Larder Delicatessen & Bakery: Cleveland's 25 Best Restaurants
Don't forget about the second half of Larder's name — the Hingetown spot's bakery pumps out desserts and breads that are vital to the operation.
The deli part of the Hingetown’s 1854-built brick firehouse gets most of the credit.
And rightfully so, Jeremy Umansky’s newfound approach to Jewish cooking, which centers around a mold called koji that speeds up the curing process, earned a James Beard nomination on the back of its pastrami, fried chicken and matzo ball soup.
But after my first visit in 2018, I couldn't stop talking about the bread pudding ($4). Divinely sweet with creamy custard elegantly adorning fluffy rye bread, it changed my perception of the old-school dessert.
Baker and co-owner Allie La Valle-Umansky, a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America's Baking and Pastry Arts program, is used to hearing similar revelations over desserts such as the soft black-and-white cookies ($3), babka ($9), cheesecake ($7) and even the pastrami's sour rye ($13), which gets a umami flavor from koji rice Amazake.
"The idea," says Larder's quiet superstar, "is to bring back these traditional desserts and dishes and put a modern lens on them."larderdb.com
Can the suburbs support a hip, forward-thinking eatery? When it comes to Westsiders in Rocky River, our readers, who voted it Best New Restaurant, say "absolutely." Now, find out what our staff thinks. By Lynne Thompson
