Downtown 140 received numerous awards from Northern Ohio Live Magazine, including one of the most romantic restaurants in Northeast Ohio. Read More ...
Summer 2007 -- Feast Magazine
Married with Restaurant: The co-owners of Downtown 140 share more than just the day-to-day responsibilities of running a business; as a husband-and-wife team, Shawn and Tiffany Monday share a life built on a love of food. Read More ....
July 2005 -- Food & Wine Magazine
Downtown 140 is pleased to announce that we were nationally recognized by Food & Wine Magazine. The July 2005 issue chose us as having one of the Top Ten Best New Wine Lists in the country. Wine critic and writer Richard Nalley includes Hudson, OH along with large US cities such as Los Angeles, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Boston and New York City.
"Adventurous and innovative sommeliers are some of the wine world's most influential trendsetters. The seventh annual F&W Best New Wine List awards honor their achievements and their vision.
The 10 winning lists, selected from among hundreds of nominees around the country, emphasize affordable bottles and lower markups on both inexpensive and pricier choices and wines that are about balance rather than power and richness (and thus work better with food). In short, they're the Next Big Thing."
Downtown 140
Hudson, Ohio
Best Buy
2001 Paolettti Estates Winery Piccolo Cru' ($33)
This Bordeaux-style blend from Napa is very elegant and full-bodied—a terrific wine for the price.
Jun. 22, 2005 -- The Akron Beacon Journal
Hudson restaurant toast of the nation - Downtown 140 wine list makes top 10 in Food & Wine
By Tricia Colianne - Beacon Journal wine writer
Downtown 140 restaurant, about 20 miles outside of Cleveland, is housed in a 19th-century market with rough limestone and exposed-brick walls. The ambience is very Old World—although Shawn Monday's seasonal cuisine and Tiffany Monday's wine list are decidedly New World. The strength of their 450-choice list is domestic Chardonnay, Cabernet blends and Merlot, as well as many choices under $40, including a 2002 Rabbit Ridge Chardonnay for $18. To accompany Shawn's Asian-influenced Wild Pacific salmon, served with Chinese long beans and stewed with sweet onions and shiitake wontons, Tiffany suggests the fruity, velvety 2002 Louis Jadot Savigny Les Beaune Clos des Guettes ($48): "The wine is light enough not to overpower the sauce."
The wine list at Downtown 140 in Hudson has been named one of the top 10 in the country by Food & Wine magazine.
Open not quite a year, the diminutive 60-seat tapas-style restaurant is sharing ink space with powerhouse establishments from Boston to Los Angeles.
``For the restaurant, it's quite an honor to be recognized among the likes of those in New York and Las Vegas,'' said Kurt Nygaard, who with fellow owner Tiffany Monday developed the 400-plus bottle list. ``Sometimes I have to pinch myself -- is this real?''
Food & Wine in its July issue cites an impressive collection of domestic choices -- chardonnay, cabernet blends and merlot -- as the strength of Downtown 140's list, but plenty of other factors went into its placement among the best of the best.
``It's got a lot of things going for it,'' said Ray Isle, a senior editor at Food & Wine. ``It's a substantial list, but that's not the only reason (it made it). We look for intelligence in a list.''
Isle cited Downtown 140's well-chosen by-the-glass and by-the-taste programs. The restaurant offers about 45 wines by the glass but also allows patrons to create their own ``flights'' with 2-ounce taste pours that vary in price.
Cost was another reason Downtown 140's list stood out, Isle said. ``It's very reasonably -- and fairly -- priced, both at the affordable and the expensive levels,'' he said. ``And that's something we look for, because a lot of restaurants do have quite a markup.''
The wine list was conceived with an eye toward depth, said Monday, whose husband, Shawn Monday, is executive chef and co-owner. ``We wanted to go after both smaller, boutique wines and also those with name recognition,'' she said.
The owners seem confident about why their wine list was recognized, but how the magazine came to find Downtown 140 is something of a mystery to the restaurant, which was informed at the end of April that it would be recognized.
``My first question was, `How did you hear about us?' '' Tiffany Monday said. ``But they wouldn't let on.''
