The Root Cafe (A Review by Will Hagan)

The Root Cafe sounds like, upon first description, heaven for a vegan and a place good for little more than a tasteless snack for everyone else. Thankfully, neither of these is really true. The Root Cafe, while great for vegans, is perfect for vegetarians. There's no meat, obviously; it's called the Root cafe, what did you expect? But there's plenty of dairy products, especially cheese, and many of the pastries use egg. Their menu is expansive and gives a wide range of options (such as calzones, sandwiches, pizzas, salads, and the like), which is nice, but it's also a tad limited in scope, which is understandable but inconvenient. In other words, it completely fills its rather limited niche. Of the options you are given, however, all are high quality and well made. I had an order of breadsticks and a pizza. The breadsticks were more like cheesy bread in a pizza pie shape, so it was almost like ordering two pizzas. The cheesy breadsticks were quite good nonetheless, and the pizza had a nice earthy feel. It was filling and reasonably priced as long as I shared ($9 for the breadsticks, $10 for the pizza which included cheese and extra garlic). A variety of caffeinated drinks are available, to justify its status as a cafe.

The atmosphere is rather hit or miss depending on your taste. It is, however, perfect for a place called The Root Cafe. It feels a bit like a giant treehouse on the ground, and everything is woody and natural looking. There's an awesome silhouette of the Cleveland skyline on the wall. My only complaint is that it gets a bit loud in its wide open, echo-y atmosphere. It's great for casual dining, quick snacks, meetups, and informal lunch dates with your hippie significant other.

The service is good but nothing to write home about. They did put two tables together for our large group, however, which was nice and accommodating. Otherwise, I was relatively unaffected by the service.

Scores:

Atmosphere: 9/10

Service: 6/10

Food: 8.5/10

Total: 8.5/10

Chutney Rolls (A Review by Will Hagan)

Chutney Rolls is a wholly unsatisfying and unfulfilling restaurant experience, and offers a limited range of options that only fit a generous definition of either chutney or rolls. 

Perhaps I'm being a bit too harsh. Chutney Rolls is passible for what it is; at least, it would be if it could decide what exactly that was. Chutney Rolls has a very off-putting interior. There's a odd black and white stock photo on the entire back wall of silhouetted children flying a kite, which meshes very poorly with the generic abstract art and and simplistic red/white/black modern design scheme. The lighting and music are the only good parts of the atmosphere, which otherwise is a strange misappropriation of modern, clean design mixed with a more cluttered, artsy feel. It was distracting, to say the least.

The service was as I would expect from most lunch restaurants: casual, quick, unremarkable. However, it was my first time at Chutney Rolls and I didn't know how to order. The man working the counter did not inform me as to what was going to be in the roll other than the chicken I had ordered. It turns out it was a variety of items I was not particularly fond of, and I would have appreciated knowing that those were going to be on my roll beforehand.

The food was well made and the chicken well seasoned, I suppose, but the cabbage, carrots, and whatever else was included in the mystery wrap were cold and tough. The bread was probably the best part, and, from what I could tell, the only item that had actually touched chutney. The roll wasn't really a roll, but more like a large soft taco. Perhaps most egregiously, chutney rolls was bland. Nothing was special or unique. Their website claims "People are tired of the bland and they desperately want more flavor in their food." Or, put more simply, people are tired of Chutney Rolls.

Atmosphere: 4

Service: 5

Food: 5

Total: 4.5

Movie Review: Catch Me if You Can

Catch Me if You Can is a thrilling, clever, emotional movie with masterful direction and a pair of amazing performances from Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks. The film takes place in the mid-to-late 1960s and follows the true story of Frank Abagnale (DiCaprio) as he becomes a success con artist using a variety of creative tactics that are quite entertaining to watch. Carl Hanratty (Hanks) spends the better part of a decade tracking him down. This film, although it has it's funny moments, is most certainly a drama, and it definitely . Abagnale travels all over the US as a fake assistant pilot, using his credibility and good looks to cash fake checks that bounce far after he's left on a plane to the other side of the country. He eventually transitions to being a fake doctor after his schemes are discovered by Hanratty. There he meets Brenda (Amy Adams), a rather simpleminded nurse, whom he falls in love with. They attempt to marry, but their plans are interrupted by Hanratty. Abagnale admits the truth about his cons to Brenda and tells her to meet him at the airport, where they will escape the country. I'll let you watch the rest.

Catch Me if You Can is an excellent adaption of a real event. The movie is true to its source, but fittingly cinematic and exciting. There are surprisingly few inaccuracies and exaggerations, and all the characters are believable and realistic. This is due in part to great writing, but mainly by the casting. Each character perfectly portrays his role, from Hanks and DiCaprio playing the cat-and-mouse duo to Martin Sheen and Christopher Walken's father figures. The set design is truly an achievement; everything looks more than believable and everyone dresses appropriately for the period.

