After tonight, the first ever Cincinnati Beer Week will come to a conclusion. Though I didn’t make it to as many events as I had originally hoped, I did wind up at the North Peak Brewing Night at the Righteous Room and the Evening with Bell’s (incluidng Hopslam Firkin) at Market Wines. The one event I really wanted to check out but didn’t find the time for was the 12 Taps of Dogfish Head at The Lackman. I’m sure there were some other really great finds hidden in the list too, that I hope to read about as the week winds down.

As for the two events that I made it to, here is a brief recap on the offerings. Before the North Peak Night, I had tasted both their Diabolical IPA and the Vicious American Wheat IPA before and found them to be alright. The real winners of the night for me were the December seasonal Dubious Black Chocolate Stout and the November seasonal Furry Black IPA. And at the Evening with Bell’s I found myself wishing for regular Hopslam, which I seem to remember enjoying more than the cask conditioned. However their Batch 10,000 American Strong Ale and Hell Hath No Fury Belgian Strong Dark Ale were both great!

I hope they decide to make the beer week an annual tradition. I would definitely do my best to attend more events next year.

This past Sunday was sunny and warm in Cincinnati. We took advantage of the situation for a little bike ride on Little Miami Trail. It was the first time that we used the bike trailer that Kim’s mom bought for us. Before doing so we had to run to Target to get Trey a bike helmet. As we suspected, his head was too big for the infant helmets, so we had to get one that was labeled for ages three and up.

Unfortunately Trey fell asleep on the way to the bike trail, and since the new trailer makes hit sit upright, I don’t think he enjoyed the ride as much as we had hoped. He seemed to tolerate it for the first few miles, but after we let him out to run around at our turnaround point, he did not want to get back in. After getting him strapped in again and trying to calm him down, we eventually stopped a few minutes later so Kim could stay behind with him and I went to get the car. Despite the failed return trip, I still think once the even warmer spring and summer days are here, he will really like biking.

Kim posted some other photos from our biking trip, as well a ton more from the last few months, over on kimandedjr.com.

Over the weekend I finally made it to my first Bearcat basketball game of the season. In my days living near campus, I rarely missed a home game. So it was definitely cool to be back to the arena where I spent so much time as a student. I actually think this may have been my first time catching a game since those college days, but I could be forgetting something. I brought along Kim, Trey, and a couple of Kim’s brothers. We bought the cheap tickets, and I was pleasantly surprised by the view. Turns out a friend of ours from the college days had tickets nearby and since it wasn’t overly crowded we were able to enjoy the game together.

The game itself was close through the majority of the first half, with the largest leads being only five points. DePaul was winning 38-36 at halftime. The second half was much of the same with neither team really taking a large lead. That was until the final minutes of the game where the Bearcats finally extended their lead to ten points. At the final buzzer the score was 74-66 Bearcats. It was an exciting game and we all enjoyed it. My only complaint about our seats was that it was very warm up near the rafters. Small price to pay for an evening of exciting basketball action.

Yesterday was the start to the first ever Cincinnati Beer Week. Basically there are a ton of events going on at various watering holes through the city in the week leading up to the annual Cincy Winter Beer Fest. I was hoping to hit an event last night but I caught a bad cold and was stuck home. Fortunately I’m already feeling better today so I’m hoping to hit at least one event over the weekend.

This past Saturday again took us to the Mt. Healthy area to pickup our car that was being serviced the day before. After dropping it off the day before we took advantage of the situation and stopped for lunch at Pit To Plate BBQ. On our repeat visit to the area we decided to drive a little further north into Fairfield for some pizza from Cassano’s Pizza & Subs. The name sounded a little familiar when I found it using the mobile Yelp app, and with a lot of favorable reviews I figured it was worth a visit.

Cassano's Pizza King

Cassano’s is a chain based out of Dayton, Ohio, but this operation of Cassano’s has been independently owned and operated since 1982. As other reviewers have said, it appears that the inside of the place hasn’t been renovated since opening. Upon walking in you can view the open air kitchen area on the right through some tinted glass and immediately past that is the counter where orders are placed. On the opposite side of the restaurant are about a dozen or more booths and tables. There are also some beverage coolers toward the back of the space that I didn’t notice until I went searching for the restroom.

My wife and I agreed to order just one pizza, a large “Mom’s Big Cheese” – pepperoni, sausage, mushroom, onion, green pepper, and double cheese on top. After I paid for our pizza and drinks, we found a spot at one of the booths and within ten minutes our pizza was ready.

Mom's Big Cheese

Our sixteen inch pizza was cut into a ton of small square slices. The crust is really thin, crisp, and salty. The sauce was good and there was a ton of cheese covering all of our toppings. Both my wife and I really enjoyed this pizza. It reminded me of Donato’s, which is based out of Columbus, Ohio. And not only because of the similar way the pizza are cut, the taste was also familiar. With that said I preferred the finished product from Cassano’s over Donato’s. I don’t know if I would make a special trip for this pizza, but if you are in the area (Jungle Jim’s perhaps) this would be a great stop for lunch.