Isle offered a little more insight, but couldn't pinpoint who alerted the magazine to the restaurant's presence.
``Essentially what we do is try to track down every new restaurant opening with any substantial list,'' he said, adding that the magazine's freelance writers are a great source of information. ``We try to cast as wide a net as possible, and when we cast that wide net, we try to narrow it down as ruthlessly as possible.''
Other restaurants whose lists stacked up include Neptune Oyster in Boston, Cru in New York City and Restaurant Eve in Alexandria, Va.
Downtown 140, 140 N. Main St., opened in July 2004 with swanky decor and everyone-looks-good lighting. Its three-part menu of ``smallest plates,'' ``small plates'' and ``not-so-small plates'' was conceived by chef Monday, who had been at the Inn at Turner's Mill, also in Hudson, and at Three Birds in Lakewood.
The wine list, which won its first award -- from Wine Spectator magazine -- before the restaurant even opened, is always evolving, Nygaard said.
Downtown 140's seasonal menu lends itself to lingering and grazing, which is fine by its owners.
``It's about matching good food with good wine and great friends,'' Nygaard said.
Turns out, that's a winning combination.
Nov. 10, 2004 -- Cleveland Scene
Love at Last - Downtown 140 could be the One.
By Elaine T. Cicora
Face it, sweetheart. When it comes to fabulous dishes, these taste buds have been around the block a time or two. From Avon Lake to Painesville, we've forked 'em and left 'em, always on the prowl for the Next Best Thing. But after a recent romp through the menu at Downtown 140, our heart is all aflutter. Maybe we're finally growing up; maybe we're just tired of the chase. But whatever the reason, we suspect we have fallen in love.
Don't be put off by the fact that the object of our affection occupies a basement in Hudson. Once you snuggle into one of the plush banquettes and let your eyes adjust to the dim, dramatic lighting, you might as well be in a sophisticated salon in New York or San Francisco. And don't fear that we've been led astray by a mere tasty morsel or two. We've nibbled our way through roughly half of executive chef-owner Shawn Monday's deliciously seasonal menu without finding a single dud.
Of course, Monday's menu isn't exactly traditional. Instead of divvying it up into the familiar apps and entrées, the exacting chef (a veteran of the nearby Inn at Turner's Mill, as well as Fire on Shaker Square and Three Birds in Lakewood) has designed a tapas-style bill of fare that begins with such tidbits as roasted clams or oysters on the half-shell ("smallest plates"), moves onto salads and fondue ("small plates"), and finishes with indulgences like seared Maine sea scallops and beef filet ("not-so-small plates"). In theory, at least, this allows guests to mix and match from among the offerings to create meals that best suit their palates and their appetites -- anything from a light nosh of artisanal cheeses and wine, perhaps, to a substantial assemblage of soup, salad, and Monday's version of surf 'n' turf, a combo of Kobe strip steak and crab-stuffed shrimp. In practice, though, most of Downtown 140's guests come to dine, not graze; and friendly, well-trained servers do their best to guide diners through the usual "starter, main course, and dessert" routine in a timely but unhurried fashion.
Like a cashmere scarf or a down duvet, the flavors on Monday's autumn menu are comforting, luxurious, yet completely unpretentious. Puréed chestnuts and apples, for example, are transformed into creamy soup. Sleek golden beets, along with goat cheese, arugula, and red-beet "tartare," create an earthy salad, while sweet potato purée lends subtlety to a pancetta-wrapped Niman Ranch pork tenderloin.
What could be more appropriate for swirling through classic Gruyère fondue, at this time of year, than cubes of pumpkin bread, roasted acorn squash, and grilled pear? How better to garnish a November salad of buttery bibb lettuces than with plumped tart cherries and fragrant mace-sugar-and-salt-spiced pecans? And Atkins be damned! While we love sturdy breads at any time of year, what better season than fall for spreading herb-piqued European-style sweet butter on thick slices of artisanal breads from nearby Great Lakes Baking Company?
