Trading-in Sliced Pepperoni for Sushi and Diced Tomatoes for Duck

CONSTANCE: Road trip - figuratively speaking. Our Erie Pizza and Wings blog is taking a fork in the road this week and moving on up to try some Latin/Asian inspired cuisine at 1201 Kitchen in the heart of Erie's downtown. The restaurant recently transformed with new owners, JB Innes and Chef Dan Kern. I had never been there under the old ownership, because I'm more of a pizza and wings kinda girl. I love to be casual and comfortable. And I had heard that you had to dress up and behave at the "old" restaruant and wine bar. So, pleasant surprise - the new 1201 Kitchen is casual AND comfortable and very affordable too.

I met up with some guests for this week's blog road trip. Fellow bloggers from Erie Blogs and Global Erie. We rated seats at the chef's table. We each ordered appetizers to share and we passed our selections around like it was family style. I had the ANGRY 1201 ROLL - SPICY CRAB/AVOCADO/WASABI TOBIKO/BLACK SEASAME. Only one of our group, Sean, was a sushi lover, like me so - more for us! Delicious. And a topping of wasabi crystals had everyone talking!

The big hit appetizer was the GRILLED ROMAINE: ROASTED POBLANO BUTTERMILK DRESSING/LAQUERED BACON. Mike and the west side of the table joked with Chef Dan that he should offer just plates of the laquered bacon as an appetizer - yessiree! It was THAT good!

1201's menu is a Latin/Asian inspired cuisine, and is designed to highlight the finest, freshest food obtainable and it changes seasonally, every 4-6 weeks. I had a hard time selecting just one entree, so it was bonus that everyone at our table ordered a different entree to share. I decided on the DUCK ENCHILADAS: BRAISED DUCK/DRUNKEN PINTOS/1201 DIRTY RICE/CHILE RAJAS SALAD. When our entrees were delivered, the aroma of mine had everyone passing the plate, ooh-ing and aah-ing over the presentation and the aroma. I'm surprised the plate made it back to me!

Crispy skin salmon. Wok roasted scallops. The strip (steak). Fried rice bowl. Had I died and gone to heaven? The fun we had trying and sharing everything. Plus, we were blogging and tweeting and twitpic-ing photos of the food which had excellent presentation. Visit twitter and search #1201 for more photos and shared adventures of the evening.

And, yes, we all saved room for dessert! It was an adventure that had a story behind it. JB shared with us the story of a patron who would be bringing his girl friend over from Sweden and he wanted to impress her with a peppered ice cream that they had shared in her homeland. That's how the peppered ice cream got on the menu. I'd say that it was my favorite. A little bite of this and a little bite of that - what a perfect ending - complete with a perfect sunset viewed from our corner window!



Thanks to our friends from Erie Blogs (Mike, Jenny, Sean, Lory and Ron) and Global Erie's Dale for joining the Erie Pizza and Wing blog this week, along with Forte Marketing's Shari. And to our hosts with the mosts, JB and Dan from 1201 Kitchen.

If you haven't been there since the new owners, 1201 Kitchen is now casual dining at its finest!! You don't have to dress up and behave ... you can dress for pizza and wings and for about the same budget, enjoy a beautiful and delicious dining adventure!

The 411:

1201 Kitchen
1201 State Street
Erie, Pennsylvania 16501
814-464-8989
1201restaurant.com

Here's a backwards adventure for you! Root beer, and then za and wings ...

CONSTANCE: I had been craving a root beer float for two weeks now. So I had this brilliant idea (at least I thought it to be brilliant), to go to the White Turkey Drive-In in Conneaut, Ohio for one of their home-made root beer floats in frosted glasses. I hadn't had one since last year and love to get there at least once a summer. It reminds me of summers growing up in Conneaut at the family vacation spot and going there in the evenings after long care-free days at the beach. So I suggested my backwards plan to Mathias.

How about we have dessert first tonight? He was in! So on the way to Conneaut on a picture perfect Friday night, we stopped in at Avonia Tavern to check out the menu and place our order. Boy was that place packed! Mathias had never been, and for me, it's been about 8 years. It always reinforces that you've made a good decision when it's a packed house. They had so many options for both pizza and wings. We selected the Sicilian White Pizza (butter and garlic sauce basted crust with onion, tomato, and melted mozzarella cheese) and Buffalo Bleu wings. We got a large za and 16 piece wing order to have extras. I just ate some za to get inspired to write the blog.

Because they were so busy, we were told 45 minutes for our order, and we said, make it an hour for our westward adventure. White Turkey was packed too. What economic times? If the local restaurants are any indication ...

