Real-Time Blogging at Sonnet's

It's kind of fun when you get to eat your sandwich and then post about it 5 minutes later while still sitting here. I decided to meet up with my mother (aka the Birthday Girl) for a bite to eat at Sonnet's in Wadsworth, OH. Since there have been other places in Wadsworth that offered free wi-fi, I never considered Sonnet's as a place to get a nice cup of coffee and a bite to eat. It wasn't until early last year when my grandfather was going through his ordeal at the nursing home that my mother and aunt basically made Sonnet's their restaurant of choice because of how close it is to the nursing home. I have since made it the place I go to in Wadsworth when I need an on-line connection and a nice cup of coffee.

Sonnet's menu is varied, but pretty straightforward: salads, soups, panini sandwiches, and wraps. Within each of these categories, however, are many choices. All of the meats are Boar's Head Premium Deli cuts and are quite good. They also sell pastries, cookies, and bagels. Some of these items such as the cookies and muffins they bake on-site; items like the biscotti and scones come from other vendors.

Today I decided to go with a Reuben sandwich done on their panini press with thousand island dressing and sauerkraut. It came with chips and a pickle spear in a basket:


This was very good (actually all of the sandwiches I've had here are very good). The rye bread tasted fresh and had a nice crunch to it from the panini press. Everything inside the sandwich was warm and juicy. What I love most about the Boar's Head meats is how tasty and fresh they are without being too salty. Sometimes you get those cheaper deli cuts that are so salty that you have to chug half a glass of water just to get through the sandwich. Not here. The sauerkraut was also nice, a balanced blend between acid and salt. I've had Reuben sandwiches in the past where the sauerkraut could take over the sandwich if it was too strong.

My mother had a chicken wrap which she also greatly enjoyed.

And it's become somewhat of a tradition that when I order a cafe au lait in a mug, I get this:


It's not so much a statement of my love for all things Disney as much as a consequence of them having no clean mugs except for this one when I had ordered a cafe au lait many moons ago. The woman working the counter looked at me and said that this was all they had. Not particularly wanting to drink my coffee drink out of a cardboard cup, I just smiled and said, "Sure!" Ever since then, it's just become this sort of "in" joke between her and I that this is the mug I get.

Oh, yeah, the cafe au lait is quite good, too!

Sonnet's is a great casual place to come in and meet up with friends, get a little work done on the laptop, and get a decent bite to eat. Definitely check them out if you happen to be in Wadsworth.

Tavanello and Sons: It's Good To Have Choices

As much as I love Marie's Pizza located in my hometown of Wadsworth, Ohio, there is a lesser known pizza purveyor that I feel I should give a chance. It's on the extreme west side of town out by SkyPark and most of us "townies" don't really even know about it. The only reason I knew about it is that a good high school friend of mine lived out in that area and he would get it on a regular basis. It just so happened that I was in town and out driving around thinking about my dinner options (because it was SUCH a gorgeous day) when I decided that I would stop in and order a pie.

Tavanello and Sons is located at 2985 Greenwich Road in Wadsworth, OH and can be reached at 330-336-6581.


Having never been inside the store before, the only thing I knew about it was that this was a take-out place; there are no tables inside. That was okay with me though because there is a park not five minutes away where I could sit out in the sun at a picnic table and enjoy my dinner.

The place is quite quaint and I discovered upon walking in that the pizzeria shares the interior space with a very small general store. They have DVD rentals in the rear of the store and a refrigerated case where you could pick up beer and bottled water and soda. The right side of the store was where the kitchen was. It always fascinates me to walk into a place and order a pizza (as opposed to calling it in) because then you get to see the entire process from start to finish. This isn't fancy pizza. What this is, however, is pizza made by people who care. I could tell that the couple (Mr. and Mrs. Tavanello, I believe) taking orders, making the pies, and ringing up customers were there because they love what they do and take pride in what they do.

The menu is pretty simple: pizzas, calzones, and subs. They have some other sides, like garlic bread, etc., but the majority of the menu is about how to combine dough, sauce, meat, and cheese.

All the dough and the sauce are made from scratch. Tavanello's has a pizza oven with two columns of doors. On this particular Friday night, only the left side had been heated up. In the back corner was the industrial stand mixer for the dough and next to that the sheeter, used to initially flatten out the balls of dough before being finished by hand. Toppings are fairly standard, but I did notice that they offered meatballs as a topping (a nod to my good friend Nancy). Unfortunately, when I asked about the meatball option, they were all out.

