VASILIOS RESTAURANT & PIZZERIA

Sometimes, my husband Jack and I are really slow on the uptake. Make that really slow; Vasilios Restaurant & Pizzeria is celebrating 30 years as we speak - but would you believe our visit in mid-June was our first time there? Sure, we've driven past the place countless times, usually - as was the case with our first visit - on our way home from poking around somewhere in Ashtabula County. 


On this occasion, we'd been to historic Ashtabula Harbor and Geneva-on-the-Lake, where we enjoyed a large appetizer platter at the Old Firehouse Winery. We weren't terribly hungry when we got to Vasilios, but we figured we could get something to nibble on and take the rest home for later.

There's a banquet room that can handle up to 60, and one of the big attractions here is pizza (the first thing diners encounter - pun intended - is the pizza stand right at the entrance). The restaurant is open and airy, and in good weather there are a couple of small cafe-type tables outside. Admittedly, the views of busy highways are less than
spectacular there, but hey, we didn't come for the scenery; it's food we're most interested in.


Breakfast is served here all day, for the record, and for me, that's a Martha Stewart good thing. That's the main reason I like Bob Evans, to be honest (that plus the fact that they're extremely generous with the buy one, get one free breakfast coupons). Neither of us enjoys eating breakfast at the "regular" time, but put that incomparable sausage gravy and biscuits in front of me any other time and get out of the way!

Here, though, we stuck with non-breakfast foods; in part, that's because we figure it's pretty hard to totally ruin bacon and eggs so that's not a good choice for review, and partly because we were in the mood for something a bit more substantial. And unlike Bob Evans, this place has a liquor license (I don't know about you, but eggs and beer just don't mesh). There's no beer on tap, but that's fine with us; it always tastes better in a bottle (and the beer and super-frosty mugs are just the way I love it). Several wines are available as well, including Canyon Road, one of our favorites.


Because pizza is a specialty here, we ordered an Old World to take with us when were done (a medium 12-inch for $8.50 plus $1.50 to add pepperoni). We both ended up getting linguine with clam sauce ($9.50) - red for him and white for me. 

I got wedding soup, always a favorite, to start - and the broth was delicious. There wasn't much of those tiny round things (orzo??), but the chunks of chicken, meatballs, greens, onions and carrots were generous. Jack ordered shrimp gumbo, which I normally don't care much for, but it was quite good and had a noticeable kick. Italian dishes are a specialty here, by the way - everything from veal, chicken and eggplant parmesan to ravioli to stuffed shells to gnocchi.

The linguine entrees were totally non-standard, topped with chunks of celery, black olives, onions, mushrooms and clams. My white sauce didn't have much of a distinct flavor, but it was good - and Jack liked his quite well. The bowls were huge, and we each brought home more than half of our orders and even had enough to share with our daughter Chris and her husband Jerry next door. As for the pizza, it smells and tastes very much like our favorite Brier Hill-style at Sunrise Inn in Warren, but with a thicker crust. Outstanding!

We didn't waste much time going back, and once again it was for a very late lunch after taking photos at several of Ashtabula County's 18 covered bridges. Several other folks were here as well - always a good sign when a place is busy other than at peak dining hours. 

This time, I settled for broiled whitefish, choosing my favorite soup in the world, wedding, instead of a salad. Jack picked the seafood platter with fries (salad instead of soup). The platter, a reasonable $9.95, contains four scallops, three jumbo shrimp and whitefish.

The soup was quite tasty (truth is, I don't recall ever eating a wedding soup I didn't like), but the fish was a bit of a disappointment. It was described as having a "light" red sauce, which I interpreted to mean not thick and heavy like pasta or marinara (I'm not a fan of red sauce and fish; both of us absolutely love linguine with clam sauce, but we disagree on what kind. I'm a white, he's a red, and never the twain shall meet.

As it turns out, the sauce here was very tomato-flavored and bright red - and the whole thing was covered with chunks of zucchini, onion and green peppers (all good) plus those funny olives that I think start with a K (not so good; give me a green olive by itself or in anything, but that's as far as my olive-loving goes). Actually, the sauce was very flavorful - but for me, just not on fish, please. Once I scraped most of that off, though, the fish itself was quite good. There were three substantial-sized filets, and I took quite a bit home to be consumed happily by Jack the next day.

All was good with the fish platter, except turns out one of the items on it was smelts, which is not one of his favorites. The breading was relatively heavy and crispy, so I threw caution to the wind and tried one - not bad at all, although I won't say they'll ever be a favorite seafood dish.

Vasilios does have a posted list of daily specials: Monday, it's a combo eggplant and chicken parmesan; Tuesday, chicken marsala; Wednesday and Friday, all-you-can-eat fish; Thursday, eggplant rotellini; Friday, Greek spaghetti; and Saturday, Italian platter. I expect the specials change occasionally, though, so if you want to make sure your favorite is on the menu, give them a call before you go.

