Haggis and wedding cake are on our menu today. How often do you get to use those two words in the same sentence?
We also offer up some speculation about what is going on at a high-profile corner in West Akron.
First the cake, or should we say cakes: The free annual wedding cake show at Reeves Cake Shop in Akron will celebrate its silver anniversary — 25 years — from noon to 4 p.m. Jan. 30-31.
The shop at 2770 Cory Ave. will have more than 25 flavors of cake, as well as fillings and icings for sampling. More than 40 cakes will be on display.
A contest this year asks visitors to guess the price in 1976 of a classic three-tier cake with a fountain and adjoining two-tier cakes, connected by tiny bridges, bedecked with figurines depicting a bridal party. If you guess correctly, you could win a free Reeve’s wedding cake.
Why 1976? This is the 40th anniversary for the bakery, which opened that year, notes owner Rick Reeves. And the “bridge cake,” as he calls it, was a big style in the ’70s and ’80s.
For more information, visit www.reevescakeshop.com or phone 330-848-1036.
Salute to Robert Burns
Now the haggis: The traditional Scottish dish, made with sheep’s liver and oatmeal, will be on the menu at a four-course Robert Burns beer dinner at 6:30 p.m. Jan. 25 at the Royal Docks Brewing Co., 7162 Fulton Drive NW, Jackson Township.
Chef Dick Kanatzar is preparing the food for the dinner on the birthday of the Scottish poet Burns, who was born in 1759 and is often called the national bard of Scotland. Among the poet’s many works is “Address to a Haggis.”
The menu is an adventurous mashup of traditional and modern eats, including chorizo and lobster potato skins, Royal Docks beer cheese soup, a beer batter apple and barley salad and a dessert featuring strawberries and bitter chocolate cookie dough.
Tickets are $55. For reservations or more details, go to http://tinyurl.com/h3bsfyq or call Royal Docks Brewing, 330-353-9103.
West Akron rumors
Rumors have been sizzling about a new food place possibly coming to a now-vacant lot at the high-profile corner of West Market Street and Frank Boulevard in the Wallhaven neighborhood in West Akron. The lot is adjacent to the longtime Larry’s Main Entrance neighborhood pub, and across from the Taco Bell that opened last year.
Frank Licata, president of LRC Realty in Akron, confirmed Tuesday that an entity associated with LRC purchased the lot last year and razed the building on the site — the former Smoke-Inn, a onetime bank branch. LRC also developed the Taco Bell, and last year purchased the site of the nearby former China Gourmet, which is rumored to become the site of a Starbucks.
Of the vacant lot, Licata said, “we’re still working on plans. We don’t have anything that we’re committed to.”
I’ve heard from a couple of folks that a well-known Akron restaurant is interested in expanding to the site. Licata said he wasn’t familiar with that scenario.
A reader wrote in an email to a Beacon colleague speculating that Pittsburgh-area restaurant owner Ron Molinaro might be interested in the site. This reader had discovered that the LRC Realty entity purchasing the lot was incorporated by Daniel Daniluk, the same agent for a restaurant business incorporated last year called Il Pizzaiolo Akron, associated with Molinaro. (Gotta love all this sleuthing!)
Licata said Tuesday that Molinaro had looked at the site before LRC Realty purchasing it, but Molinaro’s plans “didn’t come to fruition.”
Last year, I wrote that Starbucks is rumored to be landing at the former China Gourmet, a onetime Wendy’s. Akron City Council President Marilyn Keith, Ward 8, said this week that she has heard from someone not involved in the project that it will be a Starbucks, with a drive-thru.
On Tuesday, Licata again declined to reveal the future tenant for the building, which will be renovated. He said in the earlier interview that LRC Realty did “intend to put a specific tenant there.”
Pizza place to open
Coming soon to West Akron: Pavona’s Pizza Joint, promising “Old World New York Style Brick Oven Pizza” at 32 Sand Run Road. This is the spot that housed Vaccaro’s Pizza for years, then another pizza place. More information later.