Once the pie had been sauced, cheesed, and topped with your choice of toppings (mine was pepperoni), into the oven it went. No timers were set. No alarms ever went off. Mr. Tavanello knew by how brown the crust was and how caramelized the cheese was exactly how much time each pie had left in the oven. Once the dough had set in the pizza pan, the pie was removed from the pan and finished directly on the floor of the oven. This ensured a nice golden brown crust. It probably took about fifteen minutes from the time I ordered to the time I paid for my pie and left.

Right before cutting and boxing up my pie, it was brushed with garlic butter, just to "guild the lily" a little bit.

Here's what I brought out to my car (this is a large, they also have extra-large):


And a shot of the pizza in the box:


I was going to try and actually eat a piece before I even got into the car, but the Molten Cheese Conundrum came into play: The fresher the pie, the more likely the cheese will completely slide off if you try and pick up a piece. I quickly realized that a 3-5 minute ride in the car to the park would do the cheese a world of good. And it did.

Once I got to the park, however, all bets were off. A closer shot of the uneaten portion of my pizza:


Now let's talk about taste. If you like thicker crust pizza, this was an excellent example. The crust was nice and toasty from the oven, wonderfully chewy, and cooked completely through. The crust had a nice flavor, most likely from the garlic butter that was brushed on right at the end, but it wasn't overpowering. The homemade pizza sauce was quite good and seasoning was spot on. In terms of a quality sauce, I'd put it right up there with Marie's sauce. I immediately got the taste of the richness from the tomatoes, a strong oregano/marjoram essence, and just a hint of garlic. Honestly, my first thought when I tasted the sauce was the herb being used was marjoram, but that would be such an unusual ingredient for a place like this to use. And since marjoram and oregano have similar flavor profiles, I'm willing to bet it is probably the latter. Next time I go, I'll find out for sure.

The cheese was plentiful and had a nice rich flavor to it. The pepperoni was nice, but the only criticism I could levy was that I wish it came with just a bit more of the topping. I suppose that's what double-toppings are for, right?

My large one topping came to $9 and had 8 slices, so it really only cost about $1.13 per slice, which is pretty economical. Two hungry adults could definitely finish off one of these guys. Next time I go back, I'll have to verify the answers to some of the questions I posed in this blog entry with the owners and try a pizza topped with meatballs instead of pepperoni.

If you happen to be in the Wadsworth area and are in the mood for a local pizza you can enjoy out in the fresh air at the park, definitely check out Tavanello and Sons.

The Sub Station: A Has Been?

As a rule, I will generally favor local mom-and-pop style restaurants over a chain any day. In fact, if I have the option, I will generally seek them out. It isn't necessarily because the food is always better in these places, but because they will generally offer the diner something unique that can only be found in that restaurant or in that geographical area.

Like Marie's pizza, another longtime favorite of mine has been The Sub Station, located at 126 Main St, Wadsworth, OH 44281. In fact, I've been going here since I first moved to Wadsworth back in 1986. I don't get to eat there as often as I did back in high school, but every now and again when I am in Wadsworth and in need of a submarine sandwich, this is where I turn. And even though it is more expensive than say, Subway, I always justified this by telling myself that I would rather spend a little more on a local place that put uniqueness and quality over quantity.

I experimented with the menu quite a bit throughout high school and by the time I had graduated back in 1990 (no comments please), I had settled on what would become my standard order. First, a shot of the counter area that has changed very little since the mid-1980's.


The ordering process has also changed little from what I first encountered: place your order, pay the bill, grab the "call number" tab off the bottom of the order slip and wait for your number to be called.

Here is a shot of what I normally order ...


Half a turkey club, an order of onion rings, and a large root beer from the soda fountain and not from the can. This is one of the few times I will knowingly order a beverage with high fructose corn syrup. Although if they offered something in a bottle or can that used sugar instead of HFCS, I would order that instead. It just doesn't feel the same without a root beer from the fountain.

The turkey club comes with turkey, mayo, bacon, lettuce and tomato. The tomato is not so good this time of year (no surprises there).


