I’ve already expressed how much I love Eli’s BBQ, but I recently found a spot that is just about on the same level of quality. Velvet Smoke BBQ operates on weekends out of Findlay Market, does catering, and are active in BBQ competitions throughout the midwest. They only offer a few items for sale at Findlay Market (pulled pork, brisket, and ribs). I ordered a pulled pork platter with coleslaw and asked for a toasted Servatii’s bun on the side.

Pulled Pork

The pork was perfectly smoked with a great mix of crisp outside and tender inside. I made a sandwich topped with the rather plain tasting coleslaw and a tangy Kansas City style sauce. I had plenty of extra pork leftover to eat on my own and plus a little to share with my wife. I think I give a slight edge to Eli’s overall, but Velvet Smoke is still a very solid product.

My yearly collection of favorite songs and newly discovered artists, NOW That’s What Ed Calls Music, is available for download from the links below.

1. Alabama Shakes – Hold On
2. Allen Stone – Sleep
3. The Avett Brothers – Live And Die
4. The Lumineers – Ho Hey
5. Holy Ghost Tent Revival – Telephone Wire
6. Hoots And Hellmouth – I Don’t Mind Your Cussing
7. Michael Kiwanuka – I’m Getting Ready
8. Of Monsters And Men – Mountain Sound
9. Old Crow Medicine Show – Levi
10. Gary Clark Jr. – Bright Lights
11. Dave Matthews Band – Gaucho
12. SoundRabbit – Sister, Brother
13. Mumford & Sons – Lover Of The Light
14. Ben Howard – Only Love
15. Kassidy – Oh My God
16. Glen Hansard – Love Don’t Leave Me Waiting
17. Alexander – A Million Years

This compilation is available for download from Dropbox and from my site (much slower). Please support these artists by buying their full albums and attending their live shows. As always I hope you enjoy the compilation and happy holidays.

From my family to yours, Happy Holidays!

Over the weekend we took Trey to the Behringer-Crawford Museum for their annual Holiday Toy Trains display. I had never heard of this museum in Devou Park before reading about it on Family Friendly Cincinnati.

Permanent Train Display

Before we could make it upstairs to the temporary Holiday Toy Trains display we were fascinated with a model of old Covington complete with a few model trains of its own. There are a couple of portholes that you can see in the picture above, where children can climb into and get a look of the city from inside.

Trains

The first floor is dedicated to trains with a play area for kids and plenty of information and history for the older children and adults.

Street Car

The holiday toy trains are in a separate space on the third floor. This display wasn’t as large as the one in the Cincinnati Museum Center, but this one was way more interactive. Trey spent a solid fifteen minutes running along the display case pressing various buttons to see what would happen inside the display.

Holiday Toy Trains

The second floor is full of information on the early automobile era. While the third floor contained all sorts of history on river transportation. And the very small fourth floor has information on the area’s aviation history. Throughout the museum there is all kinds of historical artifacts. I found this case filled with brewing history that was fun for me to look at for a few minutes.

Beer History

We easily could have spent even more time at the Behringer-Craword Museum than the hour and half we were there. There is so much to see that an entire afternoon could be easy to fill.

My family and I were up and out of the house early this past Saturday and decided we wanted to try somewhere new for breakfast. We have a running spreadsheet of new restaurant ideas so I picked the first place on the list, the Bluebird Restaurant in Norwood. Though I knew the general area it was in (just up Montgomery Road from Surrey Square) I nearly drove right past it. The outside of the restaurant is not easily recognizable and it looks quite small.

Inside Bluebird

Once we stepped through the front door I was amazed at just how large the restaurant really is on the inside. It isn’t very wide but offers plenty of seating with booths lining the entire length of the long right wall. There are also a few other larger tables to fill in the corners plus a large counter area that looks toward the semi-open kitchen. It’s very much an old-time diner, but still seems clean and bright.

Jukeboxes

Our son was a huge fan of the jukebox that was mounted on the wall just above our chosen booth. For 25 cents you can pick a song to be played throughout the centrally wired system of jukeboxes in every booth. This gave him plenty to do for the short time we had to wait for our food orders to arrive.

