Melt Bar and Grilled - Cleveland Heights
Last night we went to the new Melt over in Cleveland Heights. We've been to the Lakewood location a couple of times and had a wonderful time. It's great that there's a new location and it's closer to us (we're in Solon).
View Vec Blog - Food in a larger mapThe first challenge is parking. Both of us grew up in the area, but neither of us had ever gone to this building. We've driven past it hundreds of times and never once saw any parking. Luckily on our way over I pulled out the iPad and saw some parking behind the building off Taylor. Most of the parking lot was full and it was metered parking for the most part... but if you keep going north a bit there's some free parking! We don't mind the extra 100 feet of walking for the free parking!
Size compared to Lakewood
One thing we were hearing mixed messages from people is how big it is compared to the Lakewook location. Overall I think they have a lot more square feet. The bar is substantially larger and there are more tables as well. The other place has more walls and is longer, but it's a lot smaller in terms of actual space -- though it might feel bigger just looking around though.Walking in and putting our name on the list we were told that the wait is 1-1/2 - 2 hours. (!) We've been to the Lakewood one and they have the same issue so it's expected. On top of that this is a new place and I'm sure that there are kinks left to work out with the staffing. (Also, a friend later informed me they had some kitchen issues earlier in the day which put them even more behind.) "But if you find a spot at the bar you can sit there -- it's full service there too."Pro tip: Sit at the bar if you don't have a big group of people. We waltzed in and sat down. No wait. Nice!
Beer: Round 1
Great Divide Brewing Company Yeti Imperial StoutI was drawn to this partially from the yeti connection to the Church of the Subgenius. That being said this is an amazing beer. They've added some espresso to the beer and you can taste it. The coffee notes blending with the chocolaty notes from the stout blend perfectly. It came served up in a small glass, not the standard pint, but it was plenty to keep me sipping for the next 40 minutes. The complexity of the beer combined with the super long finish made for a great drink. This isn't a chugging type of beer.21st Amendment Brewing Company Brew Free or Die IPAThis was En's drink so I can't comment too much except it is a nice clean IPA that has a good bitter citrus note up (orange pith) front and a good finish.
Soup: Roasted Garlic Tomato Soup
Mmm. We've had the soup nearly every time we've been to Melt before and it's as good as ever. A thick and kinda chunky garlicky tomato soup with a good sprinkle of melted Parmesan cheese and slivers of scallions. It's what an awesome marinara sauce would be if it were a soup. You can't ask for more than that.We would've tried the soup of the day, but they had already run out by the time we showed up.
Beer: Round 2
Breckenridge Brewery 471 Small Batch IPAA good mouth-filling IPA with a bitter hoppy hit up front.Green Flash Brewing Co. West Coast IPAI can't really comment too much about since this was En's beer and I was too engrossed with my food. :-)
Main course
Prime Time Prime Rib Melt (May special)
Slow roasted tender prime rib. Roasted garlic smoked gouda mashed red skin potatoes. Provolone. Zippy horseradish sauce and a hot, deliciously rich au jus for dipping.
It certainly lived up to the hype! The mix of the tender beef combined with the creamy cheesy potatoes and the provolone was amazing!
Chorizo and Potato
spicy mexican sausage, potato hash, sharp cheddar
I'll let En give her review on her blog. :-) I liked it, but then again I seem to like almost anything with chorizo. It's like a good TexMex breakfast without the eggs.
Overall
I easily give it a thumbs up! For the amount of food you get it's a good value for the money. Our bill came to $45, but that's with two rounds of interesting beers and soup and leftovers for a few days. If we didn't want the leftovers, we could have easily split a sandwich and called it dinner -- neither of us would have left hungry. Not bad for $9 for an average sandwich.The beer selection is great as well. Not many places have 32 different beers on tap from a number of quality microbreweries. Left Hand and Bells were both well represented on their comprehensive beer list. (In case you couldn't figure it out, I am a big fan of good beers!)The biggest question is do you want to go back. Answer: YES.[smugmug url="http://photos.vec.com/hack/feed.mg?Type=gallery&Data=12310093_7cus9&format=rss200" imagecount="100" start="1" num="100" thumbsize="Th" link="lightbox" captions="false" sort="true" window="true" smugmug="true" size="L"]