Barroco (Madison Avenue--Lakewood, OH) [$$]

Note: Based on complaints/comments, we are trying to incorporate more first person accounts alongside the complex tense situation we've had.  We are too attached to this odd combination of third and first person already to completely part ways.  We tried some things to rid our blog of inconsistencies, but as of yet we haven't found something that works as well for us.  Please let us know if adding our separate accounts makes things any less confusing.  As cowriters, we want to write our entries together, as opposed to having entirely separate accounts of the same place.  Thank you for reading!

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Shannon's choice this week: Barroco! After coincidentally parking on the same side street, we walked up to and into a whimsically artistic eating-wonderland.  We were instructed to sit anywhere and proceeded to look over the very colorful menus.  Our waitress suggested we try the Arepas (ah-ray-pas).  Barroco's Arepas were named Northeast Ohio's best sandwich by Food Network and Cleveland's best by Cleveland Magazine.  Eyeing the arepas prior to her suggestion, we were definite in our decisions.  Grace chose the Buffalo Chicken Arepas with fries and Shannon originally ordered the Veggie Arepas with the black bean soup.  Shannon realized she needed to specify that she was a vegetarian because when the plate arrived she noticed there were some pieces of chicken among the vegetables.  She brought the plate to the counter and apologized for not specifying.  The cook was more than happy to remake the arepas, this time adding pineapple.  With our food, our waitress brought a rack of five different salsas/sauces to try.  Unfortunately we kept forgetting which sauces were which, but what we can remember included a cilantro sauce, a garlic sauce, a pineapple salsa, and one we decided was best described as ketchupy-mayo (which was delicious).  The fifth was a spicy one that neither of us tried due to sensitive palates. While waiting, Grace started on her meal and Shannon greatly enjoyed her soup.

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Grace:

As stated before, I ordered the Buffalo Chicken Arepas and a side of fries. Since Shannon's arepas had to be remade, I started picking at my fries and told Shannon to feel free to chip away at them with me since there was a heaping pile of them. The fries had a sort of Cajun seasoning, and were crispy and golden. After a while, I conjured up some courage and dipped my fries in the ketchupy-mayo sauce. I think the sauce also had some spice to it, but was also sweet at the same time. The Buffalo Chicken Arepas was fabulous! The white-corn pocket tortilla was full of diced chicken, mozzarella, tomato, and lettuce. The spork I was given was not very useful, so I had to ask for a knife and fork. I wish the tomatoes and lettuce were shredded so the arepas was easier to pick up and the contents of the pocket were involved in each bite. Overall, I loved the atmosphere and being an art history major, I loved the eclectic art on the walls! 

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Shannon: 

Waiting for the rest of my food, I ate my black bean soup.  The soup was topped with cilantro and white rice, which went deliciously with slight but not overwhelming kick to the soup. Upon second arrival, my arepas looked divine!  The mix of peppers, mushrooms, onions, corn, tomato and pineapple were positively spilling out onto the place.  Following Grace's lead, I began to eat the contents that would not stay in the pocket.  Trying to be adventurous, I put some of the cilantro, garlic, and pineapple salsas on my plate to taste.  Each of them were delicious but my favorites were the pineapple and garlic, which paired wonderfully together!  I attempted several times to pick up the whole arepas but found I needed to eat more of the contents before successfully doing so.  Adding to the difficulty of this task, I uncovered two tomato slices which made the contents even harder to manage.  Eventually though I finished the arepas sandwich style.  The mozzarella was really tucked into the bottom of the pocket, which was a nice surprise, but would have been tasty with the rest of the vegetables.  I highly suggest getting the Veggie Arepas with pineapple.  You can also add jalapeno, which I skipped, as I'm not crazy about spicy things.  Barroco has a beautiful and mystifying atmosphere.  The walls are covered in art and the back room is positively magical with its thousands of string lights.

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Mystifying back room!

Buffalo Chicken Arepas

Counter area

First Veggie Arepas

Remade Veggie Arepas with Pineapple

Sauce container art, how cool is that?

Actual sauces

Eclectic and cool!

Fellow restaurant-goers

This place absolutely has a really neat vibe, and we enjoyed our lunches.  We'll come back for a lunch sometime, but it may not be on our regular lunch circuit.