So Mathias and I enjoyed our root beer floats and a side order of onion rings outside on an octagonal picnic table (right Mathias?). What a nice way to ease out of the work week and into the weekend. The frosty mugs are so much fun and memorable. The old rock tunes on the jukebox made us feel like "Happy Days".

We checked the time and knew we better head back into PA for our pizza and wing order. And when we got back, Avonia was still packed! We lost some food temp from Fairview to Southwest Erie, but still, both the za and wings were delicious!

The bleu cheese on the wings was a really nice touch. They were very saucy. I prefer crispy and dry, but made an exception ... this time because they were so good. And the pizza had had tossed crust too. The addition of tomato and onion made the pizza just the perfect blend for tremendous mouth excitement. And for breakfast again today - cold was just as good!

Highly recommended! Out total order was in the low $20s (no coupons or specials this week). Rating - 7 outta 8 slices. There are many other specialty pizzas to try so I know we'll be back. It was fun to have dessert first too. If you try our backwards adventure, let us know what you think!

See you next week ...

The 411:
The Avonia Tavern
7321 West Lake Road
Fairview, PA 16415
Phone: 474-5347

http://www.avoniatavern.com/

We Met "The Ugly Cousin" at Odis 12 ...

CONSTANCE:
You know you're getting older when you go into a bar and see your son's friends there - legally and all! What the heck, I texted my son and invited him to come over too; afterall Odis's is the place where everyone knows your name and he lives right across the street. He was sleeping though, getting ready for third shift.

Having heard that Odis 12 was a major winner of 2009 Erie's Best Wing Cook Off, we were excited to try the best non-traditional wing in Erie - The Ugly Cousin. What a crazy name and what a crazy combination of flavors too! I wasn't aware that they had pizza either, so was surprised and glad that we could get our weekly blog za and wings from the same place. Mathias found online coupons on the Odis 12 Web site (the URL is under the 411 below), so a large one item pizza (Mathias picked ham as our topping) and The Ugly Cousin was a no-brainer for wings. $19 with a $2 tip - nice price! Extremely competitive.

We had to wait longer than our 35 minutes promised wait time. Probably about 50 minutes; however, the bartender/server was very gracious and apologetic as she explained interim power outages delayed our food. We were starving by the time we got home.

The wings were incredible and yep, I had 10 in one sitting!! Crispy. Sweet, sour, tangy with a chaser of hot twang - wow ... I'd say probably my favorite so far. I know I've been saying this every week, but this week I really mean it!

The za wasn't hand-tossed crust so I was being all high maintenance skeptical about it, but that changed after the first bite. The cheese was delicious. The ham was real and not lunch-meat type. The sauce was familiar too. Not necessarily original tasting, but very memorable. I loved the Odis 12 pizza.

What a great discovery, and they're basically down the street from me too! You have to move Odis 12's to the top of your list and try them soon ... and ask for The Ugly Cousin! 8 outta 8 slice review in this wing beauty contest - enjoy!

The 411:

Odis 12 Bar & Grille
Mike Miodus
664 West 26th Street
Erie Pa, 16508
814.452.6347

http://odis12.com/

Lefty's ... Lefty's ...

The 411:

Lefty's
1248 Brown Ave
Erie, PA
454-4805

Maria's ... SSShhhhhhhh ... what a great secret discovery!

CONSTANCE: Since we started our year - 52 delicious weeks - of discovering Erie Pizza and Wing places in January, we've heard from everyone we talk to about so many Erie favorites. The same names seem to resurface over and over again. You know who they are, no doubt! That's why discovering Maria's Pizza last night was such a treasure. We discovered it on our own. No prompting from friends. We had done a drive by on our way to pick up our CSA veggies last week. And then, Mathias found a coupon in the Coupon Keeper in the Erie Times-News.

It was destiny!

So we stopped in yesterday before picking up this week's crops. As a quick sidebar, we got a plethora of healthy veggies, from leaf spinach and turnips to snap peas and radishes. It's forced up to eat healthier on our non-pizza and wing blog nights!

Actually that's a nice segue to our wings at Maria's. We had the Coupon Clipper coupons, but wanted wings with our za, so Mathias asked if we could negotiate a wing AND pizza special. And he started to explain about our blog and how most places have 15-20 wings and a 1-topping large pizza with tax for about $19 or $20. The owner said that his prices were pretty good without a coupon and he wouldn't offer us a special. That's when we grabbed the menu and realized that he was right. Mathias was all set to negotiate and I think a little disappointed when he didn't get the chance.

So we selected a large pizza with bacon - a first to try that as a topping. And 12 wings with Cajun flavoring. The wings come with carrots and Ranch dressing. The good kind too (not the watered down kind). And come to find out that the wings are baked, not fried! Healthy!! Or healthier at least!