Kirbie’s founder dies
Kirbie F. Burns, 74, founder of Kirbie’s Family Meats and Catering in Stow, died Jan. 6.
His son, shop co-owner Kris Burns, recalled that his father started his meat-cutting career at West Point Market in Akron, at the suggestion of then-West Point co-owner, Al Seiler. At the time, Kris Burns said, his father was repairing outboard boat motors at a place where Seiler was a customer.
“He saw Dad worked hard,” Kris Burns said.
In 1982, father-and-son Burns opened their own butcher shop in Cuyahoga Falls. Later, they moved the business to Stow, where it is now at 4062 Fishcreek Road, in the Oregon Trails plaza.
Italian cooking
Erin Chenault, co-owner of the Viva Bene Gourmet, a specialty food and wine store that opened at 219 N. Main St. in Hudson in late 2014, will give a free Italian cooking demonstration at 6:30 p.m. Feb. 4 at the Hudson Library & Historical Society.
Chenault’s husband and Vive Bene co-owner Dino DiRoia also will be hand for the demonstration and food sampling.
Space is limited, registration is required. Register online at http://hudsonlibrary.org. Call the reference desk at 330-653-6658, ext. 1010, for information. The library is at 96 Library St. in the First & Main shopping complex.
Spaghetti and soup
Be true to a school or Boy Scout troop:
• A spaghetti dinner featuring homemade meatballs will run from noon to 2 p.m. Feb. 7, at Queen of Heaven Catholic Church, 1800 Steese Road, in Green and is open to the community. (Yeah, it’s Super Bowl Sunday, but the game doesn’t start until 6:30 p.m.) The meal — two meatballs, spaghetti, salad, bread, punch and coffee — benefits Boy Scout Troop 334, which meets at the church. Cost is $8 for adults, $6 for ages 65 and older and $5 for children ages 5 to 12. Free for children under 5.
• The annual Firestone High School Soupfest will be from 4:30 to 7 p.m. Feb. 11 at the high school cafeteria at 333 Rampart Ave. in Akron. The event raises money for the school’s Instrumental Music Association. Local restaurants donate soup; patrons get unlimited portions, a dessert and beverage. Cost is $8, $4.50 for children 12 or older. Tickets are available at the door.
Pop a cork
• 3 Point, 45 E. Market St. in downtown Akron, will host a Wines of Italy dinner at 7 p.m. Feb. 1. The five courses will include an Italian meat and cheese antipasto platter, paired with an extra dry prosecco; shrimp and scallop ceviche paired with a fiano and chardonnay blend, and braised short rib and polenta paired with a Tuscan red blend. Cost is $60. Call 330-535-6410.
• Regency Wine Bar, 115 Ghent Road, Fairlawn, will feature eight wines made by the Brotte family in the Rhone region in southern France, at a Happy Hour Tasting from 6 to 8 p.m. Friday. Cost is $25. Call 330-836-3447 to reserve.
• Bricco Cafe and the Doubletree Hotel in Fairlawn, across from Summit Mall, are teaming up with radio station The Wave, 107.3-FM, for an Around the World Wine Tasting from 6 to 8 p.m. Feb. 4 in the ballroom of the Doubletree, 3150 W. Market St. Jazzy pop fusion trio Blu Monsoon will perform. Wines from Italy, France, Argentina, Australia and the United States are on the bill, along with appetizers such as panko-crusted chicken with apricot mustard sauce, and gruyere and parmesan beignets. Cost is $35. To purchase tickets, go to http://1073thewave.net.
Katie Byard can be reached at 330-996-3781 or kbyard@thebeaconjournal.com. Send local food news to Katie Byard at 330-996-3781 or kbyard@thebeaconjournal.com. You can follow her @KatieByardABJ on Twitter or become a fan on Facebook at www.facebook.com.