Poca Preview

There's an innovative food hall coming to Cleveland's Ohio City neighborhood, featuring a large space with a bar, communal seating, and multiple restaurant concepts for diners to choose from. The initial lineup was recently announced for Ohio City Galley, and I was thrilled to see one of my favorite restaurants, The Black Pig, included on that list of four. They are opening a new Oaxacan cuisine spot, with a focus on Mexican food that you won't see anywhere else in Cleveland. At a preview dinner, I got to see (and taste!) some of what to expect from Poca Casual Mexican.

We started with some housemade Tostadas with Salsa Verde and Roasted Tomato Salsa. Then, moved on to Mole Crusted Beef with Purslane, Peanuts, and Cilantro Vinaigrette.

Next up was probably my favorite course of the night, an Octopus Taco with hoja santa tortilla, Ohio knot weed, and poblano.

The savory courses ended with Pork Mole, a braised pork collar with mole verde, black bean puree, and carrot.

We finished the meal with a Blackberry Mezcal Sorbet with coconut foam and coconut granola, probably my second favorite course of the night.

They are still playing with recipes and techniques and tweaking sauces and salsas, but this preview gave us a sneak peek of what's ahead, and it's going to be good.

Ohio City Galley is slated to open in October in the former Massimo Da Milano Italian restaurant space on West 25th.