This past Sunday was the day for our annual Christmas tree hunt. Previously we have always gone to farms in Indiana for our trees, but I really wanted to try elsewhere after having very slim pickings last year. Kim and I found Dirr  Nurseries  website the day before our search and were very excited when our large group agreed to give it a go out in Goshen, OH.

All cut your own trees at Dirr are $40 and this year they offered white pine, canaan fir, balsam fir, and scotch pine. I think most of us ended up with a white pine this time around. One of Kim’s uncles is  notorious  for cutting down the largest trees he can find. This year’s seventeen footer may still look large but I think it’s five feet shorter than what he had last year. I settled for a nice eight and a half-foot tall tree.

Uncle Mike’s Seventeen Foot Tree

Our Tree – Ready To Go Home

Merry Christmas Cincinnati

Once I got the tree home, I had a much easier time with it than I did last year. The guys at Dirr had already trimmed off most of the lower branches leaving just a couple that I had to do myself. Plus with the tree bundled up it was much easier to get inside and into the stand. Trey was around to help measure the tree and then to put his ornaments on it. I think it turned out great!

Standing It Up

Trey Helping

Silly Boy

Lights On

All Done

Late last week my wife and I met another couple for dinner at the newly opened Alfio’s Buon Cibo in Hyde Park Square. Alfio’s opened about a month ago in the former Poco a Poco spot (which I enjoyed during its short lifespan). Chef  Alfio Gulisano was born to Italian parents but grew up in  Argentina. So the menu is a mix of both cuisines, with most of it focusing on recipes from his family’s Italian heritage.

Outside Alfio’s

I made a reservation for 6:45 and arrived to find the restaurant with just a few tables occupied. The bar area is just past the hostess stand and had a number of guests already there enjoying glasses of wine. As we waited for one of our friends to arrive, the restaurant became increasingly crowded and a couple of larger parties also made their way inside.

Inside Alfio’s

Our server for the evening offered suggestions not only for dinner but also was very knowledgeable about the wine list and even suggested an  Argentinean  beer, Quilmes, a lager with a little more flavor than most of our own domestically produced options. He was quick to provide refills throughout the night. The other employees that we did see throughout the night were all helpful and provided excellent service.

Spinach And Apple Salad

My wife started with the spinach and apple salad with  spicy honey candied pecans, goat cheese, red onion, and dried cherries in a quince pomegranate vinaigrette ($9). I didn’t order a starter of my own, but was happy to share a few bites of her salad. It was an excellent blend of flavors and I loved it. Sorry for the dim picture above, I didn’t realize until later that I needed to use my flash. One of our friends tried the  butternut squash mascarpone soup and said it was very tasty as well (cup $4 and bowl $7).

Chicken Saltimbocca

For dinner I decided on the chicken saltimbocca, which combined pan seared chicken breasts with prosciutto, roasted red peppers and sage then cooked in white wine and butter  sauce and served over fettuccini ($18). The presentation was a bit strange with the large roasted red pepper dwarfing the rest of the dish, but the portion size was excellent with two full chicken breasts. The sauce was a delicious butter and wine based sauce and the flavor combination was really good.

I also considered ordering the chicken caprese – sautéed chicken breasts topped with fresh mozzarella, tomatoes and basil in a white wine shitake  mushroom sauce served over spaghetti ($19). One of our friends ordered this dish and it was much prettier in presentation. I didn’t sample any it, but I think I would consider giving that a try next time, as she seemed to really enjoy it.

Eggplant Parmigiana

My wife ordered one of two specials for the night, eggplant parmigiana ($14). They also offer  Lobster ($25), Portabella ($16), and Chicken ($18). This dish again was a large serving with three large slices of eggplant that were breaded and fried and then smothered with marinara and mozzarella. I’m not usually one to enjoy eggplant parmigiana, but I stole a few bites anyway and I though this was again very good. I would even rank it above most of the chicken parmigiana I have had in the last few years.

The fourth plate at our table was braised veal short ribs  in porcini and shitake truffle mushroom broth served over creamy polenta and  asparagus ($22). Again I did not sample any of the dish, but our friend commented that it was good. He added that they weren’t the best short ribs he’s ever had, but that they were tender and tasty.

Overall we had a great dining experience at Alfio’s and I’m sure we will be back for more food in the hopefully near future.

Unwind Wine Bar and Light Fare officially opened their doors a couple of hours ago. They are located at  3435 Michigan Avenue, just around the corner from Hyde Park Square. I had a ticket for their soft opening last night thanks to a good friend of mine, but wasn’t able to attend. I passed the ticket on to friends that I had dinner with last night and the email I received from them this morning was positive. Everything I’ve heard has been very positive and I look forward to checking it out soon myself. I did snap a couple of photos the other week as they were making final preparations.

Lounge Area

Bar Area

My wife is an employee of the Great American Insurance Group and as part of their Christmas party last year we were given two $75 gift certificates to use at the Cincinnatian Hotel’s Palace Restaurant or Cricket Lounge. She used one of the gift certificates for lunch at the Palace with her family a few weeks ago and while she commented that the food was good, the service left something to be desired.

