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A Cincinnati native, Vanessa Miller came on board as executive chef at downtown’s Metropole at the 21c Museum Hotel in the fall after more than a decade at restaurant positions in Massachusetts and New York.
Chef Millers late-summer menu offers many enticements, with more than a half-dozen appetizers, four salads, three pastas and seven entrees. Miller said this was the fifth or sixth menu under her supervision and has achieved what she has been striving for. This menu represents well-executed food thats playful and fun without being too fussy, she said. And it feels very much like now like late summer.
What turned out to be our consensus favorite dish of the meal came with the first course: cornmeal-crusted calamari with pickled plums and radish sprouts ($12), which had been one of our server’s suggestions as we dithered between it and a couple other starters. The squid itself was first-rate, fresh as could be, and the result of flash-frying produced a dish with perfect crunch and no hint of grease.
Exterior of 21c Museum Hotel and Metropole Hailey BollingerMetropole, with chef Vanessa Miller at the helm Hailey BollingerInterior of dining space Hailey BollingerSpread of dishes available at the downtown eatery Hailey BollingerSeared salmon with smoked Greek yogurt, green tomatoes, summer cucumbers, farro, hot honey vinaigrette and crunchy bits Hailey BollingerHailey BollingerCornmeal-fried calamari with pickled plums, ink and radish sprouts Hailey BollingerDining space Hailey BollingerBurrata with grilled Sixteen Bricks bread, stonefruit, heirloom tomatoes, sweet and sour onions and poppy Hailey BollingerDining room Hailey BollingerStrawberry and snap pea salad with red quinoa, spinach, goats cheese and balsamic Hailey BollingerDuck with charred Foxtail Farms radishes, green apple, sprouts and toasted seeds Hailey BollingerChocolate Coconut Crunch, made with coconut mousse, chocolate, caramel crunch cake and coconut caramel sauce Hailey BollingerHailey BollingerSpread of dishes on the menu at Metropole Hailey BollingerSeating at the front of the restaurant, overlooking Walnut Street Hailey BollingerHailey BollingerAlleyway between Metropole and Nicholson’s Hailey BollingerExterior of Metropole Hailey BollingerDining space overlooking the kitchen Hailey BollingerHailey Bollinger
