In a bit of ridiculous beer news, Elevator Brewing Co. in Columbus, Ohio has re-released their Ghost Scorpion Lager, a beer made with Trinidad Moruga Scorpion and ghost chili peppers. It is regarded as the hottest beer on the planet, according to the Ohio Breweries Beer Blog. In a quote from the previously mentioned blog:

“It’s not quite as dangerous as it was last year,” Elevator owner Dick Stevens said about the new version. “But we still tell people not to drink the stuff.”

You don’t have to tell me twice! I definitely will not be drinking any of this, and this comes from someone who will try nearly any beer out there.

This past Sunday afternoon, after working up a sweat on the trails around Lunken Airport and Armleder Park, I finally made it to Terry’s Turf Club for a very late lunch. This restaurant on Eastern Avenue has been very popular since it’s opening over five years ago and many view it as the best hamburger in Cincinnati. Since I don’t eat hamburgers Terry’s was never on the top of my list of places to visit, but I was convinced when my brother-in-laws wanted to check it out.

Outside Terry’s Turf Club

Since our party was nearly bigger than all the seats put together in this tiny restaurant, we split into two groups. My group arrived first around 3:15 PM. I was joined by my wife, my two-year-old son, and one of my brother-in-laws. The majority of the tables in Terry’s are high top, so we decided to wait a few minutes for a booth to open. There are less than a handful of booths available, but our wait was only five or ten minutes. Fortunately there is an outdoor waiting area with newly installed heaters and plastic sheets to block out the cold.

Outside Waiting Area

A few other smaller groups arrived while we were waiting and were seated immediately. Terry’s utilizes a community table seating method, so you may be sat at the same table as another small group. The inside of the small dining room and bar is completely covered with neon signs. There is definitely plenty to look at while waiting for your food to arrive. Plus a complimentary basket of peanuts is provided to each table for snacking.

Inside Terry’s Turf Club

The menu has a dozen or so appetizers followed by the sandwich offerings: burger, filet mignon, grilled chicken, portabella or shiitake mushroom, blt, grilled cod, lump crab cake, grilled boneless halibut, grilled Mahi, and pork loin. All sandwiches are served with choice of lettuce, tomato, pickle, onions, banana peppers, mayo, and two slices of American or Swiss cheese. In addition there are many add-on toppings, cheeses, and sauces. It was a little intimidating for a first timer and perhaps a list of some customer favorite combinations could help.

Grilled Chicken Sandwich

I went with the grilled chicken sandwich ($8.50) and had it covered in all the standard toppings including Swiss cheese. I also had the onion and banana peppers grilled before being added on top. Potato chips are offered on the side or you can upgrade to fresh-cut fries for $2, which I did. Meals are served on paper plates, no silverware is provided, and one large knife is given to the table to share to cut the sandwiches in half if desired. The sandwich was large and the toppings were fresh, however it seemed a little expensive at $10.50 for my plate.  I also found it to be a little dry and probably should have added a sauce to the sandwich, but those cost at least $2.25 more.

Cheese Burger

I was disappointed to find out that there is no kids menu at Terry’s. If they are already creating their burger patties by hand, why not add a cheaper version for the kids? Their answer was to order a grilled cheese ($4) but there was no way my demanding two-year-old wasn’t getting his cheese burger. We had no option but to order the $8.50 burger for him and hope he would like it enough to eat the leftovers too. He did seem to enjoy the burger, but with a 100 word vocabulary I’m not sure how much of a review he can give.

Crab Cake Sandwich

My wife ordered the lump crab cake sandwich with fries ($11.50). She said that the crab cake was good, not the best she’s had in town, but still a solid alternative to a hamburger. I did not try her sandwich but I did steal a few of her fries after I had finished mine. These fresh-cut fries reminded me a lot of fries we used to make at home when I was growing up. They were relatively thick cut and fried well to a golden brown. These are definitely an upgrade over the included Wavy Lay’s style potato chips.

Overall I found Terry’s Turf Club to be overpriced and not very kid friendly. The burgers may be one of the best in the city, but their other sandwiches leave a little to be desired. I doubt I will return.

Last night we officially wrapped up another season of Fountain Square Broomball. This year the Little Kings finished 2-3 and barely missed the playoffs. Our last game was against our new nemesis, the Krogerizers. Had we beaten them I think we would have made the playoffs. Despite a hard fought game a few weeks ago, we just couldn’t pull out the victory.