If you go:

Vasilios Restaurant & Pizza
500 Trumbull Ave.
Cortland, Ohio 44410
(330) 638-3718

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Vasilios-Restaurant-Pizzeria/119898652449

Open 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday

THE PHOENIX FIRE GRILL AND BAR

Finding a new restaurant at which the food is outstanding never fails to be exciting, and when the excitement remains on subsequent visits, it's even better. Such is the case at The Phoenix Fire Grill and Bar. My husband Jack and I noticed it on several occasions as we drove toward Canfield on State Route 46 (usually on our way to the White House Fruit Farm or the Mill Creek Metropark Farm), but we didn't work up the courage to check it out till recently.

And boy, we're glad we did! The food here is way more than a cut above the ordinary, and each time we've stopped since then we've found something new to love.

The decor has a Southwestern flavor - lots of dark wood and peachy colors - that complements the wonderful smells coming from the fire grill; and for the record, the interior is much larger than it appears from the outside (the restaurant is at the end of a small shopping plaza). There's a good-sized bar and an adjacent section with a few booths; on the other side is a much larger area with plenty of booths and tables. Still, it's small enough to be cozy (and be full of diners at peak meal hours, so plan your visit accordingly).

One of the reasons we hadn't stopped earlier, I must admit, is that it looked expensive; we're not frequent visitors at restaurants that cost an arm and a leg, so we figured we'd wait to come here for a special occasion. But on one of our trips, Jack stopped in to look around and picked up a sample menu, showing us we had no need to hold off. The prices here are quite reasonable, and several of the dinner entrees are available in "lunch" portions until 4 p.m. each day. There's also a Happy Hour from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Thursday, when draft beers are $1 off and domestic bottles are reduced by a buck and a half.

On our first visit, we asked to sit on the "bar" side. Although we were in a booth, I did notice that this place has avoided one of my big pet peeves about sitting on a barstool, even if it's just for drinks: There's no convenient place to stash my purse. It takes up too much space if I plunk it next to me on the bar top, and I really don't want to stash it on the floor (after all, who knows where that floor has been).

Here, though, large cup hooks have been installed on the sides of the bar several inches from the top - a perfect solution, IMHO!

I'll also admit we probably made a mistake by asking the hostess to seat us in the bar section - after waiting for more than 10 minutes without seeing a server except on the restaurant side, we finally asked the bartender for help. After another 10 minutes, someone wandered over to check on us, apologizing and explaining they'd been "trying to figure out" who should be waiting on our table. Once they'd resolved that issue, though, the service was fine.

Deciding on what to try at a new restaurant, though, always presents a problem when it comes to the main reason we walked through the door. Do we go with something more tried and true, like a burger? Here, for instance, the Fireburger - an 8-ounce ground chuck patty with Buffalo sauce topped with marinated peppers and melted pepperjack cheese ($7) was almost too tempting. In the end, though, the black-n-bleu pizza proved irresistible; diced blackened chicken on seasoned white pizza with garlic, sliced plum tomatoes, bacon, three cheeses and crumbled bleu cheese (and fire grilled, of course) simply sounded out of this world.

Jack wasn't quite as hungry and settled for a barbecue chicken quesadilla from the appetizer menu ($7). A crispy tortilla shell filled with roasted peppers and three cheeses, it comes with smoked onion dip instead of the usual sour cream and/or guacamole.

Our first surprise was delivery of a basket of fresh-baked, still-warm rolls - not something we'd have expected with an order of a pizza and an appetizer. The rolls were excellent, and the herbed butter made them even more delectable.

Jack was exceptionally pleased with his quesadilla, which was stuffed with far more "insides" than we've ever seen in a quesadilla appetizer. It was delicious, and he said the smoked onion sauce added a special touch he loved (I tasted it, and it would be great on other things as well).

My pizza, though, was nothing short of wonderful. The crust is particularly flavorful, and the whole thing was oozing with so much melted cheese that it was hard to pick up without dripping. I don't recall seeing that amount of bleu cheese on anything that comes with bleu cheese before -- I love the stuff, and it was almost too much for me. The blackened chicken is cut in smallish chunks -- as well it should be on a pizza -- and the flavor is outstanding and blends perfectly with all that cheese.

Simply because we loved the place the first time around, our next visit came fairly soon thereafter and this time at lunchtime on a Sunday. We arrived around 12:20 p.m. in hopes of beating the after-church crowd, and at least on this day, it was perfect timing. We had almost the run of the place seating-wise (this time we opted for the regular dining room), but by the time we'd been served, the place was almost full.

We both thought the lunch portions of entrees would be a good way to go this time. My choice was the Shrimp & Scallops Jambalaya $9 for lunch, $16 for dinner), and Jack picked Chicken Marsala Portobello ($8/$14). But then, my eyes spotted something else -- and I threw caution to the wind and insisted I had to have it.

