowly bring around bins of sea life that remain submerged in the water. This is so much more respectful to the creatures and also more beneficial to the visitors as they now have a knowledgeable member of the aquarium staff to talk to as they examine these animals more closely. The other side of the touch pool is of the sort that you put your hand in the water, but it contained only sharks and rays and was also staffed by an aquarium employee who was ensuring that the animals were treated respectfully and the visitors were behaving properly.

The walk-through tunnel in the final room of the aquarium was also very impressive. The biggest shark in the tank didn't seem to have any interest in swimming over the tunnel but he did make a few close passes on the sides, during each of which Little Girl jumped up and down and begged my mother to take "just one more picture". The smaller sharks and rays were more than accommodating, though, swimming back and forth over our heads many times. We even got the bonus of seeing a couple of divers cleaning the other side of the glass. Little Girl thought that was hysterical.

All told, we spent about 90 minutes in the aquarium and I'm already looking forward to our next visit. On the drive home we asked Little Girl what her favorite part of the aquarium was. Her response? "I can't decide. I loved it all." I completely agree.