If someone blindfolded me and set me down in the lobby of Ferrante’s Winery & Ristorante in Harpersfield Township, I’d know where I was. The distinct aroma of grapes assails the nose as soon as you step foot in the door. Just east of Lake County, Ferrante’s is well worth the trip.
The Ferrante family has been making wine for three generations. Nicholas and Anna Ferrante began trucking grapes from Harpersfield to their Collinwood winery in 1937. The family closed that location in 1976 and reopened in the Geneva area in 1979.
Diners can choose to sit in the oak-trimmed, modern European-style dining room with large windows overlooking the patio and beyond it the vineyards. Or they can relax on the patio itself, which has a separate bar, a gazebo and a tinkling fountain.
“There’s something about the ambience of being out in the country, not seeing any cars go by and looking at grapevines,” my companion said as we gazed out the windows while enjoying our lunch and a bottle of wine.
Wine with lunch? Wine not? From the selection of Ferrante’s award-winning wines we chose the Cabernet Sauvignon-Lake Erie. The bottle said it is aged in oak barrels, with aromas and flavors of blackberry, cranberry and vanilla. Although my father-in-law makes homemade wine, we frequently attend wine tastings and often have a glass or two of dry red wine with dinner, we are by no means wine critics. My lunch partner said he detected a hint of black licorice in the cabernet. You could have fooled me. I always rate wine with a good or a bad and this was definitely good. Ferrante’s consistently wins wine competitions, so my opinion must be in line with people who know a lot more about wine than I do.
Neither do we choose our wine to complement our food. We ordered the pizza al mare ($13) at the suggestion of some friends. While it’s not listed as an appetizer, the six-slice white pizza topped with shrimp, sea scallops and cheese is a great size as an appetizer for four to six people. The suggested wine was the Pinot Grigio-Lake Erie. You might want to try it, as it won a silver medal at the Tasters Guild competition last year, but we thought the cabernet went just fine.
In fact, just last month Ferrante’s won Director’s Choice and People’s Choice Awards in the 2004 Ohio Wine Competition as well as four gold, seven silver and five bronze medals, the most of any winery in the competition.
In addition to the seafood pizza, there is a six-cut for $6.50 and an eight-cut for $7.50 with a choice of the usual toppings for $1.75-$1.95 each. Other appetizers are Prince Edward Island mussels ($8) drenched in a chardonnay wine sauce, the trio garlic bread ($5), which we’ve had before and is great for sharing, and Pepe carciofo dip ($7), a blend of three cheeses, artichoke hearts and herbs served with bread for dipping.
Salads, including a steak salad with filet tips, mushrooms, onions, tomatoes and Gorgonzola cheese on romaine, are $7 to $8. Other salads are Ferrante’s stacked salad – mesclun greens, tomatoes, bacon and cheese over crostini – or your choice of chicken Caesar salad and a soup and salad combo.
Partner Mary Jo Ferrante said the house specialties are the lasagna, the pesce pasta and the homemade meatballs. I can vouch for the lasagna ($7). It is a meat lover’s, with a layer of meat, a layer of ricotta cheese and another layer of meat, all stuffed between pasta and covered with sauce. There was lots of extra sauce, too – great for dipping the homemade bread.
The pesce pasta ($17)—linguine with mussels, scallops and calamari in a wine marinara sauce—isn’t on the lunch menu, but I’ll be sure to try it when I return for another of chef Nina Reichenbach’s dinners.
Reichenbach has run Ferrante’s kitchen since 2000. An innovative chef, she is not afraid to try new dishes. Over the past four years, I’ve been to Ferrante’s on several occasions and the food is consistently great every time.
My companion had the stuffed eggplant with pasta marinara, a lightly breaded dish perfect for eggplant Parmesan lovers. Besides the lasagna and eggplant selections, pasta dishes include pasta alla casa, penne pasta and fresh veggies prepared oilio style; traditional spaghetti and homemade meatballs; and pasta primavera alfredo, linguini and fresh veggies in an alfredo sauce with a choice of chicken or shrimp.
Sandwiches, or pannini, ($7-$8) include a pollo pannini with chicken breast, smoked mozzarella cheese and roasted red peppers on herb bread with pesto mayonnaise; steak pannini with filet tips, mushrooms, onions and provolone cheese in an Italian roll; and Mediterranean vegetable pannini with eggplant, onions, roasted red pepper and smoked mozzarella cheese on herb bread.
For dessert, we tried the Italian bread pudding and my personal favorite, tiramisu. The bread pudding is wonderful – a cinnamony, custard-like concoction served in a wine glass with raisins and whipped cream. My dining partner said if you’re a fan of bread pudding, this is as good as it gets.
Tiramisu means “pick me up” in Italian and one taste of it is guaranteed to do so. Creamy mascarpone cheese, ladyfingers, whipped cream and coffee flavors atop a chocolate crust . . . mmm. Other desserts include a New York cheesecake and a chocolate torte.
Ferrante’s is a treat—not only for you, but imagine the impression it could make on visiting business associates. With the lush green countryside, rolling hills and vineyards all around, not to mention the quality of the wines, it can compete with California wine country anytime. Come for lunch and tour the winery. If you time it right, you can stay for a glass of wine on the patio and forget all about returning to the office that day.
Ferrante’s, located at 5585 Route 307 in Harpersfield, can be reached at (440) 466-VINO. For a complete list of Ferrante’s wines and a peek at the dinner menu, visit www.ferrantewinery.com.
Laura Freeman reviews restaurants regularly for the Lake County Business Journal. |
