Showing posts with label Mike Brandly. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mike Brandly. Show all posts

Don’s Pomeroy House in Strongsville, OH

Don’s Pomeroy House - Map
donspomeroy.com
13664 Pearl Road,
Strongsville, OH 44149
(440) 572-1111


Starving Auctioneers Rating: 5 Gavels out of 5

Fine dining is not something that Starving Auctioneers do nearly enough. There are number of reasons for this including past restraining orders, lack of class and capital and most of all the simple lack of time. It is hard to fit in a multiple course meal when you are running from one auction to another and even harder to stop talking long enough to eat it.

Mike Brandly, Peter Gehres and their partners in both business and life, Lisa Mantle and Paige Gehres respectively, stopped auctioning long enough to dine at the legendary Pomeroy House in Strongsville, Ohio. Lisa and Paige are extraordinary auction clerks besides being extraordinary people and are the power behind the legends (legends used very lightly here). It is no ordinary clerk that can understand the pure gibberish that Mike and Peter spout each auction and turn that into something the normal people can read and thus pay for when it comes time to settle up. Both women were over due for a good meal. They typically have to settle for hot dogs and nacho’s from the food truck at the auctions.

Don’s Pomeroy House is set in a very old building and serves tried and true meals in an upclass format. Everything at the Don's Pomeroy House was excellent and there is little chance to go wrong on the menu. Of special note was the Chip and Dip appetizer. It does not sound like much but it was outstanding and you are making a big mistake to pass it up.

Desert was a different story however. After a finely prepared and served dinner an equally fine desert is in order… that is except for Mike. Mike has this issue with Vanilla Ice Cream. The issue is he eats mountains of it. Mike’s dietary food pyramid sports a good quarter for Vanilla Ice Cream. Of course at a place like the Pomeroy House they have such a thing but why would you order that given the other outstanding options…why? Well Mike did and the waitress felt the need to repeatedly reassure Mike that it was really good and that he would not disappointed … because it was the LAMEST thing on the menu and he would most certainly have desert envy.

Despite poor desert choices on the part of some Don’s Pomeroy House is always a good choice and it should be your choice if you find yourself starving south of Cleveland.

Florentine in Columbus, OH

Florentine - Map
florentinerestaurant.com
907 West Broad St.
Columbus, OH 43222
(614) 228-2262


Starving Auctioneers Rating: 4 Gavels out of 5

The most frustrating table to wait on in the food service world is one with two auctioneers when neither has an auction in morning. They just talk and talk and talk and don’t order dessert. To add insult to injury you have to wonder if two people so poorly dressed could possibly be good tippers. Such was the case when Peter and Mike Brandly, CAI, AARE had dinner last week at a Columbus institution, Florentine. The Florentine is a family owned American/Italian restaurant that has had the same menu and sign out front since the Eisenhower Administration.

A short walk from downtown Columbus, the Florentine has been serving Americanized Italian food long before the Olive Garden made unlimited bread sticks cool and pushing cheap house wine the industry standard. The Florentine is the perfect Starving Auctioneers hang out: local, fast, reasonably cheap, and a working class joint. Dinner at the Florentine won’t change your life but it will fill your belly.

Both men had to stop talking long enough to give some serious attention to the menu, after that the orders came out quickly. Mike ordered the fish and Peter the veal. Peter often orders veal as a test of his dinner companions, Mike passed the test in that he did not recoil in disgust, as many often do, and he got a sticker for his decorum. Dinner started at 7 PM and they closed the place down a little after 10 PM. They sat in their booth so long the first waitress gave up and went home and the manager had to call up a new arm from the bullpen. Despite their appearance they tipped well.

This is first review with Mike Brandly but won’t be the last. Mike is a restaurant connoisseur and has assembled a list of future restaurants for review that covers most of Ohio. Mike’s specializes in two simple things: Absolute auctions and finding places to eat in between absolute auctions. In fact his dedication to these two missions often comes at the cost of any type of modern hair care or even simple combing.