STONEYARD GRILL AND RESTAURANT

As any fan of the TV classic "Cheers" can tell you, sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name; they're always glad you came, and so are you. For more years than I lived within the borders, there almost always was a place like that in Niles. Even before I married my husband Jack, we spent quality time on college breaks at Jerry's Inn on Mason Street. Once we'd settled in, we enjoyed some great breakfasts at The Spot restaurant downtown.

Later, our two kids tagged along to the Silver Nugget; and many an evening meal was washed down with a draught beer or two at the Old Main Ale and Chowder House deftly poured by 6-foot, 9-inch owner Hugh McGarrity (and later by his not-so-tall brother, Mark, an author who wrote many whodunits under the pen name Bartholomew Gill).

But that was then; and ever since the Old Main building was razed to make way for the William McKinley Birthplace Home, nothing really came along to take its place.

Until now, that is. After following the construction progress on Facebook, we were delighted to learn that the new Stoneyard Grill and Tavern opened Aug. 16 in downtown Niles almost directly across from the McKinley Home. The building, which formerly housed a pharmacy, has been renovated inside and out to provide more interior space as well as a small, walled-in outdoor patio. 

Needless to say, we wasted little time getting there, although we gave it a few days for the big rush of traffic to fade a bit. Picking up friends Jerry and Barb who live in Niles, we hit the parking lot around 6:15 on Tuesday of the first full week of business. There are front and side entrances; the side, which we used because we'd parked closer to that one, opens into the bar. Keep walking down the hall and you'll come to a slightly larger dining room.

The decor is very clean and crisp, with stone on some of the walls, a fireplace in the bar and blonde booths and tables with black backs and legs. No fewer than seven flat-screen TV sets adorn the walls on the bar side, and another four are in the dining room.

The menu isn't what I'd call extensive, but at the same time, there are plenty of choices; while we looked at the possibilities, we ordered draught beers (16-ounce domestics are just $2, although for specialties like Sam Adams Oktoberfest, also on tap, the price jumps to $3.50). When we asked about drink specials, our server told us they're still trying to work out a schedule.

For starters, we picked beer battered onion rings ($5.99) and hot peppers in oil ($4.99 and served with bread) as appetizers to share. The onion rings, which come with a tasty but unidentifiable dipping sauce, were absolutely out of this world; one bite and we wished we'd have doubled up on the order. The peppers contain both jalapenos and Hungarian in a very flavorful oil. The jalapenos had a noticeable kick -- the other three liked the taste but deemed them a little too hot for their liking (so happily, I ended up eating most of them).

There are several burgers, pizzas and dinner salads on the menu as well as more expensive dinner entrees like the Flat Iron Sirloin (10-oz. Angus beef for $13.99) and "The Presidential," a 12-oz. certified Angus beef New York Strip steak with the restaurant's signature blend of seasoning named in honor of former President McKinley ($21.99). But we didn't want to spend quite that much, so I finally settled on the Stoneyard Fish Fry (haddock) for $8.99. Most dinner entrees come with a salad and one side, so I picked sweet potato fries and bleu cheese dressing on the salad. Seafood was Barb's choice too - Puff Shrimp, or Yuengling battered deep fried tiger shrimp for $8.99. She, too, wanted bleu cheese, and her other side was a baked potato with butter and sour cream.

The "boys" were chicken pickers, with Jack's choice being the marinated Italian chicken, or two breasts charbroiled in Italian marinade for $9.99. Cole slaw was an easy choice of side, and when the server suggested the homemade citrus viniagrette dressing, he quickly agreed.

Jerry's chicken was in the form of pasta - Chicken & Broccoli Aglio E Olio - for $10.99. It was described as a sauteed breast with broccoli and minced garlic tossed in olive oil over penne. Pasta dinners come with a salad only, and Caesar was his dressing choice.

I'll say straight out that the salads were among the best we've had anywhere; for openers, they consist of chopped mixed greens, tomatoes and onions and served in what looks like soup bowls with handles (really cool). The dressings, especially that citrus viniagrette, are outstanding.

As for the entrees, our verdicts were somewhat mixed. My haddock was an enormous plank - at least a foot long and probably 4 inches across at the widest point. Better still, it was coated with the same batter as those wonderful onion rings. The sweet potato fries were cut almost into julienne strips, but they tasted fine and the brown sugar dip was good as well. Barb's shrimp also had that tempura-style batter, and the shrimp were substantial in size so she was pleased as well.