To celebrate another average season we all gathered at Market Wines last night for pizza and the always humorous award ceremony. Last year I was awarded the title of “Best Beard” and though I was hoping for a repeat victory this year I believe the award has been retired. Instead I was given the coveted “Ed Paff Sr. Best Name Award!” I should be a lock for this award years to come, unless someone like Ickey Woods or Cashmere Wright join our team.

My Swag

Friday night I met up with some friends to see Al Scorch & The Country Soul Ensemble at Arnold’s. I had previously heard a few of Al Scorch’s songs but I was in no way prepared for the bluegrass ass-kicking that I received. I walked in just as the five piece band was getting ready to take a set break, but fortunately I had plenty of time to spare so I stuck around for their entire second set.

I squeezed in next to my group of friends that had arrived early to get a table in the back covered courtyard. There were very few empty seats to be had and quite a few people were stuck standing in the back. It seems that my friends weren’t the only ones who had already discovered this up and coming act.

Their sound is very much bluegrass but a quick Google search also describes them as country-punk-folk-bluegrass, which seems like a fitting description. Al is quite a master of the five string banjo, and the band was equally as talented. I couldn’t find much information on the band members but they were playing upright bass, acoustic guitar, percussion (including an awesome washboard), and violin.

The band is based out of Chicago, but seems to be making an appearance in Cincinnati every few months. I’ll definitely be on the lookout for Al and his band this spring. For now I’ll be enjoying this recording from the Daytrotter Studio.

Mr. Hanton’s Handwiches was kind enough to park their food truck in a parking lot across the street from the convention center during our lunch break from the 5B Blogging Conference. Cafe de Wheels was also on hand, but I’ve already reviewed them, so my decision was easy. Mr. Hanton’s specializes in hot dogs and handwiches, basically a sausage of your choice covered in a ton of toppings. They offer five different sausages to choose from: beef frank, chicken apple, goetta, hot mett, and Italian sausage. The menu is actually pretty large as there are over 30 toppings available. However Mr. Hanton has identified the best sellers, making it a little easier for first timers.

Mr. Hanton’s

I went with the “not so hot chick” with a chicken apple sausage, BBQ sauce, yellow mustard, bacon and chopped onion ($5.00). Also available is the “hot chick” with habanero mustard instead of the yellow mustard. I considered ordering the hot version, but decided it wouldn’t be a good way to kick off a day of drinking. I was offered a small taste of the habanero mustard and I must say that it burned my mouth for a few minutes. Though I do think it would be good on the handwich.

Not So Hot Chick

My handwich was piled high with plenty of toppings and was a lot more filling than I thought it would be. The combination of BBQ sauce and mustard is really good and not something that I ever would have imagined to put together. The chicken sausage had a nice mild sweetness to it as well as a little savory spice flavor. I would definitely order the “not so hot chick” again, but with so many other choices on the menu would probably end up with something different next time. I hope to run into Mr. Hanton’s food truck sometime again in the future. They will also be opening a permanent location in the new U Square at the Loop near the University of Cincinnati in either late spring or early summer.

After an awesome Friday night of the Cincy Winter Beerfest with so many friends and family, I was really looking forward to Saturday’s second annual 5B: Believers in Better Beer, Bites and Blogging Conference. You may recall that I attended the inaugural conference last year and had nothing but positive things to say about it.

The lineup for this year was a little different from last but the basic idea was the same, three sessions at a time with one of each focusing on beer, bites, and blogging. We had a little extra time at the beginning this year for the coffee and conversation opening, which was nice as I was able to catch up with people who I had met the year prior and also meet some of the newcomers for this year.

Once we broke out into the hourly sessions, I focused my attention once again on the beer blogging track. The first session featured social media stories (successes and failures) from three local brewery representatives, Jason Brewer of Listermann Brewing, Patrick Clark of Mt. Carmel Brewing and Carla Gesell-Streeter of Rivertown Brewing. Turns out that Jason and Patrick both had stories similar to what Troika Brodsky of Schlafly Beer had last year. They all are performing the social media operations of their breweries in addition to other job functions within their breweries. Carla has recently helped Rivertown with their social media operations and I can attest to what a difference she is making.

