The Loco Moski: Cleveland’s Answer to Hawaiian Comfort Food
“This is not the meal plan that the doctors recommended,” Guy Fieri declared while digging into one of the most creative fusion dishes to hit Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. At the Rally Inn in Cleveland, chef Eric Letteri has taken the Hawaiian locomoco and given it a distinctly Eastern European twist that could only work in a city with deep Slovenian and Polish roots.
From Punch Palace to Pierogi Paradise
When owner John Oberman bought the Rally Inn, it wasn’t exactly fine dining material. As he put it, this was “a very very divey bar” — a “punch palace” with no windows and ripped-up vinyl floors. That description got one of the biggest laughs out of Guy: “Punch palace — that is one of the funniest lines I’ve ever heard.”
But the transformation has been real. Now chef Letteri is in the kitchen, drawing on Cleveland’s immigrant heritage. “We have a very big population of the Slovenians and the Polish,” he explained, “and they all make their authentic dishes here, especially the pierogies.” That local influence shows up in dishes throughout the menu, but nowhere more creatively than in the Loco Moski.
Building the Loco Moski
The dish starts with a from-scratch black pepper gravy. Letteri walks through the process: butter and flour for a roux, then black pepper, salt, onion powder, and garlic powder. Chicken base and beef base go in, followed by water and a corn starch slurry added once there’s “a nice aggressive boil.”
The burger patty gets serious attention too. Green peppers, red peppers, red onions, and garlic get mixed into 80/20 ground beef with a blended cajun seasoning. Each patty weighs in at eight ounces — substantial enough to anchor this massive plate…