Best Lunch: Crave

A newcomer to the Akron restaurant scene, Crave treats customers to hip and tasty meals in a hip and tasteful setting. As guests cozy into spacious outlining booths or center-set tables where blown-glass pendant light fixtures shaped as green,
red and yellow peppers cast a soft glow, they'll find the menu here as pleasantly surprising as the atmosphere.

Lunchtime diners can't go wrong with the grilled cheese and tomato house soup presented in a curved, pale green ceramic bowl ($4) or cup ($3). A miniature slice of toast centers this consommé, which is artfully halved, cheese soup on one side
and tomato on the other. Follow up this starter with a grilled Granny Smith apple and baby greens salad embellished with blue cheese and spicy candied walnuts and dressed with aged sherry and apple cider vinaigrette ($7). If you crave something heartier, try the smoked gouda mac and cheese with blackened chicken and roasted garlic butter ($12). Desserts such as green tea and vanilla bean crème brulee ($6) and fried pumpkin and apple empanadas with five-spice whipped cream and caramel sauce ($6) offer a sweet ending to Monday-Friday lunchtimes at Crave, located at 57 E. Market St. in Akron's Historic District.