Today I was reading about The Six-Pack Project  from the author of  This Is Why I’m Drunk. Basically the idea is to get six beer bloggers from six different states to post a list of six beers  that best represents each state and/or the state’s beer culture. I first heard of this today while reading Queen City Drinks’ post for Ohio  and Hoperatives’ post for Kentucky. Tom, the author of the Queen City Drinks post, picked a couple of Cincinnati beers for his Ohio selections. This got me thinking about my favorite beers from Cincinnati. The two that he picked would also be in my list (the first two) and it didn’t take me too long to think of my other four.

• MadTree  PsycHOPathy IPA – the best IPA brewed in the Cincinnati area
• Triple Digit Chickow! – a very powerful hazelnut porter, clocks in at 10%
• Blank Slate Fork In The Road – an India amber ale, more maltier than typical IPA
• Fifty West Kelly’s Roadhouse Stout (Nitro) – just had this for the first time last week and I am still thinking about it
• Mt. Carmel Amber – the flagship beer from one of the area’s first craft breweries
• Rivertown Roebling Porter – vanilla and espresso fill this nearly black porter

So far The Six-Pack Project has had two editions, meaning twelve states have been covered. I know that I look forward to searching for some of the South Carolina beers mentioned by Drink. Blog. Repeat. on an upcoming trip to Hilton Head.  What would be in your six pack?

For dinner this past Friday my family and I headed to the newly opened Lime Fresh Mexican Grill in the still expanding Rookwood Exchange project. Lime is a new chain of restaurants that started in Florida and now has nearly 20 restaurants in 6 states.

Inside

It is hard not to immediately start comparing Lime with Chipotle, Qdoba, etc. As with the other restaurants in this category, orders are placed at the counter immediately upon entry. However at Lime you do not walk down a line while your food is assembled. Instead your full order is placed, you are handed a table number, and your food is brought to you within a few minutes.

Salsa Bar

After placing our order, I immediately stopped at their extensive salsa bar. Chips are provided on the side with all orders and the self-serve salsa bar provides an array of dips. I tried nearly all of them and found the majority of them to be underwhelming. They all lacked any heat, with the exception of the super spicy Habanero. I found myself gravitating back to the pico de gallo the most. The pineapple was my wife’s favorite. If I had to pick one from the others I think the Verde was the best.

8th Street Burrito

I ordered the 8th Street Burrito, a  flour tortilla stuffed with chicken, homemade organic black beans, rice, crispy bacon, sour cream, pico de gallo salsa and tortilla strips ($7.99). I did not know that the burrito was going to be grilled after assembly, but that was a pleasant surprise. I am not sure if all burritos are served that way. The first few bites of the burrito left with me nothing more than bland rice. Once I finally made it to the meat of the sandwich, I enjoyed the mix of flavors. A large selection of hot sauce was also available at the counter, which I used to add some spice.

Tacos

My wife tried both varieties of fish taco. The first was a  soft flour shell stuffed with fresh grilled fish, shredded lettuce, pico de gallo salsa and topped with a special sauce ($3.50). The second, surfer taco, was a  soft flour  shell stuffed with baja-style fresh fish, finely shredded cabbage, pico de gallo, and cool cilantro sauce ($3.50). She enjoyed the surfer taco more than the original fish. I had small bites of these and would have to agree with her. The cilantro sauce on the surfer was great and added a lot to the taco. Either style of taco could be made a meal of 3 tacos for $8.49.

Our two-year-old son had a chicken taco with only cheese on it ($2.00 during happy hour, $3 otherwise). Also available is kid taco with just meat and cheese for $2.50 any other time.

Trifecta App

We also shared a trifecta appetizer of homemade pico de gallo salsa, fresh guacamole and creamy queso dip ($5.49). It seems dumb to me to include the pico when it is available to everyone at the salsa bar, but we did not realize that at the time of our order. The queso dip was my favorite of the three and I think I would just order a larger serving of that on another visit. The guacamole was alright, but not as good as Chipotle’s. They offer four different kinds of guacamole, so maybe another variety would be better than the classic.

Patio

We ate our dinner on their spacious and shaded patio. This space is nearly as large as the entire indoor portion of the restaurant. There was a cornhole game setup on the side, which provided my son with some entertainment while my wife and I finished our meals. The patio was awesome and I hope to visit again soon.

Overall the food at Lime Fresh Mexican Grill was hit and miss. I don’t think the burrito was as good or as big as Chipotle’s, despite the higher price. The fish tacos were good and a very nice addition to the menu. I saw some of the other customers eating salads, which actually looked really good, so I might try one of those on a future visit. I’m sure we will be back, their Friday happy hour with $2 Mexican beers, $3 frozen margaritas, and $2 tacos is reason enough.

Three weeks ago a new gelato and crêpe place opened in Mt. Lookout Square called Buona Terra. My family and I checked it out last Friday after having dinner at Zip’s.

