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One of the best compliments a diner can pay a new restaurant, I believe, is that it feels as though it has been here all along. The statement implies that the business is a beloved member of the community and that it will likely stand the test of time, despite being a fresh-faced newcomer. That’s the aura that Westsiders gives off, a restaurant that Rocky River residents appear to have adopted as one of their own in two short months.
When partners Constantine Katsaros and Jack Messer set out to craft their new venture, they leaned into their years of experience running Landmark Smokehouse and Twist Social Club on the Cleveland-Lakewood border. The owners endeavored to reclaim the middle market, one squeezed between generic fast-casual eateries and spendy shrines to steak and seafood. What they managed to create is a sort of unicorn establishment, one that is gorgeous, chef-driven and well-run, but also priced for weekly enjoyment.
A great place to start is with a cocktail like the Passion Smoke, one of more than a dozen alluring concoctions priced at $13. The foam-capped purple potion balances an earthy blend of mezcal, pisco and amaro with the tropical kiss of passionfruit. A glass of Sancerre-like Loire Valley sauvignon blanc – served in fine crystal – is $14, while a glass of plummy Willamette Valley pinot noir is priced at $13.
Westsiders is one of the most attractive casual restaurants to materialize in some time. In place of the ubiquitous industrial chic interior, diners are treated to a cosmopolitan hideaway that belies its shopping plaza locale. Warm wood tables, sumptuous leather-wrapped booths and reclaimed Art Deco-era panels that function as dividers coexist in a color palette of moss and spruce. The setting is so nice in fact that the TVs in the dining room feel incongruous.
I’m a gardener so I’m up to my neck in cucumbers and tomatoes, but in the hands of executive chef Chris Suntala, those crops taste utterly refreshed. In the “cucumber three ways,” ($10), those veggies arrive with three different preparations, textures and flavors. The only way to improve summer-sweet cherry tomatoes ($12) is to pair them with grilled ripe peaches, nestle them in creamy housemade ricotta, and drizzle the whole lot with chili-spiked honey. That glossy ricotta ($12) is also served with grilled bread as a quick snack.
If you order only one appetizer, make it the pork belly ($15). While the nicely charred sticky-glazed belly is savory and fork-tender, it’s the polenta fingers that will linger in my mind. Precision-cut into rectilinear slabs, the airy, cheesy polenta is pan-seared to form a golden crust on two sides. Seared tuna too often is overcooked and bland, but the buttery, barely cooked version here ($16) is more like warm crudo, enveloped in a crunchy black pepper crust and seasoned with soy, citrus and sesame.
Subsribing to the “do less but do it better” mentality, the chef wields an editor’s pen when crafting his laser-focused menu. For mids and mains he offers a few pastas and five entrees, one of which is a burger. That burger ($19) is a joy to eat, gently formed, capped with cheddar and crispy shallots, and cooked to perfection. The only minor flaw were the accompanying pale and salty fries.
Suntala’s stint at Vic’s in New York instilled in the chef a knack for pastas, which are smartly composed and housemade. There’s a tagliatelle ($22) tossed in a flavorful, warm-spiced Bolognese that goes easy on the meat. A special pasta ($21) featured short, nubby tubes – cooked to a firm al dente – that cradle the butter-enriched white wine sauce. The dish was garnished with blistered cherry tomatoes, torn basil and freshly grated cheese.
Those in search of a meaty, fall-adjacent dish should order the slow-braised pork collar ($26). Cooked until pot roast-tender, the lush meat is perched atop roasted sweet potatoes, sided by hearty greens, slicked with gravy and garnished with bright pickled onions. Other options include a half chicken served on farro risotto, a grilled and sliced coulotte steak with roasted redskins and salsa verde, and a rainbow trout with cauliflower and apple brown butter.
Many brand-new restaurants operate on shaky ground – still cycling through staff, feeling out the clientele, tweaking the menu and the dishes that appear on it. Westsiders, in contrast, feels fully formed, giving diners the confidence that if and when they return, they can expect to find the same quality of food, service and atmosphere that inspired them in the first place.
Westsiders
19880 Detroit Rd., Rocky River
440-488-9908
westsiders.com
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Douglas Trattner
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