Over the weekend my wife and I had lunch at Olives at the Ludlow Garage. Awhile ago I bought a LivingSocial coupon that was expiring this week, so we were forced to use it. We nearly went to a beer tasting months ago at Olives, and when we saw the coupon a few days later we figured it was worth a try. When we pulled up to Olives I immediately recognized the restaurant as the old Uno’s, which I guess closed a couple of years after I graduated from UC. The outside of the restaurant seems a little different, but once I stepped into the entryway with steps down to the basement and the double doors on the left into the bar, there was no denying that much of the inside of Olives in unchanged from the Uno days.

Olives Upstairs Bar Area

Since we arrived late in the afternoon on a Sunday, the downstairs was closed and most of the upstairs was empty. We were told to sit where we like and chose the empty loft area behind the bar, since it had low tables that we could pull a high chair up to. The bartender would also act as our server, which wasn’t a problem as there were only a couple of other tables and a few people at the bar. I did see another server running around during our visit. The bar is stocked with a large variety of draft beer selections and the menu is rather big as well.

Bier Cheese Dip

Since this meal would serve as both our lunch and dinner, and we were really hungry, we decided to split an appetizer to start. Our server told us that the menu was recently redone and she had only tried a few of the options on the menu. After a little debate we opted for the bier cheese dip ($5.95) served with garlic drops, fresh made garlic dough with blended cheese and then deep-fried golden brown. The garlic drops themselves were actually really good, and the bier cheese was pretty tasty as well. We could definitely taste the beer in the dip, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

Johnny Appleseed Burger

Though not an expert at the menu, our server did let us know that their burgers were all good. With that bit of advice I decided to give one of their signature burgers a chance, which can be served either with Angus ground beef, veggie burger, black bean burger, turkey burger, or chicken breast. I opted for the Johnny Appleseed ($11.95) which featured cheddar cheese, maple bacon, sautéed apples and red onions, with whole grain mustard on a ciabatta bun. I had this sandwich served with the black bean burger, which was a large fresh made patty that was hard to keep together. Despite the massive amount of toppings, the sandwich managed to stay together pretty well otherwise. The taste was really good with the sweetness from the apples and the spiciness of the mustard and onion.

South Of The Border

My wife went with the South of the Border burger ($10.95) with guacamole, applewood smoked bacon, and fried egg, topped with pepper jack cheese on a toasted Kaiser bun. She choose to have the turkey burger on this sandwich and commented that it was very meaty. It was a thick patty which dominated this sandwich. Again I think the flavor combinations worked pretty well for her, but she did admit to preferring my sandwich more. There are quite a few other burgers on the menu with some unique topping combinations. The shoestring fries were fresh cooked perfectly and the cole slaw on the side was decent. Overall we enjoyed our visit to Olives and would return if ever in the area. It’s not worth a special trip, but if near campus it is worth a try (or retry if you’ve dined before).

As part of my cousin’s bachelor party this past Saturday we spent the better part of the afternoon down at River Downs to take in some horse racing. This was actually my first time at River Downs, though I have been to Turfway once before. There is no entry fee and there are no employees at the gates checking bags, so entry is perfectly painless. Our group arrived on a school bus, taking the long way to get there, so we missed the first race of the day. I sat out betting on the second race and eventually placed a trifecta bet on the third race after finding the ATM.

River Downs Grandstand

I didn’t win this time, and that trend continued for the fourth and fifth races too. We spent the majority of the time hanging out near the rail on the paved standing area in front of the open air grandstand. Beers were just $4.50, which is much better than most other sporting events. And since they didn’t check anyone coming in, I wonder if some patrons didn’t sneak in some of their own beer in the multiple coolers that I saw throughout the day.

Winner! Winner!

My luck changed during the sixth race of the day. After coming close to winning on one of the earlier races, and paying attention to what my program was saying versus the results of the day, I started catching on. Or at least I thought I was starting to understand it all. Most of my bets were either trifecta bets, or I would occasionally pick one horse to win, place, or show, as I did in the sixth race. In my program the #6 horse was listed as 10-1 odds to win, and a couple of minutes before post the large board in the infield displayed the odds as much higher, over 20-1.

Winning Ticket

Once I saw this I ran to one of the automated machines and bought the ticket above. I thought that maybe there was something that I wasn’t picking up on that lowered the odds, but I figured it was worth a few bucks to find out. As the race started horse #6 was nowhere near the front of the back. The board only updates for the first 3/4 of the race at best, so as the horses all come toward the finish line it is really hard to tell who is in the lead. As this race came to a close I watched as #6 charged up the inside rail and won the race! I had won $124.80!

