The Cents Don’t Fairly Add Up At Cleveland Pizzeria

I typically say that many cities within the Midwest are underrated. Cleveland is just not one in every of them. Till just lately, it’d been about 15 years since I final visited. And whereas there are sufficient actions and points of interest to fill a weekend, I’ve at all times discovered an absence of actually noteworthy meals within the metropolis. This time, I set my sights on Cent’s Pizza + Items (5010 Lorain Ave), a spot that felt prefer it was attempting only a bit too exhausting to be hip. It was as if the proprietor enter the question “Create A Pizzeria That Feels Like It’s In Brooklyn” into ChatGPT and it spit out one thing simply barely excessive.

What’s Distinctive? Should you couldn’t inform by the title, Cents is greater than only a pizza store. Enter the non-descript brick constructing and also you’ll end up in a mix wine and items retailer. Bottles are on the left and an assortment of merchandise might be discovered on the correct. Cents calls itself a “life store.” What’s that you ask? A life store carries “nicely designed each use merchandise, studying materials, and artwork objects.” Goal, this isn’t.

What To Eat? Okay, we’re right here for the pizza, not the hand carved pencils. There’s a entrance seating space (a supersized “Money Solely” signal adorns the partitions despite the fact that the restaurant does, in truth, settle for bank cards) adjoining to a bar. After which a again seating room which results in an outside consuming space. We have been seated within the backroom, which contains a barely annoying purple disco ball (therefore the purple hue in lots of my pictures) and a playlist which had me Googling “is 5 years previous too younger for my son to begin remedy?”

The primary merchandise on the menu is Wonderbread (and let’s be sincere, it was WONDERFUL). It prices $12 and comes with both cultured butter or chili garlic crisp. For $12, can’t you serve it with each? We couldn’t determine so splurged an additional $3 on chili garlic crisp. The pizzas have been extra moderately priced at $16-$22. The “Cheese” pie (tomato, mozz, parm, evoo, contemporary basil) was much better than the “Inexperienced” pie (“pesto,” garlic, basil, mozz, parm, candy onion). We requested our waitress why “pesto” was in citation marks and she or he defined that it didn’t have pine nuts so it wasn’t truly pesto. When my spouse tried the pie she observed an unfamiliar taste within the pesto which our waitress later confirmed was cilantro. I discovered myself wishing the onions have been sweeter.

What To Know Earlier than You Go? Is Cents price a go to? I don’t know. First, it is best to most likely determine if Cleveland is price a go to. I just like the idea of Cents (it’s a pizzeria! but in addition a wine retailer!) however I really feel just like the execution left me disillusioned (apart from that bread — positively get the bread). Did I want the disco ball didn’t give me vertigo? Certain. Would the salad have been much less bitter with out kale because it’s base? Most positively. May the $3 I spent on chili oil have gone in the direction of an overpriced notepad? You guess. And that’s all a part of the enjoyable of a night at Cents.