A Cleveland Chef Is Redefining Midwest Comfort Food With Fried Saltines and Kool-Aid Pickles

Chef Vinnie Cimino's unabashed homage to the culture, cuisine, and communities of the Midwest is a study in fun and flavor.

There’s a moment that hits you early in your meal at Cleveland’s Cordelia, when you reach across the table for a dollop of fried chicken rillettes to smear on a buttery fried saltine or drag your fork through a plate of Lamburger Helper. As you lean over the table, you are embracing a moment focused on the food and your friends at the table. If the chef and co-owner, Vinnie Cimino, is near your table, he might hug you right back. 

Cordelia is Cimino’s heart on his sleeve, an unabashed homage to Cleveland, the Midwest, and the people who make the region so special. When he talks about the restaurant, Cimino centers the conversation on the community. 

When Cimino opened Cordelia in 2022 with his business partner, Andrew Watts, they designed the restaurant to support the city while celebrating its past. They reused and upcycled as many pieces as possible, like the bowling alley lane refashioned into a kitchen counter and the 100-plus photos of the city displayed in vintage frames on the walls.

The homey, stylish atmosphere is reiterated by an approach to hospitality that Cimino calls “Midwest Nice,” in which guests are welcomed as old friends and cooks drop dad jokes at the tables as they deliver your food. “It’s about holding the door, greeting people with a smile and the respect they deserve,” Cimino says. “There’s no one person making everything happen here. The restaurant needs people to make it what it is. We don’t take that lightly.” 

The food is crafted just as thoughtfully: Inspired by traditional Midwestern dishes, it has the expected Eastern European influences as well as nods to the Southeast Asian, Central Asian, and Middle Eastern people who have settled in the area. And it’s not just that the jammy eggs are topped with ajvar and the smoked trout is sourced locally; Cimino firmly believes that each dish is an opportunity to support someone in the community. 

“We have a moral imperative to celebrate these ingredients and the hard work the farmers and purveyors put into them to make them available,” he says. “Without them, there’s no Cordelia.”

That celebration starts with a dozen snacks that encourage a communal dining experience. The burger box features a smash burger topped with a fancifully swirled crispy cheese skirt made from local smoked cheddar atop a pull-apart bun so it’s easy to divide into sliders and share. The pickles that peek out are made in-house from local Kirby cucumbers and a house version of Kool-Aid crystals to get the exact flavor and color Cimino wanted.

“We have a moral imperative to celebrate these ingredients and the hard work the farmers and purveyors put into them to make them available.”

— VINNIE CIMINO

Meanwhile, the “overdressed” salad features a white French dressing beloved in Akron, and the Cincinnati chili dip gets an upgrade from Wagyu beef, smoked cheddar, and house-pickled onions and peppers. Yes, these wink at local food traditions, and the focus on cooking techniques keeps the flavors balanced and the experience from feeling too cute. 

“When we first opened, we called everything ‘modern grandma.’ The grandma culture stuck, but it became more about homing in on heritage and feelings,” Cimino says of how he converged the food and hospitality into a central mission. “Celebrating people, the food, all of it is what we’re about.”

Galley Boy tartare

An homage to Ohio’s iconic Swensons Galley Boy cheeseburger in tartare form: It’s lashed with olive mayo, then topped with romesco, olives, and a smoked cheddar frico, and served with a side of crispy garlic scape–scallion buns.

Squash stickers  

These sausage-stuffed squash blossom pot stickers come sitting in a pool of spicy chaoshou sauce under a crispy skirt topped with fresh coriander.

Relish tray

Relish this: jammy eggs with spicy ajvar and furikake, mortadella and olives, and housemade farmer cheese with za’atar and honey-fermented garlic.

English pea toast

Whipped ricotta is dolloped on ramp focaccia with chicken-egg bottarga, mint, and pecorino cheese.

Overdressed greens

Savory seasonings define this over-the-top salad: dehydrated olives, Akron-style white French dressing, and aged havarti.

Corned lamb shanks

Lamb shanks are brined for five days, braised, and then pan-seared to order and blanketed in a fermented mustard sauce.

Burger box

Housemade pull-apart rolls serve as the base for a juicy smash burger topped with a crispy cheese skirt and luminous Kool-Aid pickles.

Pork belly

This tender bone-in pork belly is braised with smoked chicken stock and finished with sarsaparilla beurre blanc, alliums, and puffed mustard.