I was in Wheeling recently and grabbed lunch with my mom at Elle & Jack's.  



The restaurant was somewhat busy, which was immediately evident when it took several minutes to get us seated, to get menus, to get drinks. This kept me a little on edge, counting the minutes down on our lunch break. 



The space is nice, though - modern, yet elegant. And there is outdoor dining along the road, which is where we opted to sit. The menu for lunch was fairly small with burgers, sandwiches and salads. I went for the classic burger with American cheese, mayo, ketchup, onion and a side of fries. 



Unfortunately, by the time the food came out, our lunch break was over and we had to get the food to go and eat separately. Once I was able to dig in, it was pretty good. A bit cold and soggy at this point, but my burger was well-seasoned, and the slice of melty cheese always makes everything better. 

Grade: B

A new seafood restaurant in South Charleston is bringing some bright lights and funky dishes to the area. 



It's So So Good Seafood Restaurant and Lounge is just a few doors down from a lovely soul food restaurant and is capitalized on the bright facade by bringing that indoors with pink booths and multicolored lights.



The menu features a lot of fried seafood, as well as steamers, and some unique items like conch balls and conch salad. I couldn't decide on what to try, so I went with the sample: 1 crispy fried fish, 4 jumbo shrimp and 4 wings. They have a naughty pleasure (mild & sweet), naughty pleasure garlic, honey garlic, honey garlic lemon pepper and lemon pepper sauce. I went with the naughty pleasure garlic. 



The wings ended up being my favorite part, surprisingly. I loved the sauce, and the wings were cooked well with a nice texture. The fish and shrimp both could've benefitted from a lot more seasoning. Or, a sauce could've helped out, too. But otherwise, a little bland. 

Grade: B

Gino's! This time we're in Wayne to check out the local pizza offerings.



I love that the western locations offer the pepperoni bites, "fresh dough wrapped around tasty pepperoni then seasoned with garlic butter and sprinkled with Romano cheese." So I definitely had to get those, and they are always delicious. I love the little bite-size pieces of pepperoni plus cheese and just tons of garlic and butter.



But I also ordered an Italian sandwich with mayo, and it was delicious. I don't love the warm lettuce, but other than that there was a lot of meat, cheese and veggies in a bun that was toasted. It was a tasty sandwich, and probably one of the best ones I've had from a Gino's location.



Grade: A

Here's my latest column for the Charleston Gazette-Mail:

My grandma tells this cute story of when she and my mother hopped in the car to get pizza, strapping my four-year-old self in the car seat in the back.

Once the pizza was secured, my grandma gave me a piece to munch on while on the way back home. Just seconds after the pizza left her hand, it passed between my teeth, over my tongue and through my gullet in the blink of an eye - only the remnants of sauce and cheese on my cheeks were any evidence the pizza existed.

My grandma was aghast at the enthusiasm in which I devoured that piece of pizza - and immediately asked for more - that she continues that story today. It’s way less cute at age 33.

This could have been a sign of my voracious appetite, or, more likely, my love for my hometown pizza.

That pizza? DiCarlo’s.

The cold-cheese pizza found in the Ohio Valley is polarizing because once the dough and sauce are baked, it’s taken out of the oven and then freshly shredded provolone cheese is sprinkled on top so that it gently melts over the bubbly base.

This creates a fresh flavor, rather than a congealed, greasy blob that’s often found on pizza. But, the application of cheese at the end of the cooking process has also earned DiCarlo’s the “cold cheese pizza” moniker.

Though, if you are a seasoned pro, you know to leave the square lid on top of the box for just a few moments to let the heat lightly melt the cheese to perfection, creating an ideal square of crunchy crust, robust sauce and ooey-gooey cheese.

Since 1945, the DiCarlo family has been dishing out the famed pizza in small steel towns throughout the Ohio Valley - the Northern Panhandle of West Virginia, the eastern border of Ohio and spilling over into the Pittsburgh region.

After emigrating from Sora, Italy, to Steubenville, Ohio, in the late 19th century, Michael and Caroline DiCarlo family opened a bakery with Italian bread, cakes, cookies and donuts.

