Sweet Henries Restaurant 
 Barberton, Ohio        Date of Visit  03/22/10              No Known Website

On the corners of Norton and Barberton, we had been to Sweet Henrie’s once before for ice cream and were recently reminded that they serve more than frozen dairy treats so we thought we would give it a try. It’s a really quaint place and we were definitely the youngest folks there throughout most of the evening. No, we weren’t having dinner at 4 p.m. The median age did skew younger as the evening progressed. Everyone working this particular evening appeared relatively young without any sense of adult supervision in sight. This became more evident as the night wore on, with many tables sitting with empty glasses and few call backs as the staff joked and cackled loudly just around the corner for the majority of the night.

Huge Bowl of Chili and Slaw
 

My initial beverage order was water which did eventually make it to the table and things were off to a distressing start. I wasn’t able to distinguish if the water was that bad or if they just don’t rinse the glasses after dousing them with soap. After waving down the server, she reported the water is horrible, and it is. I switched to tea which is made with the same water but is floral and astringent enough to mask the stink…I grew up with well water…this stuff is special in a horrible way.

The menu varies more than I would have expected. We ordered a bowl of chili, a burger, and the broasted pork chop dinner. A monkey dish of cole slaw precedes the burger at the table. The slaw is sweet with an underlying note of something I couldn’t quite put a name to. The bowl of chili was enormous, more than expected. While it may not rate amongst the best or most unique chili’s ever, it is rich and tomatoey (shout out to Dan Quayle) with a mild spice blend and a great deal of beef. The burger that followed and was also pretty standard, this offering with fried onions and BBQ sauce. I almost forgot, it’s a deal too, as it was ½ price burgers. I don’t know if this is on a regular night or not. The fries are outstanding for a single fry process. They appear fresh and I would suspect fried in peanut oil for a hot and tasty starch. In any case I would be happy with the burger and fries on just about any occasion, just not ecstatic.
 

The chops were below par by about three strokes. Broasting is the process of frying under pressure, which typically you can only get in professional kitchens. Imagine a pressure cooker (potential bomb) on your stove at home (hiss and rattle), except this one if filled with boiling oil (I think the military might have looked into this as a area saturation weapon at one point). So why would anyone do this. The idea is a crispy exterior, a moist interior, and a reduced cooking time at volume. Watching the first bite from across the table I could tell things had gone awry. The bite I tried was dry, stringy, and heartrending. I couldn’t tell if it was a result of poor execution or cheap protein. The side however was a stupendous surprise. The mashed potato has every earmark of being fresh, little lumps, standout potato flavor, a satisfying gravy. I would be curious to discover what else on the menu is served with the mash! Not being able to pass up dessert we tried a blueberry cobbler with a scoop of cherry vanilla and a hot fudge sundae with mint chip. My understanding is they make all of their own ice cream in house and it shows. The cobbler was okay, but I think I would have been better off with the ice cream alone. Thinking back on the experience, Sweet Henries is a definite try for the ice cream alone, although I wouldn’t bother with the cobbler. As far as the savory side of the menu, it might take a few trips to find a complete meal that you might enjoy and I wouldn’t be surprised if you did.
 

Hot Fudge!