Last week the newest features of the Smale Riverfront Park were dedicated and opened to the public. The Duke Energy Garden and Women’s Committee Garden combine to more than double the amount of park space available.

Cincinnati’s New Front Porch

My favorite features of the Duke Energy Garden are a dozen family size swings that overlook the river. I sat on one of these swings for a few minutes and watched boats float by. I can already tell that these are going to be very popular.

Front Lawn

The Duke Energy Garden is the eastern most section of the park, just south of Great American Ball Park and to the east of the already popular Main Street Fountains. The pathways through the park are very close to connecting with the Ohio River Trail, which will soon link Smale with Yeatmans Cove, Sawyer Point, and Friendship Park, offering a mile and a half of continuous paved trail.

Duke Energy Garden

Even though the new swings are my favorite part of the park, my son continues to love running through the interactive Main Street Fountains. But since the swings are just around the corner from the fountains, everyone wins!

Main Street Fountains

Construction continues on the west end of the park. The PNC Grow Up Great Adventure Playground, being built next to the Roebling Suspension Bridge, will open in May 2014. And it looks like funding is in place to have the Vine Street Fountain & Stairs, carousel, and carousel building open in time for the 2015 Major League Baseball All-Star Game.

After a long day traveling back to Cincinnati, my wife and kids picked me up from the airport. We were all overly hungry and ready to find something quick to eat. My son wanted a cheese burger, and since I didn’t want to pickup food from a drive-through, my wife starting looking for places along our route north on interstates 71 and 75. We ended up at Willie’s Sports Cafe in Covington, just across the Ohio River from downtown.

Outside

I’ve been to this location of Willie’s before, though it has been quite some time. Willie’s operates a handful of restaurants in the Cincinnati area. I used to frequent their old location in Kenwood on Montgomery Road through my high school years, but this was my first stop at any Willie’s in many years.

Willie’s Covington sits up high on a hill just off the interstate and offers pretty great views of northern Kentucky as well as downtown Cincinnati. The front wall of the dining area is made completely of glass to take full advantage of the view. There are flat screen TV’s on nearly every other wall of the space.

Inside

We arrived just before 8 P.M on a Wednesday and found a completely empty dining room. The separate bar area looked to have a dozen or so customers. Having a dedicated server for our table really expedited our meal, which was appreciated since we were already out late.

I ordered the hand trimmed chicken tenders basket, with waffle fries, and coleslaw ($10). I had the tenders dipped in their hot wing sauce, and served with a side of bleu cheese. The basket was filled with a handful of perfectly cooked tenders and the addition of wing sauce was a great choice. The coleslaw was pretty good and their waffle fries are always a great choice.

My wife had the mushroom and swiss turkey burger ($9). I did not have a bite of the sandwich, but she seemed to enjoy it. Our son ordered a cheese burger from the kids menu and we were happy to see a promotion for a free kids meal with each adult entrée. He doesn’t like his cheese burgers to be very thick, and this one fit that description perfectly. He ate nearly half of it so he must have liked it.

Family Shot

Willie’s Sports Cafe offers good sports bar food in a location with sweeping views of the area. It’s a shame that the building seems to be lacking some minor repairs and doesn’t seem to be as popular as it could be.

You may have noticed a lack of posts last week. I spent the majority of last week in Kansas City for work. The project that I was working on the last three years hasn’t taken off like our leadership team thought it would. So I am back working on the project that brought me to Harris Broadcast in the first place many years ago. With this change I had to spend some time in both Denver and Kansas City the past couple of weeks to get back up to speed.

Returning to my old project includes some night and weekend work. I don’t mind the night work as it can be done after the kids have gone to bed, but the weekend mornings have been a little difficult so far. A nice bonus to the off hours work is that I am able to take some time away from the desk during the day and spend time with Kim and the kids since she is still on maternity leave. Last week we spent a couple of hours down at the police memorial parade.

Police Memorial Parade

The police memorial parade honors fallen officers who lost their lives in the line of duty.

Color Guard

Honor Fallen Officers

The parade marched to the Police Memorial, where Police Chief James E. Craig presented the Cincinnati Police Medal of Valor awards. Chief Craig will soon be leaving the Cincinnati Police to take the same position in his home town of Detroit, so it was also a sort of farewell event for him as well.