“But when their son, Primo, returned home from serving in WWII, he raved to his family about the popular food he’d spotted everywhere in Italian cafes: pizza,” according to their website.

“Primo saw pizza as a way to stay connected to the family tradition and pursue a business unlike anything else in the valley at the time. His brother Galdo followed him in this venture. The recipe was perfected on borrowed cookie trays from the bakery … Those trays are responsible for both the rectangular shape of the pie we enjoy and, more importantly, led to serving the pizza with cold cheese and pepperoni.”

Primo launched the Steubenville, Ohio, location in 1945 and was the first licensed pizza shop operator in the state. Pizza squares were offered for .10 cents a piece, and just a few years later, Galdo grew the operation by expanding into Weirton, Wheeling, Glen Dale, Elm Grove, and my favorite, Wellsburg.

I love the pizza because, well, it’s delicious. And the memories associated with it.

But I also love DiCarlo’s roots in the area and how intrinsic they are to the communities to which they belong - sponsoring t-ball teams and feeding first-responders.

They’ve defined an entire style of pizza - and made cold cheese cool.


RECIPE: Homemade Ohio Valley Pizza

Being a few hours away from my favorite pizza, DiCarlo’s, has spurred some innovative takes on recreating the classic square pizza. While this isn’t a perfect copycat recipe, it can help cure the craving when I haven’t had my fix in quite some time.

Ingredients:

Dough:

1 cup warm water


2 teaspoons active dry yeast


1 teaspoon granulated sugar


1 tablespoon honey


2 ¾ cups all-purpose flour


2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil


1 teaspoon salt


½ teaspoon garlic salt

Sauce:

6 oz. tomato paste


15 oz. tomato sauce


1 teaspoon oregano


2 tablespoon Italian seasoning


½ teaspoon onion powder


½ teaspoon garlic powder


½ teaspoon garlic salt


⅛ teaspoon red pepper flakes


½ tablespoon brown sugar

Toppings:

Provolone cheese, finely shredded


Your choice of mushrooms, pepperoni, onions, etc.

Instructions

In a stand mixer, mix gently the warm water, yeast, honey, and sugar until about doubled in size.


With the stand mixer set to low, add in flour, olive oil, salt and garlic salt, scraping the sides of the bowl and letting the dough hook knead the dough for about five minutes.


Remove dough from the mixing bowl, place on a floured countertop and fold the dough over itself a few times until formed into a round ball.


Return the dough ball to a bowl and drizzle olive oil over top, cover it and let it rise in a warm area.


While the dough is rising, make the pizza sauce by combining all ingredients into a pot and simmering on medium for 15-20 minutes.


Preheat oven to 500 degrees.


Rub olive oil on the bottom and sides of a rectangular baking pan. Add dough to the center of he pan and spread it to the edges and corners.


Bake on bottom rack for about 10 minutes or until the dough just begins to lightly brown. Remove from heat.


Reduce temperature to 425 degrees. Spread a thin layer of sauce on top of the sauce. Bake for additional 5-10 minutes.


Remove the pizza and top with provolone cheese. Let it gently melt before adding your preferred toppings.


Enjoy.

While I generally try to visit restaurants that are locally owned, I do get excited when I find a regional chain restaurant or even one that just isn't available locally so that I can try it out. That is the case with Del Taco.



Del taco can be found in many states, but West Virginia isn't one of them. They are in Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, Utah, and Washington. So when I made a recent road trip and needed a quick bite to eat near a Del Taco, I stopped to get a Tex-Mex fix.



The menu is fairly similar to other restaurants of this type: soft tacos, quesadillas, nachos, burritos and hard tacos. I did not take the best photo here, but I was excited to see a crispy fish taco because that's not one common on the menu at Taco Bell or other local chains. So it had shredded cabbage beer battered fish, pico de gallo and a sauce. I don't need to do an official review here because many people are probably already familiar with this restaurant, but I did enjoy my taco. You can see here that there is not a ton of fish, but I do prefer cabbage to lettuce on a soft taco so that was great and the sauce added a little extra oomph. Not bad for a fast food taco especially one offering fish as an option.