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 Fazio's owner Bill Fazio chats with frequent customers Pete and Pat Trykoff. The Highland Heights couple eats at the Willoughby Hills restaurant at least a couple times a month. Their favorite dishes are the pasta with garlic and oil and the veal parmesan.
Photo by Laura Freeman
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Fazio’s Café & Bar is in a strip center across the street from the Shops of Willoughby Hills, right in the heart of a major construction project to widen Bishop Road.
Don’t let the torn up roads and orange barrels stop you from having lunch or dinner at the 5-year-old Italian eatery.
Owner Bill Fazio is offering what he is calling his Construction Special: A mini surf and turf dinner – filet mignon with three jumbo shrimp, broccoli and fries for $11.
“The special is a nice, light end of summer dish,” Fazio said. “I don’t think people want to eat as heavy at this time of year.”
Fazio says the verdict is still out on whether the road work has hurt his business.
“We’ve been here for five years now,” Fazio said. “We’ve been in the neighborhood for a long time. We have our regular customers and everything is going well.”
One thing is for sure – a little construction won’t stop him from cooking. You could say he grew up in the kitchen. Bill is the son of Mario Fazio and brother of Lisa. Lisa runs the Original Mario Fazio’s that opened in 1972 a bit further east on Chardon Road. Bill also worked for years at the Fazio’s restaurant that until recently stood at Ohio 91 and I-90.
Fazio’s storefront location is downplayed by a fountain in the entryway, Venetian blinds on the wall-to-wall windows and faux stained glass around the doorway. Booths stretch along one wall and a scattering of bistro-style seating is separated from the bar by half-walls and café curtains.
If not traditionally decorated in red, white and green – a disco ball dangles from the ceiling; maybe the dining room doubles as a dance floor after dinner – the café offers everything else you would expect in an Italian restaurant. Antipasto, pasta, pizza, salads and sandwiches, as well as the delicious, hearty Italian wedding soup I was introduced to on my first visit, fill the menu.
My companion and I ordered two appetizers to split – the crabmeat stuffed mushrooms and mushroom and spinach ravioli. As it turned out, the two of us had quite a bit of spinach and mushrooms that day. We also weren’t prepared for the large size of each dish.
The overstuffed mushrooms were great, but they could have used a bit more crab and a little less sauce. They came awash in a sea of mozzarella cheese sauce that was tasty but even for me, who loves lots of sauce, it was a bit too much.
The raviolis were wonderful, with plenty of fresh sautéed spinach and mushrooms flavored with garlic and basil. Other appetizers include the requisite calamari and mussels as well as the old standbys of chicken tenders, mozzarella sticks and potato skins. Each selection is available in half or full orders and costs $5-$11.
My companion settled on the seafood pasta. She was disappointed the crab in the dish was surimi rather than real crabmeat. While she enjoyed her meal, she said it was nothing she would tell people they just had to visit Fazio’s to try. Her first experience at Fazio’s also included the Italian wedding soup, and she said it was more memorable than the pasta.
The café offers daily specials for both lunch and dinner. I ordered the Tuesday special, chicken marsala served over a mountain of angel hair pasta. The portion was huge, more than I could eat in two sittings. Two large, tender pieces of chicken breast were smothered in mushrooms and splashed with brown marsala sauce that was a little on the sweet side, but overall enjoyable.
Other entrees include eggplant and veal parmesan, steak, baked scrod and pizzas, billed as either gourmet or specialty. Some combinations include spinach, tomato and mozzarella with white sauce or the Cajun deluxe – sausage, pepperoni, onions and banana peppers with spicy Cajun sauce and mozzarella cheese.
At the end of our meal, we, like the mushrooms, were overstuffed and somehow completely forgot to ask about dessert. I’m sure the café must serve it and if the food is any indication, the desserts are probably quite good as well.
Fazio’s, located at 28272 Chardon Road just west of Bishop Road, also offers catering, including sheet pizzas and buffet items. For reservations or catering information, call 440-347-0119.
Laura Freeman writes regularly about restaurants for the Lake County Business Journal. Lfreeman@lakebusinessjournal.com. |