Inside

The inside is beautifully renovated and modern. The menu is written in chalk on the wall, which I’m assuming was painted with chalkboard paint. They have a handful of crêpe options split between sweet and savory. We didn’t try the crepes on this visit, but will be back soon to do so.

Counter

They have a massive gelato case that wouldn’t even fit through their front door. Fortunately they were able to get it inside while doing renovations to the outside walls. It contains two dozen varieties of gelato and sorbet. The friendly employees are more than happy to let you sample as many as you’d like.

Gelato Case

Our son easily settled with the cookies and cream gelato, while I chose the blackberry sorbet ($3.50 each for small cups). They try to use as many local ingredients as possible. For example, the blackberry came from locally sourced berries from Sunrise Farms located in Dalton, Ohio.

Gelato!

Both flavors were delicious. The cookies and cream was very creamy and had a great chocolate balance to it. As much as I liked it, the blackberry was even better. I would highly recommend it. We will be back again soon and will definitely be trying the crepes as well.

My wife and I met for lunch on a recent Wednesday afternoon at the Washington Platform Saloon & Restaurant. The original Washington Platform was established in the same location in 1875. Unfortunately prohibition forced the closure of the saloon until it was re-established in 1986. The current restaurant at the corner of 10th & Elm is now famous for their oysters and seafood.

Outside

The restaurant was decently crowded on our arrival at 12:30, with most customers sitting in the back dining room. There is a more casual dining space just inside the front door and next to the bar, but that was not being used much during our visit. The back dining area is more brightly lit and offers a better experience in my opinion.

Mixed Greens Salad

My wife and I both started with a mixed greens salad, which was included with our entrées  ($2.95 otherwise). They make all of their dressings in-house and they include Caesar, sweet chili vinaigrette, buttermilk garlic ranch, balsamic vinaigrette, 1000 Island, and bleu cheese. I tried the sweet chili vinaigrette and was amazed by how delicious it was. The balsamic was also tasty, but we both agreed that the sweet chili was the way to go. It was great!

Cajun Grilled Snapper

My wife ordered the Cajun grilled snapper served with vegetables ($18.95). She was served a large plate of food with two big pieces of fish. I’m not really a fish lover, so I just tried a small bite. The snapper was heavily seasoned with Cajun spices and was cooked well. It did not tasty overly fishy, which I appreciated. My wife really seemed to enjoy it.

Chicken Carbonara

Even though half of the menu is dedicated to seafood, there are some other options. I went with the chicken carbonara in a Romano cream sauce with  bacon, onion and sweet peas ($15.50). Again the serving size was large. I’ve had carbonara dishes before that I did not like, but this one was pretty good. It had a subtle cheese and cream flavor that let the bacon, onion, and pea mixture shine through.

Overall we had a good dining experience from the Washington Platform Saloon & Restaurant. Be sure not to skip their delicious homemade salad dressings even though the entrée plates are large and filling.

I was recently given a free  Draftmark Tap System  from BzzAgent for my evaluation. It didn’t come with any beer in it, but I finally got around to buying a refill bottle of Goose Island Honker’s Ale today. The store I went to had that along with Budweiser and Michelob Amber Bock refills available. Other varieties can also be found such as  Shock Top, Shock Top Wheat IPA, and Bass Pale Ale.

Honker’s Ale

The sales clerk at the store commented that not many of the Draftmark systems or refills have been sold. I had to agree with her judging from the dust that was collected on top of each box. That left me wondering about the freshness of the beer, and I could not find a born on date or expiration on the box. All it said was that the beer would stay fresh for 30 days once installed in the system. I would really like it if there were born on dates available that way you know how fresh the beer is.

Draftmark

The Draftmark operates using a rechargeable battery pack and uses air to keep the right pressure for the flow-rate. The pressurizing is a noisy process that you can hear even through the closed refrigerator door, but at least you know it is working. It was a little deep to fit on some of my refrigerator shelves, and I found it worked best on the top shelf of mine.

In The Fridge

Pouring the beer should be just as you would do with any draft beer. Start with a tilted glass, pour the beer so it falls a short distance on to the side of glass, and straighten the glass as you pour. Unfortunately I found it impossible to not get at least three fingers of head, most of the time I wound up with even more than that. Using a very bad pour form would result in nearly an entire glass of foam. It does settle quickly, but definitely not the ideal way to pour a beer.

Lots Of Head

The beer itself was nothing extraordinary, but it goes down easy. Honestly it reminded me a lot of one of my homebrews. Each refill has one gallon of beer in it, or around 8 pints. At around $15, the refills are a great deal considering what the equivalent amount would cost in a bar. I’m curious to see if the beer truly does stay fresh for a month, or could it even go longer, even though I doubt it will last that long anyway.

Yum!

Overall the Draftmark system is a neat idea. However it doesn’t seem to have caught on with the general public. And I have a couple of issues with the design and functionality. If more styles of beer were available, I could see myself using it, but with the current lineup I don’t think I will be refilling it again anytime soon.

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.

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.

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.

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.