Tom and I recently met our friend, Wendy Bower, at South Street Grille in Ashland, Ohio.  The restaurant was halfway between our two home and was one that my Aunt Anne and Uncle Paul had recommended.  They recommended it in January, when we were in Ashland so much to see Dad, but we never had time to check it out.

South Street Grille is located in the historic downtown area of Ashland.  I love the revitalization of this busy mid-sized city and have written about the downtown area several times already.  Ashland University helps keep the downtown vital and the students help restaurants and shops to thrive.

South Street Grille opened in 2020 in part of the renovated complex that used to house Gilbert Furniture.  The owners are Ashland natives, Sean and Carly Little.  Although the building has three levels, the restaurant is located on the lower two.  The bottom level is a sports bar atmosphere and the main level is more upscale dining.  Both levels serve the same menu.  There is also a large patio area outside, which was not open in April when we went.

Tom and I parked in the large parking lot behind the restaurant.  From there we used the bridge to walk over a creek and came in the bottom entrance.  A large mural on the wall made it feel less like we were entering from a back alley.  Doing this meant we entered the sports bar and then walked up the stairs to the main level.

While we waited for Wendy, we took a few minutes to talk to our waitress and asked what she recommended.  She told us that South Street Grille is a smokehouse and anything with SS on the menu had been smoked on the premises.  As Tom and I looked at the menu, we wanted to try everything.  A lot of restaurants have weird ingredients in their food and I have to ask for things to be left off.  Not so at this place.

I saw a sign for their seasonal dessert of carrot cake as we entered the restaurant.  I suggested Tom and I share an entree so I could have dessert.  We decided to split the Brisket Grilled Cheese and were able to request no salt on our fries.  Wendy ordered a grilled chicken breast with rice.  There were several other things on the menu that looked really good, so it was a hard choice.

The sandwich was good but not great, mostly because of the bread.  The Texas toast was scorched on the sides and had too much butter and garlic on it.  The sandwich was very large, which made it a good thing to share.  If I had ordered a sandwich of my own, I would have taken off most of the bread and just had the brisket and cheese.  The cheese was supposed to be American, Gouda, and Provolone, but all we could taste was the American.  The fries were very good and Wendy enjoyed her chicken and rice.

When our waitress asked if we wanted dessert, I confidently ordered the carrot cake.  But she pointed out that it was the seasonal cheesecake, with a base of carrot cake and then their specialty cheesecake on top.  Cheesecake is not a dessert that tempts me, so I was disappointed that I had misread the sign.  Tom suggested splitting the brownie sundae.  Wendy ordered a plain brownie because she can’t eat ice cream.

The brownie sundae was very good.  The brownie was moist and chewy.  The ice cream had peanut butter on top and whipped cream on the side.  It was a delicious combination.

Tom and I would definitely eat at South Street Grille again.  We would not order the Brisket Grilled Cheese, but there were plenty of other options.  We had not even looked at the other side of the menu because there were so many yummy options on the sandwich side.  Meeting Wendy in Ashland will give us more chances to try other items.