We had a few good dining experiences in the western suburbs of Cleveland while in town for my cousin’s wedding. The first came on our first morning in town. As we were driving across town from one hotel to another, we stumbled into the Coffee Pot restaurant in Lakewood. My wife researched nearby breakfast places while I ran into Target for a quick purchase and the Coffee Pot was her suggestion.

Outside Coffee Pot

It would be very easy to drive past the Coffee Pot without even noticing it was there. I don’t recall any protruding signage, just the simple neon in the front window. We were looking for it and nearly drove right past it. The inside is as simple as the outside with a few booths around the front and right sides, a long bar counter on the left where the server/cashier worked, and some small tables filling the rest of the space. At the back was the kitchen, where one cook worked to prepare all the food.

Inside Coffee Pot

We were told to sit where we like from the woman behind the counter. I found a high chair beneath the register for our little one, and she was right over to take a drink order. I just had water and my wife tried their run of the mill diner coffee. Though nothing on our visit would be out of this world, it was all so cheap and in plentiful quantities. For breakfast my wife had an omelette which was served with home fries and your choice of toast.  I didn’t sample the omelette, but she really seemed to enjoy it. The home fries were really good served with sautéed onion in the mix.

Omelette

I ordered a short stack of blueberry pancakes and a side of bacon. When my order arrived I was sure glad I went with the short stack of two pancakes. These were the largest and thickest pancakes I had ever seen. Even with my  wife’s  assistance, I could only eat one and a half. The bacon was crisp, just the way I like it to be.

Blueberry Pancakes And Bacon

Our entire meal cost us $16.39 including tip. The Coffee Pot is a great place for a cheap and filling breakfast.

Check out my little tiger.

My wife and I are slowly working our way through all the restaurants in our new neighborhood of Hyde Park. Two Sundays ago we stopped in at Poco a Poco  for dinner. We arrived around 6pm and found the restaurant mostly deserted except for a couple of tables outside on the front sidewalk. We also choose to sit outside to enjoy the wonderful fall weather. The same employee who sat us at our table was also our server for the evening.

Sangria

After looking through the rather extensive drink menu, my wife and I decided on a couple of drinks. She had the sangria while I went with the  sazerac. Both were fairly typical drinks, though I was shocked to see mine served in a martini glass. I had only had it served in an old-fashioned glass before. Also interesting was the color of the sangria was white and not red, like usual.  Next time I think I’ll just go with a beer, as the drinks were rather pricey and nothing outstanding.

Sazerac

Prior to our visit I was told that this was a tapas style restaurant, however when I glanced at the menu that was not the vibe I got at all. I saw a fairly typical layout of appetizers, entrées  , with a special section highlighting tacos. There is also a large selection of sides available. I guess you could order a couple different plates of tacos and some sides and then split it, but this is not what I think of when I hear tapas.

Rancheros

After going over the menu a couple of times I decided on the Rancheros ($16). This features 18 hour slow roasted pork stewed in tomatoes & smokey chipotles, served with refried beans &  Latin  rice. Not pictured above are the three tortillas that were served on the side, basically so you could make your own tacos. The price is higher than the other tacos on the menu, but this dish includes the beans and rice side, which I could have easily skipped. However the rancheros were delicious! The menu doesn’t  mention the soft cheese that was served on top of the mixed stew, but I really enjoyed it’s presence. If I could order these without the sides I would definitely get them again.

Vegetales Tacos

My wife ordered the  Vegetales tacos with grilled summer squash sauteed with red & green bell peppers, dressed with sour cream vinaigrette, fried avocados & pickled jalapenos ($9). She really enjoyed these and after just a couple of bites I could taste why. The fried avocado was unique and definitely one of the standout ingredients. Also the sour cream vinaigrette that they used was very tasty. I would not hesitate to order this dish again.

After our first visit to Poco a Poco I would suggest skipping the pricey cocktails. The taco plates could easily be shared between guests, but that’s as far as the tapas concept goes. I look forward to future visits so I can sample more of the taco varieties and also some of the sides that are offered. There are also a couple of other entrées  that look good, but those get much more pricey than the tacos.

