Once Scooter’s opens, even if it is still snowing, it brings on the memory of long summer evenings dining on their unique and delicious hot dogs, hand cut French fries and creamy ice cream.

Scooter’s is on the corner of Blackbrook and Heisley Roads (Route 44) north of Route 2 in Mentor. It is a great place to stop on the way to Headlands Beach State Park or on the way home after a day in the sun and sand.

Read more from Sally Kennedy, via the Lake County Visitors Bureau blog, at Scooter’s Dawg House is OPEN.

The big news last summer was that Melt Bar and Grilled was coming to Mentor. Overshadowed a bit by the splashy headline was the rest of the story: Another popular eatery was changing locations to make room for Melt.

Jalapeno Loco, which had its ups and downs over the years at the corner of the Points East shopping plaza, packed up and moved down the street. With a new name — El Porton — the independent Mexican restaurant opened up shop in the old Davitinos location at 7501 Mentor Ave.

I visited Jalapeno Loco many times at its first location, but it wasn’t until about a month or so ago, when I learned that the new name was being ditched and the place would again be Jalapeno Loco, that I decided to check out the new location.

Read more of Correspondent Mark Koestner's review at Dining Out: Called Jalapeno Loco again, relocated Mentor Mexican eatery still enjoyable.

You might remember it from its long-ago turn as a Ground Round, a family-type restaurant with reliable sandwiches, salads and steaks on the menu.

In the days since its 2005 closure, the building on the east end of Shoregate Shopping Center in Willowick has housed several eateries, often with very similar menus.

But, a few months ago, the space re-opened as The Garage Grill & Bar, and I’m here to tell you that someone has gotten it right.

The building was gutted and recreated as a single-room space, with a huge bar in the center and plenty of reminders of the restaurant’s name, with corrugated metal on the walls and a shiny cement floor that, with a little bit of daydreaming, could easily bring to mind visions of the greasy rags and rolling tool cases that you’d see in repair shops nearby.

But there’s no confusing your whereabouts once you crack open the menu and find some creative choices.

Read more in Laura Kessel's review: Dining Out: The Garage Grill & Bar at well-known Willowick spot gets it right.

It has since become a fixture in Lake County’s dining and entertainment scene, but there was a time when Redhawk Grille was a fledgling business.

It was about 20 years ago, when it first opened, that I first ate there. My in-laws lived (and still do) nearby, and we gave it a try. Since then, we’ve been back dozens of times — but only during the summer to eat out on the fantastic patio.

So until a couple weeks ago, it had been nearly two decades since I had eaten a meal inside Redhawk’s actual walls. I figured that a re-opening after a fire closed the place for four months was as good a time as any. Redhawk opened again in December after sustaining mostly cosmetic damage in the August blaze.

The most obvious changes made post-fire are on Redhawk’s bar side. It’s definitely more modern, with a new bar, stone surfaces and updated fixtures, and it features more seating than in the past. It’s got more of an upscale, lively feel to it.

Read more in Mark Koestner's review: Dining Out: Concord Township’s Redhawk Grille soars since reopening following 2012 fire.

Browse the web for information on a new-ish pub in Willoughby, and you might think it has an identity issue.

The sign on the window reads “Beal’s Pickles & Pints,” but online you can find the same pub listed as “Pints ’n’ Pickles. There’s a Facebook page that also lists “pickles” before “pints,” and all the search-engine results flip among the ampersand, “and” an “n” between the pickles and pints, or pints and pickles as it were.

So while you may be confused what to call the place (it’s Pickles & Pints for the record), don’t be confused about this: It’s one heck of a place to visit.

Read more at Mark Koestner's review: Dining Out: Willoughby’s Pickles & Pints offers very nice pub-dining experience.