Lola – Cleveland

I love me some Michael Symon – he’s my chef boyfriend (well, one of them, anyway!) How do you not love a man who has tattoos, of cuts of meat, on his arms? He takes his food way seriously and I can totally appreciate that.

We made our annual Christmas trek to Cleveland and got up there, a little early, so we could visit Michael Symon’s restaurant, Lola. I was sickly and overly excited about eating there.

The restaurant sits back, in a very cute section of downtown – it looks very trendy and is right across the street from the Horseshoe Casino (he has a burger place in there, too)

We made a reservation but…it wasn’t very busy around lunch time. I didn’t want to be too much of a groupie, so I refrained from taking pictures of the inside of the restaurant. I did practice some restraint.

The Lunch Menu is different from the main one but, we had no choice, dinner wasn’t an option for us. So, I’ll take what I can get from Michael!

Menu was fun and trendy!

And, then, this…

Gotta love the gorgeous water bottle re-loaders!

And, bread at every table is always a nice touch, too.

After much back and forth about what to get (I swear, you’d think it was brain surgery, with me), I ordered the Spicy Tomato Bisque, to start.

I loved the actual soup and I DO love bleu cheese – just wasn’t crazy about the two of them, together. But, the soup part was fantastic. I’m a very picky soup eater. (and my tomato Parmesan basil is still better – seriously, you can’t mess with it)

Mike ordered the Meatloaf Sandwich

He was IN LOVE with his sandwich. He liked the look of mine (you’ll see that in a sec) but, he chowed down in a matter of minutes.

I got the Fried Bologna Sandwich

Yes – YUM is the appropriate reaction. Loved the thick sliced (crispy on the outside) fried bologna, LOVED the english muffin “bun”, LOVED the fried egg (and the runny mess that ensued when I bit into it) and the pickled onions were perfect. My ONLY complaint was that it needed a smidgen more sauce (dijon aioli). Otherwise, perfect damn sandwich. I’ve vowed to make more sandwiches with english muffins!

Fries were nice and crispy – she brought me a horseradish garlic sauce to go with them. That made me happy.

It was everything that I hoped and dreamed for, when I walked through the door. I was hoping to catch a glimpse of my man but I realize that he’s so popular with his new show and all. Whatever.

If I lived in Cleveland, I have a feeling that we would come here…often.