Day trip to Akron

Nancy-
Yes, that is a good description, but it had some heat to it, too.  You can buy jars of the relish to take home.

Thanks for the report.  I will be sure to mark this down  as  we are doing a trip to Canton  when we get a chance.  A couple of the kids really want to  see The Football Hall of Fame.

Greymo-
Excellent!  The Hall of Fame is a very worthwhile stop.  And make sure you stop in Taggart's Ice Cream, which was my next stop.

Located not even a mile away from Kennedy's, Taggert's

has been serving ice cream to Canton since 1926.  They sure do have a lot of old restaurants in this area.  They do have a fine roster of sandwiches on the menu, but I was here for the ice cream.  The hot fudge sundae was my order and I was rewarded with a very large bowl of ice cream. 

Everything was good, but the thick, not-too-sweet hot fudge was especially memorable.

The inside doesn't appear all that old, but it does have an attarctive blue and white pattern.  What really caught my eye was the carved up tables at the booths.


Sight seeing time!  The mounment to President William McKinley is nearby,

so I walked to the top of the steps and viewed the masoleum where the families were buried. 

Very pretty place.  At the bottom of the long stairs is a presidential library and Stark County History Museum.  I easily killed almost two hours exploring the exhibits.

Well,  I will let the kids  walk to the top   and  then  they can tell me all about it!

Buffetbuster -
Wonderful! I worked in Akron in the 80s and you've stopped at some of my usual lunch spots - West Point Market (their dessert case supplied lunch for me on many a stressful day), Swenson's (introduced to me by older female co-workers, who went less for the Galley Boys and more for the college boys), and the nap-inducing Belgrade Gardens with the best fried chicken I've ever had in a restaurant.
We recently found Taggert's in Magnolia, a new outpost in an old inn, and had planned a trip to Canton to get ice cream at the original Taggert's. When I showed my husband the picture of the ham sandwich at Kennedy's, his first comment was "so we're going when?"
Thanks for instigating a trip to Canton soon! BBQ & ice cream - exactly what we were looking for over the 4th of July weekend and didn't find.

There is no way I could come to the Akron area without stopping in at Belgrade Gardens

in Barberton for some chicken paprikash, which I think is one of the great Roadfood meals.  Three orders went home with me and it got shared with my brother and mother, who love it just as much as I do.  Sorry, no photos.

Final stop before heading home was Mike's Place in Kent, Ohio.  This place is just odd.  The outside

looks like an architect's nightmare with the different styles and in the back by the flags, you can even see what looks like a castle.  Also in front, is an X-Wing fighter. 

I had to look it up when I got home, but it is apparently one of the spacecraft from Star Wars.

The inside looks like so many other places nowadays, with license plates and anything else imaginable hanging in every available space on the wall.  The menu

has to be just about the biggest I have ever seen and it would take you an hour to look through it if you let it.  Besides the food, the menu also has amusing lists of accepted forms of payment or the rules of eating at Mike's.


In the Jane & Michael Stern 500 Things to Eat book, they have sauerkraut balls listed for the Akron area.  I have been keeping my eyes open for it and they had them here at Mike's.

They came heavy breaded with ten to an order and a side of the made here pink cocktail sauce.  The sauerkraut itself was not too strong and was delicious.

For my entree, it was something called the major meltdown, which is a 10oz. burger on grilled rye toast.

From the side view,

you can see the American and Swiss cheese and the grilled onions.  Not a bad burger, although the fries were really greasy.

Mike's Place is undoubtedly very popular, especially with the local students at Kent State.  It just came across to me as someplace that was trying too hard and it just didn't grab me.  But, I could definitely see where many others would love this it here.  And I will be back for those sauerkraut balls!

Mike's Place
1700 S. Water Street
Kent, OH
330-673-6501

http://www.roadfood.com/Restaurant/Reviews/6838/mikes-place

From there it was straight home and I had the chicken paprikash for breakfast the next day.

marence-
Glad you enjoyed the report and that it brought back some memories.  If you and your husband do make it to Kennedy's (and hopefully do a doubleheader with Taggert's), please report back and let us know how it was.

Ohhhh, Mike is a *geek*.  I wanted to turn my swingset into the Millennium Falcon, but I was 10 at the time.  :)

marence

We recently found Taggert's in Magnolia, a new outpost in an old inn, and had planned a trip to Canton to get ice cream at the original Taggert's.

I actually ate at that Taggart's.  I was roadtripping in northeastern Ohio three years ago.  Specifically it was when OH 183 was closed between Minerva and Waynesburg--all the way out to OH 44, oh my!  I remember coming into Waynesburg and seeing a restaurant on my left, only to find it not yet open for the season (it was March 25)--very irritating, and on top of the OH 183 detour!  Then when I reached Magnolia I found Taggart's, a name I recognized from reading up on the Canton area, and that solved my lunch problem!  (They had hot dogs, from what I recall.)

Nice ongoing report, buffetbuster--thanks!

We got our dog from Save Ohio Strays last fall, and the morning of our (early) departure, I checked the site to see if I might find a lunch spot if the timing worked. After your report on Belgrade Gardens and their famous chicken, now I'm REALLY sorry I didn't make the timing work! (The dog has been a wonderful addition to our family though--that was good timing!)

I loved this, I have lived in Akron all my life and have never visited the Barberton places, but I will now, thank you for this lovely Akron stuff

A confession from this Akron native...I love Swenson's burgers (and the memories of going there as a child), but I actually kind of prefer the burgers at Skyway.  And the Akron Skyway location retains its 1950's charm (being a nostalgic type I think the old neon and ancient facility are as much fun as the food itself).  But I have to lay low on this...all of my Akron relatives are Swenson's loyalists and I don't want any hard feelings...
 
Thanks everyone for these great tips and photos...I'll be eating well next time I visit my hometown.

Chili Dog1-
Okay, now I will have to try Skyway the next time I am in the Akron area.  If you think it is better than Swenson's, then I can't wait!
 
ladygodiva-
If you do make it down to the Barberton restaurants, please report back and tell us how it was.

I'd like to throw one more place into the ring if at all possible.  My wife and her whole family are from Canal Fulton, which is a stone's throw from Barberton.  Actually, it's a stone's throw only if it's a howitzer throwing the stone (11 miles), but you get the idea.  Naturally, there's a great deal of familiarity with Barberton chicken and more recently with Al's Corner Restaurant, but I digress.
 
About five years ago, I was with my wife and mother-in-law on the south side of Lake Anna, which is a legitimate stone's throw from Al's.  We walked around the lake, then my mother-in-law looked to the north and said, "That's where Angie's was.  I wonder if it's still there."  We got in the car and headed over that way, and not only was Angie's Italian Restaurant still open, but it had recently been remodeled. 
 
The interior is pretty standard; sports bar on one side, larger dining room on the other with an additional dining room/large party gathering place.  We had to switch sides, since I was stuck with a clear view of a TV that had CNN on while the other side could see ESPN.  I ordered a pizza, my wife fettucini alfredo, and my mother-in-law lasagna.  Everyone sampled each other's food, and it was extremely tasty.  As my own mother is fullblood Italian, I appreciate legitimately good Italian food.  Even the appetizer salad was excellent, and the Italian dressing is as good as anything not made in my own kitchen.  (NOTE: The Italian dressing is a house recipe that is actually a bright pink in color.  I don't know why, but it's good stuff.)
 
Angie's Italian Restaurant
343 4th Street Northwest,
Barberton, OH 44203-2211
(330) 745-6056‎