Eating on the Flip Side and Rascal House

Going to Cleveland with Rachel offered me some opportunities to eat at some places that both I ordinarily wouldn't and maybe even in some cases,couldn't afford.

You can find my reviews of these places now in the links page on the right hand side of the blog as "TRS on Trip Advisor".

The best two meals that I had were at places that I had never eaten at and heard before the trip.
I always try to read up to find places before a trip and skimmed Trip Advisor to as well,so in researching-I discovered that most people think that Rascal House ranks as the best Cleveland pizza,so I made a note of that before we left as pizza seems to be a hotel room staple.
After the first day of Rachel's "project" and food,we were all starving,so pizza looked to be the choice.
Before I ordered though,I asked my friend and local Brian Kelley for his opinion on the best Cleveland pizza and his response was Rascal House-that's when I knew I was onto something.
I didn't get pictures because I just didn't think of it,so the shown picture is from someone's else camera,but it is enough to give you the point.

I've raved about Donna D's in Ashland in the past and I talked to the manager there about the difference in their pizza and the New York style that thrives here along with the lauded Chicago Deep Dish version.
He called it "Cleveland Pizza"and said he was originally from Cleveland and brought their pizza to Ashland.
After looking (and eating) at Rascal House,I can easily make the connection.
I ordered a deluxe,the ladies a "white pizza" and we each ordered some boneless wings (hot for me and BBQ for them) and all was excellent.
I highly recommend Rascal House and if you are ever in the Cleveland area-make Rascal House your place for pizza.....

The other great place I found was right down from our hotel-the Flip Side.
I had never heard of the Flip Side before our trip and once I saw it,I wanted to give it a chance.
It's kinda of small,but it's more cozy than small.
The boast is of serving all Ohio beef,so you get a quality item that has never been frozen.
The menu was given to me by the hotel desk and Cherie immediately found the burger that she knew I would order-the appropriately named "Shawn burger"!
No kidding-the perfect burger (minus tomato) for me-Pickles,onion,bacon,mayo and cheese!
Only peppers and mushrooms were missing and I could have made this burger myself!
Combine that with an order of cheese fries that Cherie and I split and you had a great dinner,but we weren't stopping there after another day of mediocre lunch.
We added an appetizer of a delicious tempura battered asparagus and shiitake mushrooms that had to be tasted to be believed and milk shakes that came with straws made of real chocolate!
This admittedly was a high cal meal,but considering the low cal rest of the day-I'm OK with it!
The Flip Side has five locations in Ohio and I'm going to keep my eye to be able to get flipped again!

I ate at other places on the trip and I may add them to a future blog,but I really wanted to write about these two places in particular!!!
Back later with maybe a Christmas podcast!!!

Elevation Burger and grading burgers

As we went to Frederick for the final time of the season,a curveball was thrown when a new high-end burger store was recommended by Bruce Begole.
We've been going to Smashburger as previously noted,when we went to Frederick this season.
Being burger aficionados,we have the top notch Five Guys in town,so Smashburger became the summer of 2015 Frederick staple.
We planned one final Smashburger trip,but in our previous Frederick visit.Bruce recommended an new chain that I had never heard of,but that he had said was from a similar vein in Elevation Burger.

Elevation Burger does a gimmick of after their standard two burger sandwich of offering a burger that that can go from three burgers up to ten!
Elevation also claims to be enviro-friendly with 100% organic burgers from grass-fed beef with the french fries fried in "Heart-Healthy" Olive Oil.
Sounds nice,but as usual with these statements,I'll take them with a raised eyebrow,

Elevation has a mostly beef menu,although there are a few chicken items and ice cream/milk shakes with a veggie burger option as well.
I actually don't mind veggie burgers,although those that tell you that you'll be unable to tell the difference from beef are full of something else,so I applaud having that option.

