My family and I visited Istanbul Cafe last Tuesday evening. The Turkish and Mediterranean restaurant sits downtown on Vine Street, not far from the intersection with 7th. From my research, the restaurant was formerly named Turquoise.

Outside

The inside of the restaurant does in fact have turquoise walls along with Mediterranean artifacts and even Cincinnati history hanging on them. The crowd was filling around half of the available tables upon our arrival at close to 8 P.M., which seemed surprising to me in the downtown location. We were given a table in the back of the restaurant and offered high chairs for the kids.

Chicken Adana Kebab

Typically my wife and I will split a sampler appetizer when visiting a Mediterranean restaurant like this, but we didn’t like the idea of the chef picking the selections as part of their sampler. So we just decided to order two entrees and split those. I ordered the Chicken Adana Kebab, which is ground chicken seasoned with red peppers, parsley, and paprika, then grilled on skewers ($14). This was served with basmati rice and sauteed vegetables. The chicken was outstanding! It was full of flavor and grilled to a crisp on the outside, yet the inside was moist and delicious.

Falafel Plate

My wife ordered the falafel plate, which consisted of four falafel patties, hummus and and salad ($13). The falafel and hummus are two items we would definitely want on a sampler, so this was a good way to try them both. The falafel was much too dense and chewy for my tastes and I would not order it again. However the hummus was creamy, just as it should be, and with very good taste, and the green salad was surprisingly pleasant as well.

Even with mediocre falafel, I think Istanbul Cafe’s excellent chicken adana kebab and hummus were enough to earn a return trip sometime in the future. Also the restaurant is BYOB, so don’t forgot to pack your favorite bottles of suds on your visit.

We spent the entire extended weekend down at the lake house in Williamstown. A little work was done to the house, such as hanging shelves in one of the closets, but the majority of the time was spent having fun.

Nick With The Screen

Our evenings were filled with the usual bonfire, but we had new entertainment as well. Kim’s dad received a massive inflatable projector screen for Christmas, and we finally got the chance to break it in this weekend. In fact we watched a movie each of the three nights we were there.

Free Willy

Nick was quite the fisherman, reeling in a half-dozen bluegill. I also helped Trey do some fishing of his own and I think we caught the smallest fish ever. After that embarrassment I did manage to bring in a couple of other decent sized catches.

Bluegill Fishing

Throughout the rest of the weekend we also took a few boat rides and even took a swim in the lake on the last day. The water was a bit chilly but I’m hopeful it will continue to warm up with the recent heat wave we have been having.

My dad recently bought dinner for my entire family after losing a bet. He didn’t think it was possible to have a girl with the Paff name, but our sweet little daughter proved him wrong. My brother’s girlfriend was the one who started the bet with him, so she got to pick the restaurant for our night out. She picked Aladdin’s Eatery, a Middle Eastern restaurant that she has been wanting us all to try.

Outside

Surprisingly my wife and I managed to get the kids ready and beat everyone to the restaurant. We were greeted by a very friendly man behind the register, who I assume to be the owner or manager. Once I said we were waiting on the rest of our group, he directed us towards a reserved table in the back of the small room and asked that we have a seat.

Inside

Once everyone in our party had arrived we started with the vegetarian combo appetizer of hummus, tabouli, baba ghanoush, falafel, and dawali (stuffed grape leaves). The delicious sample of hummus was gone quickly, so we ordered another plate of the delightful chickpea purée along with a few more baskets of pita.

Hummus

In my experience, most Middle Eastern restaurants do not offer a kids menu, but Aladdin’s does, which was a welcome surprise. Our two-year-old loves grilled cheese and enjoyed his grilled cheddar cheese pita with fruit. His plate was served before the rest of ours, so he was able to eat while we continued to enjoy our appetizers.

Grilled Cheddar Cheese Pita

Aladdin’s offers some unique items that I have never seen on other similar restaurant menus. The first items that really stood out to me are their pita pitzas, which use either hummus or some combination of dressings as the sauce for this take on pizza. The other isn’t quite as unique, but isn’t something I haven’t seen before, rolled pitas. These remind me of sandwich wraps in that the pita used is thin and resembles a tortilla.

Falafel Rolled & Wrapped

After being impressed with Aladdin’s falafel from our appetizer sampler, I ordered the falafel rolled. In addition to the mildly spicy falafel patties, the rolled sandwich is topped with greens, tomato, turnips, pickles, and tahini yogurt dressing.

Falafel Rolled

Aside from the delicious falafel, the one ingredient that stood out the most to me were the pickled turnips. We actually had a plate of veggies with our appetizers, and I was surprised by how much I liked the turnips. They added some interesting texture and a great flavor to the roll. I think next time I would order this with either hummus or baba ghanoush added, which are both rolls offered on the menu as well.