With just two races after that, I made a couple of bucks off the seventh race and was then put in charge of making a bet for my dad, brother, and I who pooled some money together. Again I went with the win place show bet, and nearly won again as the horse I selected finished in fourth place. Bummer. We had a great time and I look forward to going down to the track again in the future. Kim has already said that she wants to go too.

After a couple of hours at the nearby Arnold’s last Wednesday, a friend suggested that our group head to Taqueria Mercado for some food. At the time of our visit I had no idea that the restaurant was the subject of so many recent reviews, but my friends who had been before all praised it. We arrived around 8:30 to find only a couple of other occupied tables. We were quickly guided to a table between the bar area and the somewhat open kitchen. I had a run back to Arnold’s to retrieve a left item, and when I returned I had a fresh margarita waiting for me.

Margarita

I wouldn’t say it was the best margarita I’ve had, but it was overall pretty good. Most of the salt on the rim had been washed away from the filled to top drink. You can even see some of it on the table from when the server set it down. Speaking of service, we had absolutely no problems, and found the experience to be really fast. I read other reviews complaining of slow service but that was not the case for us.

We started with some chips and salsa, which I really enjoyed. Unlike most other Mexican restaurants, the chips and salsa are not complimentary here, but they are worth spending the extra $1.50 for. The same tortillas that are used for most of the menu items are fried crisp and served with delicious salsa. Also available are three other bottled sauces that you may have to special request. The chips were thick and held up perfectly against all the sauces.

Two Enchiladas

All of the experienced friends in our group ordered tacos. However I wanted to try something different and decided on the enchiladas with chicken filling. However as you can see above, the enchiladas aren’t all that different from the tacos, at least not in appearance (minus the red sauce on top). It seemed that all the dishes are served with the same style of tortillas and differentiating between them can be difficult. With all of that said, I thought the enchiladas were very good. The red sauce on top had a nice amount of heat to it. The rice and beans also were not bad, though I did add a little extra sauce to my rice to spice it up.

Two Small Quesadillas

My wife went with two small quesadillas. Again see how these could easily be confused as tacos, especially since the easiest way to eat them was to pick them up just as you would a taco. My wife was not as happy with her choice and found the chicken to be dry. One of our friends warned us to this problem, as he has had the same experience before. Though I guess the sauce on my enchiladas helped to disguise the issue. Both of our meals were from the lunch combo menu, which can be ordered for dinner for an extra fifty cents. Each of these plates of food was only $6, so it’s not a bad deal at all.

The others in our party all seemed very happy with their tacos. I definitely want to give those a try sometime in the future, maybe even skipping chicken and getting the al pastor (pork) or carnitas (fried pork). I’m sure my wife will do the same, as each of those choices seem to get better reviews than the chicken that we had on this visit. As far as Mexican food goes it is the best we’ve had in the last few months.

I have stopped into It’s Just Crepes twice now, both times after mass at St. Francis Seraph. Mass starts at 10 so it’s always right around 11 or 11:30 when we’ve arrived. Therefore I often consider whether I want breakfast or lunch, but the answer for me is always lunch. My wife, on the other hand, always goes for breakfast. She could easily eat breakfast type foods for every meal of the day. It’s Just Crepes is perfect for this big decision as they offer both savory and sweet crepes.

It's Just Fruit

I think both times that I’ve visited my wife has always ordered the It’s Just Fruit crepe, which combines strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, bananas, and vanilla cream inside a perfectly prepared crepe shell. Each crepe shell is made to order, starting with a big scoop of the batter placed on a hot flat iron. From there the ingredients are added before being folded up and served wrapped in paper and put into a small paper cone. My wife has unfolded her crepe above for the photo.

Pizza Crepe

I was so hungry that the photo of my crepe couldn’t wait until after I had a bite or two. I went with the pizza crepe on this visit, which mixes mozzarella cheese, pepperoni, sautéed mushrooms, and pizza sauce inside. It was perfect! If I remember correctly, on my first visit I tried the southwestern with pepper jack cheese, chicken, sautéed onions and red peppers, served with chipotle mayo. This was also a great choice and filled with wonderful flavors.

There are many different crepes to choose from and I haven’t heard anyone complain about any of the combinations so far. On our first visit we were with many of my in-laws and they all loved their crepes. I’m not an expert on crepes, in fact I can probably count on one hand how many times I’ve had a crepe, but I do enjoy the crepes from It’s Just Crepes and I will definitely be back.

