Summer is a time of sunshine, swimming and fairs. Fairs are infamous for their fried delicacies and sugary treats. The Mon County Fair recently made an appearance, and I went to see what it was all about. While I was disappointed they didn't have any local vendors, they did have a handful of shops serving up your typical fair fare:

Cheese fries, cotton candy, pulled pork, deep-fried Twinkies & Oreos, meatball hoagies, pizza, corn dogs, candy apples, and my choices that evening - lemonade, Philly cheesesteak and funnel cake.

ABC made their own list of top fair foods:

1. Caramel Apples
2. Belgian Waffle on a stick
3. Deep-Fried Oreo Cookies
4. Corn Dogs
5. Frozen Coffee On a Stick
6. Cotton Candy
7. Funnel Cake
8. Fried Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich
9. Deep-Fried Norwegian Banana Split
10. Open-Faced Grilled Spam Sandwich

What's your favorite?

I saw the sign for Asian Bistro pop up a few weeks ago in Northpointe Plaza, next to Club 24 Fitness. It's from the same owners of China One. One day, while out and about, I stopped there and asked the construction workers when it would open. They told me two weeks. Ever since, I've been keeping an eye on it.

On Friday, I got word that it was the restaurant's opening day. There even had a sticker on the Dominion Post advertising so. I grabbed a friend and headed that way.

I luckily was able to snag a copy of the menu beforehand and studied it. First off, when calling something an "Asian" bistro, it's tricky. Asia is a giant continent full of lots of countries. And there are a ton of different cuisines located there. I don't think we put that in perspective as Americans and sometimes see "Asian" food as Chinese food. And, that's embarrassing. So, I was hesitant about what the menu would entail.

The menu could use a healthy dose of organization. I had studied it beforehand and still had a great deal of trouble. There's a page called "Asian Cuisine," which is pretty non-helpful category. It ranges from chilean seabass, to Bangkok Beef, to Bulgogi, to Kalbi, to sizzling Mongolian Beef. My suggestion would be to separate these by the type of cuisine. They boast Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Thai and Vietnamese - SHOW us where each of these dishes is from (similar to Asian Garden). Other pages included "Hibachi Dinner" and "Entrees from the Kitchen" and "Sushi" and "Noodle" and "Rice Dishes." That doesn't make any sense to me. It is difficult to navigate, and you don't really know what you're eating without that organization. I do like the variety here; I just wish I could fully enjoy it.

That being said, I love the location - tons of parking and not too far from my apartment. The interior is gorgeous. It looks upscale, romantic and modern. There's a bar and sushi bar and mood lighting that softly rotates colors. Our server sat us quickly, took our drink orders and filled our glasses with water.

I wanted to try something that I had an idea of how it's supposed to taste; that way, I can have something to compare it to. That led me to the pad thai. It's $10 for tofu and vegetable, $12 for chicken and $14 for beef or shrimp. I went with the chicken pad Thai, as well as a California roll. Just ordering this made me wonder how they were going to do it: They need a sushi chef, as well as someone experience in Thai cuisine. Image a "European Bistro" and expecting the chefs to execute a Spanish dish, as well as a French dish. There's just a good bit of difference here.

Our server kept adding and taking away things from our table. When I ordered, she went to grab for the water glass, but I told her we still wanted water, too. When my friend ordered only sushi, the server grabbed her silverware from the table, as well as the dish it was sitting in. It was just odd - that kind of thing is fine to leave until the end. It was kind of distracting.

Finally, our meals came out. Their timing isn't quite right yet. My friend got hers a few minutes before my meal came out, but that's the kind of thing you work out after opening day. The presentation was quite appealing, but the taste wasn't quite as good. My overall thought was "Meh." California rolls were okay. Not tons of flavor. I added even more wasabi than usual to compensate for that lack of taste. My friend wasn't crazy about her sushi, either. The pad thai was fine, but kind of bland tasting. It lacked that sweet spiciness I've come to love from Chaang Thai. It needed more flavor, more ... something. It was just okay. And there were a lot of onions - some are okay, but I wanted more noodle and less crunch for my buck. When we were finished, they brought us a sliced orange.

So far, I've paid about $20 for a meh dish, so I thought trying dessert might help amp up this meal. The server was adamant about the tempura ice cream (kind of like the Mexican dessert - fried ice cream?), even telling me to get it without solicitation. You can get chocolate or vanilla, so I went with vanilla. My friend got the fried banana & ice cream (but I just realized, she actually didn't any ice cream? Just the banana...). My ice cream was great - light, fluffy tempur covered a frozen ball of french vanilla ice cream, topped with chocolate sauce, caramel sauce, sprinkles, whipped cream and a cherry. I like the crunchy cone, essentially, wrapped around a creamy decadent dessert. The banana was tasty - a fried banana, essentially. I love the coolness of the ice cream, though, with the fried. It was great.


