I traveled to Montreal, Canada, recently to present my master's thesis as part of the AEJMC conference. It was an incredible experience where I met people conducting similar research, and, of course, there was a lot of food. I wanted to try what the locals loved, so I followed this list as closely as I could (plus some extras). Joe Beef was closed for vacation, but the rest of them I got!

After Colasessano's quietly closed, a new restaurant called Provoloni's Italian Grille took its space over in the Pierpont Landings area. It's difficult to find any information out about it - even a phone number - but I drove by one day when they looked like they were open. It turns out they were hosting a rehearsal dinner, but they would open the following Wednesday (Aug. 27). Of course, I went.

Lots of parking in this area of town, which is nice. When we walked in, the first thing I noticed was the overhead art and name of the restaurant. The inside has a nice high ceiling and open dining space, but with small tables nestled around for a cozy environment. I dig the feel.



The menu is quite large. I've attached the photos here, and you can click on them to see them larger. But they have cheese boards, flatbreads, pasta, beef dishes, seafood dishes, chicken dishes and sandwiches. I'm pretty sure they probably have something for everyone.

First we started off with an appetizer of meatball sliders. Three homemade meatballs smother in sauce and served on artisan bread and ricotta cheese. I feel like you can tell a lot about a restaurant by their meatballs.

And these were good. Well-seasoned and a tasty combination of spices. Could be ground a little finer. The bread was a bit too thick/not toasted enough and was just too big for the small slider. But good.

A salad was my next course, and I was pleasantly surprised. No shredded iceberg with a tomato here. Nice fresh spring greens with a few slivers of onion, some kalamata olives and tomato. Dressing was on the side. I'm sure they have labels on the top to differentiate, but taking those off would make it seem less take-out-y. But happy with the quality of this salad. Simple - it is a house salad after all - but with good ingredients. Yes.

For my entree, I couldn't pass up the pasta section. One of their house specialties was the rigatoni alla vodka, which s a house specialty from Chef Allesandro of Montecatini. It has Italian bacon, plum tomatoes, onions sautéed in a vodka marinara cream sauce with Parmigiano Reggiano cheese. You can get a large for $15 or a medium for $11.

It was good. Nice creamy tomato flavor. The sauce was a little thick - and I would like it to have been a little bit more sauce; a little pool at the bottom to sop up some extra sauce with my rigatoni would've been perfect. But solid flavors, fresh flavors.

Pair that with a basket of warm, homemade bread and some olive oil and spices, and the meal was really, really good.

I think a few different men came over to us to ask how everything was. One in particular was especially helpful and gave Vicki an extra dose of parmesan to go atop her spaghetti carbonara after she said she wasn't sure how it was supposed to taste. The man - I'm guessing one of the owners - said their version is a more traditional type, whereas other places treat a carbonara as a thick, creamy - almost alfredo - sauce. But theirs was lighter. The extra parmesan on top really made her dish great.

The chef would also come out occasionally and asked how our meal was. That was special. And you could tell he was working his ass off. That really made me like the place. He really cared how people were liking his food. That was awesome.

Our server was new and young, so you could tell she was a little nervous. But she did well. And honestly, this was probably the smoothest opening day I've been to. I was stunned how nice it was, how good the food was and how well the servers were trained.

For dessert, I went for the cannoli. Homemade every day! The cannoli was a chocolate flavor - like a chocolate mousse - and the outside was actually soft. Like a waffle cone soft. I don't think it was bad, just different. Very rich.




Seems as though a friend I follow on Twitter, Devin Sears, her family and the chairman of the West Virginia Democratic Party own this place.

For the first day, they blew it out of the park. Absolutely outstanding. As they gain some experience under their belt and work out the kinks (though there are very few), I think it will only get even better. Flavors are on point, and with a few small touches, I think it could be one of the best.

Grade: A

Cafe Cimino is a real hidden gem.

It's a little out of the way. I don't usually have a reason to stop in the Sutton area; I'm often only passing through. But, Sutton was a destination recently, as Vicki and I attended the Fiesta tent sale. And, of course, we decided to treat ourselves to a great dinner. Lots of big life changes - in the best possible way - deserve to be celebrated.

And celebrate, we did.

The GPS took me through town, and at the end of the street just stood this massive house with a wraparound porch. We arrived a little early and toured the property. A few helpful staff members were more than happy to take us around and give us some history of the bed and breakfast.

I had made reservations the week prior, and when we went inside, a small placecard with my name sat atop our table. It was already exciting - a warm, but elegant dining room with fresh flowers, white linens and hardwood floors right in the front of the building made for a welcoming feel.

We started out with some wine. I had an Albarino, which was excellent. Shortly after our waters and wines, we received an aperitif made of club soda, bitters and apple cider. It was so cool and refreshing. I was thinking cider would be heavy, warm and fall-like. But this was crisp and a little zesty with the orange. Awesome.

We were first started off with a little gift from the chef. It was an endive heart with local heirloom tomatoes, some cheese shavings in a light reduction. Crunchy, light and cool.

Our waitress was incredibly knowledgeable and rattled off an amazing list of special appetizers for the day. One that caught our attention was their antipasto platter. It had just about all of the listed appetizers in one dish, so we went with that.

Dear god, this set the bar real, real high. Just look at that photo.

Toasted bread, grapes, two kinds of olives, roasted red pepper, gouda, goat cheese, roasted eggplant, caprese salad (with green, red and yellow tomato and fresh mozzarella), pickled carrots, pickled fennel, hard-boiled egg and shrimp. And this was a huge platter. We devoured the entire thing. Everything was incredible - even the fennel, which I tend to not gravitate toward in the dried format, was awesome. It was pleasant. More like an artichoke, more mild in flavor.

Then, we moved on to our next course of the night - salad. I have low expectation when it comes to salads, because most places throw a bad of shredded iceberg and two cherry tomatoes together and call it a meal. Not the case here. Not at all.

Nice quarters of local red, yellow and green striped tomatoes topped with kalamata olives, crumbles of feta and some balsamic vinaigrette. My mouth is watering reliving this moment. It was so good. So fresh. So perfect.

Then, a palate cleanser before our main meals: cucumber, mascarpone and strawberry. Simple, but refreshing.

My main entree was one of their specials - mushroom gnocchi. The flavors were not as vibrant as the previous dishes, so maybe my palate was a bit off. But it was definitely more understated. Gnocchi was getting a little mushy, but maybe I'm splitting hairs at this point because the appetizer and salad were amazing. Just more mild in flavor.






Vicki had the shrimp and grits, which she loved.






Oh, and there was bread and olive oil with our main courses!





For dessert, I ordered this toffee spice cake with vanilla ice cream. It was to die for. The cake had absorbed this toffee, so it was super moist and just full of sweet deliciousness. And it was just swimming in this pool of caramel, while my ice cream sat off to the side. I mean, I'm not sure I could've created a better dessert if I wanted.



On top of all of that amazing food, we were sent out a petit four of homemade dark chocolate.


I couldn't have asked for better service - from them showing us around the property when we first arrived, to the duration of our dinner with a super accommodating server, to meeting the owner. Everyone truly worked hard to make an incredible dining experience. And they really did. Plus the food - local, so fresh and creative. And the just overall genuine attention to how a meal progresses. One of the best meals in West Virginia I've ever had.

Grade: A