Last night was my first event that I’ve attended as a Yelp elite. The Yelp Mustache Bash took place at Arnold’s and was open to the public, but elite members and their guests were treated to complimentary drinks and snacks. This was also my first time visiting Arnold’s and I look forward to returning in the future for a full meal, though I will probably skip the outside courtyard if it’s as hot as it was out there last night. Fortunately the tasty treats and the rocking music made up for it.

Outside Arnold’s

After work I picked up my son and then met up with my wife and some friends to take in the event. I should have grown a real mustache for the party but fake ones were provided for all in need. Fortunately my wife scored a table on the courtyard directly in front of the stage so we could fully enjoy the music provided by The Turkeys. A friend of mine introduced me to the band a few years ago, so obviously he jumped at the chance to see them play with free food and drink. They played for an hour and seemed to be really well received by the audience. I hope to see them again soon.

Three Mustached Amigos

As I mentioned, there was free food and drink (including beer and vodka cocktails) for us after 7pm. We all enjoyed a few rounds of Christian Moerlein beers. Their Fifth & Vine Oktoberfest Marzen was available and I found that especially tasty. I look forward to having more of those over the next couple of months. The appetizers were also pretty good though not quite enough for an entire meal. We all ended up stopping in at Taqueria Mercado after The Turkeys had finished their set for a little grub. Full review of our meal there to be posted in the future.

Tasty Finger Foods

Next Saturday is the start of college football season. This will be my first season as a season ticket holder for the University of Cincinnati Bearcats and I couldn’t be more excited to see them play. We will get to see four games on campus at Nippert Stadium and another couple of big games downtown at Paul Brown Stadium. Here is a quick tease of the kickoff video which we will see next Saturday!

For me none of the fast food burrito chains compare to Chipotle. I’ve had Qdoba and Moe’s both a number of times and though neither are bad options, I have always found the quality and taste of Chipotle to be superior to all else. Since moving back to Cincinnati I have seen a few different Hot Head Burrito locations, which is a local based chain that now has eighteen stores and still expanding. My wife and I finally decided to give them a try a few weeks ago.

Full Tray For Just Over $10

While walking from the parking lot to the front door we noticed that Sunday is two burritos for $10, which we happily took advantage of. I went with a spicy chicken burrito with half black and half pinto beans, pico salsa, and hot head sauce. The way that Hot Head Burritos tries to differentiate themselves from other burrito joints is by having a variety of sauces that can be added on top of your meal. My wife ordered a special burrito from a sign on the wall, which consisted mainly of pork with their sweet habanero sauce.

Huge Burrito

My burrito turned out gigantic! It actually broke when the employee tried to wrap it, and rather than dumping it into a new shell, she simply wrapped another one around the broken one. This might have killed some of the spiciness from my selections, as it wasn’t nearly as hot as I thought it was going to be. The spicy chicken is really just the same as the regular chicken with a little hot sauce squirted on top. The rice is really bland and the beans were not remarkable. Overall I wasn’t blown away by my burrito.

Burrito Guts

My wife seemed to enjoy hers a little more than I did, though again it didn’t appear to be anything spectacular. The chips and salsa were good, actually that was probably my favorite part of the meal, since I luckily choose the hot salsa, which finally provided the kick that I was searching for. As mentioned earlier, it was a very cheap meal, which I guess explains some of the quality issues that I felt the food had. Plus they do have a frequent visitor program with stickers that allows you turn earn free burritos. I think that I will only be back during a time of the regularly occurring sales, because at full price I would much rather have a burrito from Chipotle.

Another Pig-Fest has come and gone. After taking last year off, the party this year seemed especially fun. For those who lost track this was the seventeenth annual pig roast, though we called it the eighteenth after last year’s mini party. The teams I played on in both wiffle ball and cornhole bowed out of the tournaments after our first games, which actually gave me a little free time to socialize during the day.

Later in the evening our good buddy MER put on a three-hour show for all in attendance, including the standard set closing sing along performance of “Friends in Low Places” with myself and my family all on stage. I recorded the entire performance so look for that to be online sometime in the next couple of weeks.

There are already a good amount of pictures showing up on Facebook with many more still to come. I will update the website as additional pictures are uploaded. I really hope that I get to see everyone again next year.

The Cock & Bull will always be a soft spot for my wife and I, as she claims the Covington location was the site of our first date. We were happy to see a new location open in Hyde Park around the same time that we moved into the neighborhood. When a friend of ours was in town recently to see our new place we all agreed to head up to this new location and check it out. They have a great patio out front, but the weather was a little too warm for us and so we opted for a table inside. We visited on a Tuesday evening and found no wait for a table.