Since it was opening day, we also got a gift set, which was really nice. Unfortunately, they only gave us one. I let my friend have it.

Overall, though, it was a pretty hefty bill for mediocre food. However, since there is such a variety here, another dish could be excellent. I just haven't found it yet. I do know one that I won't get again, though.

Grade: C

The iconic Tutto Gelato stand on High Street migrated toward another end of town on Chestnut Ridge Road, where it now serves "cafe" items like breakfast, pastries, paninis, pizza cones, salads and soups in addition to their signature gelato. They also have a coffee and espresso bar. Wild Mountain Bakery now occupies that building.

According to their About page, Tutto Gelato "started with the dream of bringing Italy back to Morgantown after a trip abroad in 2003. By 2007, that dream had become a reality, and Tutto Gelato opened on High Street offering gelato, coffee, and an espresso bar. Four years later the small "gelato stand" has become a full-fledged cafe."

I've blogged about the gelato before, so I wanted to focus on their new line of food items at this new location. Right beside Kegler's in the Suburban Plaza, Tutto Gelato has improved their chances for folks driving to them, but it probably cut down on the foot traffic. While the other location didn't have a dining area, this location has a gorgeous one. When you walk in, it's cool, clean, modern and sophisticated. The space is a good size, with seating for a couple dozen people and photos from Italy on the wall and polished fixtures. The atmosphere is relaxing.

The gelato case is on display as soon as you walk in. I bypassed it (momentarily) to gaze at the menu behind the counter. There's something called a pizza cone that I'm dying to try, but with the option of doing a "Duetta" - 1/2 and 1/2, it was hard to deny trying two items instead of just one. So with the 1/2 and 1/2 deal, you can get either half a panini, salad ("insalata"), soup ("zuppa"), or the second to smallest gelato ("bambino"). I went with half a panini and half a salad - the Milano and Pomodoro. They all have cutesy Italian names like that. If I got a Bambino gelato with the meal, it was only $2.50 instead of the usual $3. So, sign me up.

Piccolo (1 scoop)                                        $2.25
Bambino (2 scoops)                                    $3.00
Medio (3 scoops)                                        $3.75
Generoso (4 scoops)                                   $4.50

Side note: Monday was actually Medioso Monday, where there's a special on getting that size.


All the paninis are made to order, so it took a little bit of time before they came out. But before I knew it, I had a gorgeous presentation of a sandwich, salad and a side of cookie. The sandwich and salad are both pretty small. For $7, I suppose that's what you get. But so small that I was actually still hungry when I finished. With that being said, they both were pretty good. I liked my "adult grilled cheese" sandwich. That being the Milano, which is a combo of provolone, fontina, and pecorino romano cheeses. It was pretty tasty; I only wish I got a full sandwich instead of half. The cheese was melty and had a little bit of a kick in some bites.

The salad - the Pomodoro - was their tomato, mozzarella, salad on a bed of spinach and arugula with balsamic vinaigrette. I do like that they placed the vinaigrette on the side. I wish there had been more tomatoes, and I wish the mozzarella was more fresh. But it wasn't bad. The red onions gave it some more sweet flavor, and the balsamic topped it off.

You get a side when you order, and they have things like an apple, a veggie cup, a fruit cup, chips, a cookie, etc. So I said cookie, and it ended up being Oatmeal Raisin. Which I'm totally cool with. I was hoping for the fresh, bakery taste. It was a little hard. But sweet and still made me feel warm inside, so I ate it. If I was grading on food alone, I'd probably say this was right down the middle of the road, but with the gelato ...

Gelato is Italy's version of ice cream, and these little shops are everywhere. When I went, I had gelato just about every day. Per their website, gelato contains less butterfat than ice cream's typical 18 and 26%. With the lower butterfat, gelato is less solidly frozen than ice cream and melts in your mouth quicker. Gelato is denser than ice cream.  Air is added to ice cream, doubling its quantity but lowering the quality.  Much less air is added to gelato which leads to a higher quality dessert with a richer, creamier taste. Last but not least, gelato is served slightly warmer than ice cream.  Gelato is served 10-15 degrees warmer than ice cream.  With the combination of lower butterfat and lower temperatures, gelato's flavor is enhanced as it melts in your mouth.