Fast forward to last Friday, the last day the gift certificate could be used. We still had one certificate left so we decided to head down for another lunch. Upon our arrival around 11:30 we checked with the Palace to see if we could get a table. Despite the nearly completely empty dining room we were told that they were booked solid with reservations. I’m assuming that most of the reservations were for noon, and we did see a steady stream of people arrive throughout our visit.

Palace Guard

Since we had still beaten most of the lunch rush, we were able to find a table in the seat yourself Cricket Lounge. Our service started off great, with our drink order taking only a few minutes to fulfill. However as time went along and the lounge got more and more crowded, it was clear that the single server was going to struggle keeping up with the demands from the entire lounge.

My wife started with a bowl of the soup of the day, butternut squash ($6), while I started with the farm greens salad with  apples, candied walnuts, aged cheddar, and sherry vinaigrette (full $8, half $4). The salad was full of flavor from the sweet toppings and cheese. Plus the sherry vinaigrette dressing was wonderful. I really enjoyed this salad and would easily order it again. Though I’m not sure why it took a half hour for the starters to appear at our table.

Farm Greens Salad

For lunch my wife had the  BBQ pulled pork sandwich with fries ($9). The sandwich was piled high with pulled pork that appeared to already be mixed with some sauce and then it was topped with even more Sweet Baby Ray’s sauce. I wish they would prepare their own BBQ sauce for the sandwich, as I feel it could definitely have been better. The fries were nice and crisp but definitely nothing out of the ordinary.

BBQ Pulled Pork Sandwich

I went with the turkey wrap which comes filled with bacon, avocado, lettuce, tomato,  Swiss  cheese, and dijonnaise on whole wheat wrap ($11). I like that the wrap comes grilled on a panini press so that the wrap itself has a bit of a crunch to it, while the insides remain slightly chilled as you would expect in a wrap. I definitely enjoyed this more than the pulled pork sandwich. And the house made kettle chips were also more enjoyable than the fries.

Turkey Wrap

I was hoping to be in and out in an hour, that was one of the reasons we got down there as early as we could. Unfortunately it took over two hours for our meal. I would think that most  business-people  downtown would want to be in and out at a quicker pace,  especially  in the more casual lounge area. I think it was purely a staffing issue, and they shouldn’t expect one server to be able to handle the entire space, especially when they know the gift certificates that all employees received were expiring that day.

Last night I took a midweek roadtrip with one of my college roommates to see the Dave Matthews Band play in Louisville at the relatively new KFC Yum! Center. Overall the arena was pretty impressive with good sight lines from all levels, tons of luxury boxes, and a nice acoustics.

Inside KFC Yum! Center

Jimmy Cliff opened the show and we walked in after he and his band had already started. Though we didn’t get to hear “I Can See Clearly Now” we were treated to a set closing combination of “The Harder They Come” followed by a drum filled cover of “Rivers of Babylon.” It was a great start to our night.  I’ve seen Jimmy once before at the 2010 Mile High Music Festival and recall having a good time there as well.

Great Lights

Between sets we made a stop at the  Woodford Reserve Club for drinks and after returning toward our seats decided to hang at the top of our section and stand for the duration of the show. There was a nice drink rail for us to use and we could see just as well as we could from our seats. No one ever asked us for our tickets, so next time I would consider buying a cheaper upper level seat and just stand at the top of the lower level.

Our View

The DMB set was a nice mix of new songs from their most recent release,  Away from the World, and a sampling of nearly all of their previous albums. “Don’t Drink the Water” is always a great song to hear as the opener. I also especially enjoyed this early stretch of songs: “Seven” “#41” “Mercy” and “Grey Street.” The encore was also spectacular with “Christmas Song” segueing into “Halloween” and then finally into “Tripping Billies.” It was a killer ending to a great night of music!

We have been busy enjoying various holiday events over the last couple of weekends. We’ve already been twice to the Holiday Junction featuring the Duke Energy Holiday Trains, which I remember going to see as a child. And though I don’t recall seeing the Shillito’s Elves  display as a child, we also really enjoyed seeing the  rejuvenated  display  at Newport on the Levee recently.

The elves were displayed in the Shillito’s department store starting sometime in the 1950’s through 1980’s. Earlier this summer I somehow stumbled upon the Kickstarter project to bring the elves back and was happy to contribute $25 to help the cause. In recognition of the donation, I received two family passes to see the display. We used one pass last weekend and we will be happy to use the other sometime over the next month to go see the display again.

In addition to the elves, there are also two train displays. The first from the Ohio Kentucky Indiana LEGO Users Group is a very detailed LEGO city with two trains  circling  around it. There is also a large model train display from the Ohio Valley Sipping & Switching Society. Trey has been on a huge train kick recently, so these were highly entertaining. I wasn’t sure how he would react to the elves, but he quickly warmed up to them and he really seemed to enjoy them.