Officer Trey

My sister-in-law is currently on the mounted patrol, but it sounds like that program is going to be eliminated soon in an attempt to close holes in the budget. Originally she was on a list to be laid off in a couple of months, but it sounds like that has changed and she will either retain her position in district 1, or be reassigned to another district if necessary. I wish the mounted patrol could stick around for many reasons, and I know it always makes Trey happy to see his aunt riding on the back of Justice. Let’s hope the next chief has some answers to these budget and personnel struggles.

My wife picked the location of our mother’s day dinner and went with a place she hadn’t been since our college days at the University of Cincinnati, Cactus Pear.

Outside

The Cactus Pear has been serving southwestern fare since 1992 in their Clifton location on Jefferson Avenue. If you’ve never visited them you may still recognize their location by the pink painted exterior that is easily found near the UC campus, Cincinnati Zoo, and surrounding neighborhoods.

Inside Bar

The inside of the restaurant is much larger than I expected it to be. There is a long bar as you first enter the front door and a couple of dining areas on the opposite side of the spacious building.

Chips & Salsa

Chips and roasted tomato salsa are not free as you may expect from southwestern restaurants, but $1.95 for bottomless baskets is well worth it. While the chips didn’t appear to be freshly prepared, the roasted tomato salsa easily made up for that. It had hints of smokiness in addition to the more traditional tomato and garlic flavors. It wasn’t overly spicy and everyone in our family seemed to love it. I think we went through four bowls before our meals arrived.

Prickly Pear Margarita

We split a couple of pitchers of margaritas. I really enjoyed the house margarita ($28 pitcher) which was not overly sour like so many restaurants tend to make them. I could actually taste the tequila, which isn’t a bad thing in my book. The mothers in our group seemed to favor the more sweetly flavored prickly pear ($29 pitcher).

Chicken Enchiladas

For dinner I ordered the chicken enchiladas ($13.95). Grilled chicken, peppers, and onions are wrapped in corn tortillas and topped with tomatillo sauce, melted cheese, and sour cream. This was served with black beans and rice. The enchiladas were easily my favorite I’ve had in Cincinnati. The tomatillo sauce had just the right amount of heat and a wonderful flavor that mixed with the grilled ingredients so well.

Chicken & Shrimp Fajitas

I also had a few bites of chicken fajitas ($15.95), which were cooked perfectly and offered a serving size enough for two. The sizzling skillet is served with flour tortillas, black beans, rice, lettuce, pico de gallo, and sour cream. Others in our group had the tamales of beef (which came highly recommended and did not disappoint) as well as the fish tacos.

The prices may be a little higher at Cactus Pear than other neighborhood Mexican/southwestern restaurants, but the food quality easily makes up for it. The chicken enchiladas and tamales of beef were both excellent and highly recommended. Their tomatillo sauce is top notch.

I finally found the time to visit our newest neighborhood restaurant. The Wurst Bar in the Square opened a couple of months ago and has been calling my name since. I returned home early on a Friday after a recent trip out-of-town. My wife and I agreed to take advantage of the late afternoon sunshine and take a walk down to Mt. Lookout Square, home of the Wurst Bar. It is very easy to find, just a few doors down from Million’s Cafe and across the street from Mt. Lookout Tavern.

Outside

The Wurst Bar in the Square specializes in two of Cincinnati’s favorite culinary delights, home-made sausages and beer. While the draft beer menu was fairly limited, it did have some local offerings and seasonal specialties. There is also a really solid lineup of bottled beer. However in my eyes, the beverages take a back seat to the creative sausage offerings.

Flying Pigs In a Blanket

For starters we went with the flying pigs in a blanket, sausage wrapped in a delicious, flaky crust and served with sharp cheddar beer cheese ($5). The menu didn’t specify it, but we were also given a few dough pretzels to snack on along with a sweet and tangy mustard sauce. Both of these appetizer options are a great start to any meal, however I’ll definitely have to order the “wurst disaster” next time, fresh-cut fries sautéed in-house made pork gravy, served in a pie pan with cheese curd and diced German mettwurst ($6). I saw an order of this come out of the kitchen and it looked incredible!

Mac-N-Cheese

As we had our kids with us, we also ordered a side of mac-n-cheese ($4). This was served boiling hot in a small iron skillet. The top edges of the dish were crisp, while the inside was filled with loads of gooey cheese. Even though I intended this to feed our two-year-old, I couldn’t help myself and ended up eating more than my share.

