Cheap Eats: Chayote morphs into Corn Hill Grill

Businesses of every kind have been faced with a lot of hard choices in the past year, and restaurants are no exception.

The fledgling Chayote, a small but stylish restaurant featuring unique regional Mexican dishes, made a go of it only for a few months at Corn Hill Landing. Then to many people’s surprise, including my own, owners and sisters Lynn and Donna DiMarzo abruptly closed the place and radically changed the menu, furniture and wall décor and reopened a couple weeks later as the Corn Hill Grill. Farewell, chile rellenos, pork-stuffed tacos and a giant agave wall mural. Hello, meatloaf, strip steak and giant blackboard menu.

“We wanted to do this comfort-food concept all along. We feel it’s a better fit for the neighborhood,” says Donna DiMarzo, who conceded that American comfort foods yield more repeat customers than Mexican comfort foods. “The food is not so spicy, and people can go back to work without worrying about their breath.”

As one who laments the loss, I’m letting these sisters off the hook for two reasons. First, they promise to reopen Chayote, possibly in the East End (where the DiMarzo sisters also own The Social and Donna DiMarzo runs Veneto Wood-Fired Pizza & Pasta). Second, my first sampling of Corn Hill Grill was a positive one with a slightly lower price point. I still didn’t squeak under $10, but I came closer this time around than with my Chayote debut in September.

Right now, hot sandwiches (roasted turkey, meatloaf, grilled cheese) and classic American (chicken pot pie, mac and cheese, spaghetti and meatballs) dominate the Corn Hill Grill menu, with a few meal-sized salads thrown in as well. A spattering of appetizers (shrimp cakes, potato latkes) and a half-dozen meat-centric entrees (braised short ribs, stuffed chicken) kick into gear at dinner service.

There also are specials, like a recent Garbage Plate knock-off and cheese-covered goulash, which was comfortably interpreted more as casserole than stew, subbing elbow macaroni for noodles. The goulash, along with a side of grilled zucchini and eggplant, took care of lunch for me, and frankly could have handled a lunch-sharer as well.

My mom never put truffle oil on her mac and cheese, nor did she serve goulash in a cute little skillet, but that’s what restaurant comfort food at Corn Hill Grill seems to be about: doing what Mom did, but with more flair.

Cheap Eats picks
What I ate: Goulash special for $9, side of grilled veggies for $2.50.
Other good deals: Chicken pot pie and mac and cheese are $10 each.
Not so cheap: Shrimp sauté for $13; New York strip steak entrée with a side is $15.