Jeni's Trio

This month was relatively quiet leading up to a quick road trip to Cleveland at the end of the month to see Jay-Z & Beyonce’s On The Run II Tour! I have a few recommendations should you ever find yourself there:

  • First up: Mabel’s BBQ. I heard about this on the House of Carbs podcast, and also read about it on Bon Appetit. It’s Chef Michael Symon’s BBQ spot (he’s on The Chew and so many Food Network shows), and I loved it. First off, it’s on a very cute little street downtown that’s closed off to traffic and lined with restaurants and bars. There was a baseball game on the night we went, so it was full of people with lots going on. The space inside was sleek and industrial, but also with piles of wood lining the walls. Loved it. I ended up sharing a Polish Girl Sandwich (kielbasa, chopped pork and ‘slaw on a roll), potato salad and more ‘slaw, and would recommend everything.
  • Cleveland also has a Jeni’s! Well, a cute little place outside Cleveland, called Chagrin Falls. We stopped by there late on Tuesday night and I was so prepared because I’d been studying my Jeni’s flavours for a month leading up to this visit! We all ended up getting flights of ice cream, which are three mini scoops in a little square bowl (pictured up top). My final flavours: Gooey Butter Cake, Brown Butter Almond Brittle and Milkiest Chocolate. So rich, so creamy and made me so very happy.
  • On Wednesday morning we went over to visit the West Side Market, which is an indoor/outdoor market, similar to St. Lawrence Market here in Toronto. We wandered around there, and I picked up some Bertman Original Ball Park Mustard, which is a famous Cleveland creation, used at all the baseball fields in Cleveland for almost 100 years. We went next door to the Market Garden Brewery for lunch, where my favourite thing was the freshly baked salted pretzel with warm beer/cheese dipping sauce that we shared to start.
  • For dinner on Wednesday, we went to Nuevo, which I was convinced was going to be a tourist trap with horrible food because it was right on the water, and next to the football stadium where we were headed after dinner for the concert. I’m happy to report I was wrong. We had a pitcher of mango margaritas to start, with some tasty chips and guac, and then I had a vegetarian burrito with Sikil-Pac (what? Exactly, the waitress explained to me that it’s like hummus made out of pepitas, and I was all in).
  • On the way out of Cleveland we stopped at Target & Trader Joe’s of course, and I picked up some Smashing S’mores for the road!

Other non-foodie things I was obsessed with this month:

  • Jay-Z & Beyonce’s tour isn’t stopping in Toronto this summer, so that’s why we made the drive to see them! It was fantastic!!! Nothing can beat my front-row experience of 2014, but this came very close. It was so fun to see them in different venue too, besides ACC or SkyDome, plus it was all open air, since it was in the Cleveland Brown’s football stadium. Such a different vibe, and it didn’t rain like it had been predicted, so it was just the best night.
  • We also went to The Cleveland Museum of Art to see the Yayoi Kusama Infinity Mirror exhibit, which had been in Toronto a few months ago, but was impossible to get tickets. It’s so much more than just secret rooms, shimmery lanterns, and polka dots though! The rooms are meditations on mortality and obliteration, and some deep, deep topics that you wouldn’t know just from looking at all the selfies on Instagram.
  • Meanwhile, I read so many good books this month! I just had to read To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before ever since I saw that it was being made into a movie that will be on Netflix in August. I totally loved it, and immediately put the other two books in the series on hold at the library. I also read The Immortalists, which is in the running to be my favourite book of 2018. Finally, The Kiss Quotient was a very cute, and surprisingly steamy, romantic dramedy that was another perfect summer read.

Flashback!