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.