That's Gavi chef Mike Valentino with a luncheon Friday fish fry. It's breaded tilapia with homemade cole slaw and two hand-made pierogies, priced st $7.95 for lunch with a larger portion served with three pierogies, priced at $14.95, for dinner. The pierogies come from St. Andrews Church in Parma, according to proprieter Dave Gromelski, who tells us they won Cleveland's Magazine's "Best Of" award.
The same meals are also served at Sara's Place, the sister restaurant in Gates Mills.
I learned about the Friday Lenten fish fry last night when I joined a friend for happy hour there. We spent $17 total for dinner and a beer each. Gavi's is considered a high-end establishment so the prices were really unexpected. The 4 to 7 p.m. happy hour deals run Tuesday through Friday. The choices are billed as appetizers but we found the servings to be plenty for dinner. We each had Italian sausage sauteed with sweet peppers, onions and marinara served in puff pastry shells. Other choices for $5 include sliders of the day, spinach artichoke dip, fish taco, an all beef hotdog baked in pastry. For $6.50 , there's a choice between a dozen mussels or an 8-slice pizza. We saw several groups of friends ordering a couple of items and sharing themed
The Lake County Bar Crawl, featured in a recent News-Herald Food section, proved beyond a doubt that people are hungry for a $20-per-couple meal with a beer. Three of the four places featured in the Crawl broke their all-time one-day records during the promotion and got many new customers. The fourth restaurant — the Wright Place in Willoughby Hills — has its designated day this Sunday, so we'll see how that goes.
Patrons who go to all four bars on their designated days each get a $25 gift certificate. It's a win-win scenario for everyone especially the patrons who get out and about in a season when cabin fever makes us all a little crazy.
Let me hear about the deals you've found and where you've found them. We're all in this together after all.