CANTON I'm so pleased there's a new bar-restaurant in the former Peter Shears location at 427 Tuscarawas St. E. The building, built in 1872, is a historic downtown gem with tons of character and I've always enjoyed visiting the unique basement setting.
The new place, H2 Huth & Harris Wine Merchants, is something special. I visited for the first time last Saturday night, venturing through some nasty winter to get there, and the trek was fully worth it. A friend and I enjoyed a memorable dining experience that felt at once sophisticated and relaxed.
H2, which opened Nov. 22, is the latest venture for Patrick Huth and Whitney Harris, a married couple who already own H2 Wine Merchant locations in the downtowns of Medina and Wooster. Canton is the first H2 with a full restaurant. The couple purchased the building from Terry Thomas, who is Harris' uncle.
Huth and Harris have spruced up the interior a bit while retaining its rustic allure, with exposed brick and stone and wood floors. The dining room has new furniture, including a farm table, and feels more spacious than before. The patio will be open when warmer weather arrives.
The hostess seated us at a tall table in the warm and ultra-cozy H2 barroom. I liked the lighting, subdued but not too dim, and the music mix, which included George Michael and Sade. As the name indicates, H2 has more than 150 wines, available by bottle and/or glass. There also are more than 50 brands of bourbon, rye and scotch whiskies, plus cocktails and craft beers.
We opted to buy a bottle of wine and were directed to the shelves in the H2 foyer to pick one out. We chose a Les Grenette 2015 sauvignon blanc, which was $16.99 plus a $7 corkage fee. According to my dining companion, more knowledgeable of wine than I, it "had hints of lemon and spice with a light finish."
The high-level cuisine at H2, prepared by Chef Brandon Torre, is on the higher end price-wise. Small plates include a wild mushroom and goat cheese tartlet ($14), diver scallops ($20), and Sicilian meatball ($18), with an artisan cheese board ($14) and farmstead charcuterie board ($14 small, $22 large), also available.
Craving something fresh in the January gloom, we split a light and springlike salad ($10) of baby greens with shaved fennel, thin-sliced roasted pear and a parmesan crisp, tossed with a walnut oil vinaigrette. We also were served warm rolls with butter. All the dining details — plates, flatware, cloth napkins, wine glasses, water carafe — seem well thought out, and our server, Stephanie, was welcoming, knowledgeable and attentive.
The house-made fettuccine entree ($18) was rich and luscious, the soft pasta tossed with a sage-tinged brown butter emulsion, dotted with pine nuts and tender pieces of butternut squash, and topped with a dollop of lemon-infused ricotta.
The Amish chicken breast entree ($22), which has a French-bistro feel, was a flavorful and tender oven-roasted breast, served with sauteed spinach; chickpeas cooked with sweet peppers, shallots and white wine, grilled green onions and a pomegranate-champagne cream sauce. The blend of flavors and textures was well thought out.
Other entrees are a filet of beef with caramelized mushrooms and braised cabbage ($35); rack of lamb with chestnut risotto and roasted brussels sprouts ($30); and slow-braised beef short rib with celery root puree, rapini and fennel gremolata ($28); plus seafood catch of the day. "Whatever I can get super fresh," the chef said.
We topped things off with a fabulously indulgent dessert — panna cotta in a bourbon caramel sauce. Roughly the size of a poached egg, this was a creamy, custardy cloud drizzled with a heavenly sauce.
Chef Torre, who I interviewed Monday, describes his cuisine at H2 as contemporary American, "high-end but not pretentious." "I definitely have strong Italian influences, but in my dishes I try not to go full-on Italian," he said. "I like to keep myself open for different flavor combinations."
A Florida native, Torre has cooked at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel on Amelia Island, Fla., the Weston Hotel in Denver and the Omni in Pittsburgh. He ran the restaurant Sapore at the Loretta Paganini School of Cooking in Chesterland while also teaching there.