Chicken Sambusek Plate

My wife ordered the chicken sambusek plate, which combines grilled curry chicken with onions, peas, herbs and spices, which is then folded into a pita pie topped with diced tomato, and scallions. This was easily my favorite of what I sampled. The curry and spices added a wonderful flavor to the chicken and vegetable mixture. The plate comes served with mixed greens, sliced tomatoes, mushrooms, calamata olives, and your choice of dressing. The sambuseks can also be ordered as an appetizer.

Aladdin’s Eatery has some unique and tasty takes of Middle Eastern food, but still excels at the more traditional items. And it does all of this at an affordable price. Highly recommended.

Last week the newest features of the Smale Riverfront Park were dedicated and opened to the public. The Duke Energy Garden and Women’s Committee Garden combine to more than double the amount of park space available.

Cincinnati’s New Front Porch

My favorite features of the Duke Energy Garden are a dozen family size swings that overlook the river. I sat on one of these swings for a few minutes and watched boats float by. I can already tell that these are going to be very popular.

Front Lawn

The Duke Energy Garden is the eastern most section of the park, just south of Great American Ball Park and to the east of the already popular Main Street Fountains. The pathways through the park are very close to connecting with the Ohio River Trail, which will soon link Smale with Yeatmans Cove, Sawyer Point, and Friendship Park, offering a mile and a half of continuous paved trail.

Duke Energy Garden

Even though the new swings are my favorite part of the park, my son continues to love running through the interactive Main Street Fountains. But since the swings are just around the corner from the fountains, everyone wins!

Main Street Fountains

Construction continues on the west end of the park. The PNC Grow Up Great Adventure Playground, being built next to the Roebling Suspension Bridge, will open in May 2014. And it looks like funding is in place to have the Vine Street Fountain & Stairs, carousel, and carousel building open in time for the 2015 Major League Baseball All-Star Game.

After a long day traveling back to Cincinnati, my wife and kids picked me up from the airport. We were all overly hungry and ready to find something quick to eat. My son wanted a cheese burger, and since I didn’t want to pickup food from a drive-through, my wife starting looking for places along our route north on interstates 71 and 75. We ended up at Willie’s Sports Cafe in Covington, just across the Ohio River from downtown.

Outside

I’ve been to this location of Willie’s before, though it has been quite some time. Willie’s operates a handful of restaurants in the Cincinnati area. I used to frequent their old location in Kenwood on Montgomery Road through my high school years, but this was my first stop at any Willie’s in many years.

Willie’s Covington sits up high on a hill just off the interstate and offers pretty great views of northern Kentucky as well as downtown Cincinnati. The front wall of the dining area is made completely of glass to take full advantage of the view. There are flat screen TV’s on nearly every other wall of the space.

Inside

We arrived just before 8 P.M on a Wednesday and found a completely empty dining room. The separate bar area looked to have a dozen or so customers. Having a dedicated server for our table really expedited our meal, which was appreciated since we were already out late.

I ordered the hand trimmed chicken tenders basket, with waffle fries, and coleslaw ($10). I had the tenders dipped in their hot wing sauce, and served with a side of bleu cheese. The basket was filled with a handful of perfectly cooked tenders and the addition of wing sauce was a great choice. The coleslaw was pretty good and their waffle fries are always a great choice.

My wife had the mushroom and swiss turkey burger ($9). I did not have a bite of the sandwich, but she seemed to enjoy it. Our son ordered a cheese burger from the kids menu and we were happy to see a promotion for a free kids meal with each adult entrée. He doesn’t like his cheese burgers to be very thick, and this one fit that description perfectly. He ate nearly half of it so he must have liked it.

Family Shot

Willie’s Sports Cafe offers good sports bar food in a location with sweeping views of the area. It’s a shame that the building seems to be lacking some minor repairs and doesn’t seem to be as popular as it could be.

You may have noticed a lack of posts last week. I spent the majority of last week in Kansas City for work. The project that I was working on the last three years hasn’t taken off like our leadership team thought it would. So I am back working on the project that brought me to Harris Broadcast in the first place many years ago. With this change I had to spend some time in both Denver and Kansas City the past couple of weeks to get back up to speed.

Returning to my old project includes some night and weekend work. I don’t mind the night work as it can be done after the kids have gone to bed, but the weekend mornings have been a little difficult so far. A nice bonus to the off hours work is that I am able to take some time away from the desk during the day and spend time with Kim and the kids since she is still on maternity leave. Last week we spent a couple of hours down at the police memorial parade.

Police Memorial Parade

The police memorial parade honors fallen officers who lost their lives in the line of duty.

Color Guard

Honor Fallen Officers

The parade marched to the Police Memorial, where Police Chief James E. Craig presented the Cincinnati Police Medal of Valor awards. Chief Craig will soon be leaving the Cincinnati Police to take the same position in his home town of Detroit, so it was also a sort of farewell event for him as well.

