I was lucky enough to get an invitation last weekend to a dinner at the Stone Bluff winery where former operators,  Rob and his father Lou (need to get the spelling of the last name) prepared a Mondo’s dinner. I had forgetten how muched I missed this food! We started off with an antipasto platter with prosciutto, salami, several cheeses, olives and pickled vegetables. I could have eaten two plates of this and been satisfied! Next was the traditional house or green salad with a dressing to give it the familiar taste that I remember.

For an entree we had a cheese covered chicken breast and a generous piece of lasagna. Both were wonderful, but the lasagna was a hit for me. Some mild heat and a taste of anise. This, followed by a little swirl and a mouthful out of your wine glass, made me wish for a bigger stomach. (Sorry that this isn’t the greatest pic, but I’d eaten my dinner and had to interrupt the table next to me to get a picture.)

Also included was a side dish of seafood spaghetti. Not normally my forte, but I’ll have to say that is was as good as the rest of the meal. The only thing missing was the garlic bread. We were served some bread, but is was a small baguette slices. No worries. For desert we each got a cannoli and a little lemonchello. Lord have mercy!

Stone Bluff provided the wine of course. You could go to their tasting room, sample the wares, pick what you liked, and take that bottle back to your table. A nice wine with a great italian dinner, a table of friends, and the sun going down over the hills near Stone Bluff makes for an evening that’s as pretty close to perfect as you can get.

Rob is looking to reopen and I understood that he is currently searching for the right place to reopen Mondo’s. Please do it!

I digress. Except for the red walls. walking into Ella’s looked on the surface pretty much like the old B-52, tables, booths, a bar, and a fairly open look into the kitchen. The menu is broken down into hot and cold sandwiches called Hot & Jazzy Sammiches and Cool Jazzed Up Sammiches. That fact along with the jazz music coming out of the speakers and the fact that the first hot sandwich was called the Ella Fitzgerald clued me as to where the name Ella came from. Indeed all of the sandwiches are named after jazz artists.

The special of the day was a chicken fried chicken sandwich, so I decided to try that with the sweet potato fries. The fried sandwich was typical with mayo, tomatoes and lettuce. It was okay, but if it’s the special of the day, maybe I’d expect more. The sweet potatos were more like what I get at home when my wife makes them thick cut and bakes them in the oven. They were slightly soft and not overpowering spices. Like maybe the opposite of McNellie’s.

My date got the Brat Reuben (a.k.a. Bix Beiderbecke). This guy was grilled brats, spicy mustard, sauerkraut, and swiss on marbled rye. This smelled ‘delish’ and my date was very pleased. I took off a little bit of the brats and thought that the taste was very good. This was a filling sandwich and we took half of it home where I assure you it was consumed.

 I wouldn’t go back for the chicken sandwich, but there were a number of things on the menu that I think might be worth trying. The Ripper Dawg is a hot dog fried until it busts open (I assume that what it is) with chili and cheese if you want it, and when we were about to leave we saw a slice of Coconut Cream pie come out. If we weren’t full, we would have given that a try. Appetizers are from $4 to $7, sandwiches are from $7 to $9 and the entrees are from $11 to $16.

NOTE: The To-Go menu says that Ella the Bassett Hound is the CEO. So either the dog was named after the singer, or the dog was the inspiration for the restaurant!

In keeping with our tradition of trying new places in Tulsa every Saturday for lunch, my lovely date and I found a place on our list that is just withing a few minutes of our house. That place is Cafe Samana and is in the strip shopping center at 38th and Peoria. We arrived at around 11:30 and found only a few tables taken. The surroundings weren’t fancy but very pleasant. Nice modern art was displayed on the walls.  Our arrival time was fortunate, because by the time we left the place was almost full.

We looked over the menu and was pleased to see that this place doesn’t serve ‘cookie-cutter’ food. There were lots of very interesting sounding things on the menu. After looking at the menu and the daily board, my date and I decided on the Sweet Bean ‘Dilla and the Bellawich (did I get that right?). The wait staff was really prompt and the food was out in just a few minutes.

The Sweet Bean ‘Dilla consisted of a spinich tortilla, sweet potatoes, black beans, cheddar and of course spinich. It came with side salad with red pepper. My eating companion was very happy.

My Bella sandwich was very different that what I expected. It had portabello mushrooms, eggplant, peppers, onions, spinich, and blue cheese with pesto mayo. Tons of flavor on this one, and a combination that I don’t think I’ve ever had on any other sandwich. I chose the Indian Sweet Potato soup as my side and this also was full of unusual flavor. Sorry, I find it hard to  describe Indian flavors exactly, but it’s a wonderful change from the norm.

We really like this place and when you get tired of burgers and club sandwiches, or feel like you can’t think of anything that really sounds good to you, this place is perfect. It’s not the norm. We look forward to getting back some weekend soon.

Oh. Wonder how Cafe Sumana got it’s name? Sumana means ‘responsible for the digestion of food and cell metabolism’ and ‘the repair and manufacture of new cells and growth’. It worked for us!

NOTE: Tulsa Food did a review some time ago. Their experience was slighty different from mine: http://tulsafood.com/lunch/lunchtime-at-nibbles-cafe