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Ashley Kendzierski is the cook at Sussex Seafood & Grille in Wickliffe during the lunch hour. |
My mom lived on the North Carolina coast for almost 25 years. I no longer miss her as she has since returned to Ohio, but I sure do miss the seafood. Just a short drive from her home were several fish markets where you could watch the fishermen hauling in their catch of the day and bring home a mess of shrimp to steam, peel and eat or a filet of whatever looked good – tuna, grouper, flounder, mahi-mahi – you name it.
A quick drive around town could net you “fresh” shrimp being sold from rusty old trucks parked in vacant corner lots. I was always leery of them – how fresh could it be after sitting in a hot truck for hours under the baking southern sun? Also within a short drive of mom’s house were more seafood restaurants than I can name (followed closely by the barbecue joints). North Carolinians wash both down with pitchers of sweet tea.
In Northeast Ohio, not so much. You can get a great Friday fish fry at any number of places, but a restaurant with a good selection of seafood is harder to find. Seafood restaurants seem to consist of Red Lobsters or, on the other end of the “scale,” places so expensive you need to take out a second mortgage for dinner. Sussex Seafood & Grille at 29280 Euclid Ave. in Wickliffe has a bounty of seafood selections. Even the décor – taxidermied (or plastic, I can’t tell the difference) marlins and flying fish hang on the walls near nets full of seashells and antique fishing gear – brings to mind a meal on a North Carolina pier.
When I heard Sussex was now open for lunch, I gathered two fellow foodies and headed straight for Wickliffe. Sussex has been serving seafood since 1939. That’s really something considering many new restaurants don’t even make it a year. We resigned ourselves to a mostly fried lunch starting with fried oysters and calamari (both $7). The crispy-crunchy cornmeal coating covered juicy and tender oysters. One of my companions, who grew up on the Washington State coast, said the taste reminded her of early mornings spent at the beach prying oysters off the rocks for breakfast.
The calamari was surprising; its appearance less than auspicious. The menu describes them as “flour-dusted.” And while they looked pre-breaded and frozen, the rings of squid tasted fresh as it was not chewy or rubbery as frozen calamari almost invariably is. We could also have chosen shrimp cocktail ($7), mussels in wine-garlic-butter sauce ($8), steamed clams ($9/dozen), clam strips ($6) or a few additional non-seafood apps.
Sussex will allow diners to make a meal out of an appetizer for an additional $3.89, a feature I’ve not seen often. The dinner version includes two sides and a roll or cheddar biscuit. Choices of sides are homemade potato chips, steak fries, red skin potatoes, mac-n-cheese, mixed veggies, green beans with almonds, coleslaw, tossed salad and applesauce. Another menu feature I liked is the option to add a few shrimp, scallops, oysters, crab cake, crab legs, lobster tail or fish (perch or haddock) to your entrée ($4 to $15).
One of my companions chose shrimp tempura, the other soup of the day and salad. After the appetizers, I guess she’d had enough fried food for one meal. The tempura eater said she would have liked a lighter breading, but that the shrimp inside was juicy and succulent. The soup and salad diner was not impressed with her shrimp gumbo. She said the gumbo was nice and spicy, but it was mostly rice and she could only find a couple little pieces of shrimp and no okra. “It’s not what I was looking forward to,” she said.
She was quite happy with her salad saying there were enough shrimp in it to have a piece with every bite. She also enjoyed the house-made balsamic vinaigrette. Though they serve it baked, original steamed or Cajun steamed, I couldn’t pass up the batter fried fish. On another visit just a couple weeks ago, the breading was much crispier and fresher, and the fish was all in one piece rather than in small chunks.
The fish itself was still light and flakey, but my breading was somewhat soggy. It seemed as if the fish had been sitting under a heat lamp for a while before being served. This might be attributed to the later lunch hour as we didn’t arrive until after 1 p.m. On my last visit, one of my guests had the shrimp Alfredo ($9), a spicy concoction of linguini tossed with jumbo shrimp and mushrooms in a Cajun cream sauce. My guest complained that it was a bit too spicy for her taste, but I thought it was scrumptious.
Other choices include pastas, steaks, chicken, sandwiches, burgers, salads and the fresh catch of the day. Catfish was on the board the day we visited, served blackened or fried. Whatever you do, don’t leave without having the banana cream pie. The pecan cookie crust makes this standard dessert a knock-out. The restaurant also makes a decadent brownie sundae with whipped cream and ice cream drizzled with chocolate and caramel sauce. Yum!
Sussex is open Tuesday through Friday from 11 a.m.-9 p.m., Saturday 4-10 p.m. and Sunday 1-8 p.m. For reservations or catering information, call 440-943-2002 or visit www.sussex1939.com.
Laura Freeman writes regularly about restaurants for the Lake County Business Journal. Lfreeman@lakebusinessjournal.com. |
