Seeing Cleveland the Rachael Ray Way

I recently spent two days in Cleveland, Ohio, where I visited several of Rachael Ray's restaurant picks from her Food Network show $40 a Day. Rachael featured Cleveland on both $40 a Day and Tasty Travels, but I only visited her $40 a Day picks (I am cheap, okay?).

Now, I am pretty sure that Rachael must have a friend there or was "hosted" by the Cleveland Tourism Board, because (please don't yell at me) I was not very impressed by Cleveland. More specifically, I was not impressed by Downtown Cleveland. I understand that it is a city in transition and I read that it has improved a ton in recent years, but many stores on major streets in the downtown area were abandoned and boarded up. And the streets themselves were a disaster. They were either in disrepair or under construction. The place just was not very visitor-friendly.

But, that being said, I definitely recommend Rachael's picks. They inspired us to venture out into areas we otherwise might not have visited. And the outlying areas were much nicer than Downtown Cleveland.

Our first Rachael Ray stop was in the Little Italy area of town, to the East of Downtown Cleveland. It was about a 20 minute drive (construction delays) that leads you past the lovely University Circle neighborhood (at least the parts I saw were lovely). We went to lunch at the Trattoria on the Hill (or Trattoria Roman Gardens, depending on which sign you read). The place was outstanding! The interior felt like a San Francisco restaurant to me, with dim lighting and a sort of blast from the past feel. And the food was to die for. We ordered linguine with white clam sauce and three cheese and spinach ravioli. We just don't get Italian food this good at home, so we savored every single bite. The total cost, including a soda (I guess they would call it pop) and tax was $25.99 for two.