The chicken dishes, however, didn't get such high marks - largely because flavor was noticeably lacking in both. If there was any garlic in the pasta, it was hiding, and the broccoli was crisp enough to suggest it hadn't been cooked at all. Jack's chicken breasts - while perfectly cooked and tender - were totally ho-hum with not the slightest hint of Italian influence.

Of course, any new restaurant is bound to experience some growing pains and, hopefully, will learn from both experience and customer feedback. Not long after the opening, in fact, a new list of weekday lunch specials debuted - 7 meals under $7 - a definite plus that will mean we're more likely to visit more often (there's a BBQ pork sandwich with Stoneyard chips for $6.99, for instance).

Chalk it up to getting your feet wet, we said - we'll definitely give this place another try, if only because we're rooting for it to be a big success. And go back we did, only this time it was for lunch and just the two of us. We asked to sit on the bar side, which, generally speaking, is our preference (yes, that's me in the photo). That fireplace, we decided, would be a big plus on cold winter days (we're assuming, of course, that it's a real wood-burning fireplace). 

We looked long and hard at the appetizer list, but since many of them cost almost as much as a sandwich platter and we just weren't that hungry at lunchtime we decided to pass this time out. Some of the sandwiches sounded intriguing, like Cajun Steak & Pepper ($9.99) and "original" Italian sausage (1/2 lb. for $8.99). Finally, Jack settled on chicken salad on a croissant for $8.99 - which probably would have been my choice had he not beat me to it and we wanted to sample different items. The "Dachshund," a large hot dog with brown mustard the menu claims would "make Harry Stevens proud" caught my eye ($7.99), so that was my pick of the sandwich litter.

For those who don't know, the late Harry M. Stevens, who was from Niles, is credited as being the first person to wrap a frankfurter in a piece of bread, a treat that would later become known as the hot dog.

One of the side substitute options on the menu is soup (instead of the fries that come with sandwiches), but our server told us the soup recipies were "still being perfected" so there were none as yet. So, I decided to pay the additional buck for some of those fabulous onion rings once again (and I got a fairly substantial pile for my money, I hasten to add).

The chicken salad was absolutely to die for (since it was my first choice I just had to have a sample), and while I have no idea how proud good old Harry would be, the hot dog really was huge and quite delicious, with a flavor something of a cross between a hot dog and kielbasa. In fact, I'd love to see it on the menu sans bun with some sauerkraut - my mouth is watering just thinking about it. 

The day after Labor Day, Jack and I popped in again for lunch, this time greeted by a server we "met" when we were sort of regulars at a casual eatery in Eastwood Mall who's now working here (see what I mean about where everybody knows you)? This time, we were interested in sampling something from that 7 Under $7 lunch menu. Jack had no problem, deciding on the two sliders with cole slaw for $6.99. From the three choices of pulled pork, hamburger and turkey burger, he went with the pulled pork - in the end, a good decision.

I considered the half-chicken salad sandwich option and inquired about the soup (they now serve French onion and chili), but I ended up ignoring the cheap lunch menu and ordered a burger instead: The Backyard Barbecue ($8.99), with a 1/2-pound Angus beef burger topped with pulled pork, grilled onions, cheddar cheese, house BBQ sauce and the hand-cut potato chips (the latter on the bottom) on a buttered, corn-dusted roll.

Jack brought one of the sliders home, and I admit I should have gone with the smaller portion menu. The burger was absolutely delicious - cooked to order - but it was so big I could barely finish half of it. The fries are good as well, so next time here I won't have any reservations about having them. I must say I could do without the chips on the bottom of the burger - I expected them to get soft, but they stayed fairly crisp despite the burger juices, and I'm not a big fan of crunchy stuff where I don't expect crunchy stuff to be (for instance, don't even think about offering me ice cream with nuts or or candy bits in it). 

So: Will the Stoneyard Grill bring "Cheers" to Niles? Time will tell, of course, but we certainly plan on going back and doing our part to make it so. If you see us there, be sure to call out our name!

If you go:

Stoneyard Grill and Tavern
41 S. Main St.
Niles, Ohio 44446
(330) 544-9273

http://www.stoneyardgrill.com 

Open at 11 a.m. seven days a week.