What did surprise me this time (and maybe I just haven't been paying enough attention over the last couple of years) is that the bacon was pre-cooked and then warmed for service. Now I don't know if it was purchased pre-cooked or they cooked off a batch that morning for service later. Honestly I don't really care. It detracts from the original experience. I don't know if this was a cost cutting move or a labor cutting move, but unfortunately, it's the start down a slippery slope. Otherwise, the experience now was the same as I remember from high school.

I also want to say something about the cost. Since I've been coming here for over 20 years, clearly I expect the prices to go along with the economy. But my half sandwich, order of onion rings, and large root beer finally exceeded the $10 mark (no tipping required here). While that doesn't necessarily bother me from a cost perspective, I have to ask myself whether I am willing to pay nearly $6 for a half-sandwich that has pre-cooked bacon on it.

Nostalgia is a powerful force. The funny thing is that I would pay more for the real thing. And I know it's a delicate balance right now with the economy the way that it is, but I can only say that if they change the taste too much, if they finally reach a point where they violate the spirit of the original, I have no problem cutting my losses and just living with my memories.

Hometown Favorite

Whenever I return to my home town of Wadsworth, OH there are two places that always sing their siren song to me. One of them is a submarine shop called the Sub Station. The other place is a mom and pop shop that has been around since 1970 that has seen itself expand from a small restaurant capable of seating maybe 25-30 to a ginormous place on the busy end of town that now seats well over 100 in the main restaurant and has a banquet room as well. I speak of the beloved Marie's Pizza restaurant.

Now, make sure you go to the address in the link given above. Both Yahoo and Google searches on "Marie's Pizza Wadsworth" came up with a link to their OLD address. They are actually right off of I-94 just north of I-76, right across the street from the National City Bank.

In their old incarnation, it was simple food, prepared well. A favorite has always been the pizza. In fact, it won the best pizza in Akron award in 1976, I believe. Other favorites were lasagna, spaghetti and fabulous garlic bread. When they moved into their new location, they decided to revamp the menu. While keeping that which made them a local favorite, they also added additional menu items. Now, I'll have to be honest and say that I don't go to Marie's for their honey teriyaki chicken (which sadly, they did add). However, some of the new items like the chicken parmesan sandwich are a real hit with me. It is unfortunate that they feel that in order to compete with all the "TGI McChilibees" in the world, they felt like they had to diversify. At least they didn't take the good stuff off the menu.

I decided to go with an old favorite, the simple pepperoni pizza. I got a medium for $10.29. This is a pie adequately sized to feed between 2-3 adults. The thing I like about Marie's pizza is that the crust is somewhere right in the middle between thin crust and deep dish. While Marie's does source some of what they serve in the restaurant from Sysco, I verified with my server that Marie's makes their own dough and their own sauce from scratch. Honestly, you can really tell by just looking, smelling, and finally, tasting the finished product.

First off, a whole pie shot as delivered to my table:


And the obligatory shot of a single slice with red pepper flakes (added by me):


The one thing that Marie's has improved upon since moving into their new home is the absence of the layer of grease that used to float on top of the pie. You never really thought about it when you were eating it hot, but trust me that the next day when seeing it cold, the sight could be off-putting.

Here's what I like about Marie's: it tastes DAMN good. It also tastes like home. The sauce is fresh, the toppings are nice, the bread is crusty and soft. It's just a well integrated pizza: not too much or too little of any one component. It's a slice you could eat with your hands or with a knife and fork. I especially like the crust. While certainly thicker than a crust you are going to find at Bar Cento or Lolita, it really does have that great interplay between the crispy exterior of the edge of the pie (and the bottom of the pie, too) and that wonderfully soft chewy interior just below the crispy surface. And for not being baked in a traditional stone oven, the crispiness of the crust on the bottom is surprising, but certainly welcomed.

From the next photo, you can kind of see how the crust looks from the side:


Finally, a shot of what I walked away with since a medium is WAY more than one person could eat in a single meal:


I plan to warm up the leftovers tomorrow for lunch. While this is neither a NY style pie nor a Chicago style pie, I honestly think this is the pie I would prefer to have most often given the choice. But, I suppose I am biased since this is what I grew up eating.

I will also caution you to either go at an off-time or be prepared to wait. I went today (Sunday) at 4 pm and the place was half full. If you're thinking about going on a Friday or Saturday night for dinner, go before 5 pm or after about 8:30 pm or so. They also have a full bar and a patio for when the weather gets nice. And stick with the traditional stuff ... it's what they do best.