I’ve always thought that Cincinnati lacked a mid-size outdoor concert venue. In some ways the PNC Pavilion at Riverbend fills that niche, but it is terribly underutilized. Plus it has a roof over it, so you never feel like you are out under the stars. Enter the Horseshoe Casino’s new outdoor event plaza, “The Shoe.”

Event Calendar

This morning their summer concert lineup was announced. You can click the image above for a larger view of the calendar, or here is a full list:

• May 16 - The Killers – SOLD OUT
• May 21 - The Shins
• June 8 - Ke$ha
• June 9 - Huey Lewis & The News
• June 14 - Billy Idol
• July 6 – Barenaked Ladies, Ben Folds Five, & Guster
• July 7 - Alice Cooper
• July 19 – Willie Nelson & Family
• July 25 – Sugar Ray, Smash Mouth, Gin Blossoms, Vertical Horizon, & Fastball
• Aug. 23 - Chicago
• Sept. 5 - Jeff Dunham
• Sept. 22 - Earth, Wind & Fire

I see a few shows that I’m definitely considering attending. It looks like some of the shows will have reserved seating, while others are full general admission. I’m told the capacity is over 3,000. The Killers show was announced earlier this month and sold out almost immediately. Time will tell how the acoustics are and how the venue is configured, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

Pizzelii is a fast and casual brick oven pizza restaurant on Route 50 that just opened at the beginning of February. This past Friday, after visiting the Fifty West Brewing Company, which sits directly across the street, my family and I decided to give it a try.

Kitchen

An open air kitchen greets guests as they walk in the door. On our visit Gary Gottenbusch, one of the owners and also an owner of Servatii, greeted us as we walked inside. He was happy to give us a quick introduction to the menu that is hanging above the ordering counter as well as fill us in on some of the facts of Pizzelii. It turns out that everything is made fresh in the restaurant and there are no freezers on site.

Ordering Counter

Orders are placed at a counter adjacent to the kitchen. Only one size of pizza is offered and it is a thin ten inch. You can create your own pizza starting at $6 with either the classico (crushed San Marzano tomatoes) or the bianca (garlic infused extra virgin olive oil). Both are topped with a mozzarella and provolone blend and toppings can be added for a dollar each. Also available are specialty “piis” for $8 and a few salad offerings. Four beers are available on tap, including one from Fifty West. Bottled beer, wine, and soda are also available. They are the only independent restaurant in Ohio that has a Coca-Cola Freestyle machine.

Dining Area

After orders are placed you receive a number from the cashier, and you can then seat yourself in the extremely large dining area that is packed full with tables. A secondary bar is available at the rear of the dining area for additional alcoholic beverages. The brick oven cooks the pizza between 800 and 1200 degrees, so it doesn’t take more than a few minutes for orders to arrive at your chosen table.

Daily Special

I ordered the daily special, which was a bianca pizza topped with goat cheese, mushrooms, tomatoes, and drizzled with balsamic vinaigrette ($8). It arrived hot from the oven and after a minute or two to cool I immediately grabbed a slice. On my first bite I was impressed. The crust was dense, chewy, and crisp on the outside. The goat cheese added a great flavor to compliment the other more subtle ingredients. In my opinion, this pizza should be on the daily menu.

Margherita

My wife ordered the margherita with red sauce, fresh buffalo mozzarella, basil, and garlic infused extra virgin olive oil ($8). This pizza definitely needed more toppings and sauce. The sauce was spread so thin on top of the crust that it became very dry and mostly baked into the crust. The mozzarella and basil tasted great, but I wanted a little more of each, the cheese especially. I did find that extra sauce is available in plastic cups, which helped somewhat, but I still would prefer a little more on the pizza itself.

Dessert

Though the restaurant is counter service, we still experienced wonderful service. When the owner found out that our group was out celebrating my birthday, he kindly dropped off a delicious cinnamon apple dessert pizza for us all to share. Earlier in the meal when a miscommunication in our group left us one pizza short, the young employee that dropped off our order was happy to take an additional order from us while we stayed in our seats. I think with time the small issues I had with some of the food should be worked out to match the excellent service.

Before skipping town for the majority of the weekend, I made a quick afternoon stop at the first ever Cincinnati Craft Brewer’s StarkBier Fest that took place this past Saturday at Listermann Brewing Company. This festival featured beers from local Cincinnati breweries only and most were 7.5% or higher. Fortunately small samples were available so I could try a few beers and still be able to drive out-of-town.

