Taping for Wild Goose social media promotion draws early morning regulars to Downtown Willoughby
Apr. 26—On a rainy Monday morning, the taping of an episode of "America's Best Restaurants" drew regulars to the Wild Goose in Downtown Willoughby.
The "diners" were the invited backdrop for the production, which will air on Facebook and other social media platforms sometime in June. The restaurant doesn't typically open until 4 p.m. on Mondays, said Dan Sutter, one of its five partners.
"The editors will need to see what we've got and fine-tune it," said episode host Greg Hutson as videographer Austin Turner adjusted cameras, lights and his positioning to film the making of a pizza by Hutson.
The episode was to feature the menu's Margherita Pizza, one of 14 pizzas offered at Wild Goose — and a customer favorite, with up to 350 of them served on a weekend day.
"We make everything here from scratch," said Chef Tim Painter.
The wood-fired stone pizza oven, heated to 590 degrees, rotates its cooking surface to complete a pizza in 6 to 8 minutes. The result is a thin-crust, crisp and toothsome pizza with a balsamic reduction drizzled over the top.
Painter, once a co-owner of now-closed Kirtland City Tavern, was busy preparing fresh jalapeno peppers to stuff with cream cheese and chorizo for the Jalapeno Popper Pizza, which is fast becoming another Wild Goose favorite. The restaurant's Cuban Sandwich and its Buffalo Dip would also soon be prepared for the "America's Best Restaurants" taping.
"We're lucky to have Tim," said Sutter.
"Willoughby's quite the town for dining," said Hutson. "We had several people suggest this place."
America's Best Restaurants is a marketing company that focuses on local, independently operated restaurants. The restaurants get the episode of its namesake show for their Facebook pages, and the company markets them on its own website and other social media.
Restaurants can also nominate themselves. Wild Goose co-owner Seamus Coyne said he was having breakfast at Kleifeld's Diner down the street when the America's Best Restaurants crew came to shoot last year.
"We introduced ourselves and asked them to remember us for a future episode," he said.
Brothers Seamus and McPat Coyne also are partners with Sutter, Brendan Kearney and Ben David in operating Wild Goose, Nora's Public House, Fiona's Coffee Bar & Bakery and Mickey's Ice Cream, all in Downtown Willoughby. The five men are collaborating with David Bartulovic, owner of another Downtown Willoughby restaurant, Sol, to soon open Crowley's Dive Bar in Eastlake. With a target date of mid-May, will open near Classic Park in the former Manny's at 35647 Vine St. and pay homage to Thomas Crowley, known in Croatian as Tomislav Kraulic. An Irishman who fought in the 1991-to-1995 Croatian War of Independence from Yugoslavia, he was killed in action in 1995 near Dubrovnik and is buried near Split.
Crowley's menu will be framed around smashburgers.
Info and recipe
Wild Goose: 4144 Erie St., Willoughby; Wildgoosewlby.com; 440 951-6644.
America's Best Restaurants: americasbestrestaurants.com.
Wild Goose Buffalo Dip
Ingredients
Roasted chicken, diced small
Cream cheese
Cheddar cheese
Instructions
Mix and serve with tortilla chips and celery stalks for dipping.
— Courtesy of Wild Goose
