Bricco - Akron

We have been going to Bricco for years.  It is located in downtown Akron with not much parking.  This time it was cold so I valet parked.  The menu has not changed in the years we have been going but it must not need to.  The food is always of good quality.  Mon and Tues have retail wine night and the wine list is fairly long.  This time we started with the meat and cheese tray.  TBG was not impressed, he said it looked like they just grabbed whatever they had in the back and put it on a platter.  We also got the calamari with peppers which I almost forgot to take a picture of.  I promise it looked better when they brought it out.  It was good like always.  It's never rubbery and has chorizo in it too.  We ordered 2 pizzas for the table.  The first is the tenderloin pizza with boursin.  It's wonderful.  This is the pizza that started us eating boursin at home. You can see from the picture that the tenderloin is perfectly cooked.  There isn't too much sauce and the crust is good as well.  The second pizza was the chorizo pizza with sriracha on top.  It was also good and you can see there are large hunks of sausage on the pizza.  The pizzas are also a pretty good size.  There was only 3 of us, but we left with about half a pizza.  The server this time was kinda slow and not real friendly, but I do not remember this being the norm at Bricco.  Usually there is local artwork on the walls in the bar, but this time there was still (old) Christmas decorations up.  The atmosphere otherwise is nice.  There is a back room for parties, and fun booths in the dinning area.  We usually sit at one of the large tables in the bar area surrounded by brick walls and windows looking out into Main street. The beer list is as good as the wine list, offering craft beers, and the prices are reasonable for the ingredients offered here.  Bricco is good for Happy Hour, or a nice dinner out.

Service____ 6 Chipps

Food____8 Chipps

Atmosphere____8 Chipps

Beer List____8 Chipps

Wine List____8 Chipps

Value____7 Chipps

Battiste & Dupree Cajun Grill - South Euclid

Battiste & Dupree is located in a strip mall a quarter mile from Cedar Rd in South Euclid.  There is a small parking lot in the front.  It opens at 5:00 and seats about 20 people.  The decor is all things New Orleans and a few plaques from local papers.  The windows are lined with beads.  The bathrooms are kept locked with the chef/owner/host/bartender/server holding the key.  We were recommended this place by someone who goes often, and expected a slow authentic southern experience.  We made reservations since there were 6 of us arriving at this small restaurant.  We arrived a few min early and had to wait for a couple to leave so we could put 2 tables together.  We waited 15 min for water and menus.  We waited another 15 min to order our apps and beers.  The place was not full at this point, only about 5 other people there.  They did have a fun selection of beer, carrying Abita beer from New Orleans.  We tried a few and were never offered more during the rest of our stay.  I personally drink a lot when I am eating spicy cajun food and was disappointed I did not get a refills of water or beer.  The first appetizer to come out was the Cajun Fried Dill Pickles.  They were awesome, I loved the cajun spices on the perfectly fried pickles. There was plenty of them to share, but we did not get plates so all had to eat off the center one.  About 20 min later our other app came out.  We got the sampler platter with ribs, wings, jambalaya, coleslaw, and fried fish bites.  The ribs were tough, wing sauce tasty, jambalaya pretty good, coleslaw different and fish bites good and fun.  We really wanted to try the rest of the food.  We caught the guys attention and asked if we could order our food.  He told us to wait a minute.  We waited 30, then got his attention again and asked for the check.  We were in the restaurant 1.75 hours and had not even ordered our food.  In the mean time though we got lectures on not putting our purses on the ground (no hooks were provided) because we would get bed bugs (are they in the restaurant??), locking the door after we go to the bathroom, removing my phone from the table (which I use to blog while eating), and being patient because he was only one man.  I think almost 2 hours without even ordering entrees is patient enough.  It's not like there was a live band or entertaining server to keep us there.  He was not apologetic about us leaving without eating, just said sorry that "it didn't work out".  The bill was $60 and we left hungry and thirsty.  By the time we left all the tables were full and most did not have food or water.  It's sad because the food was good and there aren't many Cajun places around.  I know TBG won't be going back.

Service____ 2 Chipps

Food____7 Chipps

Atmosphere____5 Chipps

Beer List____6 Chipps

Wine List____5 Chipps

Value____2 Chipps