Beer Trucks

Among my favorites that I sampled were Mt. Carmel Brewing Company’s latest Snapshot Series, Ardennes Belgian Quad, and Blank Slate Brewing Company’s Shroominous, which is a brown ale brewed with shiitake mushrooms. There were also some barrel aged beers on hand such as Quaff Bros.’ Corn on the Knob and a very boozy Bourbon Barrel Aged Brown Ale from Rock Bottom.

Live Entertainment

The festival had a nice little crowd during my early afternoon visit, but from pictures that I’ve seen online it got much more crowded. Though I missed the Cincinnati Craft Beer Oktoberfest completely, I’ve also read very favorable reviews. It too was held at Listermann’s and I hope that they continue with these mini beer festivals. They not only are pouring some great beer, there is also live entertainment, food trucks on site, and it is all family friendly. It makes for a great way to spend your Saturday.

With our lack of recent travel and very soon to be arriving baby girl, my wife and I had a bit of a travel bug. When we heard that her parents were going to be spending a weekend in French Lick, Indiana we jumped at the opportunity to join them. We planned the three-hour drive during our son’s afternoon nap, so we didn’t arrive at the French Lick Springs Hotel until around 4 P.M. this past Saturday. Her parents had already checked us into our room, so we dropped the car at the complimentary valet stand, and went upstairs to unload our luggage.

Our Room

The French Lick Springs Hotel was established in 1845 and was rebuilt in 1901 after the original building caught fire. The hotel is a massive structure with 443 guest rooms and suites, a 109,000 square foot conference and events center, and a 24-hour casino just to name a few amenities.

Lobby Ceiling

After walking through some of these features, we found our way over to their daily KidsFest. Here we found a few bounce houses, a large movie screen, Wii gaming consoles, and all the popcorn we could eat. KidsFest is a complimentary activity for kids ages 6-12, though smaller children are permitted as long as a parent stays with them.

KidsFest

After an hour or so at KidsFest, we rented a bicycle surrey cart to take our own tour around the outside of the resort. The highlight of the exploration was finding the French Lick Scenic Railway Museum where we could climb inside an old steam engine. Train rides are also offered daily.

Steam Engine

The rest of our evening was spent back inside the resort. We had worked up quite an appetite so we had pizza at Pluto’s Pizzeria, which is adjacent to the arcade and bowling alley. The bowling was a little too expensive and crowded for us, but we did take a few turns on the arcade games. From there we enjoyed the indoor and outdoor pools and outdoor hot tub, before finally making it to the casino for a little adult entertainment.

West Baden Springs Hotel’s Domed Atrium

The following morning we took a complimentary shuttle to the West Baden Springs Hotel, also owned by the French Lick Resort, to see it’s famous domed atrium. When it was built in 1902, the 200-foot dome was the largest in the world and held that title until 1913. Even to this day, it is a very impressive structure. The French Lick Springs Hotel seemed to have more activities to offer, but the West Baden Springs Hotel was much quieter. Either make for a fine place to escape, depending on what you are looking for.

French Lick on Dwellable

Fifty West Logo

To kick off my birthday weekend I finally made it to Fifty West Brewing Company, which has been operating out of the old Heritage Restaurant space on Route 50 since late last year. The historic building that now houses the brewery was built in 1827 and while it still has some of its original charm a lot of work has been put into modernizing the structure. It is really beautiful both inside and out.

Outside

My parents, my brother, and his girlfriend would all be joining my wife, son, and I for the evening. We asked about a table for the seven of us and were shown to a side room where two large tables take up the majority of the space. It is a little disconnected from the rest of the bar and restaurant, but it would work perfect for our rather large group. I grabbed a snifter of their bourbon barrel aged Horse and Buggy scotch ale from the bar while the staff worked to prepare our table. My first beer at the brewery was excellent and the evening was off to a great start!

Tap Wall

Once our table was set we all moved back to the side room for some additional beer sampling. Thanks to a sampling tray I was able to quickly get a taste of a handful of their 14 different beers available. Other favorites of mine included Gaddy’s Irish Red, Alternate Route German style brown ale, the Loneliest Road stout, and finally the Punch You in the EyePA.

Sampler Tray

While enjoying the beers we were treated to complimentary dough pretzels while we looked over the newly added food menu, which features mostly tapas style small plates that are meant for sharing. My favorite of what we ordered was easily the roasted poblano pepper ($8) that is stuffed with house chicken chorizo queso fresco and topped with citrus crema. The red sauce that blanketed the pepper had a nice kick to it that really spiced up the dish.

Roasted Poblano

We also shared smoked salmon guacamole ($7) and an order of their “potato skins” ($6), which features twice baked Yukon Gold potatoes filled with house boursin cheese, parsnips, house bacon, and roasted garlic before being finished with a balsamic fig reduction. The skins were tasty, but the serving size was very small and hard to share with our larger group.