Officer Trey

My sister-in-law is currently on the mounted patrol, but it sounds like that program is going to be eliminated soon in an attempt to close holes in the budget. Originally she was on a list to be laid off in a couple of months, but it sounds like that has changed and she will either retain her position in district 1, or be reassigned to another district if necessary. I wish the mounted patrol could stick around for many reasons, and I know it always makes Trey happy to see his aunt riding on the back of Justice. Let’s hope the next chief has some answers to these budget and personnel struggles.

My wife picked the location of our mother’s day dinner and went with a place she hadn’t been since our college days at the University of Cincinnati, Cactus Pear.

Outside

The Cactus Pear has been serving southwestern fare since 1992 in their Clifton location on Jefferson Avenue. If you’ve never visited them you may still recognize their location by the pink painted exterior that is easily found near the UC campus, Cincinnati Zoo, and surrounding neighborhoods.

Inside Bar

The inside of the restaurant is much larger than I expected it to be. There is a long bar as you first enter the front door and a couple of dining areas on the opposite side of the spacious building.

Chips & Salsa

Chips and roasted tomato salsa are not free as you may expect from southwestern restaurants, but $1.95 for bottomless baskets is well worth it. While the chips didn’t appear to be freshly prepared, the roasted tomato salsa easily made up for that. It had hints of smokiness in addition to the more traditional tomato and garlic flavors. It wasn’t overly spicy and everyone in our family seemed to love it. I think we went through four bowls before our meals arrived.

Prickly Pear Margarita

We split a couple of pitchers of margaritas. I really enjoyed the house margarita ($28 pitcher) which was not overly sour like so many restaurants tend to make them. I could actually taste the tequila, which isn’t a bad thing in my book. The mothers in our group seemed to favor the more sweetly flavored prickly pear ($29 pitcher).

Chicken Enchiladas

For dinner I ordered the chicken enchiladas ($13.95). Grilled chicken, peppers, and onions are wrapped in corn tortillas and topped with tomatillo sauce, melted cheese, and sour cream. This was served with black beans and rice. The enchiladas were easily my favorite I’ve had in Cincinnati. The tomatillo sauce had just the right amount of heat and a wonderful flavor that mixed with the grilled ingredients so well.

Chicken & Shrimp Fajitas

I also had a few bites of chicken fajitas ($15.95), which were cooked perfectly and offered a serving size enough for two. The sizzling skillet is served with flour tortillas, black beans, rice, lettuce, pico de gallo, and sour cream. Others in our group had the tamales of beef (which came highly recommended and did not disappoint) as well as the fish tacos.

The prices may be a little higher at Cactus Pear than other neighborhood Mexican/southwestern restaurants, but the food quality easily makes up for it. The chicken enchiladas and tamales of beef were both excellent and highly recommended. Their tomatillo sauce is top notch.

I finally found the time to visit our newest neighborhood restaurant. The Wurst Bar in the Square opened a couple of months ago and has been calling my name since. I returned home early on a Friday after a recent trip out-of-town. My wife and I agreed to take advantage of the late afternoon sunshine and take a walk down to Mt. Lookout Square, home of the Wurst Bar. It is very easy to find, just a few doors down from Million’s Cafe and across the street from Mt. Lookout Tavern.

Outside

The Wurst Bar in the Square specializes in two of Cincinnati’s favorite culinary delights, home-made sausages and beer. While the draft beer menu was fairly limited, it did have some local offerings and seasonal specialties. There is also a really solid lineup of bottled beer. However in my eyes, the beverages take a back seat to the creative sausage offerings.

Flying Pigs In a Blanket

For starters we went with the flying pigs in a blanket, sausage wrapped in a delicious, flaky crust and served with sharp cheddar beer cheese ($5). The menu didn’t specify it, but we were also given a few dough pretzels to snack on along with a sweet and tangy mustard sauce. Both of these appetizer options are a great start to any meal, however I’ll definitely have to order the “wurst disaster” next time, fresh-cut fries sautéed in-house made pork gravy, served in a pie pan with cheese curd and diced German mettwurst ($6). I saw an order of this come out of the kitchen and it looked incredible!

Mac-N-Cheese

As we had our kids with us, we also ordered a side of mac-n-cheese ($4). This was served boiling hot in a small iron skillet. The top edges of the dish were crisp, while the inside was filled with loads of gooey cheese. Even though I intended this to feed our two-year-old, I couldn’t help myself and ended up eating more than my share.