We went to pick up our CSA crops and were back in 1/2-hour to pick up our dinner. The total was about $15, so this is counter-intuitive to our search for the best deal with coupons to use each week.

The owner was very nice, and the young man working the counter was too. Actually he followed us out to the car to ask for our blog address to see what we had to say about Maria's.

We were surprised to learn that they've been in business since 1992. Previously at another location and now at their current location for three years. Their restaurant was refreshing - blue's and yellow's ... not the expected red's, white's and black's color scheme we've seen ad nauseum. Their menu provided a lot of FAQ's and it was again refreshing to know that they support our community via fund raisers for local organizations. That's important to me and hopefully to all of you readers too. We all live and work here, and it's nice to give back and cross-support our community like that!

We ate the za and wings while watching a Seinfeld episode - the one where Kramer gets free coffee for life! And then Rescue Me. If you haven't seen this week's episode, the last 10 minutes are so worth it! You'll enjoy how they handle what could be really sensitive situations with drama and humor!

The crust wasn't hand tossed, but it had the same fresh taste and was crispy and delicious. The sauce was the perfect mix of spices and tangy-ness for me. The bacon was really innovative too. Have I lived in a cave up till this point? Don't know why I never tried that before!

And the wings were very light tasting and packed with flavor. Not greasy at all. And the Ranch dressing was the perfect - did I mention FREE too - complement to top off the flavor!

Our experience was a great one - the thrill of discovery through the taste of flavor - I'd say 7 outta 8 slices.

Don't wait for a coupon to try Maria's - you won't need one! Oh, if you miss the entry turn, just turn on Pacific and drive around back to the front. Tell them Constance and Mathias sent you and enjoy!
The 411:
Maria's Pizza
2340 West Grandview and Pacific Avenue
866-5499

Maria's Here We Come ...

This week we're trying a brand new place - not referred by anyone - aren't we living on the edge? Read our latest Erie Pizza and Wing review this weekend. And we're also going to post on DiningVerse.com too.

Thanks for your interest and support ...

A Faux Friday

CONSTANCE:
I heard tell of Skippereno's ... and finally got to live the legend last night on our faux Friday. This was the shortest-longest week ever wasn't it. With 5-6" of rain in 8 hours, flooding, continued clouds and rain all week. No wonder Thursday night really felt like a Friday night! With the 4th of July holiday, we wanted to get a jump on the blog to enjoy more traditional fare of this holiday (a.k.a. can you say Smith's hot dog WITH skin - that's another blog isn't it?).

Blob-reader, Jim, suggested we try Skip's (might this non-native call it that too?) and to ask for the tick, spicy pepperoni. So we did! To stretch our blog-budget, we found two great coupons in the phone book. So for 20 wings and a large, 1-item pizza, our bill totaled $20.13 which is pretty typical, and maybe a couple of bills on the high side.

In searching for the history of Skip's and it's rebirth, I found a great article from ShowCase, linked here in case you're interested to learn more:
http://www.goerie.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071026/ENTERTAINMENT06/710260342/0/ENTERTAINMENT04

The article doesn't really go too much into the za and wings - that's what our blog is for. I was totally blown away with the wings. We ordered Parmesan Ranch and they were the freshest wings we've had during our year-long adventure. They just tasted light, and were crispy without having that greasy, heavy taste. Is it an oxymoron to say they actually tasted healthy? It's our blog - guess we can say what we want. They were amazing!! My favorite thus far!

And blog-reader Jim definitely nailed the za! There's even a photo to show you the detail of how the pepperoni curls and it took every ounce of self control to leave some for leftovers today. I liked that the slices were cut smaller. It allowed me to eat 5 pieces (which actually would have been about 2 regular slices). A little game I play with myself.



So excited to have the leftovers today. Thanks Jim for sharing! We've had some other great reader comments too, and the year is young and we're looking to try them all. Continue to comment and share your favorites - we'll get there!

Oh, got to play the "Erie" game and saw my Erie best-friend's brother at Skip's while we were waiting yesterday too. It was his birthday and he had to pick up his own birthday pizza. We teased him about that! He suggested a place over on Parade ... 8th and Parade maybe? Anyone else with more info on that would be appreciated. And Otis's too for wings. And another friend tried Alfee's after our review and was also pleasantly surprised. I will have to check and see if she spotted the gargoyle too! This blog is turning out to be a win-win for everyone!

Thanks for reading and good eating will be had by all when you eat at Skip's! 8 outta 8 slices for sure!

The 411:
Skippereno's Italian Restaurant & Pizzeria
1604 West Grandview Blvd.
(Greengarden at Grandview)
864-8888