Remember that extra $2.50? I walked up to the case when I was finished with my sandwich and looked over the options - mango, blood orange, strawberry, chocolate, lime. The bambino is two scoops, which means I can get two different flavors, so I went with the stracciatella (vanilla with chocolate chips/shavings) and cherry chocolate chip. It's surprisingly a huge amount. Maybe the flat spoon makes you eat slower - I don't know.

I had a strawberry/kiwi one once that was delicious. My two flavors this trip weren't bad. The chips are more like frozen shavings in the gelato. Not thick little dollops, so it gives you a different texture. I enjoy the creaminess, while containing iciness at the same time. I think I like the fruitier flavors a little better - it's that nice, refreshing, cool feeling after a meal that just rounds it out. But it's gelato, and you can't really go wrong with any of the flavors.

For $11, I got to try a good bit here. I'm happy with that. Next time, I'll be trying some other options, though.

Tutto Gelato Cafe
755 Chestnut Ridge Road
Suburban Plaza, Suncrest
Morgantown, WV 26505
Phone: (304) 291.2444 Fax: (304) 241.1666
tuttogelato@gmail.com
Monday - Saturday 7 am - 9 pm, Sunday 9 am - 9 pm

Grade: B

Work required me, and two of my colleagues, to be in Pittsburgh for a day. One of my coworkers is from the area and loves the nostalgia of a small pizza shop called Mineo's Pizza House in a nearby suburb - Mt. Lebananon. He had gone to this place since he was a child and would go to bat for it being the best pizza around. I'm a sucker for this kind of thing, so on our way back, we quickly stopped by.

We had to circle a few times before we could find a meter to park at, but we finally did and raced to enter the building as the incoming storm drenched us. It seems like a pretty old school Italian restaurant. We walked in, went to the counter and picked up our pie that we had called in. They handed us a box in exchange for about $20 (which is kind of expensive - I guess that's the difference with living in a college town). We got drinks and sat in one of the booths to begin devouring our pizza.

The first thing I noticed was that it's not flat (like Casa) or thick, like Sicilian-style. It's kind of in the middle. The sauce is a rich, hearty and savory. The pizza was covered in cheese - just my style. Don't need extra cheese here. It was generously melted all over the top, and the crust had a crispness but the interior was soft and light. Pretty good slice of pie, but I haven't really had anything quite like it.

If you want something a little different than college town, take a trip. I think you'll be pleased.


Grade: A

Usually referred to as Musket, this novelty restaurant/bar has been known among drunk college kids for a long time. The infamous stackers are piled high with meat and topped with coleslaw and french fries. Each is named after a city, with the Los Angeles being the biggest amongst them all.

The Rusted Musket is affectionately known as that sandwich joint that you stop at after a night of drinking. At least, I hope you were drinking. Otherwise, this (as well as places like R U Hungry) can test the boundaries of your stomach.

I, however, have only had Musket once - a long, long time ago. So I thought it was due time that I try it again. When Chris started learning Morgantown more, one of the first things he noticed was the Rusted Musket sign. It was like a landmark for him, so the other night, we finally decided to try it. It is a staple in town, after all.

They have a small dine-in area, takeout and delivery. I called in for delivery. I've heard terrible things about the wait time, but I didn't have any trouble. I wasn't even sure if they would deliver for sure since they are moving locations. But I called in our orders, and they told me 30-45 minutes.

About that time later, I got a knock on my door. A plastic bag full of goodies awaited me.

I ordered the Los Angeles stacker: steak and vidalia onion vinaigrette with pepper jack cheese plus Cajun chicken and bacon with cheddar cheese ($8). I made it a combo for $2 more, getting me a side of fries and a pop. When asked if I wanted either Root Beer or Orange Crush, I opted for the latter. It came in a bottle. That makes sense why there were only two options of drink.

Wrestling with the sandwich to get my hands around it is no easy feat. The thing is stacked like six inches high. No joke. I think most sandwiches have three pieces of toast, but this one had four whopping slices sandwiched between layers of creamy slaw, salty fries, seasoned meat and spicy chicken.

I was not intoxicated at this point of ingestion, but I must say - it's not bad. It's greasy and filling, and it's heavy. But it's good. It has those different textures - creamy, cool slaw and thick, heavy potato with some sweet and tangy sauces. Want a huge, sloppy sandwich that's sure to make you regret it in the morning? Try a stacker.


And the cheeseballs are legend here, too. Hot pepper cheeseballs - small or large, with a side of ranch. Frozen, then fried? Yep. Cheesey, greasy and average quality? Yep. But it's something you have to try. Like Mario's, Black Bear and R U Hungry, you haven't really lived until you've had it.


Grade: B