Lunch was next and I promise to give a full review tomorrow of a food truck offering that I sampled. New this year was a private beer tasting we had thanks to Heidelberg Distributing, Stagnaro Distributing, Premium Distributing and Lexington Brewing. And once the beers became available many brought their tastings along with them to the afternoon sessions. I feel that this helped loosen the crowd and led to even better conversations.

Richard Dubé

The first session after lunch for the beer track was presented by Richard Dubé, Head Brewer at the Moerlein Lager House, and was titled, “And you say you don’t like beer!” It turns out that Richard gives weekly tours through the brewery at the Lager House and he almost always runs into someone who tells him that they don’t like beer. He then sees this as his personal mission to find a beer that they will in fact like. He says that it is impossible to dislike every beer, so they just haven’t had the beer that is right for them. I often feel the same way about beer and try my hardest to give suggestions to others based on their own personal tastes.

Up next we had the do’s and don’ts of beer blogging as presented by Tom Aguero of Queen City Drinks and Scott LaFollette of Blank Slate Brewing. Tom is a beer blogger and Scott is a new brewery owner, so the two put together a great list of guidelines to follow when doing beer blogging, or any blogging for that matter. Tom had kindly posted the list on his website for reference.

Demystifying The Three-Tier Beer Distribution System

The final session on beer blogging was demystifying the three-tier beer distribution system with Lindsey Bonadonna Roeper of Heidelberg Distributing, Eddie Anderson of the Craft Beer Alliance, Pnut Kahles of Dilly Café and Travis Childs of Everything’s d’Vine. While some may view the three-tier distribution system as pure evil, the panel helped to prove how it is actually beneficial to all the small craft breweries that I love. It may not be a perfect system, but it does help allocate space to the small guys, which probably would not happen if the big guys owned all the stores and distribution systems.

What was originally supposed to follow all the presentations was entry into the Industry Trade Show and Locals Tasting Session, but that was canceled by the Beerfest. Instead we had our own bottle share, glassware swap, and general networking for the next couple of hours. This was an awesome addition to the conference! I was able to sample some rare and hard to find beers thanks to the generosity of other bloggers in attendance. As Tom from Queen City Drinks tweeted, “When founders breakfast stout is the least drank beer you know your somewhere special.”

Just as I said at the end of my post on the Beerfest itself, as long as the conference is held I will definitely be a participant. Thanks Hoperatives.

Last Monday I finally got around to using a Groupon to Goodies Southern Style BBQ that was expiring later in the week. Since we were coming from opposite sides of town, my wife and I agreed to meet at the restaurant around 6:30 PM. The restaurant is not easily identifiable, especially when coming from the north on Hamilton Avenue, and parking is not really well-defined either. I followed a couple of other cars and parked in what I would assume is the neighboring strip mall parking lot.

Once I exited the car I could smell the pleasant scent of the wood fired smokers that were in use at the rear of the restaurant. I grabbed my two-year-old son out of his car-seat and entered the restaurant with my wife. Unfortunately a much less pleasing smoke smell greeted us immediately upon opening the door and later stuck to our clothes after we had left. It seems as though the kitchen may be lacking a proper ventilation system.

Inside

A line had already formed at the counter where orders are placed, and there wasn’t an employee in sight. Eventually an employee appeared from the back kitchen area to take the first couples order. After each order was placed she would then run back into the kitchen to help assemble the order. So this process took a little while before I was actually able to get my order in.

The Groupon was a BBQ sampler for two and it was supposed to offer each diner one sandwich, a side of coleslaw, fries, and a can of soda. Sandwich choices were to include smoked turkey, smoked ham, smoked sausage, pulled pork, and beef brisket. When it was finally my turn to order I was told that they were out of pulled pork and that my choices were smoked turkey, smoked ham, and brisket. I was counting on the pulled pork, so it was very disappointing that it was gone with over two hours left before closing time.

BBQ Sampler

Since neither my wife or I would eat the brisket, I ordered one each of the turkey and ham. I was also told that the fryer was down so we would have to pick a different side. I went with macaroni and cheese. The smoked ham sandwich (normally $4.19) was topped with their mild BBQ sauce. I didn’t get any smoke flavors from the meat and found the sandwich to be a bit on the small side. The sauce was tangy and appeared to be a vinegar based sauce. The coleslaw ($1.80) was very runny and didn’t appear to be fresh. The macaroni and cheese may have been the best part of the meal, and it wasn’t that great.

