Schiook Didn’t “Took “
Italiano Joe
A Restaurant Review
A few weeks ago, I dined at Schiook, a new place for eats in Meadville. Featuring an Asian-style menu, you could get a variety of vegetables and toppings atop a bed of different type of rices in a single bowl.
Yay! Something different.
I enjoyed the meal and about a week later, went to the site again—only to discover the place was closed and workmen were removing items. I talked to a young man who stood outside and pestered him with questions until he said the place was closing for “renovations.”
Apparently “renovations” meant to him closing and opening another restaurant in its place, because the next time I stopped there, Schiook was gone and Italiano Joe was in its place. “Where did Schiook go?” I asked two employees. According to the stories I got, there were “personnel issues” which caused it to close, and Italiano Joe, formerly of Greenville—and owned by the same person—moved here to take its place.“Is Schiook still around?” I asked. According to them, yes, it is, but it relocated to Pittsburgh. Bored, and at my laptop one day before this review, I checked: no restaurant by that name there, so…whatever.
Anywhoo, as it namesake would imply, Italiano Joe offers a variety of Italian fare: soups (Italian Wedding, Toscana), salads (Caesar & Chicken Pasta Salad), and a wide variety of pasta dishes. There’s even a “Bring Your Own Bottle of Wine” deal from 4-8 pm (with a $2 “corkage” fee, whatever that is). I settled on the “Build Your Own Pasta” bowl with a choice of angel hair pasta, bolognese sauce and garden veggies. (See picture.) Arriving within a few minutes, the hot bowl arrived full of sauce (a complaint of mine: never having enough sauce to match your amount of pasta), tender pasta and veggies of green peppers, onions and, I think, zucchini.
And though I told the waitress to bring me a to-go box, I managed to wolf my entree down—in between blowing on hot forkfuls of pasta!
Still hungry, I wanted something for dessert, but I wanted something different. Something exotic, something only this new restaurant would offer, so I ordered the Sicilly [sic] Cheesecake topped with blueberries. “Hmm…” my tummy wondered, “How do Sicilians create their cheesecake? Maybe with a side of Marinara Sauce?”Big disappointment! Because apparently Sicilians make their cheesecake exactly like New York Cheesecake! Nothing different, just a fancy name change. Bait & switch, indeed! Nonetheless, I joyfully chomped it down and made ready to depart.
With a good entree, I enjoyed my visit to Italiano Joe, a new place to dine for Italian-style cuisine in Meadville. But with its unique cuisine, it’s too bad that Shiook didn’t “take,” and it fled so soon before I could try it again.
Arrivederci, Schiook, we hardly knew ye!
But welcome “Joe!”
Gee, what’s the Italian word for “welcome?”
***The Lunch Lady
Italiano Joe is located at 18866 Park Avenue Plaza, Meadville. For more information, visit their website.
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