Polpetta's Meatball Menu Throws Us A Curveball

Last year was a whole new ball game for chefs and brothers-in-law Brian Okin and Adam Bostwick.

After closing their Battery Park spot Graffiti Social Kitchen in 2017, they also shuttered the popular Broadview Heights restaurant Cork & Cleaver Social Kitchen in June 2018.

But the duo knew they wouldn’t sit on the culinary sidelines for too long. After partnering with Porco Lounge & Tiki Room to create a fun menu of meatballs back in 2016, Okin and Bostwick opened Polpetta, a restaurant that circled around the comfort food in September 2018.

Admittedly, we’re still mourning the loss of those restaurants and the inventive dishes Okin and Bostwick created there. While Polpetta gives us a glimmer of that gastronomical greatness, can a restaurant built around meatballs (and pretty pricey ones at that) really work?

Here you’ll find familiar renditions of Cork & Cleaver’s game-changing braised lamb gnocchi with the Curtis ($14), featuring lamb balls served on top of a panzanella salad (which we subbed out for gnocchi) and topped with tzatziki sauce.

Another Bostwick staple, the pork paprikash gets reinvented as the Grandma Bos ($14) with chicken balls, paprikash and spaetzle. For those looking for something new, try the RR Pirate ($17), lobster and crab balls on a bed of vegetable hash, topped with Thai hot sauce.

Sadly, this concept isn’t swinging for the fences like their original spots. 

When You Go: Polpetta, 19900 Detroit Road, Rocky River, 216-860-4474, primopolpetta.com

Click here to read a Q&A with Adam Bostwick, restauranteur behind Polpetta.