“Potato Skins”

Other items of note that I observed during our stay. The music being played throughout the bar and restaurant spaces is all on vinyl and comes from a record player near the bar. There is a shuffle board table hidden between the bar and the bathrooms. A window into the brewery can also be viewed on the same walk toward the bathrooms. The beer list is constantly changing and appears on large chalk boards with descriptions of each.

Brewery

Beer List

It is still hard for me to believe that it took me this long to check out Fifty West. It easily met my expectations and I honestly hope it doesn’t take me as long to make a repeat appearance.

This past Sunday I competed in the Heart Mini Half Marathon. This was my second half marathon after finishing the Cincinnati Half last October. One of my brother-in-laws signed up for the race and convinced me to join him in the fun. My dad is a frequent competitor in this race, so he joined us as well.

According to the official results I completed the 13.1 miles in 1:50:14, which barely beat my time at the Cincinnati Half of 1:50:39.  This was good enough for 483 overall out of 1593. I was also 66 of 143 in my division (male 30-34). I was very happy with the results and the run felt pretty good overall.

Finish Line

There were more than 23,300 registered participants in all the races throughout the day. And they raised nearly $2.3 million! The team I participated with from my wife’s employer raised over $23,000 with 288 members. We were the highest ranked fund-raising team.

As far as the race itself goes, I did not like the course as much as the Cincinnati Half, which was really flat. This course was filled with hills and running out and back on Columbia Parkway leaves a lot to be desired. Sure it is wide but there is very little to look at and you can see for miles and miles. I would much rather run on Riverside Drive, which runs parallel to Columbia Parkway and offers plenty more sights along the way. But at least we ran the right course, which cannot be said for the majority of the 5K runners who ended up running nearly 4 miles instead.

My complaints on the course aside, the race was fun and it definitely benefits a worthy cause. I will likely run it again in the future. Plus my son enjoyed running the kids fun run the day before. Maybe next time he won’t have to hold grandma’s hand.

Run Trey!

Last month I posted about a new vacation rental website called Dwellable. My blog quickly rose to the top of their leaderboard and I was featured in an interview on their website. Though I have yet to use their service to plan any vacations, my blog posts are linked all over their website. My travel plans are taking a back seat until after our second child is born in less than a month. Once our trip planning picks back up I’m sure I will start using Dwellable even more, especially now that they have a beautiful iPhone and iPad app.

Where Are You Going

When the app is first launched the prompt is simply, “Where are you going?” When this is clicked a list of popular travel destinations immediately displays or you can simply type your desired location, whether that be a particular city or an entire state. The background of the launch page is a soothing ocean scene with a looping wave splash. One thing I did notice is that launching the app does stop my background music from playing. That is something that should be fixed as I find it nice to listen to music when making plans.

Colorado Ski Areas

Say you are planning a ski trip to Colorado. Well you can easily view the number of rentals in each of the locations along with a featured image of one of the vacation rentals. You can then select each ski area and see a list of available vacation rental properties. A filter page is available to select certain criteria for your search and a date planner is also available. It doesn’t appear that all the properties have their available dates posted, but I’m sure that will only get better with increased use.

Property Listings

Dwellable reminds me most of vacation rental website VRBO but the two are very different. I’ve always found VRBO to be lacking search filters and overall it is very ugly and cumbersome to use. Dwellable’s app and website are much more visually appealing and the filters are well designed. Last October my mother planned a large family trip to Hilton Head for later this summer. I helped with the property search using VRBO and we struggled to find the right size rental, on the beach, with a pool and hot tub. Look how easy it would be with Dwellable’s filters!

Search Filters

We are taking a last-minute trip to French Lick, Indiana this weekend. I used the app to try to find a vacation rental but there was only one result and it didn’t fit our needs. Again, I think the amount of properties available will only increase over time, but it is limiting currently. It would also be nice to see the blog posts that are featured on their website somehow integrated into the app as well. Overall I’m very impressed with Dwellable’s search capabilities and can’t wait to use it more for vacation planning.

Despite a protest from some local politicians after a LGBT group was not allowed entry, the Cincinnati St. Patrick’s Day Parade went off as expected this past Saturday. However rather than boycotting the parade all together, it seemed to me that there were many other groups in the parade showing support for the LGBT community and groups. I think this was much more effective than boycotting the parade, which would have done very little in the eyes of those watching the parade.

LGBT Support

My family and I watched the parade for a couple of hours and had a good time. This was my first time attending the Cincinnati parade, at least in recent memory, and while it doesn’t compare in size to the Denver version, it is a very spirited group and good fun for the entire family. With that said I wish they could somehow alter the route so that the parade wouldn’t have to be stopped every few minutes to let vehicular traffic through.

