Modest or Gourmet? A Yule Vote for Latter

By The Akron Beacon Journal, Ohio, The Akron Beacon Journal, Ohio

Dec. 21–While my relatives enjoy their traditional meal of cold meatloaf sandwiches and potato salad on Christmas Day (I kid you not), I’ll be yearning as I do every year for a proper Christmas dinner of… of… what? Roast goose? Prime rib? Baked ham?

Like a penniless kid with her nose pressed to the window of a candy shop, I have dreamed of grand Christmas dinners since I was old enough to know the difference between Wonder Bread and a French baguette. But several years ago, the bubble was burst when I discovered that legions of people have equally modest holiday feeds. When I went searching for Akron’s traditional Christmas dinner, most of the people I talked to said they put out buffets of cold cuts or have the extended family over for a big breakfast or brunch.

Worse, for years after I wrote about my mother’s pitiful holiday spread, people sent thank-you notes for passing along the great idea, and said they had switched to serving sandwiches on paper plates instead of cooking.

Arrrgh.

So this year, I’m taking my own food to my family’s Christmas celebration. I bought some caviar and I made a cognac-scented country pate. I’ll pop a bottle of Schramsberg Blanc de Blanc bubbly. I’ll offer to share, of course, but I won’t be surprised when no one but me tastes the gourmet goodies. Pate can’t compete with 50 years of cold meatloaf tradition.

It could be worse. I could have been born in Norway, where lutefisk is the traditional Christmas treat. Lutefisk is dried cod steeped in lye. My mother would serve it on Chinette.

Name game

Great restaurant names, courtesy of the Nation’s Restaurant News:

— Cow Tippers, a steak restaurant in Atlanta.

— Cats and Dawgs, an Asheville, N.C., restaurant that specializes in catfish sandwiches and hot dogs.

— Sticky Fingers, a barbecued-rib restaurant in Charleston, S.C.

Cricketing again

Jim Knoch thought he’d be back in business in a couple of months when he first surveyed the water damage to his restaurant. That was last April. The Cashmere Cricket in Cuyahoga Falls will finally reopen at 4 p.m. today.

“It was the worst eight months of my life,” Knoch said.

The damage was the result of a construction project in another part of the building where he rents space on Front Street Mall. But that’s all behind him, Knoch said. He is now concentrating on making the deli sandwiches and homemade soups that brought in a regular clientele before the hiatus. His Cuban sandwich, muffaletta and turkey Reuben are all back, he said.

Knoch hopes customers return for the food and the jazz and blues he has expanded from three to four nights a week, Wednesday through Saturday.

“We were going great guns,” Knoch said. “We were becoming the place to go for jazz and blues.”

Hours are 4 p.m. to midnight Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, 4 p.m. to 2:30 a.m. Friday, 1 p.m. to 2:30 a.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. to midnight Sunday. The phone is 330-928-2245.

Lake Varsity Diner

The new Lake Varsity Diner is creating a stir in Uniontown. Teens from Lake High School like the school yearbook and newspaper clippings laminated on some of the tabletops, while the adults like the retro diner and sports bar decor.

The restaurant is the project of Joe and Colleen Beasley. He worked for a food distributor before opening the business a couple of months ago. The soups, chili, cheesecake and sandwiches are made from scratch, he said. Early favorites include a steak sandwich on flat bread with blue cheese sauce, and a chocolate-chip cookie sundae made with “about a quart of ice cream,” according to Beasley.

The restaurant has stadium-turf carpeting, and several tabletops are painted to look like a baseballs, soccer balls and basketballs.

The diner is at 13367 Cleveland Ave. N.W. Hours are 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday. The phone is 330-699-3463.

Golden baking special

Vince’s Bakery in Cuyahoga Falls will start the new year with a bang-up anniversary celebration to commemorate the shop’s 50th year. First, its famed Italian cream cakes will be sold at give-away prices, and later in the month, samples of all five of the bakery’s cakes will be free.

The Italian wedding cakes feature three layers of yellow sponge cake drizzled with rum syrup, filled with vanilla and chocolate custard and slathered with whipped cream icing. A 7-inch cake, which serves 10, will cost $12 instead of the usual $17.50 from Dec. 30 through Jan. 8.

“That’s what started this business, the Italian cake,” said Tina Massoli. Her husband, Nick, took over the shop 20 years ago when his father, founder Vince Massoli, retired.

Samples of the cake and five other wedding cake flavors will be given away at an open house from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Jan. 28. To thank their customers, the Massolis also will pass out 200 $5 gift certificates.

In addition to the Italian cake, the bakery is known for its tea cookies and iced cutout cookies.

“We ship our iced cookies all over,” Tina Massoli said.

The bakery is at 2038 E. Bailey Road in Cuyahoga Falls. Hours are 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday, 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday. The phone is 330-923-8217.

Graeter’s in Akron

Graeter’s Ice Cream, which has a cultlike following in Cincinnati, is now available at West Point Market. In the freezer case and in gondolas by the checkout lanes, shoppers can find pints and 56-ounce tubs in such flavors as coconut chip, black raspberry chip, peanut butter cup and cookie dough chip. The black raspberry chip is the best seller, said West Point’s chief executive, Rick Vernon. Graeter’s is known for its creamy texture, produced by small-batch techniques. Pints are $4.49 and large tubs, $12.99.

Ketchup in cookies?

Worst recipe of the week: Secret Spice Cookies, developed by the deep thinkers at Heinz as a way to sell more ketchup. Ingredients include molasses, eggs, flour, vanilla and ketchup. The recipe was an attempt to find “unexpected uses for ketchup,” the test-kitchen manager explained in a news release.

Unexpected? Oh, yes.

Jane Snow is the Beacon Journal’s food writer. She can be reached at 330-996-3571 or jsnow@thebeaconjournal.com. Sign up for Jane’s free, weekly e-mail newsletter “Second Helpings” at www.ohio.com.

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