Chef Jam 2010: Cleveland Food Rocks

Last year's Cleveland Food Rocks benefit at Beachland Ballroom was, by all accounts, a rollicking good time. But this year's Chef Jam is on pace to make that shindig look bush league by comparison. To be held Sunday, June 13 at the Rock Hall, this year's soiree can accommodate 1,000 people rain or shine. Yes, tickets have doubled in price ($50), but admission now includes food, beer, wine, music (Todd Rundgren) and access to the museum's exhibits. Two dozen of CLE's finest chowhouses will be dishing up music-inspired dishes (see complete list below) like Dante Boccuzzi's LSD (lemon scented donuts on blotter) and Jon Bennett's Dark Side of the Moon Pies.

“We chefs do every fundraiser under the sun for good causes,” explains Crop's Steve Schimoler. “This is the first one that is designed to help promote the restaurants.”

Visit clevelandfoodrocks.com for more info. To save yourself the Ticketmaster fees, head to the Rock Hall box office before the day of the event.

• Zach Bruell Restaurants: Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes; TP’s Smoked Pork Butt with beer-braised collard greens, hoppin’ john, and black pepper cornbread
• Bistro on Lincoln Park: Allman Brothers; Grilled “Eat a Peach” peaches with cracked black pepper ice cream and balsamic reduction.
• Green House Tavern: Black Keys; Grilled pork ribs with “thick freakiness” BBQ sauce
• Blue Canyon: Burning Spear; Curried Goat
• Amp 150: Rolling Stones; Beef Tongue with Cabbage Salad
• Moxie: Pink Floyd; “Dark Side of the Moon” pies
• Dante: LSD (Lemon-Scented Doughnuts)
• Bar Cento: Phish; “Bathtub Gin” Gumbo with Mushroom Grilled Cheese and “Goo Balls”
• Melange: George Thoroughgood and the Destroyers: Watermelon “Bad to the Bone” Ribs, Effervescent Chicken Wings, Dill Pickle Popcorn
• Blue Point Grille: Ramones; Oysters Vindaloo
• Caruso’s Coffee: Eric Clapton; Black Coffee “After Midnight”
• ABC Tavern: Meatloaf; meatloaf
• Flying Fig: Delta Blues; an assortment of Southern-inspired tidbits
• Fire: Beatles; “Savoy Truffle” (assorted chocolate truffles)
• Menu6: Psychedelia; Wild Mushroom Rice Paper Rolls and “Strawberry Fields Forever”
• Crop Bistro: Grateful Dead; “Backpack Rollups”
• Prosperity Social Club: Hank Williams ; Jambalaya on the Bayou
• Happy Dog: Elvis; “Ain’t Nothin’ but a Hound” dogs
• Johnny’s; Frank Zappa; “Yellow Snow”
• Momocho: Beck; Wild Boar “Satan Gave Me a Taco” Tacos
• Executive Caterers: The Allman Brothers; roasted white asparagus with crawfish, green goddess, and crispy country ham
• Lago: Bob Marley; Marley Meatballs
• Bar Symon: Van Halen; Ice Cream Sandwiches w/Cabo Wabo Ice Cream, Bacon-Apple Caramel Sauce
• Sasa: ZZ Top; “ZZ Top” Sirloin
• Sushi Rock; U2; “Even Better than the Real Thing” Sushi Surf & Turf
• Grovewood Tavern: Iggy Pop; gourmet dogs

Opening Soon: Zinc Bistro, Bar and Bakery

When it débuts next week, Zinc Bistro, Bar and Bakery (668 Euclid Ave., 216.583.9462, zinccleveland.com) will be the most ambitious restaurant to open between Public Square and the Theater District in quite some time. Helmed by chef Tom Quick, who ran the popular Epiq Bistro in Concord, Ohio, for 10 years, Zinc is modeled after the ebullient French bistros found throughout New York City. The restaurant is the final phase in the $65-million Six Six Eight Euclid project in the former William Taylor Son & Co. department store building. Zinc borrows numerous design elements from eateries like SoHo's Balthazar. The 4,000-square-foot space boasts 17-foot ceilings, curved burgundy-clad booths, antiqued mirrors and travertine floors. A zinc-topped bar, running the length of the room, features European-style beer taps and a built-in raw bar. Diners seated on the second-level mezzanine have views of the entire room. “We’re not trying to reinvent too much here,” Quick explains. “There will be some slight design changes, but you’ll know you’re walking into a Manhattan French bistro.” If the room doesn't tip a diner off, the menu assuredly will; traditional bistro staples like onion soup, escargot and beef tartare are all on hand, as is coq au vin, steak frites, and Dover sole for two. An all-day retail bakery will offer salads, sandwiches and pastries. Zinc abuts the new plaza that was created by the removal of the Dollar Bank building, and the restaurant's outdoor bar and patio promises to be one the sweetest in town.

