Home-Cooked Meal

Jennifer comes and takes your order. Jon pokes his head around the kitchen door, waves hello, and gets back to work making food from scratch.

Then, with a ring of the bell, your meal is ready.

Jennifer Megnin and Jon Marantz run The Melt Shop, a hole-in-the-wall dive located on James Street (off Thompson Road), that specializes in steak sandwiches and homemade meatloaf, with a true emphasis on the American working-man's appetite.

Jon worked in a metal melting plant before opening up The Melt Shop. His restaurant is not far from his roots.

It's the kind of place where people will call you "hun." Jennifer knows your name. Jon knows how you like your burger. And the two in tandem make The Melt Shop a hub for comfort food and conversation.

The walls are covered with pictures and paraphernalia from metal melting plants. Jon's friend's hardhat is hanging on the wall. Its meals fit the atmosphere, it aims to satisfy an appetite earned after a day at work. They don't hold back. It's just hearty, feel-good food.

The restaurant is a reflection of what Jon has been through, and the food helps take patrons along for the journey. Getting three new faces a day is a good day for The Melt Shop. But it is really the regulars that have propelled the restaurant to its one-year anniversary celebrated this week.

Four men walked into the place. Jennifer welcomes them, like always. "These four gentlemen have come in every week for the past year for a meatloaf sandwich. Now, they've switched to the steak sandwich," she said.

Jennifer recommends the steak sandwich, an 8-ounce strip steak doused in gravy, but the homemade meatloaf is truly the man's meal.

When Jon prepares the meatloaf sandwich, he wraps bacon around the meatloaf and bakes it together, infusing the smokiness and saltiness of the bacon into the meatloaf. Add a toasted bun, some onions, cayenne pepper for a touch of heat and you've got sustenance.

The Melt Shop uses local produce and livestock, all of which is grounded and cooked on premises. Jon still checks the global metal markets before picking up the produce for the restaurant every day.

Onion soup is offered every day. The traditional onion soup usually has a sweet taste because of the beef broth. But this homemade version tastes more like gravy seasoned with melted cheese to provide a needed salt. Chunks of bread make it eatable.

The Melt Shop's everyday onion soup is their version of the classic soup to fit the clientele. It still is comfort food but not meant to be an amuse bouche.

One thing is for sure: This food is certainly not for those with a weak stomach.

The chili was so thick; it's hard to get through more than a third of the bowl. The spices will kick your butt to the point that it's hard to taste any of the flavors because the heat masks the other ingredients.

"Too hot for you?" Jennifer joked.

It was hard to disagree.

"I'm just picking on you. That's what we do around here."

But that's the nature of the place. You're family when you walk in, even if that means you get picked on.

sdmusat@syr.edu