Food – The Oberlin Review

Surprisingly, Cleveland Has a Wine Scene — And it’s Thriving

December 13, 2019

Cleveland is not a wine town. Not historically, anyway. Recently, though, the city has given rise to a thriving, albeit small, wine scene — for those who know how to find it. Although beer still reigns king in Northeast Ohio, the wine industry has a larger presence than one might think. Ohio, despite being the 34th largest state, was the sixth-largest wine producer in the United States in 2016, according to an Ohio Grape Industries Committee economic impact report. “The Cleveland wine scene is getting bigger and better,” Elan Hoenig, general manager of The Wine Spot, a wine retailer in Cleveland Heights, said. “I think there’s definitely more interest coming to the city in all aspects of wine.” T...

Student Dining Innovations Improve Social Atmosphere

November 22, 2019

Last week, a waiter sat College fourth-year Monica Dix and I at a corner table at Stevenson Dining Hall. That waiter was College fourth-year Jody Shanabrook, the founder and sole waitstaff of the Stevie Dinner Date Service, a pop-up restaurant-style dining experience available for a $5 service fee. For another $5, our dinner could have been accompanied by College fourth-year Riley Calcagno’s live violin music. “We’ve had five bookings over the past two weeks, but our business has been exploding...

New Food Columnists Rate Dining Hall Desserts

Ella Halbert and Jordan Rempel-White

October 4, 2019

One evening at Stevenson Dining Hall, we entered the bustling buffet area with our newly-found friends. The desserts had been topped up seconds before, after a wave of sugar-starved students had eaten everything in sight, and we knew we had to taste everything. But, as young adults refining our taste palettes, we decided it would be unreasonable to stomach an entire dessert bar alone. So instead, we decided to split the dessert bar. The result was glorious: four diverse delights piled high onto one modest plate. Overall, the selections exceeded our expectations, considering we were eating in a college dining hall. The first sample, custard pie, was arguably the worst of the bunch based solely on texture. Whi...

Students Reflect on Conflict Kitchen Talk

Roman Broszkowski, Senior Staff Writer

May 10, 2019

A week after their event at the Allen Memorial Art Museum on Thursday, May 2, Conflict Kitchen still remains very present on students’ minds. The collaborative art installation, created by artists Jon Rubin and Dawn Weleski, doubled as a functional restaurant in Pittsburgh from 2010 until 2017. Rubin and Weleski, as part of the Allen’s First Thursday series, came to Oberlin to discuss the story behind their long-running piece. Based between the North and Central Oakland neighborhoods of Pittsburgh, Conflict Kitchen was an attempt by Rubin and Weleski to allow people to explore and interact with various cultures that the United States was in conflict with. The restaurant had a rotating menu inspired by contemporary...

Catrina’s Food Review: New Mexican Eatery Opens in Oberlin

March 8, 2019

An Indian and a Pakistani walked along West College Street last Thursday, terrified that within the next few hours we would hear terrible news regarding escalating military tension from our South Asian borders. We decided the best way to deal with this fear was to share a meal at Catrina’s Tacos y Margaritas — Oberlin’s new Mexican restaurant. The restaurant was full that night, though it’s hard to tell whether the foot traffic was due to the novelty of a new restaurant downtown or ge...

Vel Scott: Chef and Health Advocate

February 15, 2019

Vel Scott is a food and health advocate based in Cleveland. Her organization, Vel Scott’s Healthy You, facilitates workshops and other trainings in the greater Cleveland area, helping people to understand more about their food, where it comes from, and how to live a healthy lifestyle. She also runs Vel’s Purple Oasis, an urban farm in Cleveland that allows locals to become directly involved in food production through volunteering. This past Tuesday, Scott visited Oberlin as a guest chef, cooking in...

Asia Night Market Continues Beautiful Tradition

December 8, 2018

Fusions Restaurant Owners Emphasize Diversity, Inclusivity, Equity in Culinary Offerings

September 7, 2018

Many students at Oberlin value the creation of safe spaces for different identities, a priority often shared by establishments in downtown Oberlin and greater Lorain County. Oberlin’s Fusions Restaurant is no exception — it has been committed to creating an accessible dining experience since its opening in November 2017. But where and what is Fusions? And how exactly does a restaurant foster a safe space? I came to know Fusions in January 2018 when Santos Martinez, the owner Belinda Martinez’s...

Corner Joint Promises Good Cooking, Less Value

Daniel Markus, Managing Editor

May 11, 2018

There’s something just shy of presumptuousness in naming a brand new restaurant The Corner Joint — call it confidence, or maybe even swagger. “The corner joint” is a nickname that, at least in my mind, is reserved for the mom-and-pop shops, restaurants that have existed and persisted through good times and bad, bending but never breaking under pressure. The designation is earned through a combination of good food, good service, and a friendly, personable atmosphere over years of memories shared by a customer base that keeps coming back, the kind of reputation that causes locals to tell folks passing through town to stop by the corner joint. It’s probably fair to say that such a future is what many new resta...

POC Student Groups Host Culture-Rich Banquets

April 27, 2018

Editor’s Note: The OKSA Banquet was covered by Yuxin Wang, ASA by Birsa Chatterjee and Jude Fernandes, and SASA by Victoria Albacete. Diverse cultures shared the spotlight last weekend as the Oberlin Korean Student Association, African Students Association, and South Asian Students Association all held banquets, either simultaneously or in succession. OKSA organized a banquet called “A Night Out in Seoul” in Asia House’s Shipherd Lounge on Saturday. Featuring a variety of traditional K...

CDS Serves Up Sweet Food Skills Lessons

Julia Peterson, Arts & Culture Editor

March 30, 2018

As many college students know well, it can be difficult to cook for yourself while living in a dorm. This year, students can overcome this challenge by participating in Campus Dining Services’ series of informal classes and tastings. The primary purpose of these events isn’t to give intensive lessons or embark on especially challenging recipes — they’re meant to be a lighthearted, fun, delicious way to spend part of an afternoon learning about food. DeCafé Unit Manager Daron Frederick taught the fourth class in the series, “Cooking with Chocolate,” Wednesday afternoon at the Rathskeller. “We were looking for something fun to engage the students and to reach out and share our resources here at Oberlin...

Asian Food Authenticity Panel Challenges White, API Students

Melissa Harris, Editor-in-Chief

December 1, 2017

Asia Night Market, Oberlin’s annual December tradition where students of Asian and Pacific Islander heritage celebrate their culture and cuisine, will take place tomorrow night in the Root Room of Carnegie Building from 6-8 p.m. The event, this year in its sixth iteration, is one of the only collaborations between many of the API student organizations on campus. These organizations will prepare traditional food from their respective countries of origin in order to share the role food plays in informing their cultural identities with the campus community. In recent years, API students have tried to bridge the gap between consumption and understanding the food served at Asia Night Market by organizing panels, lectures, and...