Stained Glass

The inside of the restaurant is actually very large too. The front room appeared to seat a healthy number of people, but there are even more seats in an additional back room, which is where we were seated. To go along with the large space they also have a large offering of beer, nearly 60 taps are dedicated to various craft and macro beers from both the US and overseas. It’s a pretty impressive lineup overall.

Five Onion Soup

To start off my meal I went with a cup of the Five Onion Soup. The menu says it isn’t French onion soup, but it sure looks like it and tastes like it too. It was a great combination of different onions and it was topped with a large amount of melted provolone. My visit was off to a good start. For my meal I chose the chicken teriyaki wrap with a side of macaroni & cheese.

Chicken Teriyaki Wrap

Unfortunately the wrap was not as good as the soup that I started with. The chicken was good, but was easily overpowered by the large amount of salad mix. The menu said that the teriyaki chicken and provolone mix would be accompanied by lettuce and red onion, but it appears they took the easier route and just used a generic salad mix instead. I think if this were replaced by some better quality lettuce and fresh onion it could have been much better. The macaroni & cheese was good, not outstanding, but next to the wrap I enjoyed it a lot.

Lightweight Fish & Chips

My wife went with the “lightweight” fish and chips, which is an 8 oz portion of their famous hand cut fillets of icelandic cod, deep fried to a golden brown, served on a bed of seasoned fries. She was happy with her choice, and even this smaller serving of the dish was a lot of food. Obviously this is a popular dish at the English style pub and I saw many plates of it being delivered to hungry customers throughout the restaurant.

Veggie Wrap

Our friend had the veggie wrap with grilled eggplant, zucchini, mushroom, goat cheese, and spinach wrapped in a tortilla and served with balsamic mayo. She seemed happy with her meal as well. So I must have just made a bad decision. I wouldn’t say that any of the food was outstanding, but the restaurant is new and they are likely still figuring things out. I’m sure we will be back in the future and I hope for some improvements. It is still worth a visit, as is, for the beer selection and atmosphere alone.

Last night I spent yet another evening at PNC Pavilion, this time to see My Morning Jacket along with Neko Case. Neko hit the stage right at 7pm with her five band-mates. Though I was familiar with her name, I was not familiar with her music, which can best be categorized as alt-country. Neko and the band powered through a quick 45 minutes set full of short songs. The first few that I heard were full of depressing themes and stories, but those gave way to more upbeat songs, which I enjoyed much more.

Neko Case

Once Neko Case’s set ended I figured it would be 8:30 before we saw My Morning Jacket take the stage. Unfortunately that prediction was 10 minutes off, and I was caught out on the plaza when their set started. Fortunately the sound was loud enough that I could hear the opening performance which included the first two songs from their latest album, Circuital, back to back. Shortly after those opening tracks the band launched into two of their earlier singles, “Off the Record” and “I’m Amazed.” These two tracks really got the crowd moving.

My Morning Jacket

I thought last night was my first time seeing My Morning Jacket, but today I realized that I actually saw them at the Mile High Music Festival last summer. I wasn’t very impressed with their performance that day, but last night was a completely different experience. I haven’t seen a rock show like MMJ delivered last night in a long time. Front-man Jim James is one hell of a vocalists and guitar player. His long curled hair constantly flowing around his head as he head-bangs along with the music.

As impressive as Jim James is, I was also impressed with the rest of the band. Even though Jim often has many guitar solos, Carl Broemel on the opposite side of the stage is also a fine guitar player. He also spent many songs on the pedal steel and even one song on the saxophone. Bassist, Tom Blankenship, the only other original member holds down the groove in the center of the stage playing in perfect rhythm with drummer Patrick Hallahan. Hallahan also has a big mop of hair on his head, which flies wildly in the air as he beats on the drum kit. Rounding out the lineup is Bo Koster on keyboards. I liked that he had a real upright piano is his repertoire that added a very clean sound to a couple of songs throughout the night.

Other highlights of the show included “Wonderful (The Way I Feel)” along with “One Big Holiday” and the latest single “Holdin’ On To Black Metal.” The band took a quick 4 minute break before returning to play a lengthy 35 minute encore featuring “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around” with Neko Case and some of her band members on stage. The song was originally recorded by Stevie Nicks and Tom Petty. The male and female singing combination worked great with Neko on stage. Once the last note was played the band had been on the stage for roughly two and a half hours! It was a great night of music.

I’ve added a couple of other pictures to the show below. The lighting was really good and I was happy to see it was all LED powered.