"It" was the Tuna Carpaccio appetizer, or Sashimi-style Ahi tuna marinated, rolled in spices, pan seared rare, sliced and served on assorted greens with ginger soy sauce. I'd become totally enamored with rare Ahi tuna on previous trips to the North Carolina Outer Banks (I found what I consider to be the best in the world at Basnight's Lone Cedar Cafe in Nags Head), so even though this was a relatively pricey $9, I wasn't about to let the catch get away even if it is inland.

Delicious? Oh my. The coating on the tuna is a titch crusty, and the sauce is rather salty and ever so slightly less tasty than at Nags Head. That said, I didn't want to eat anything else; and the slices were so numerous that the appetizer would have been sufficient for an entire lunch for me. Even Jack, who wants nothing to do with anything "rare," tasted a piece and agreed it's superb. If nothing else, I'll make a beeline for this place often just so I can have more of this!

Our entrees came with salads, and interestingly, mine was mostly head lettuce that Jack prefers while his was mostly my favorite assorted greens ("rabbit food," as he calls the stuff). Since we poured on different dressings before we noticed, we weren't able to switch, but next time we'll know to look before we dress and adjust accordingly.

His grilled chicken breast and portobello 'shrooms were served over rice pilaf and topped with fire roasted veggies and a lemon with a white wine and garlic butter sauce. The breast was a little on the skimpy side, he noted, but it was quite good (the sauce was outstanding) and the portobello slices were plentiful. Meanwhile, I was oblivious to what he was eating once I stuck my fork in the Jambalaya. It was a bowl of rice pilaf topped with two very large tiger shrimp, two equally large scallops, a few slices of Andouille sausage, all sauteed with bell peppers and onions and simmered in sherry wine sauce with a touch of marinara.

The flavor was outstanding (and properly cooked seafood is a deal-breaker for me any day of the week). The lunch portion isn't huge, but it would have been plenty for a dinner entree for me, especially with the salad (even without the appetizer, which next time out will be my main course for sure).

Except it wasn't. On our next visit, I decided to sample another dish that sounded wonderful - Mediterranean Pasta with Shrimp & Scallops ($10 for the lunch portion). Jack had liked the Jambalaya I got on the other trip so well that he ordered it for himself this time -- and except for a few slices of that Andouille sausage that he gave to me (he's not a sausage fan), he polished off the entire bowl.

My choice came in a bowl as well; the shrimp and scallops sauteed with artichokes, roasted red peppers, red onion, kalamata olives and feta cheese in butter, garlic and lemon sauce tossed with linguine and Parmesan cheese made for a very different taste sensation, but a sensation it was. I'm still partial to that Jambalaya (and of course the Ahi tuna appetizer) though, so looks as if we'll be coming here fairly regularly. If you see us there, stop and say hello!

If you go:

The Phoenix Fire Grill and Bar
5231 S. Canfield-Niles Road
Canfield, Ohio
(330) 533-9999

www.phoenixfiregrill.com

Open 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday; 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday; and noon to 8 p.m. Sunday.

ROTELLI

Editor's note: When my husband and I stopped for lunch at the Rotelli restaurant in Austintown, Ohio, on Aug. 25, we found a sign on the door saying this location is closed. No word yet on whether the locations in Liberty Township or Boardman have closed as well, so stay tuned!

Some might think that the last thing the Mahoning Valley needs is another Italian restaurant, but when one of the newer kids on the block is Rotelli, I think it's a welcome addition. Headquartered in Boca Raton, Fla., parent company Rotelli Pizza and Pasta Inc. has stores in six states including Ohio and Pennsylvania. Locally, there are restaurants in Austintown, Liberty and Boardman townships.

My husband Jack and I noticed the place some time ago when we'd stopped at the corner of State Route 46 and Mahoning Avenue for a treat at the Cold Stone Creamery in the shopping plaza there. Making a mental note that we should check it out sometime, I then discovered a couple of coupons in that year's Entertainment Book -- and that was all it took to get us inside the doors.

Having a discount coupon is a good incentive to get us to try a restaurant, but we certainly won't return if the food isn't great. That's certainly not the case at Rotelli; we've eaten here many times since that first stop -- with and without coupons -- and we really love the food.

The restaurant is fairly small and not what I'd describe as fancy, but there's a very Italian flavor that shows up in paintings and other decor (not to mention the wonderful smells coming from the kitchen at the back). There's a small bar near the kitchen, too, as well as comfortable booths and tables. We've never come here at peak mealtime hours, and so far, we've never had a problem being seated immediately.

