The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Your searching’s over
Heart of Gold, the newish eatery in the former Plum space in Cleveland’s Ohio City, is eclectic and fun=
A recent trend in the restaurant scene of Cleveland’s Ohio City neighborhood has been longtime fixtures closing and reopening with new concepts. Diners are still waiting for the reimagined ventures at the former Flying Fig and Bier Market/ Bar Cento locations, and the former Plum on Lorain Avenue might be the first to have a new spot up and running.
Owner Jonah Oryszak’s Heart of Gold, which has been open for about a year, is part café and part bar. It’s part sit-down and part fast-casual. It’s got the feel of a laid-back neighborhood hangout, good for days or nights.
The space is divided into a cozy front bar area, a separate dining room with seating for perhaps 40, and a fenced-in, courtyard-style patio that’s shaded by a birch tree at its center.
Inside, it’s bright and airy. Blue pastels and a whimsical mural cover the walls, which are accompanied by high ceilings and light hardwood floors. There’s a good deal of exposed brick, and the bar is bathed in white subway tile. It looks just like what you might expect in a cheeredup old Ohio City building.
I met up with my sister and brother-in-law on a recent Saturday after a West Side Market excursion. We thought it would be a late lunch, but there’s a separate brunch menu on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. It was a pleasant surprise that
we’d be able to mix breakfast and lunch, a deviation from weekdays, which feature separate lunch and dinner menus with some overlap.
We were able to choose our table and couldn’t say no to the patio on a day of great Cleveland weather. There are menus at the table, but you put your order in at what also serves as a host stand. You get an order number, and food is delivered to your table. Beer is by the can, grabbed from a cooler along with any nonalcoholic
beverages when you order. Wine and cocktails come from the bar.
The beer list consists of a small mix of craft brews and regular domestics. It’s curious that Heart of Gold’s next-door neighbor is Platform Beer Co. — you can access one patio from the other — yet there are no Platform beers on the menu. I tried a hazy IPA called Party Forward from Fairstate Brewing Cooperative in Minnesota. It was a bit fruitier than I prefer but not bad.
As for food, I decided to go with the Sausage & Egg Smash Sandwich ($13), which takes the smash burger concept to the breakfast table. The sausage had a bit of char, similar to what happens when a beef patty is smashed on a hot grill, but maybe not quite to the same extent. I don’t know if it was chorizo, but the sausage was spicy, definitely not your traditional breakfast sausage.
HEART OF GOLD
4133 LORAIN AVE. CLEVELAND 216-938-8711 HEARTOFGOLDCLE.COM Location: On the south side of Lorain Avenue in Ohio City’s west end.
Type of restaurant: Café/ bar.
Hours: 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday; 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday; closed Sunday and Monday.
Liquor and wine: Full bar.
Facilities for the handicapped: Yes.
Credit cards: All major.
Cuisine: Café/bistro.
Vegetarian: Quite a few options, including veggie patties and vegan dishes.
Special diets: Ask about dietary preferences; glutenfree and vegan distinguished on the menu.
Kid-friendliness: No kids menu, but some kid-friendly menu items; high chairs available.
Outdoor dining: Yes.
Dress code: Casual.
Reservations: No.
Wi-Fi: Yes.
Online ordering: Yes.
Delivery: DoorDash.
Prices: Reasonable. Shareables and salads are mostly $10; sandwiches and entrees in the $12to $18 range.
Value: Very good.
Ratings (of five): Food: ★★★
Atmosphere: ★★★★
Service: ★★★
The fried egg was perfectly runny — not obnoxiously so — and it was served on a fantastic bun with maggi mayo, which I believe is a mayonnaisecheese blend. It was darn good, though a little pricey, in my opinion, for a breakfast sandwich. But brunch on a courtyard patio in Ohio City, under the shade of a big birch tree on a beautiful day? I’ll gladly pay for that ambiance every time.
What seems to be a crossover among the various menus is the Fried Brussels from the appetizer-type menu that’s referred to as “snacks.” There’s a single serving for $5 or a shareable plate for $10. We decided to share — we siblings are better at sharing now that we’re adults — and got a plate of sprouts that was enough for four reasonable portions.
They’re tossed with an orange-and-chili mustard aioli, which was somehow sweeter than it sounds. I’m partial to cutting the bitterness of Brussels sprouts with, say, candied bacon and/or maple syrup, but this more-acidic concoction did the job better. It’s an outstanding dish if you’re into sprouts.
The other dish we shared was the Everything Spice Waffle Fries ($5), which came with a service hiccup. I ordered them at the same time I did everything else, but they didn’t arrive until after someone came around to tables asking if we had everything. We didn’t, and they came quickly thereafter, but we didn’t get the cheese sauce I was offered and ordered.
The everything spice fell flat for me, not nearly the same flavor profile you get when you have an “everything” bagel. The fries were piping-hot and cooked perfectly but were much better with some salt and pepper added.
I’m a devout carnivore, but my sister dabbles in the vegetarian/vegan lifestyle, and she ordered The Old Major ($14), which is billed on the menu as a “veg Big Mac.” The dual patties are made from beets and beans, and the rest is like the old TV ad: “special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun.” She said it was good. (I’ll take her word for it.)
My brother-in-law got the Obligatory Fried Chicken ($12), a sandwich that comes grilled or crispy and regular or spicy. He opted for crispy and spicy and thought it was great. Like me, he is skeptical when these now-ubiquitous chicken sandwiches are touted as “hot” or “spicy,” but this is a guy who has a dozen different hot sauces in his kitchen at any given time, so if he’s happy with calling it “spicy,” it passes the test for me.
I love hanging out in Ohio City, so I may be a bit biased. But the whole vibe of the place is in my wheelhouse, including the somewhat eclectic menu, which is well-thought-out. Heart of Gold is a sort of quirky, cool place, and if you’re handing out grades for old spots transformed with new concepts, it deserves an Aminus at worst.