The Greenhouse Tavern Review (Cleveland, OH)

I know my reviews of restaurants and sorts when not on vacation really do not fit the whole theme of this blog (finance or travel), but we really enjoy trying new restaurants and food…and I enjoy writing about them, and letting people and the establishment know about customer’s opinions. My hope is that maybe when you are passing through any of our various places we have had to review, you will consider enjoying a meal at the location.

Our new season of “Broadway” plays started recently, so that means the start of a new season of date nights (cue the lights for my wife getting all dressed up and looking gorgeous), and for the boys, playtime with grandparents. It is a win-win for everyone! Play going is an expenditure that really adds up when you factor in dinner, but it is a pastime that we enjoy splurging on as a couple.

The first of our plays for the 2011-12 season was Million Dollar Quartet, which is a true story about how Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Elvis, and Johnny Cash all came together for one night to create history in the Sun Records studio. I knew nothing about the play prior, and honestly had very little interest until I actually saw the show.

Before we get into my brief show analysis, it all started with my wife and I purchasing 4 seats this year for our season of shows at the Cleveland Playhouse. Last year we purchased two seats for each of us, but found we were buying additional seats all year to invite family or friends along to the shows. Then when we were offered the front row of our section, and all of the seats were available, we decided to just go ahead and purchase them all. Not only do we have the best seats in our section, but if we continue to renew, I now have them locked down…forever if we choose.

Wow, I guess forever is a big financial commitment, but I can not think of it that way. Our seats really our reasonable, and when they are all grouped together, I saved on fees associated with each transaction were I to buy them all individually. Not to mention, we had front row seats to our section, which would not happen buying them for each show.

Here is where the financial portion of the thread comes into play. The great thing about buying 2 additional seats for the whole season? We now have Christmas and Birthday gifts lined up for all of our family.

Dear My Parents:

On ________ you will be accompanying my wife and I to a night out on the town to see __________.

Dear My In-Laws:

On ________ you will be watching the boys, which may include playing choo-choos, watching Curious George, taking baths, evening snacks, brushing teeth, and book reading prior to bed.

And vice versa on the other nights.

On our first night though, we were taking friends. They had an interest in the era of music, and it was a great way to kick off the season.

We had reservations for the Greenhouse Tavern, located in Cleveland’s trendy East 4th Street area. Upon entering the restaurant, it had a very natural feel to the environment. Once we sat down it all made sense because it was explained how the entire place was built with either re-purposed or green materials. In addition, there was a rooftop garden. All of these green ideas in a restaurant are right up our alley, and I gladly support their sustainability. The Greenhouse Tavern is the first certified green restaurant in Ohio, and in addition has the following accolades:

The Greenhouse Tavern was recently named one of the Top Ten Best New Restaurants in the United States by Bon Appetit as well as Best New Restaurant by Cleveland Magazine. The restaurant also claimed 2nd-place at New York City’s Burger Bash 2010. Last year, [the owner] was honored as one of Food & Wine Magazines’ Best New Chefs. He has made several national television appearances on programs such as Dinner Impossible, Iron Chef America and Best Thing I Ever Ate.

So this place surely has to be amazing right?

After ordering cocktails, I attempted to order the Jen’s Peach Tart with DFH Midas Touch, braised endive, and classic English pastry dough…but they were out of it and forgot to take it off the menu. It was unfortunate, because it really sounded great and there was not a lot on the menu that was inspiring me. So instead I ordered the Fall Vegetable Farro with brown butter, parsnips, butternut squash, pecorino, and herbed bread crumbs ($18).

Overall, my dish was very good, and had an excellent combination of fall vegetable and butter flavor, which was nicely contrasted by something crunchy (I am not sure what) on top. I wish it had a more robust vegetable flavor in the dish, similar to my vegetable gnocchi from our Zinc Bistro experience. To this day, Zinc is still one of my most memorable meals!

My wife ordered to start the bacon wrapped apples with spicy soubise, mittica blue cheese, herb salad ($8) followed by Steak Frites with Ohio beef strip steak, pommes frites, parsley, shallot mignonette and buerre rouge ($25).

I was not overly impressed with the bacon wrapped apples, but my wife’s steak frites was nicely cooked and prepared. I think I favored my meal though.

For reference our friends had each ordered the Stuffed Provencal Peppers with heirloom tomato sauce, chevre breadcrumbs, and ratatouille rice pilaf ($19), which we obviously did not sample.

Ok, I have an admission to make…even though I love to cook, I have no technical background in culinary other than what my mother taught me, I have no idea what most of the items on the menu even are without looking them up. Sometimes that is the beauty of exquisite cuisine.

So how everything? It was good. The food was of excellent quality, and the cocktails we enjoyed were very good. The problem I had with the whole thing was how pricey it was for what you got. I have no problem dropping money on an excellent meal. However, even though our wives/girlfriends ordered dessert to go, in addition to our meals, and we split the check evenly, I still dropped $130 after tip. Here is my dilemma.

Often times my wife and I will go out, have some cocktails, an appetizer, our meals, which often include a separate a la carte salad, and then we maybe split dessert. To me, that is worth $130, similar to our Zinc meal. However, besides my two cocktails, all I ate was my plate of vegetable “pasta” and I was still hungry (not including some of our friends appetizer of peppers they let us sample and the bread plate). What I realized is that if I want to eat enough, I have to order more from the menu, which of course jacks up the cost of the night to over $150 for a dinner.

So while the food was good, I do not think I will intentionally be heading back to the Greenhouse Tavern as it was nothing memorable. Well maybe I will reconsider should they run a deal on Groupon. The burger I grabbed on the way home that night really hit the spot though after the show.

Finally, back to Million Dollar Quartet. I went in with no expectations, and was really inspired by the end of the show. The story line was rather slow, and since I was not alive during the stories time period, I could not really relate as all the other people in the crowd could. However, near the end of the show, the reality of history being made really came through. Then, the whole stage turned into more of a reliving of an actual concert one might have seen with all of the artists. It really was quite impressive to see the actors portraying these great music icons. It must have been extremely difficult to cast this play because the actors needed to 1) be good actors, 2) play instruments like the legends (yes they played actual instruments throughout), 3) sing and dance like the musicians, and 4) appear to look like them, although make-up can do wonders.

Million Dollar Quartet really took the pressure off the heat of my credit card from the meal at Greenhouse Tavern. More importantly though, I had a healthy date night with my wife and friends, while the boys were spoiled by their loving grandma!