click to enlarge
Douglas Trattner
Fiamma to open Thursday Dec. 12 at Eton Chagrin.
Mendel Segal will open his new Italian restaurant, Fiamma, next Thursday, Dec. 12, in the spot most recently home to Mabel’s BBQ space. This is the second Northeast Ohio restaurant for Segal, who also operates Mendel’s Kansas City BBQ (20314 Chagrin Blvd., 216-266-0035) in Shaker Heights.
Like that restaurant, Fiamma will operate a kosher kitchen.
“Being kosher, a dairy place can’t have meat, and a meat place can’t have dairy,” Segal explains.
In practice, that means diners at Mendel’s Kansas City BBQ observe no dairy on the menu. In contrast, at Fiamma, the menu will be dairy-rich and meat-free.
“It’s just regular food,” says chef Sean Champe. “It’s just knowing what you can and can’t do. I like to say that it’s essentially a pescatarian restaurant.”
Some of the small plates that diners can look forward to include wild mushroom-stuffed arancini, fried artichokes, beet carpaccio with whipped goat cheese, and plenty of crudo starring fresh salmon, tuna and yellowtail. In addition to large plates featuring sea bass and branzino there is a lasagna that swaps the conventional Bolognese sauce for a bechamel fortified with lentils and artichokes.
The centerpiece of the dining room is a wood-burning pizza oven from Italy. In addition to 10-inch Neapolitan-style pizzas, the oven will be used to cook and/or finish a number of dishes on the menu.
Fiamma has a full bar, with a nice selection of beer, wine and cocktails.
In keeping with the sabbath, Fiamma will be open for lunch only on Fridays and will open about an hour after sundown on Saturdays (a time that will shift from 6 p.m. in the dead of winter to 10 p.m. at the summer solstice).
click to enlarge
Douglas Trattner
Fiamma to open Thursday Dec. 12 at Eton Chagrin.
click to enlarge
Douglas Trattner
Fiamma to open Thursday Dec. 12 at Eton Chagrin.
click to enlarge
Douglas Trattner
Fiamma to open Thursday Dec. 12 at Eton Chagrin.
click to enlarge
Douglas Trattner
Fiamma to open Thursday Dec. 12 at Eton Chagrin.
click to enlarge
Douglas Trattner
Fiamma to open Thursday Dec. 12 at Eton Chagrin.
click to enlarge
Douglas Trattner
Fiamma to open Thursday Dec. 12 at Eton Chagrin.
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