The farther you get from Downtown and its hip surrounding neighborhoods, the harder it is to find forward-thinking, trendy restaurants with a “wow” factor. But one step inside Rocky River’s Westsiders proves that the suburbs can rise to the occasion.
Dark hunter-green walls wrapped with leather banquettes bookend a U-shaped bar defined by a metallic ceiling and chandelier dripping in hand-cut glass leaves. According to general manager Jacob Bender, the golden panels behind the host stand once added to the Art Deco grandeur of the Downtown Cleveland Higbee’s department store.
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The result is a decor that blends the approachability of a moderately priced chain outpost with the ambiance of an upscale hot spot. It serves as a showcase for a menu that executive chef Antonio Cano Jr. has been tweaking since he took over the kitchen in November, four months after Westsiders’ July opening. The former Fahrenheit chef de cuisine’s menu is driven by his Italian-Mexican heritage and other cultures.
“Being an American restaurant, you get to dip into other cultures and take influences from other countries,” the Dayton native says.
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Those influences quickly became evident. A glass of luscious Willamette Valley, Oregon, pinot noir ($13/$45 bottle) arrived with a complimentary serving of just-fried chickpeas for happy hour, an addictively crunchy, light appetizer tossed in Tajin. We vacillated between the shrimp ceviche and beet tostada, then settled on the carrots and ricotta ($13), curious to see how Cano transformed a humble root vegetable into a starter.
Cano succeeded by plating thick strips of almost fork-tender roasted carrots on a generous slathering of ricotta and spiced honey with a single dollop of green chimichurri nestled on the side. Small mounds of crushed pistachios flanked the arrangement.
The expanded pasta offerings include a pasta a la vodka ($22) inspired in part by Carbone’s famous spicy vodka rigatoni. Unlike chefs at the iconic New York City restaurant, Cano makes the tomato cream sauce to order rather than in large batches. His interpretation is faithful in the use of Calabrian chiles and onions as the main ingredients. We delighted in the lip-tingling heat of casarecce pasta made daily in house, cooled by a generous topping of creamy stracciatella and fresh basil.
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The menu is partial to pork — it lists an anejo tequila-glazed pork chop ($33) and pork banh mi ($22) as entrees, along with a pork-belly appetizer. But given our choice of pasta, the server suggested the milder pan-seared salmon ($30). It arrived atop a spring-forward mix of sauteed cabbage, spinach and leeks on a plate sauced with tomato beurre blanc.
Desserts were limited to southern-style sweet corn cake and affogato. We tried the affogato ($8), an Italian treat consisting of vanilla gelato doused in espresso brewed with a proprietary blend of Guatemalan and Ethiopian beans. It was light and refreshing — like Westsiders itself, a pleasant surprise.
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