One of our measures of a good restaurant may not be something anyone else cares about, but for folks like us who enjoy beer or wine with our meals, it's important that they don't cost more than the meals do. Most of the time, there's a special deal going (recently, for instance, it was Sam Adams Summer Ale at two bottles for $5). Nothing is on tap here, by the way, but neither is anything outrageously priced.

Alcohol isn't the only thing that's on special here, either; Rotelli is known for its "World Famous Lunch Special," which consists of one slice of pizza, soup or a salad and half of a submarine sandwich -- a very good deal for just $5.99. Sandwich choices include chicken, eggplant or meatball parmigiana, grilled spa chicken, Italian combo or ham and cheese. And, at most locations, Tuesday night is "Pizza Night," when a 16-inch hand-tossed cheese pizza goes for under $7 at most locations. Still other specials are posted on a board just inside the entrance.

Also a nice (and delicious) touch is the basket of hot rolls; you don't get butter, but it's really not needed, either. The tops are nicely browned, buttery and sprinkled with garlicky cheese sprinkles; we've fallen into the trap of eating them all before our entrees arrived, ending up with not much room left for the main part of our meals.

The first time we ate here, my entree of choice was Penne Chicken and Broccoli, and I'm happy to say I've ordered it most of the times we've come here -- yes, it's that good. You get a substantial bowl of grilled chicken, sauteed broccoli, garlic and fresh tomatoes in a "light" white wine sauce over penne; even the lunch portion is large enough that I always bring some home. The broccoli is tender but not mushy, and the grilled chicken flavor is distinctive. It is that wine sauce, though, that really makes this dish a standout.

Once in a while, though, I feel more adventurous -- and I'm happy to report that I've yet to be disappointed. One entree that's become a favorite is Angel Hair Alla Rotelli; this one is loaded with mushrooms, artichokes, peas and sun-dried tomatoes in basil garlic white wine sauce. Here's another: Ziti Diavolo, in which garlic, onions, green peppers, sauteed sausage and chicken breast chunks are covered with hot Sicilian sauce (this one packs a zing).

Just recently, I discovered four new pastas on the menu for $9.99 each; the one with red and green roasted peppeers, roasted garlic and onions with nothing more than olive oil sounded great -- and it was. The flavor was very mild and I added some salt and red pepper seeds for zest, but I'd get it again in a heartbeat. As with most entrees, you can choose the type of pasta you want -- I picked plain old spaghetti. The bowl was large enough that I brought about half of it home.

Lunchtime options include fresh pizza -- traditional or gourmet -- that are excellent, as well as a number of calzones, stromboli and those aforementioned subs. Lunch and dinner entrees, by the way, come with either soup or a salad. We both love the wedding soup here; the broth is extremely flavorful and it's filled with chunks of chicken, tiny meatballs, loads of greens and a few carrots. Most times, though, Jack opts for clam chowder, which he says is quite delicious.

On one of my adventurous outings recently, I decided to try pasta fagioli. I've never been particularly fond of it, but this one I wouldn't hesitate to try again. The broth was light red and slightly creamy -- nowhere near heavy -- and swimming inside were finely chopped carrots, tomatoes and teensy sewer pipe-style pasta. Yum!

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention a couple of Jack's favorites; topping the list is linguine with spicy red clam sauce -- and no, it's not too spicy for him (I, on the other hand, am a firm believer that tomato sauce and fish don't play well together and prefer the white clam sauce, which is delicious as well). Jack also loves the eggplant parmigiana, which includes a layer of ricotta cheese and is baked with tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese. It includes a side of pasta. The lunch portion, which is quite substantial, costs just $6.99.

Most recently, as we returned home from photographing the gorgeous dahlias in the garden at Mill Creek Park, I noticed several tilapia entrees on the specials board, all priced at $10.99. Fish-lover that I am, I couldn't resist trying the version that was almond encrusted with a light balsamic glaze in a Tuscan cream sauce of garlic shallots, artichokes, sun-dried tomatoes and pepperoncini. It arrived in a huge bowl and was loaded with tender artichoke slices, and a few hot banana peppers cut thin added a bit of zing. There were two good-sized filets of breaded tilapia, and the sauce was exceptionally thick and rich (almost too rich -- I could barely eat half, but then I'd also pigged out on those rolls). It came with a side of pasta, and my choice was plain old spaghetti. The sauce is relatively sweet and chunky with chopped tomatoes rather than a heavy marinara or meat sauce. It's quite tasty, although for me, it only works as a side dish; I don't like it quite well enough to make it an entree.

A newer addition to Rotelli is a lunch buffet, which offers nine items for $5.99 and is available from 11 a.m. till 2 p.m. In the interest of full disclosure, we haven't tried it yet -- it's that new -- but next time we're out here at lunchtime, we'll make it a point to make it our choice.

If you go:

ROTELLI
5553 Mahoning Ave.
Youngstown, Ohio 44515 (Austintown)
(330) 270-8349
www.rotellipizzapasta.com