Sea Of Green

Friday evening we took Trey to see Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Dragons down at the U.S. Bank Arena. This was my first time in years attending a performance of “The Greatest Show On Earth,” but I’m sure it won’t be the last. Overall Trey really seemed to enjoy the circus, though I think he will like it even more when he has an attention span longer than the typical two-year-old.

Ringling Bros.

All-Access Preshow

We arrived nearly an hour before the show was set to start and spent time walking around the merchandise filled concourses and eventually found our way on the circus floor for the all-access preshow. Here families can participate in interactive experiences such as learning juggling and balancing skills, get performer autographs, see one of Ringling Bros. majestic Asian elephant’s paint a one-of-a-kind masterpiece and meet the Ringling Bros. Clowns.

Live Orchestra Setup

My favorite acts from the two hours or so of entertainment were definitely the Alexander Lacey, the Big Cats Trainer and Presenter, as well as the Torres Family, who performs with 8 motorcycles in a 16-foot steel sphere, where speeds can reach up to 65 mph! I was also impressed to see that the entire performance is choreographed along with a live orchestra and not with music from a tape.

Big Cat Presentation

Motorcycle Globe Of Steel

I’m not sure why the show is called “Dragons” as there is very little to do with dragons. A large robotic dragon does peak its head out of the curtain just before intermission and it is sent flying around the circus floor at the end of the night, but that is the only real dragon aspects of the show. If I had to add any other complaints about the show it was that the ringmaster was often hard to hear, but that could just be due to our ancient arena’s poor acoustics. Even without fully understanding his introductions of the acts, it was easy to quickly decipher what was going to happen in each.

Unleashed Dragon

Typically the day before the circus opens up for performances, there is an animal walk from where the circus trains are parked to the arena. This year the train arrived in the middle of the night after being delayed on its route between tour stops. My wife remembers going to see the same event as a child and really wanted to take our son. Once we found out it was canceled for this year we thought of other ideas to get closer to the animals. Fortunately we had a nice bit of luck last night as we were driving home from the west side of town and spotted a few of the elephants being loaded on the train.

Circus Elephant

So Close

Walking By

Rail Cars

Three Elephants

Back Her In

This was very cool to see but I hope we can get the full animal parade next time the circus comes to town.

The original Quatman Cafe opened their doors in Norwood in 1966 and is still in business today. Earlier this week I had the opportunity to try some of their food in the more recent Mason location. For some reason Mason seems to be the place for restaurants to open their second location, at least that is the case for Blue Ash Chili (which I reviewed earlier) and for Quatman Cafe. I’m totally cool with it though, as it gives me local, non-chain options when searching for lunch outside my office.

Nothing special jumped out at me about the outside of the building. It was a rainy afternoon so I quickly parked my car in the rear lot and hustled inside. I used the side door closest to the parking lot, which put me toward the rear of the restaurant. I wasn’t sure if I should seat myself and I couldn’t find a sign anywhere indicating their protocol. Fortunately some other guests arrived through the front door and found their own table, so I went ahead and did the same thing.

Inside

The inside of the cafe is fairly large and filled with tables and booths for all size parties. There is also a smaller bar area running the left side of the building, which didn’t really seem to fit in the rest of the space. They do server alcohol though, so I guess it makes sense to have a bar. However the main room feels more like a traditional deli and sliced meats are sold by the pound in the back.

A served was over to my table right after I had sat down. I asked for an iced tea while looking over the menu quickly. She reported that they had a few complaints about their tea earlier in the day. Since that was the case I gladly accepted the offered bottled tea instead. For lunch I decided to start with a bowl of their homemade bean and ham soup ($2.80) along with a chicken salad sandwich ($5.50).

Bean & Ham Soup

The bean and ham soup came out right away and was served very hot. I don’t think I’ve ever had bean and ham soup before, but this will certainly not be the last time. Decent sized chunks of ham were mixed in with plenty of smaller shredded pieces. I really enjoyed the thick and hearty soup.

Chicken Salad

While enjoying the soup my chicken salad sandwich was delivered. When my order was taken I was given my choice of white, wheat, or rye bread along with lettuce, tomato, onion, and pickles. Sandwiches are served with a side of Husman’s potato chips. My first thought when the sandwich arrived was that it was a pretty good sized basket of food for less than $6. The chicken salad itself was very traditional but in a good way. The mix was mostly shredded chicken, but there were hints of pickle or celery thrown in. It tasted great and was very filling.

On a future visit I think I would skip ordering both the soup and the sandwich for lunch, as it was a little more filling than I typically like my lunch to be. With that said both items were very good and are worth ordering for yourself. Quatman Cafe offers great food for an affordable price.