Mike’s Penn Grille Making room for BIG flavors

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Mike’s Penn Grille’s award-winning chicken Calabrese.

SALEM

Mike’s Penn Grille is known for its delicious seafood and steaks, and with a legion of loyal patrons seeking surf and turf, the popular restaurant is often jam-packed, so much so that seating can be limited.

This will no longer be the case, however, since owner Mike Cranmer has purchased the building that adjoins the restaurant and is planning a sizeable expansion.

“We will be able to seat about 65 more people and will also have a banquet room,” Cranmer said. “We will have bigger tables for big groups.”

The expansion, which will begin next month, will help ensure that one of downtown Salem’s favorite restaurants always has room for its loyal customers as well as new customers who come to sample some of the finest cuisine in Columbiana County.

“We have many loyal, regular customers who come here for dishes they can’t get anywhere else,” said Mike Mostoller, a manager at the restaurant. “The owner, Mike [Cranmer], studied culinary arts at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh and also spent some time in the Carolinas where he learned how to cook seafood. Preparing seafood really well can be a delicate process, but he truly knows what he is doing.”

He certainly does, and the proof is in every bite.

The first seafood dish I sampled during my visit to Mike’s Penn Grille was the stuffed grouper, a house favorite ($15.99). The grouper is broiled to tender perfection in a lemon wine sauce and topped with Cranmer’s homemade crabmeat stuffing. The stuffing is superb with a delicate, melt-in-your-mouth flavor, every bite bursting with tiny bits of crabmeat. I highly recommend it.

“Mike really treats cooking as an art form,” Mostoller said. “He loves what he does.”

Other seafood specialties include the honey soy salmon, an Alaskan king salmon that is broiled in honey soy sauce ($15.99); the blackened shrimp alfredo, which is tossed in the house alfredo sauce, served over fettucine and topped with diced tomato and Romano cheese ($14.99); the Lake Erie walleye, which is broiled in a garlic butter and topped with roasted red peppers, mushrooms and Swiss cheese ($15.99); and the sesame tuna, a sashimi grade ahi tuna seared with black and white sesame seeds and served with seaweed salad and a side of wasabi soy sauce ($16.99).

After experiencing culinary bliss with the stuffed grouper, I next tried the restaurant’s award-winning chicken Calabrese ($12.99). This entree features chicken bites tossed with fresh broccoli, sweet peppers and mushrooms smothered in a tomato cream sauce and served over a bed of penne pasta. The tangy but creamy sauce is sumptuous, and the tender veggies partner perfectly with the al dente pasta.

The chicken Portobello ($12.99) is another house favorite and boasts sauteed chicken breast medallions with roasted sweet peppers and Portobello mushrooms in a Marsala wine sauce.

Of course, chicken and seafood aren’t the only star attractions on the menu.

Steaks, sandwiches and burgers also keep diners coming back for more, as well as some pretty decadent homemade desserts, many of which are crafted by Cranmer’s mother, Sandy Cranmer.

“Mike’s mom makes spectacular homemade desserts including cheesecakes,” Mostoller said, “And Mike uses real vanilla beans to make his creme brulee, which is delicious, and is served with berries and whipped cream.”

Some of the other gems gracing the the dessert menu include German chocolate cheesecake, pumpkin caramel cheesecake, chocolate covered pretzel cheesecake, coconut macadamia nut key lime pie, brownie cheesecake pie and chocolate Butterfinger pie.

I tasted the chocolate covered pretzel cheesecake, and it was the perfect pairing of crunchy and creamy, as well as sweet and salty.

Mike’s Penn Grille has a long history, and for at least 80 years the building at 599 E. State St. has been home to restaurants, bars or wineries.

“We actually have one of the first cases of beer that was delivered after prohibition,” Cranmer said adding, “We do want to emphasize that we are a restaurant and not just a bar. Sometimes people who aren’t familiar with us assume we are a bar.”

Cranmer purchased the property about 12 years ago and has been serving up delectable dishes ever since.

The restaurant also offers catering, take-out, all-you-can-eat crab legs on Tuesdays and daily specials that are always changing.

Cranmer will gladly alter a recipe to please a patron’s particular tastes.

“The food here is addictive,” Mostoller said. “It keeps people coming back for more. They try something once and then have to have it again.”

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