I ordered the "standard" though of two patties with a thick slice of cheddar cheese and added mushrooms,pickles and jalapenos with a side of fries.
Like Smashburger (and unlike Five Guys),the order is brought to your table and they used a metal cake pan for each order.
I liked that because it gives the sloppy eater (like me) a chance to maybe not make a mess on oneself.
The burger was juicy,arguably overly so,so maybe if you like a burger to be more well-done with less juice,you might want to ask them to cook it a little longer.


The cheese was melted,but not to the point of being mush and the side items were all crisp.
I also added "elevation sauce",which was described as similar to McDonald's Big Mac Sauce,which is mainly Thousand Island dressing and sweet relish,by our cashier.
If you are going to try a burger,you try the standard first with the things you like on it.
You can vary things later.

I thought it was a good burger,not a great burger.
The sauce was lacking and if I went back again,I think I'd pass on the sauce.
Just a little too sweet for my tastes.
I did like the cheddar cheese slice though,I thought it added a homemade touch to the hamburger.
The fries were quite good,not as large as Five Guys,but larger than the shoestring cut from Smashburger.

I'd return to Elevation Burger,It was good,but like I said earlier not great.
Maybe it was the sauce,but I feel like my meal was not quite as good as a Five Guys or Smashburger.
Smashburger still retains its title as place to go in Frederick due to its proximity to Harry Grove Stadium.
It's right down the road,while Elevation is across town and if you aren't familiar with Frederick,might be a pain to find.

If I was ranking the three,I would look at it as follows.
You can't really go wrong with any of the three and I certainly would love to see Smashburger or Elevation Burger come to Hagerstown....

1) Five Guys-Winner by a hair.Wins for the following reasons.
They have A-1 as an option (always a plus) and gives you tons of fries for your dollar (A medium can easily feed three people).

2) Smashburger-Loser in a photo finish.
Takes the beefy burger and thins it out for an easier bite.
The fries are smaller than I usually prefer,but I love the Frank's seasoning that they use.
I'd buy a container of that,if they sold it!
Also love the various types of bun options that the other two do not offer...

3) Elevation Burger
Good,not great,
A solid contender,but in my only visit,seemed to be lacking what the other two had.
Don't take that as a non-endorsement,I think you'd enjoy it.

Let me know if you like these types of food posts!
I always enjoy getting input!

Smashburger?

On Sunday,I did the pregame in Frederick for the Keys against the Potomac Nationals with my good friend Mike Oravec and agreed to grab a bite for lunch before the game.
I'll add the results of the graphing in a future on the signing front,but someone (I don't remember who) had mentioned before that day that Frederick had recently opened a Smashburger franchise.
Mike and I quickly agreed that Smashburger would be the home for lunch to give them a try,



I had never heard of Smashburger
before hockey season when suddenly their commercials began to show up on Devils telecasts with one of the most obnoxious commercials in quite a while.

Smashburger keeps it pretty simple-burger,chicken,a few sides and a few desserts.
I chose the build your own burger,which has multiple options even down to the bun,which is pretty unusual.
I chose a multi-grain bun (See,I do try a little) with swiss cheese,pickle,light mayo,red onion and jalapeno and some Frank's red hot buffalo fries.
As an unabashed Frank's fan,usually anything that has their name on it gets a chance with me,so that was a layup!

The Smashburger gimmick is to take a meaty burger and smash/flatten it out making a thinner,longer burger instead of the more often fatter and rounder burger of most places with the more gourmet burger.
It was quite good and surprisingly juicy and I loved the fresh cut jalapenos similar to those at Five Guys!
The fries were thinner than I usually prefer,but the excellent cheese and seasoning carried the day with a solid basket of potatoes.

All and all,I highly recommend Smashburger and plan on taking the lovely Cherie on our next trip to Frederick.
In the end,think of the quality upscale burger of Five Guys meeting the thinner more angled burger of Steak and Shake and you have a pretty good burger at Smashburger.
Thanks to Mike Oravec for the company and the drive!