My Breakfast

I ordered from the ala carte menu and ended up with biscuits and gravy ($3.30), hash browns ($2.30), and bacon ($2.30). The biscuits and gravy were excellent with a nice peppery gravy and plenty of fluffy biscuits. I also was a huge fan of the hash browns, which were cooked perfectly with a bit of a crispness but not overly done. The bacon was also good and plentiful compared to what you normally get for a side of bacon.

Breakfast Special

My wife ordered the breakfast special – 2 eggs, hash browns or home fries, 1/2 order biscuits and gravy, choice of bacon or sausage (goetta and ham add 50 cents). This was a massive amount of food for the $6.90 price tag. We probably should have paid better attention to what each other were ordering, as we ended up with a lot of duplicates. I did get to steal some of her goetta, which I thought was a little overcooked but still tasty.

Children’s Pancakes And Egg

We also ordered the children’s pancakes and egg for our son. Again I was able to take a few bites of his pancakes, which I found to be light and fluffy, just as you’d expect. Though he didn’t say it, I think our son agreed with me as he nearly ate an entire pancake and most of his scrambled egg.

Our total for the three of us was $24.18 and we had enough food to take home for another breakfast the following morning. All of our food was tasty and our service couldn’t have been nicer and more efficient. We will definitely be back for more.

In just a couple of hours is the tip-off for the much-anticipated and renamed Crosstown Classic on ESPN2. Most people in Cincinnati are still referring to it as the Crosstown Shootout. After last years bench clearing brawl, the game was renamed and it was moved to a neutral location. Time will tell if it makes any difference. I’m hoping for a clean game but one that still has all the rivalry and passion from before. Go Cats!

Friday night we attended the Cincinnati Christmas Saengerfest with complimentary tickets from American Legacy Tours. The event featured area choirs in five venues throughout the Over-the-Rhine neighborhood. Though there were seven choirs spread around the venues we were only able to catch four of them perform. We saw the Cincinnati Boychoir at Memorial Hall, Nast Gospel & Praise Band at Nast Trinity Church, the Cincinnati Men’s Chorus at St. Francis Seraph, and the Young Professionals’ Choral Collective of Cincinnati at the Christian Moerlein Brewery.

While at St. Francis Seraph all concert attendees were invited back into the friary to look at the extensive collection of nativity scenes from around the world, as well as loads of other Christmas decor. We also let Trey spend plenty of time with the animals in the live nativity, which is one of his favorite activities of the Christmas season.

The Christian Moerlein Brewery recently hosted an open-house to show off their newly renovated brewery space on November 21. Fortunately the area was again open to self-guided tours during the Saengerfest. I snapped a few photos of their equipment and look forward to when all of their brewing operations are finally moved back to Cincinnati.

Finally the Light Up OTR event had placed luminaries throughout the neighborhood and it was all capped off with a lighting of a Christmas tree in Washington Park.

This past Friday evening I finally made it down to Pera Mediterranean in Mt. Lookout Square, less than a mile from home. My wife and I actually tried earlier in the day for lunch, but found their doors still locked at the advertised opening time of 11. Since we had a Groupon that was expiring, we decided to head back later in the day for dinner, bringing along our toddler aged son and one of my wife’s brothers. We arrived at 5:30 to find the restaurant empty aside from one other table.

Just a small portion of the dining area.

I’ve read reviews stating that the restaurant is BYOB, but they actually have a liquor license now. Also happy hour is offered from 4 until close with $1.50 domestic beers and $19 bottles of wine. Our server was quick to get our drink order and had our selections to us in no time. We put in an appetizer order, an appetizer sampler plate, while we looked through the rest of the menu.

Appetizer Sampler Plate

The small appetizer sampler plate is recommended for 2 people but easily can be shared with more ($12.95 for the small). This included tabouli, hummus, stuffed grape leaves, eggplant puree, ezme and falafel. The hummus was smooth and creamy, just as it should be. The tabouli was also good, though not quite as delicious as I remember it being at Andy’s. The eggplant puree is essentially baba ghannouj and was fine. The ezme had a nice kick to it, which I used in conjunction with the other spreads. I loved the falafel better than Andy’s, easily my favorite from the sampler plate. And the stuffed grape leaves were average at best. Overall the sampler is worth getting.