For the first time since the close of the 2009 season, the University of Cincinnati Bearcat football team is nationally ranked! After their big win in Florida versus South Florida, they are now #23 in the USA Today coaches poll and #24 in the AP poll, however they have yet to hit the BCS standings. Their 37-34 victory over USF this past Saturday was a big thriller. Even as they were down late in the game, I really felt that they would still pull out the victory and was glad to see them score the winning touchdown with just twelve seconds left in the game.

Next the Cats will play at Pittsburgh in a couple of weekends before heading back home to face West Virginia, who is now just one spot behind UC in each of the national polls. If those standings remain, and even if they don’t, the game versus the Mountaineers will be a big one. I’m glad that we will be there in person to watch it all unfold.

My weekend of fantasy football was better than last. I walked away with two wins and two losses. My teams now sit in 1st of 10, two teams at 4th of 12, along with 1st of 4 in the division based league where I still hold the best record. I dropped from 1st to 2nd in pro pick’em and retained 2nd place in the college game. And again I am still in 11th place in the salary cap game. I’ve made some changes to my roster that I’m hoping will  help.

While attending Second Sunday on Main a couple of weekends ago, I had the pleasure of trying my first slices from Fireside Pizza. I forgot to snap a photo of the food truck like contraption, but fortunately they have one on their website. Once I spotted this unique food cart I knew exactly what I wanted to have for lunch.  My wife agreed and we decided to split a pizza with pepperoni, roasted red peppers, and mushrooms.

Our Pizza Creation

After placing the order I was told to check back in ten or fifteen minutes and that it would be ready. After running into some friends and looking through some of the street fair vendors, I walked back to find our pizza waiting for us. The crust of the pizza was perfect! I love a nice crisp outside crust that is still warm and chewy on the inside. The sauce had a little sweetness to along with the fresh tomato taste and the toppings all seemed to be of the highest quality and in good amounts.

Great For All Ages

Even though he is easy to please, our nine month old son was also a big fan of the pizza!

We spent this past weekend in Cleveland, Ohio for my cousin Mark’s wedding. The wedding took place on Friday so Kim and I decided to drive up Thursday after work to make the drive easy on Trey and so that we would have Friday morning and afternoon for relaxation and play time in the hotel pool before the festivities.

Dark Cake Picture

The reception was one of the longest I can remember, going from 6pm until midnight, and  was a ton of fun! They had a nice tiered cake with different flavors of cake in each tier, which was a fun surprise. They also had a really good band on the stage, The Remains. The band actually traveled from Cincinnati for the event, so keep them in mind if you are planning a Cincinnati area wedding. They play an excellent mix of songs but focus heavily on the music of The Beatles.

The Remains

Everyone in my family had such a good time, we all decided to stick around until Sunday even though we had originally planned to drive home on Saturday. Congratulations to Mark and Monica and I hope to see you guys again soon.

After having prior dinner plans spoiled due to circumstances beyond our control, my wife and I stumbled into Lemon Grass for dinner. This was the first dinner in a long time without our infant son at our sides. We walked in and asked for a table for two and were led to the back of the restaurant. Upon sitting down my wife and I both realized how dark and dreary it was in the back of this narrow restaurant. We asked our server if we could move toward the front of the restaurant and he directed us toward a table that sat along the front windows. I guess we should have asked for a table up there at the beginning since he seemed more than happy to  accommodate  our request.

Chicken Thai Spicy

I can’t find a menu online other than their lunch offerings, but I think what I ordered was called chicken  Thai  spicy. If that’s not right it was some basic dish of chicken with mixed vegetables in a light but spicy sauce. It was served with a side of white rice. Lemon Grass uses the 1-10 spice rating for their dishes and I went with an 8. It was fairly spicy but I could have used just a bit more I think. Other than that the dish was well prepared and tasted good. I would definitely order it again.