Chicken Andouille

For dinner I ordered the chicken andouille, a breaded and deep-fried chicken andouille sausage wrapped in bacon and topped with horseradish creole mustard ($8). All sausages are served on your choice of 4 grain, brioche, or Italian roll and come with a side of sea salt fries. I went with the brioche roll as it was recommended by our server. The great thing about their rolls is that they are shaped like half moons to better fit the curved nature of the sausages. Due to their massive size, I recommend cutting the sausage and roll in half and eating it that way.

As simple as my sausage appeared, it was a huge mix of flavors. The bacon and andouille made it very smokey in flavor, while the horseradish added some spice, and the brioche roll added some sweet and sugary notes. And to top it all off it was breaded and fried, which created for an interesting flavor mix. I’m not sold on this one completely, but it was still tasty enough that I finished nearly the entire thing.

The Roonie

My wife ordered the roonie, a chicken-garlic-truffle sausage with fried onions and Boursin cheese ($9). This, on the other hand, was a wonderful mix of flavors. I think the brioche roll complemented this sausage better than it did with my order. There were huge cloves of garlic that mixed well with the creamy cheese. Even after cutting this one in half, it was still a little messy to eat. I definitely enjoyed this one more than the andouille.

There will absolutely be a return trip to the Wurst Bar for us in the somewhat near future. One sausage that caught my eye was the super hot mett, which is topped with pepper jack cheese, Habanero relish, and sweet pickled jalapenos. And I wouldn’t even put it past my wife or I to order one of their vegetarian offerings called the Yukon Cornelius, with apple and Yukon gold potatoes making up the sausage, topped with spicy sweet mustard. There are over a dozen creative and unique sausage offerings available.

A couple of days ago I took my family to the Cincinnati Fire Museum for our first visit. My grandfather was a Cincinnati Firefighter so it’s a bit surprising that I never visited the museum before, at least not to my recollection, even though it has been open for at least as long as I’ve lived in Cincinnati.

Outside

Oldest Surviving Fire Engine

The fire museum is located in a restored 1907 firehouse, the Court Street Firehouse, which sits at 315 West Court Street. The Court Street Firehouse is a registered historic building, listed in the National Register on July 18, 1974.

Hand Pumper

Aurora Pumper

Mt. Washington Fire Department

Hook And Ladder Wagon

There are a few hands on exhibits for children, including an awesome modern fire engine cabin with functioning sirens and flashing lights. I couldn’t figure out how to get the lights to turn on, but leave it to our two-year-old who had them all flashing in no time.

Play Fire Engine

Captain Trey

Over 200 years of firefighting history is on display in the Cincinnati Fire Museum. Exhibits include examples of early leather fire buckets that all citizens were required to own and maintain, a massive 1808 fire drum that was used to sound the alarm in the event of a fire, and the oldest surviving fire engine in Cincinnati.

1927 Ahrens Fire Engine

Helmets

Another awesome family fun activity is taking a slide down the fireman’s pole. Trey had never done this before, so I had to give him a quick demonstration before helping him take a few slides.

Fireman’s Pole

Fireman Trey

We could have easily spent more than the hour we dedicated for this trip. There is a lot of historical information that can take some time to read through. But with low admission prices it is easy to justify a quick trip as well.

I had a list of places that I wanted to visit during my trip to Denver last week. C.B. & Potts was not originally on the list, but I ended up there after a very late night in the office. I tried to visit Parry’s Pizza but their kitchen had already closed. Since I still needed dinner I quickly remembered that C.B. & Potts was nearby and headed there instead.

Colorado’s Tallest Bar

This was not my first time at C.B. & Potts Denver Tech Center location. It was actually a regular spot for my wife and her coworkers for happy hour during our years living in Denver. The building is a little hard to find off of Arapahoe Road, but as you drive up Greenwood Plaza Boulevard the large barn like structure is hard to miss. The inside is very tall and wide open and they claim to have Colorado’s tallest bar, for whatever that’s worth.

C.B. & Potts is a Colorado chain of brew pubs and is part of the Big Horn Brewing Company, one of the largest brew pub companies in the country. They also operate the Ram Restaurant & Brewery with locations in Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Oregon, and Washington. Their beer is very approachable and fits well within each style definition. It’s good beer but definitely not my favorite in town.

Chicken Amber Ale

On this visit I ordered the chicken amber ale sandwich ($10.99) The chicken breast is marinated in their brewers’ top secret Amber Ale marinade and then topped with porter BBQ sauce, slaw, tomato, onion crisps, and roasted tomato-chipotle mayonnaise all served on a pretzel bun. I really enjoyed this sandwich with a very unique combination of flavors. The pretzel bun was not actually pretzel shaped, but that was nice as it seemed to hold up better to the various sauces. I added sweet potato fries for $1.29 extra and was given a massive, perfectly cooked pile on the side.

C.B. Potts wasn’t my first choice for dinner, but I could have certainly done a lot worse. Good, approachable beer is on tap with a side of great tasting food.