Smoked Turkey Sandwich

The turkey sandwich ($4.19) was better than the ham, but still lacked any smoke flavor. It came topped with their other available sauce that was spicier than the mild but still vinegar based. We also ordered a couple of pieces of cornbread ($.60 each) that were easily the best deal of the meal. The dense and dry bread wasn’t great, but compared to the rest of the food it seemed most on par with what I would expect from a southern style BBQ restaurant.

All of our food was served on Styrofoam containers and our only utensils were plastic. There are only a few tables for dining in and it was almost expected that everyone was taking their orders to go. I’m afraid I can’t say many good things about Goodies Southern Style BBQ. There is no way I will be back with so many other great BBQ options in town.

Welcome!

The majority of this past weekend I spent down at the Duke Energy Convention Center for both nights of the sixth annual Cincy Winter Beerfest as well as the second annual 5B: Believers in Better Beer, Bites and Blogging Conference. This may sound like a similar post from the same events last year, and in some ways it was. Once again the crowds on Friday night were much lighter than the nearly packed house on Saturday night. The added hour of VIP early entry is well worth the extra $10, even on Friday. And despite your best efforts, you will likely still have somewhat of a hangover the following day.

Fifty West

There were also a couple of differences that I noticed throughout the weekend. It actually seemed like crowds were down slightly. Either that or some changes were made to the floor to better spread the crowd. I didn’t see too many excessive lines even during the peak of Saturday’s session, when last year everything was a 10 minute wait or more. Regardless of how it was accomplished it was much appreciated as that was my biggest complaint from last  year.

Listermann

Plus there were even more local breweries available this year. Their booths seemed to get the majority of my attention, at least early on. It is nice to have an ever-growing list of local options when choosing what to drink. Hopefully they all will start appearing in local stores soon, making it even easier to sample their products without having to go into a bar or restaurant.

The Turkeys

On the opposite end I know some people who skipped this year due to an unimpressive lineup of beers. I did notice a few area where it seemed that there were more harder to find beers last year, but that’s what the connoisseur area is for anyway. This year’s connoisseur area was easily twice the size of last year and it offered private restrooms, plenty of harder to find beer, and tables full of finger foods. If that’s your thing it is easily worth the $75 price tag.

Beer Truck

The best part for me is that while doing all the above I was able to enjoy a wide offering of beer with both new and old friends alike. As long as this event is held I will likely be a participant in one way or another.

Credentials

Late last year I was contacted by Jane at Dwellable about adding a blog post of mine to their site. After adding the first link to my site she helped me to find even more links that were applicable to their vacation rental website. That process continued until my site eventually appeared on their blog leaderboard.

On February 4 I was alerted that Dwellable was expanding their listings from just a few featured areas to a cross-country engine. With the update they also were holding a contest to get as many blog posts linked to their site as possible. In the two days after the contest was announced, almost 300 blog posts were linked to their site, 31 of which were mine.

The contest ended this past Sunday and on Tuesday I was announced as the winner! During the week-long contest 49 links had added to my site, taking my total count to 79 links (though it is currently up to 83). As the winner I was treated to an interview about me, edpaffjr.com, and my favorite places to travel. The interview was published on their site yesterday. I didn’t choose the photos that they have used but find it funny that the spam image is what they choose to feature.

I haven’t used Dwellable for any travel planning yet, but I’m sure I will in the near future. Check them out.

Tonight is the last night for the second annual Cincinnati Beer Week. Just like last year I didn’t make it to nearly as many events as I had originally hoped due to a very busy schedule. Fortunately I can try to make up for it this weekend with tickets to both nights of the Cincy Beerfest.

The one event I did make it to was a draft tapping of Goose Island’s famed Bourbon County Brand Stout, which took place this past Tuesday at The Party Source. This beer is ranked 100 on both BeerAdvocate and RateBeer, truly a world-class beer. This was my first time tasting this delicious beer and man was it good! The 15% stout is aged on bourbon barrels giving it a ton of oak and bourbon flavors, but the base stout is so creamy and full flavored that it is almost too easy to drink. I could have had another serving but there was a one glass limit per person, and the glass was free for me to take home.