Chicken Andouille

For dinner I ordered the chicken andouille, a breaded and deep-fried chicken andouille sausage wrapped in bacon and topped with horseradish creole mustard ($8). All sausages are served on your choice of 4 grain, brioche, or Italian roll and come with a side of sea salt fries. I went with the brioche roll as it was recommended by our server. The great thing about their rolls is that they are shaped like half moons to better fit the curved nature of the sausages. Due to their massive size, I recommend cutting the sausage and roll in half and eating it that way.

As simple as my sausage appeared, it was a huge mix of flavors. The bacon and andouille made it very smokey in flavor, while the horseradish added some spice, and the brioche roll added some sweet and sugary notes. And to top it all off it was breaded and fried, which created for an interesting flavor mix. I’m not sold on this one completely, but it was still tasty enough that I finished nearly the entire thing.

The Roonie

My wife ordered the roonie, a chicken-garlic-truffle sausage with fried onions and Boursin cheese ($9). This, on the other hand, was a wonderful mix of flavors. I think the brioche roll complemented this sausage better than it did with my order. There were huge cloves of garlic that mixed well with the creamy cheese. Even after cutting this one in half, it was still a little messy to eat. I definitely enjoyed this one more than the andouille.

There will absolutely be a return trip to the Wurst Bar for us in the somewhat near future. One sausage that caught my eye was the super hot mett, which is topped with pepper jack cheese, Habanero relish, and sweet pickled jalapenos. And I wouldn’t even put it past my wife or I to order one of their vegetarian offerings called the Yukon Cornelius, with apple and Yukon gold potatoes making up the sausage, topped with spicy sweet mustard. There are over a dozen creative and unique sausage offerings available.

A couple of days ago I took my family to the Cincinnati Fire Museum for our first visit. My grandfather was a Cincinnati Firefighter so it’s a bit surprising that I never visited the museum before, at least not to my recollection, even though it has been open for at least as long as I’ve lived in Cincinnati.

Outside

Oldest Surviving Fire Engine

The fire museum is located in a restored 1907 firehouse, the Court Street Firehouse, which sits at 315 West Court Street. The Court Street Firehouse is a registered historic building, listed in the National Register on July 18, 1974.

Hand Pumper

Aurora Pumper

Mt. Washington Fire Department

Hook And Ladder Wagon

There are a few hands on exhibits for children, including an awesome modern fire engine cabin with functioning sirens and flashing lights. I couldn’t figure out how to get the lights to turn on, but leave it to our two-year-old who had them all flashing in no time.

Play Fire Engine

Captain Trey

Over 200 years of firefighting history is on display in the Cincinnati Fire Museum. Exhibits include examples of early leather fire buckets that all citizens were required to own and maintain, a massive 1808 fire drum that was used to sound the alarm in the event of a fire, and the oldest surviving fire engine in Cincinnati.

1927 Ahrens Fire Engine

Helmets

Another awesome family fun activity is taking a slide down the fireman’s pole. Trey had never done this before, so I had to give him a quick demonstration before helping him take a few slides.

Fireman’s Pole

Fireman Trey

We could have easily spent more than the hour we dedicated for this trip. There is a lot of historical information that can take some time to read through. But with low admission prices it is easy to justify a quick trip as well.

I had a list of places that I wanted to visit during my trip to Denver last week. C.B. & Potts was not originally on the list, but I ended up there after a very late night in the office. I tried to visit Parry’s Pizza but their kitchen had already closed. Since I still needed dinner I quickly remembered that C.B. & Potts was nearby and headed there instead.

Colorado’s Tallest Bar

This was not my first time at C.B. & Potts Denver Tech Center location. It was actually a regular spot for my wife and her coworkers for happy hour during our years living in Denver. The building is a little hard to find off of Arapahoe Road, but as you drive up Greenwood Plaza Boulevard the large barn like structure is hard to miss. The inside is very tall and wide open and they claim to have Colorado’s tallest bar, for whatever that’s worth.

C.B. & Potts is a Colorado chain of brew pubs and is part of the Big Horn Brewing Company, one of the largest brew pub companies in the country. They also operate the Ram Restaurant & Brewery with locations in Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Oregon, and Washington. Their beer is very approachable and fits well within each style definition. It’s good beer but definitely not my favorite in town.

Chicken Amber Ale

On this visit I ordered the chicken amber ale sandwich ($10.99) The chicken breast is marinated in their brewers’ top secret Amber Ale marinade and then topped with porter BBQ sauce, slaw, tomato, onion crisps, and roasted tomato-chipotle mayonnaise all served on a pretzel bun. I really enjoyed this sandwich with a very unique combination of flavors. The pretzel bun was not actually pretzel shaped, but that was nice as it seemed to hold up better to the various sauces. I added sweet potato fries for $1.29 extra and was given a massive, perfectly cooked pile on the side.

