The Best Places to Eat in Northeast Ohio
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Credit: Todd Coleman
We love driving around Northeast Ohio. Sure, there are prettier places on the planet, but a road trip from the shores of Lake Erie around Cleveland south to Rubber City (a k a Akron) and Canton is, in our opinion, one of the finest a food lover can take in all of America. Here's why: having spent the past 30 years seeking out great meals across the country for our Roadfood books, we've watched way too many local traditions and ethnic enclaves slip away. Not in this part of Ohio, though, where the spectacularly good cooking reflects many of the local inhabitants' Central and Eastern European roots.
A century ago, 75 percent of Cleveland's residents were either foreign-born or first-
generation Americans; the city boasted the largest urban Slovak population outside of Slovakia and the largest community of Hungarians outside of Budapest. Nowadays, Cleveland is more mixed, and that has worked to the local food culture's advantage. On our most recent trip to the area, in May, we encountered not only fabulous old-world specialties, like homemade smoked meats and Serbian-style fried chicken, but also standout soul food, an unforgettable Midwestern church supper, and the best ice cream sundae this side of Iowa.
It's a feat to get out of Cleveland with any appetite at all if you spend time grazing around the city's sprawling, century-old West Side Market, where temptations include the Westside Market Cafe's fried fresh walleye sandwich and Reilly Irish Bakery's triple-chocolate, six-pint Guinness Stout cake, not to mention a plethora of fresh produce, stone-hearth breads, and German kuchen (fruit- and cheese-filled pastries). Another challenge to leaving Cleveland hungry is the Polish Boy, a local soul food sandwich comprising a hot dog bun piled high with kielbasa, french fries, and coleslaw and slathered with a spicy barbecue sauce. (Try the version at Hot Sauce Williams on Carnegie Avenue.) Then there's the luscious dobos torta, eight layers of sponge cake and chocolate buttercream covered in caramel, at Balaton Restaurant.
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