Paht Thai

My wife went with the Paht Thai. The way that the dish was presented was nice in that you could easily leave out some of the ingredients if they were not to your liking. She also ordered an 8 on the spice scale which seemed to be enough for her. I sampled only a small bit of her dish, but it tasted pretty much like Pad Thai should. She agreed that the dish was good and fairly standard, nothing out of this world. With that said I think she would easily order it again on a future visit.

Compared to Bangkok Bistro, which I reviewed earlier this year,  I would say that the spice scale at Lemon Grass seems to be dumbed down just a bit more than the already weak scale at Bangkok. The serving sizes were a bit larger at Bangkok but I also think that their prices were too. With all of that said I would bet that we will likely return to Lemon Grass in the future and I would recommend it as a place to get a solid Thai meal for a very affordable price.

The University of Cincinnati had yet another win over the weekend against the Louisville Cardinals. It was the first conference win for the Bearcats and they now stand at 5-1 on the season. Though they have yet to crack any of the top 25 polls they are starting to get some votes. The game was down at Paul Brown Stadium, home of the Cincinnati Bengals. I much prefer to watch the Cats at home in Nippert Stadium, but we still managed to have a good time with our usual group of over a dozen. Next up for UC are some tough matchups, this Saturday at South Florida, followed by a game at Pitt, and then back to Paul Brown for West Virginia, a nationally ranked team. Let’s hope they can continue their winning ways.

My hockey team had the weekend off. Our record is currently 2-1 and play will resume this coming weekend.

In the world of fantasy sports, I had a very disappointing week going 0-4. This comes after three undefeated weeks in a row, but I guess the streak had to end somewhere. Even with all the losses I am in 1st of 10, 3rd of 12, 4th of 12, and 1st of 4 in my division. I remain in 1st place in the pro pick’em game but fell to 2nd in the college edition. Finally I’m in 11th place in the salary cap game, but making some progress.

A couple of weekend ago I finally made it to a restaurant that I have wanted to try,  Dilly Café. I actually stopped by earlier that week to pick up a bottle of hard to find Founders Canadian Breakfast Stout. I remembered there being a patio and suggested it to my wife on a warm and sunny Saturday afternoon. We arrived to find the restaurant fairly crowded and were told it would be a fifteen or twenty-minute wait for a table on the patio. We grabbed the paging device and headed to the back of the restaurant where there is a bar. We found an open bar table and before we could even decide on beers our pager had alerted us that our table was already ready. I like when that happens.

We soon realized why the wait for an outside table could be unpredictable as we found that there was only one server taking care of the many tables on the patio. We often had to flag him down to place a drink or food order. Though that made the pace of the meal quite slow, we didn’t mind, and other than the server being overworked he was friendly and very courteous. We actually ended up staying on the patio for the majority of the afternoon, as did a number of other tables. The weather was perfect and their beer selection is quite good.

Grape Pecan Chicken Salad Sandwich

As far as the food goes, I was really impressed. I am a big lover of chicken salad and I especially love it when there are various fruits and nuts (besides almonds) in the fresh mix. Their grape pecan chicken salad had two great additions to the  white meat chicken breast and celery. I really loved the chicken salad as well as the  multi-grain bread, and the lettuce and tomato were top quality. The only thing I should have done was ordered something other than ruffled potato chips on the side.

Mariemont Gobbler

My wife went with the Mariemont Gobbler sandwich, which features  turkey, imported Brie, cranberry chutney, and lettuce on a  baguette. Again this sandwich was very good! A large slice of Brie was included on the sandwich and went perfectly with the cranberry flavor. She also substituted sweet potato fries instead of the chips, which I should have done. I don’t think there was an extra charge and they were much better than the standard chips. Lesson learned and I will be sure to change it up on future visits. We will definitely be back soon, especially since we both bought a recent LivingSocial  coupon.

This past Saturday was a big day for my blog. Ten years ago I started my online journal as a fun-loving twenty-one year old student just starting my forth year of college. It is really hard to believe that I have been blogging for over 10 years now. Though the updates back then were often monthly, I’ve settled into a nice pattern of daily updates that allow for a quick break during the work day. I’m thankful for everyone who continues to stop by, some on a daily basis and others just from time to time, giving me another reason to write. Here’s to 10 more years!