Chicken Kebab

For dinner I went with the chicken kebab served with basmati rice and steamed vegetables ($13.95). The chicken was well seasoned and perfectly cooked. I thought that the veggies were slightly over cooked and under flavored. For what you get, the price tag is a little high, I think.

Penne Mediterranean

My wife had the penne Mediterranean with chicken, green onions, chili pepper, Parmesan cheese, tomato and romano cheese sauce ($10.95). The menu indicates that mushrooms are also in the pasta dish, but none were present in my wife’s serving. I had a few bites of this and found the chicken to be overcooked and tough. It’s a shame that the chicken wasn’t cooked as well as the kebab was, otherwise this could have been a better dish. However as it was I would definitely skip on this one.

Gyro Kebab

My brother-in-law had the gyro kebab ($13.95). The thinly sliced seasoned lamb and beef served was served with tzaziki sauce on the side. I did not sample any of the gyro meat, but he really seemed to enjoy it. He commented that it was his first time having lamb, so he didn’t have anything to compare it with, but he said he would order it again.

Dinner for the three of us exceeded $65, which again seemed a little steep for the portion sizes. With that said I definitely will not return to Pera again for dinner, but will consider it for lunch in the future. I’m eyeing the chicken kebab wrap with tzaziki, lettuce, tomato, and onion served inside a pita ($5.75). And I would likely get the appetizer sampler plate again.

A few months ago the Wooster Tavern on Wooster Pike transformed into the second location of Mac’s Pizza Pub. I went the Wooster Tavern a lot as an early twenty-something but haven’t been back in many years. The second I walked through the door, over this past weekend, it was like I never left.

Inside Mac’s

The layout of the building is completely the same. There is a bar area to the right as you walk in the main door on the side of the building. To the left is a small dining area and then around the corner from there is the stairwell to the upper level with even more seating, a shuffleboard table, and another small bar.

Upstairs At Mac’s

There are TV’s in every corner of the building and then some. My parents joined us for dinner and my dad was really impressed by the number and quality of TV’s on their walls. We will definitely have to remember that when searching for somewhere to catch a game. Plus they have a really great beer selection. I was able to finally try Mt. Carmel’s Third Shift Imperial Coffee Stout. Wonderful!

Bar Ceiling

For dinner we all agreed to split two medium (12″) pizzas. It was the perfect amount of pizza for the four of us plus our young child. Speaking of which, every single table in the place seemed to have at least one child with them, so it’s a very family friendly place.

Mac’s Supreme

The first pizza I tried was the Mac’s Supreme ($14.49 for 12″). This was loaded with pepperoni, sausage, ham, green peppers, red onions, mushrooms, and black olives before being topped with plenty of mozzarella and provolone cheese. It was basically a pretty standard supreme pizza but I really enjoyed their rather chewy hand tossed crust. The sauce was also full of flavor.

Hawaiian Heaven

Our other pizza was the Hawaiian Heaven ($14.49 for 12″). This one was topped with pineapple, ham, bacon, and a dusting of cinnamon with the same cheese blend as before. I’ve had the Hawaiian pizza many times before, but I don’t recall ever having it with cinnamon. My parents were skeptical of this at first, but we all seemed to really enjoy the addition. It added a little extra spice to the already sweet pizza. This pie typically comes served with roasted almond slices as well, but we had them removed as I am allergic to almonds.

With an excellent selection of beer, great quality pizza, and TV’s on every corner, I think we may have found a new favorite spot.

About a month and a half ago I was contacted by a friend of a friend who was interested in a website for her and her daughter’s new business. I was happy to help out and for the first time I used WordPress for a client site. Overall I think the process went really smoothly and with the back-end already in place I was able to focus my time on the design of the website.

The Vintage Plate Company is Kansas City’s first source for vintage dish rentals. Their goal is to provide you with a unique touch for your special occasions. Check them out!