Happy Hour Project: Tutto Carne offers cozy sophistication on Murray Hill (photos)

The dining room at Tutto Carne has 45 seats.

CLEVELAND, Ohio —Tutto Carne is one of those places we don’t want to tell you about. It’s small, cozy and charming. While we want to keep it our secret, it’d be shameful not to celebrate its happy hour offerings.

On the corner of Murray Hill and Edgehill roads, a few blocks from Little Italy’s busy Mayfield Avenue dining strip, it’s a sophisticated Italian steakhouse. It’s a great choice for someone who loves a good steak and a thoughtful wine list. And it offers a mean afternoon dining experience.

Instead of Happy Hour, Tutto Carne stages Early Bird Specials. Despite the name, these are not blue-hair value meals. Rather, smart starters with over-the-top presentation make the experience even happier than the typical happy hour.

The dining room at Tutto Carne is small and elegant. Tables are set with a mix of vintage plate designs.

The restaurant – which is operated by long-time restaurateur Carl Quagliata and Zach Ladner – serves these specials from 4 to 6 p.m., Monday through Thursday throughout the 45-seat restaurant. Afterall, the bar only has a handful of seats, so it wouldn’t be fair to limit it to bar patrons.

The bar at Tutto Carne is small, with only a handful of seats.

Paris ordered the cleverly named “To Err is Human, To Arr is Pirate” ($12). It is made with aged rum, Campari, sweet vermouth, homemade blood orange liqueur and Angostura bitters. It’s like a Negroni made with rum instead of gin. Alex opted for the World Wine Flight, four 1.5-ounce pours of two reds and two whites. The wines include Sauvignon Blanc from France, Verdicchio from Italy, Malbec from Argentina and Red Blend from Sonoma Valley. During happy hour the wine flight price drops to $10, from the dinner menu price of $14.

General manager Angela Lett introduced us to their bread service, while we waited for our order of fried blue oyster mushrooms ($14), potted meat ($14) and bone marrow ($15). The tender yet chewy focaccia comes with fancy butter drizzled with organic honey and dusted with peppercorn and garlic breadcrumbs. The textures and flavors are a treat.

Potted meat is steak tartar served in a terracotta flower pot as a garden vignette.

All three appetizers were sized for sharing. Four generous fried blue oyster mushrooms arrived warm with a buttermilk corn flour breading and a spicy aioli for dipping. The roasted marrow bones, which are like meat butter, are served with five ramekins — pickled onion, chimichurri, giardiniera, chiles – and toast points. It’s an all-encompassing dish that begs you to get creative with flavor combinations, so it’s a must-order for foodies.

Focaccia bread and fancy butter.

The real winner is the potted meat. It tastes as good as it looks. Minced raw filet mignon is served in a terracotta flowerpot with wee vegetables growing out of edible dirt. The baby vegetables are richly flavored. Toast points accompany this adorable presentation.

While dessert isn’t a traditional Happy Hour menu item, we succumbed to temptation when Lett suggested the cheesecake. The warm round of multi-textured cheesecake paired beautifully with the house-made limoncello and orangecello.

These cellos shouldn’t be missed. They’re served in an assortment of vintage cordial glasses that Lett finds at thrift stores. She also thrifts the plates which add a homey vibe to the dining room. The entire experience is well-produced and begs you to come back for dinner, which is top on the list after this elevated happy hour offering.

The wine flight includes two whites and two reds for $10 during the early bird specials.

Tutto Carne, 2181 Murray Hill Road, Cleveland

Happy Hour: 4 to 6 p.m., Monday through Thursday

Vibe: Cozy, casually elegant steakhouse in Little Italy

Food: Creative steakhouse fare

Beverages: Craft cocktails, extensive wine list

Budget: $50 to $60

Dining out can challenge the budget. Still, most people – especially extroverts like reporters Paris Wolfe and Alex Darus — need to get out. To them that means supporting local restaurants to keep them in business. Sometimes that may be as simple as a Happy Hour dinner. Thus, “The Happy Hour Project.” Paris and Alex regularly visit independent restaurants in Northeast Ohio for happy hour and report back on the vibe, food and cocktails.