To complement Monday's robust cuisine, co-owner Kurt Nygaard has put together an impressive international wine list offering more than 360 selections, including nearly 60 by the six-ounce glass or the two-ounce taste. A "taste" of crisp, lemony Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc ($2.75) was spectacular beside a foursome of outrageously plump Snow Creek Pacific oysters on the fluted half-shell, for instance, where a citrusy yuzu mignonette ignited the oysters' natural fruitiness. A full-bodied Liberty School Cabernet Sauvignon ($2.75) was just the ticket for balancing the richness of a beef filet topped with a shallot-and-horseradish "jam" and ringed with an intense Burgundy-reduction sauce.
As the above examples might suggest, Monday isn't content to simply present the finest of seasonal ingredients (including, whenever possible, those that are organic and/or locally grown). Rather, like an artist creating a collage, he composes plates that feature layer upon layer of flavor, playing the subtle against the bold and the rustic against the refined. What results are dishes of almost unrestrained flavor and complexity: a quartet of buttery sea scallops seared to opalescence, say, mounted on two slender, spinach-dough "ravioli" filled with truffle-scented puréed potatoes, garnished with fine threads of caramelized onion, and ringed with grassy basil-chive-and-parsley oil; or slices of barely seared duck breast, fanned across a rich au jus, sided with a dainty duck-confit-filled spring roll and a tiny crescent of Hudson Valley foie gras (slightly overcooked, but still scrumptious), with a soupçon of fig paste adding contrapuntal sweetness. (And heads up, vegetarians: Monday's single meat-free offering -- chestnut spaetzle, with porcini mushrooms, squash, shallots, and smoked Brie -- sounds as kickass as anything else on the menu!)
Despite an occasional Asian accent -- some wasabi foam here, a spring roll there -- most of Monday's creations recall the best of French bistro-style fare. We're drooling over memories of his crisp-skinned, boneless organic chicken (both thigh and breast meat), served atop a bed of roasted butternut squash, cipollini onions, fleshy chanterelles, and toasted pepitas in a lush chicken au jus, as slick and indulgent as a demi-glace. An extraordinary dish, although it points up the cuisine's one potential flaw: At times, Monday's flavors are so sumptuous and profound, they threaten to go over the top, making thoughtful diners thankful that portion sizes, even in the "not-so-small plates," are relatively modest!
While the cuisine is obviously the star of the show, Downtown 140's intimate surroundings and elegant appointments play major supporting roles in the restaurant's success. A long, narrow, low-ceilinged rectangle, the below-ground-level room has been given warmth and character though the liberal use of red and gold fabrics, mahogany trim, and old red brick. Cushy crimson banquettes and broad-seated upholstered chairs surround tables double-draped in cream-colored linens and provide seating for only 60 diners. On the south wall, the original sandstone foundation has been exposed and serves as a backdrop for ornately framed oil paintings; on the north, Monday's open kitchen and a small candlelit bar topped with butterscotch limestone draw the eye.
But conversationalists beware. Despite its cozy ambiance, when the room is fully occupied (as it usually is), the noise level can be startling, and carrying on a quiet tête-à-tête across the amply sized tabletops can be out of the question.
Even if you've been forced to communicate through sign language, however, it is essential to stick around for dessert, where the options range from chocolate fondue to a cheese-fruits-and-nuts platter. Like Monday's savory creations, pastry chef Kimberley Horner's sweets are full of the season's signature flavors, with items like moist ginger-molasses cake, topped with cream-cheese ice cream and a compote of apple, pear, and dried plum; or flaky crusted pecan-and-cranberry tart, served with a dollop of cinnamon ice cream.
Of course, to accompany such uncommon sweets, a mere cuppa joe simply will not do. Instead, consider a French press filled with legendary Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee, or one of the long list of black, green, and flavored teas, including caffeine-free herbal tisanes. Alternatively, there are 11 dessert wines, by the bottle or the glass, and a dozen ports from which to choose.
So raise that glass of Taylor-Fladgate, and drink a toast to love. We're not saying this will last forever. But at least until the next hot restaurant comes along, Downtown 140 holds the key to our heart.
