An Albatross of a Different Feather

Make sure to check here for more Cleveland posts

Imagine my surprise when I heard that Chef Zach Bruell was opening an affordable French bistro on my side of town. If one is looking to eat French food in Cleveland there aren’t a whole lot of options. I can only do the trek out to Vermillion once or twice a year (preferably in the summer), to eat at Chez François.

Why “The Albatross”? From what I hear the golf fanatic chef named it after the term for completing a par five in two shots. This event is much more uncommon than even a hole-in-one. I saw a guy do it on the 11th hole at OSU Scarlet Course. It’s something very special I’ll remember for the rest of my life. When we were on the tee we were teasing him because he was using “La Jolla” brand woods. Unbelievable.

Housed in the old “That Place on BellFlower” on the Case Western Reserve Campus, L’Albatros is a very affordable night out.

We made our reservation on opentable.com. I used the app that it is out now on the iphone – ‘twas very easy.

So we walk into the restaurant and the kitchen is immediately off to the right, the bar and tables are in various coves to the left. If you haven’t been in this building before, there are nooks and crannies with seating tucked in everywhere. It’s cozy, but not NYC cozy. The tables didn’t have table clothes. Instead this white resin type material was used for the table. It didn’t require a table cloth, yet looked quite smart.

We kicked things off with the five serving cheese plate. The cheese service is actually a direct interaction with the cheese server, in this case Brenden. He happily went through all of the cheeses that were available and individually cut them off of the wheels, right at our table. He was very enthusiastic and knowledgeable about what they had to offer. It was a lot of fun - highly recommended.

I ordered the Chicken Confit with spätzle, paprika, and roasted garlic jus. I thought it was good. The spätzle wasn’t the best I’ve ever had, but the chicken was cooked perfectly. By the way his grilled chicken breast at Parallax is one of my favorites.

Regina ordered the Braised Leg of Lamb with pasta risotto and rosemary jus. The lamb was an appropriate size and also very tender.

Our desserts consisted of a Chocolate Brownie with walnuts, cherries, and vanilla gelato. I had the Espresso Pots de Crème. It was very rich and creamy with nothing left in the bowl.

If you’d like to view the menu, I robbed it from a link on Stuart Spivack’s blog, here it is.

I thought it was a really enjoyable dinner. For a restaurant that had only been open a week, I’d say it’s pretty far along. Affordable French – I think it’s a concept that is going to work great in “The Circle”. I eagerly await my next visit. Metaphorically speaking, this anything but an albatross.

L’Albatros
11401 Bellflower Rd
Cleveland, OH 44106
(216) 791-7880
www.albatrosbrasserie.com

Dinner at Parallax

Make sure to check here for more Cleveland posts

The in-laws made it back from Florida last week and let my wife pick where she wanted to go for her birthday. After mulling her options she settled on Parallax. Zach Bruell's place is typically the restaurant du jour when my boss (Paul) comes to town. Now that I think of it, it's the only Cleveland eatery we've ever gone to with him. He absolutely loves the walleye. This is the first time in a long time that we've actually gone there without him.

All together there were five of us, so I was really looking forward to seeing a wide range of appetizers and entrees. If I were to choose any starter from the menu it would be the Spider Roll. That's some serious goodness. We got one of those, a Fresh California Roll, the Japanese Shrimp, and ..... Calamari Fritti.

We took some pictures but there was some a lot of sun coming through the front window. Three hundred other days out of the year we wouldn't have had that problem, but today we did.

Spider Roll - Tempura Soft shell crab, Avocado, cucumber, baby lettuce and smelt roe. I could eat two orders of these and be well satisfied. One of my favorites.

Fresh Crab California Roll - Snow crab, Avocado and smelt roe. I think are also quite good, but not as good as the Spider Roll. (These are on the same plate).

Japanese Shrimp My brother-in-law ordered these monsters. I had one but the stuff that's wound around the outside is a bit much for me. All in all, this was probably my least favorite, but they looked cool.

Calamari Fritti - (not pictured. Aren't you crushed?) These were decent. I wasn't really to excited about the sauces it came with, but the were okay.

Every time I've come here in the past I've typically ordered from a wide variety of fish dishes on the menu. People have commented that the Grilled Chicken Breast is a signature dish. My Mother-in-law and I ordered that. I can say first hand that mine was really good. The chicken had a beurre blanc sauce that really made the dish. I highly recommend the chicken breast! The pommes frites that came with it were also the way I like them, thinly cut. Good stuff.

The others either got Soft Shell Crab (which was on special or the Grilled Hanger Steak.

Judging by the reaction from everyone else I think they were just plus/minus on the Soft Shell Crab and the Hanger Steak. They finished their food but I don't think they were blown away.

I would also recommend the Baricelli Cheese Plate for dessert. Actually, the cheese plate is appropriate for two people to share as I was laboring to finish it. The others had an assortment of ice cream and chocolate cakes.

I would say this is probably my favorite Tremont restaurant, My in-laws are partial to Fahrenheit. While I, too, like Fahrenheit I think Parallax gives you more bang for your buck.