C.B. Potts wasn’t my first choice for dinner, but I could have certainly done a lot worse. Good, approachable beer is on tap with a side of great tasting food.

A couple of weeks ago I ventured out to my first concert at a bar in months. It takes a good excuse to get me out of the house for a late night show, especially during the work week. Fortunately I had a great excuse. The Lone Bellow had been on my radar since I got my hands on their self-titled debut album a couple of months ago, and they were playing a free show at Mayday in Northside.

The Lone Bellow

This was my first time at Mayday, but I really liked the venue for the most part. It is pretty small and was the perfect setting for the 100 or so people in the audience for this show. Nearly everyone in attendance was quiet and attentive for the majority of the show, which is always nice to see.

The Lone Bellow took the stage around 11:30 and opened with arguably their best hit, ”You Never Need Nobody,” which combines amazing vocal harmonies with soaring leads from Zach Williams. After just a couple of seconds of this song, I was hooked, and I bet the same could be true for many others. Take a listen to the track below.

With just one album of material, it would be hard for the band to play much more than the 45 minute set that I heard, but I definitely wanted to hear more. The Tiny Desk Concert below was very similar to what I experienced, but there were a few more touring members of the band on stage to fill the lower registers.

There were three other bands on the bill, two before The Lone Bellow and one after. I missed all the previous bands but did stick around to hear Ivan & Aloysha, a folk-pop, indie, rock band from Seattle, Washington. They were more rock than The Lone Bellow, but still had many similar elements including great vocal harmonies and even some sweet melodies.

As this was the last show of the tour, members of all bands joined in for the last song of the night. There were little sombreros for those on stage and at the end a piñata was brought out, which eventually spewed candy onto the venue floor for the enjoyment of everyone in attendance.

Tour Closer

Piñata Time

I spent a good chunk of last week on the road traveling to and from Denver for work. While in the mile high city I had many long evenings in the office and a couple of late nights catching up with old friends. This all led to a decrease in blog entries, however I’m not going to let that happen again this week. As I attempt to get caught up with emails and such, I’ll leave you with a few highlights from my trip.

May Snow Showers

The first morning I woke up in Denver I was treated to a nice three to four inches of snow! I guess I was due after all my complaining about missing the snow earlier this winter. It really didn’t stick on the roadways and even melted quite a bit on the grass, but it was pretty nonetheless.

Strange Brewing Samples

I met some old friends at the new to me Strange Brewing Company for a taste of what they had on tap. As much as the brewing scene has expanded in Cincinnati, it seems to have really taken off in Denver and elsewhere in Colorado where the craft scene has always had a strong presence. Strange opened in 2010, and even though I was living in Denver at the time, I never found the time to visit. I’m glad I found the time on this trip.

SoundRabbit @ Quixote’s

After visiting Strange for some beers, I headed to Quixote’s to see some other old friends, the guys from SoundRabbit. After seeing roughly 16 of their shows while living in Denver, it was nice to finally catch another show years after my last. They’ve since added a new bass player to the band and just got back from a tour through the middle and eastern states last month. I hear they are planning another tour for later this year, so I’m hoping to see them again soon. It’s always a great time.

I joined a few old friends from my men’s league hockey team at the Firehouse Grill for dinner and drinks after a recent game. You may remember the building as the former home of the Watson Bros. Brewery. The building itself is a massive structure just off Glendale Milford Road. It is pretty hard to miss, especially with the full size fire engine parked out front.

Outside

We originally planned to eat on the spacious outdoor patio, but after finding that the restaurant was pretty quiet (7:30 P.M. on a Sunday) we decided to grab some seats at the bar. Here I was pleasantly surprised by the draft beer selection. Stone Enjoy By IPA and the newly opened MadTree Brewing’s Gnarly Brown were just a couple of the more than two dozen offerings.

Bar

For dinner I ordered the Fire House Wrap with jalapeño cheddar tortilla, Cajun chicken, caramelized onion, chipotle mayonnaise, Monterey Jack, shredded iceberg lettuce, and diced tomato ($8.99). I added sweet potato $1 more. The wrap was packed full of deliciousness and the sweet potato fries were equally as tasty.

Blackfire Wrap

The Firehouse Grill easily exceeded my expectations. I wouldn’t go too far out of my way for the food itself, but combined with their great selection of beers, this is a very solid option for the northeast suburbs.