The Power of Amp 150

Positively Cleveland, the civic organization tasked with promoting our fair city, should be grateful for what chef Ellis Cooley is doing at Amp 150. Our convention and visitors bureau does a fabulous job marketing Cleveland's world-class culinary scene to tourists and journalists by organizing culinary fam tours and posting food-based itineraries on its website. But the truth is, many business travelers never step foot out of their hotel except to attend meetings. If those travelers are holed up at the Airport Marriott, they still will leave town thinking this city's food scene rocks.

Ignoring a restaurant because it resides in a hotel is not only unfair, it is unwise, as some of the best bistros in the world happen to be housed in inns. Granted, those lodgings tend not to be situated in the flight path of a descending airliner as it makes its approach into Hopkins International.

Opening this past fall, Amp 150 replaced the aging Jack’s Steakhouse, and it is the crowning touch on a $20-million makeover of the entire building. The hotel's owners not only redesigned the restaurant, they reconfigured the lobby so that the two entities seamlessly connect. Guests checking in at the front desk now have an unobstructed view of diners in Amp's lounge, and vice versa.

Airport hotel restaurants typically are more concerned with arrivals and departures than their own host cities. But ever since landing in Cleveland, executive chef Cooley has endeavored to become a part of the local food fabric. He and his restaurant volunteer at area fundraisers. The kitchen purchases a large percentage of local ingredients. And the chef is becoming a regular on regional network television.

Best described as contemporary American, Amp's food is modern, original, clean and focused, with the occasional pleasant surprise. The lengthy menu is split into sections for sharable items, small plates, entrees and sides. And while the practice of dividing and subdividing menus can grow tiresome, the model works well at a hotel, where guests pop in at all hours of the day in groups of one to many. Items start as low as $4 for a plate of yeast-dusted house-fried potato chips and top out at $19 for a bone-in tenderloin. Most dishes, however, fall in the $8-to-15 range.

It's not uncommon to see airline employees in the lounge sipping local crafts beers while sharing cracker-thin flatbreads ($10) topped with oyster mushrooms, Ohio goat cheese and celery leaves. Other delightful starters include silky chicken liver mousse ($8) paired with hearty grilled bread, and mussels ($8) braised in a kicky ginger and lemongrass-spiked broth. A Latino-style chicken soup ($6) features a fortified broth garnished with avocado, jalapeño, cilantro and irresistible corn dumplings. Better still is Amp's velvet mushroom soup ($5), named for the ethereal texture of this dreamy whipped bisque.

At Amp, one needn't spend a lot to enjoy luxe seafood dishes. The "small bites" section of the menu offers elegant entrees in miniature, such as copper-colored glazed cod ($9) served in a smoky onion broth dotted with edamame and bok choy. Scallop fans will go nuts for Cooley's take, deeply seared and presented with pea shoots, pickled ramps, and a seductive coconut cream.

Because the kitchen relies as much as possible on local ingredients, the menu undergoes frequent tweaks. In fall, I enjoyed a chunky pasta ($15) enriched with fork-tender braised rabbit and wilted autumn greens. Heralding the arrival of spring, morel mushrooms gilded a remarkably flavorful roasted free-range chicken ($15). I loved the decision to pair the dish with a warm potato salad – a fitting seasonal bridge between winter and summer.

Of all the items we sampled, the only downers were a gamey, fatty flank of braised lamb ($15), and a too-mild-for-our-tastes filet of arctic char ($16). The latter's flavor was not assisted much by a timid saffron broth.

Given its breadth and depth, Amp's menu is murder on fickle foodies. My suggestion? Leave the driving to Cooley by ordering the four- or six-course chef's choice tasting menu. Priced well below market at $30 and $45 respectively, the food-filled feast allows diners to enjoy a wide range of the kitchen's talents without calling a single shot. Ours ended with a sinfully delicious dessert called milk chocolate panna cotta. Like a gourmet malted, the shake was layered with salty caramel and crunchy hazelnuts.

Amp 150 continues to upend stereotypes. The so-called "airport hotel" is in the midst of installing a quarter-acre garden that will supply the kitchen with sun-ripened herbs, fruits and veggies. To pollinate those goodies, Amp is consulting with a beekeeper to establish an onsite hive.

Positively Cleveland may soon be sending hungry tourists back to the airport.

Amp 150
4277 W. 150th St., Cleveland
216.706.8787

Shawn Monday to Leave Downtown 140

Chef Shawn Monday is leaving his post as chef-partner of Hudson's Downtown 140, where he has been for seven years, to open two new eateries on the site of the former Vue restaurant.

When they open in mid-summer, One Red Door will feature chef-driven comfort food, and The Flip Side will feature gourmet all-natural burgers with chef-crafted condiments. Both will be priced considerably lower than Downtown 140, says wife and partner Tiffany Monday.

“We’ve done fine dining our whole life but now we see One Red Door as an opportunity to serve our clients and new patrons in a different way,” she says. “We want to create a menu and atmosphere that brings you back week after week. ”

There has been no replacement chef yet announced for Downtown 140, says Shawn.

Winner, Winner, Grilled-Cheese Dinner!

@tweetaways selected a winner of the Melt Bar & Grilled giveaway out of 55 entries. Congrats to @divotjr! Your invite is on its way. Enjoy your meal at the brand new East Side location of Melt.