The movie is also technically accomplished  as one would expect from a Spielberg movie. The movie rarely - if ever - feels slow, due to amazing editing. The cinematography is above average, though not spectacular, and the soundtrack is a tad underwhelming and doesn't always fit the scene; sometimes rather lightheaded music lends ambiance to a tense scene. Spielberg is, as always, a great director, and brings in many strong parts to create and even stronger whole.

One interesting aspect of the film is it's lack of condemnation for Abagnale. I won't spoil the ending too much, but he doesn't face any terribly oppressive punishments for his crimes. This begs the question, what crime is worth what punishment? DiCaprio's crimes were relatively tame; the only money he took was from the banks and the government, which would not have had a great effect on most people. However, people now can get a longer sentence than Abagnale just for possessing minor drugs that have no effect on anyone but them. From this, we can ask another question: How did Abagnale's race, gender, and looks affect his successes? Probably very much; would a woman or black pilot ever had as much credibility or trustworthiness? I doubt it. This is a problem that, while less noticeable, still exists today, making this movie's content still very relevant.

Score: 9/10

Crust: Giant Pizza, Great Prices (by Will Hagan)

Crust is a small local pizza-by-the-slice joint on one of Tremont's many restaurant-littered streets, but it stands out as a truly above average institution. Unlike many neighborhood pizza restaurants, Crust is clean instead of greasy and smelly, and the logo design is an actual design as opposed to a helvetica sign with a phone and fax number below it on a cheap red awning. This gives Crust a distinctly modern feel. The place still feels like a casual place to grab a quick slice, but its modern sensibilities give it a more comfortable atmosphere. The pizza is served on a thick wood plate shaped like a slice of pizza, which was cool and modern but a little cumbersome.

The employees were quite conversational and accommodating. The pizzas were cooked and ready in around five minutes, and came out at just the right temperature. One of the employees explained to us a bit of the process of making the pizza, and showed us a slab of raw bacon. 

The food itself was quite good. The menu boasts that each pizza takes at least two days to go from start to finish. They use no canned ingredients, preferring to prepare every part of the pizza from scratch. I had a plain piece of pizza and was very impressed by how tasty the cheese and sauce were. However, the crust was a tad crispy for me. It tasted exactly how I imagine pizza in the movies tastes: no imperfections, but nothing terribly special, either. The slices were giant, at least twice the size of other pizza slices and very filling. Furthermore, they were only $3, a great deal. They also had a large selection of other Italian items, like pasta and subs for around $7 or $8.

Crust was a great restaurant experience, and I would recommend it to anyone looking for a casual pizza experience. 

Atmosphere: 6.5/10

Service: 9/10

Food: 9/10

Total: 9/10

Indian Flame: A Review by Will Hagan

Indian Flame is a hole-in-the-wall restaurant, just down the street from the new development  on Euclid Avenue. I visited the restaurant for lunch with my J-Term group, where they had a buffet table involving many diverse traditional Indian dishes. The Restaurant was surprisingly spacious, but other than that, nothing terribly special. The color scheme of the environment was typical of Indian restaurant - light shades of green, yellow, and red - and looked a bit cheap, but this isn't a restaurant looking to be fancy. The atmosphere was pleasant, neither too loud nor very quiet; it was easy to hear others from across the table speaking at normal volume. The faint chatter of others provided a casual experience. It was a great place for a casual date or a student to have lunch, but would not suit any formal occasion. 

As it was a buffet, I cannot provide a proper assessment of the service, but, while we were delivered glasses of water, the waitress seemed uninterested and bored. The buffet table did not have any labels, so we were left to guess what was in each option, which is not only inconvenient for people with dietary restrictions but also frustrating to those without; it's difficult to identify the items when they're slathered in bright sauces. Furthermore, it took them a rather long time to replace empty containers of food. 

While it was rather lacking in service or atmosphere, the food was high quality and genuine. The price was reasonable ($10) for an all-you-can-eat buffet. I chose to take a bit of rice and a couple pieces of naan bread as a base and poured the other options on top. The rice was bland, as rice is expected to be, and the naan was thinner than naan usually is but just as soft and chewy. I slathered them in paneer, a type of cheese dish made of cubes of the cheese in an orange-colored tomato and cream sauce, and vegetable kofta, which is a sort of vegetarian meatball in a dark yellow sauce. Neither were very spicy, but both had a bit of kick to them that required a bit of water to calm. Both were very good, if a bit cold.

Overall, this was a worthwhile experience, as I've had next to no experience with Indian food before. I would certainly return with a group of friends, but I doubt I would choose to go of my own accord, especially over the wealth of great restaurants in the area.

Scores:

Service: 6/10

Atmosphere: 6/10

Food: 8/10

Total: 7/10