I have stopped into It’s Just Crepes twice now, both times after mass at St. Francis Seraph. Mass starts at 10 so it’s always right around 11 or 11:30 when we’ve arrived. Therefore I often consider whether I want breakfast or lunch, but the answer for me is always lunch. My wife, on the other hand, always goes for breakfast. She could easily eat breakfast type foods for every meal of the day. It’s Just Crepes is perfect for this big decision as they offer both savory and sweet crepes.

It's Just Fruit

I think both times that I’ve visited my wife has always ordered the It’s Just Fruit crepe, which combines strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, bananas, and vanilla cream inside a perfectly prepared crepe shell. Each crepe shell is made to order, starting with a big scoop of the batter placed on a hot flat iron. From there the ingredients are added before being folded up and served wrapped in paper and put into a small paper cone. My wife has unfolded her crepe above for the photo.

Pizza Crepe

I was so hungry that the photo of my crepe couldn’t wait until after I had a bite or two. I went with the pizza crepe on this visit, which mixes mozzarella cheese, pepperoni, sautéed mushrooms, and pizza sauce inside. It was perfect! If I remember correctly, on my first visit I tried the southwestern with pepper jack cheese, chicken, sautéed onions and red peppers, served with chipotle mayo. This was also a great choice and filled with wonderful flavors.

There are many different crepes to choose from and I haven’t heard anyone complain about any of the combinations so far. On our first visit we were with many of my in-laws and they all loved their crepes. I’m not an expert on crepes, in fact I can probably count on one hand how many times I’ve had a crepe, but I do enjoy the crepes from It’s Just Crepes and I will definitely be back.

For me none of the fast food burrito chains compare to Chipotle. I’ve had Qdoba and Moe’s both a number of times and though neither are bad options, I have always found the quality and taste of Chipotle to be superior to all else. Since moving back to Cincinnati I have seen a few different Hot Head Burrito locations, which is a local based chain that now has eighteen stores and still expanding. My wife and I finally decided to give them a try a few weeks ago.

Full Tray For Just Over $10

While walking from the parking lot to the front door we noticed that Sunday is two burritos for $10, which we happily took advantage of. I went with a spicy chicken burrito with half black and half pinto beans, pico salsa, and hot head sauce. The way that Hot Head Burritos tries to differentiate themselves from other burrito joints is by having a variety of sauces that can be added on top of your meal. My wife ordered a special burrito from a sign on the wall, which consisted mainly of pork with their sweet habanero sauce.

Huge Burrito

My burrito turned out gigantic! It actually broke when the employee tried to wrap it, and rather than dumping it into a new shell, she simply wrapped another one around the broken one. This might have killed some of the spiciness from my selections, as it wasn’t nearly as hot as I thought it was going to be. The spicy chicken is really just the same as the regular chicken with a little hot sauce squirted on top. The rice is really bland and the beans were not remarkable. Overall I wasn’t blown away by my burrito.

Burrito Guts

My wife seemed to enjoy hers a little more than I did, though again it didn’t appear to be anything spectacular. The chips and salsa were good, actually that was probably my favorite part of the meal, since I luckily choose the hot salsa, which finally provided the kick that I was searching for. As mentioned earlier, it was a very cheap meal, which I guess explains some of the quality issues that I felt the food had. Plus they do have a frequent visitor program with stickers that allows you turn earn free burritos. I think that I will only be back during a time of the regularly occurring sales, because at full price I would much rather have a burrito from Chipotle.

The Cock & Bull will always be a soft spot for my wife and I, as she claims the Covington location was the site of our first date. We were happy to see a new location open in Hyde Park around the same time that we moved into the neighborhood. When a friend of ours was in town recently to see our new place we all agreed to head up to this new location and check it out. They have a great patio out front, but the weather was a little too warm for us and so we opted for a table inside. We visited on a Tuesday evening and found no wait for a table.

Stained Glass

The inside of the restaurant is actually very large too. The front room appeared to seat a healthy number of people, but there are even more seats in an additional back room, which is where we were seated. To go along with the large space they also have a large offering of beer, nearly 60 taps are dedicated to various craft and macro beers from both the US and overseas. It’s a pretty impressive lineup overall.

Five Onion Soup

To start off my meal I went with a cup of the Five Onion Soup. The menu says it isn’t French onion soup, but it sure looks like it and tastes like it too. It was a great combination of different onions and it was topped with a large amount of melted provolone. My visit was off to a good start. For my meal I chose the chicken teriyaki wrap with a side of macaroni & cheese.

Chicken Teriyaki Wrap

Unfortunately the wrap was not as good as the soup that I started with. The chicken was good, but was easily overpowered by the large amount of salad mix. The menu said that the teriyaki chicken and provolone mix would be accompanied by lettuce and red onion, but it appears they took the easier route and just used a generic salad mix instead. I think if this were replaced by some better quality lettuce and fresh onion it could have been much better. The macaroni & cheese was good, not outstanding, but next to the wrap I enjoyed it a lot.

Lightweight Fish & Chips

My wife went with the “lightweight” fish and chips, which is an 8 oz portion of their famous hand cut fillets of icelandic cod, deep fried to a golden brown, served on a bed of seasoned fries. She was happy with her choice, and even this smaller serving of the dish was a lot of food. Obviously this is a popular dish at the English style pub and I saw many plates of it being delivered to hungry customers throughout the restaurant.

Veggie Wrap

Our friend had the veggie wrap with grilled eggplant, zucchini, mushroom, goat cheese, and spinach wrapped in a  tortilla and served with balsamic mayo. She seemed happy with her meal as well. So I must have just made a bad decision. I wouldn’t say that any of the food was outstanding, but the restaurant is new and they are likely still figuring things out. I’m sure we will be back in the future and I hope for some improvements. It is still worth a visit, as is, for the beer selection and atmosphere alone.

My wife and I recently had our first sit down breakfast since moving back to Cincinnati. We walked up to The Echo  in Hyde Park Square with our seven month old around 10am on a Sunday. Even though it was before the big after church rush, we still found a line out the front door full of groups waiting for an open table in the smaller sized diner. We decided to wait it out and were surprised to find that the line actually moved very quickly. We were seated and had food in front of us by 11am.

Red, White & Blueberries

I ordered the Red, White, and Blueberries off of the summer seasonal menu. This was a croissant French toast bake, topped with fresh fruit and whipped cream, with powdered sugar and syrup. As you can see in the photo above, the portion of French toast was pretty small. That was the only disappointing thing, as it tasted delicious. The thick cut croissant was perfectly crusted on the outside but soft and  chewy  on the inside. The whipped cream was also excellent, and tasted like it was made from scratch in-house.

Potato Cakes

Since my breakfast was a little light, my wife offered to share her potato cakes with me. These reminded me of some potato pancakes that I made last year for a Oktoberfest party, including the parsley in the mix. I would definitely recommend these as a side to any dish. My wife had them on the side of her  omelet, which she seemed to enjoy as well. There are many other things on the menu that I want to try, so we will definitely be back. It is the only breakfast place in Hyde Park Square so thankfully it lived up to our expectations.

While living in Denver we had Sexy Pizza. And now in Cincinnati we have Naked Pizza. Naked Pizza is a newer chain with the first store opening in April 2006 in a New Orleans building that was  formerly flooded by Hurricane Katrina with six feet of water. They currently operate twenty locations across the US and Dubai with many more scheduled to open soon. In fact one will be opening on Colfax  Avenue  in Denver.

The idea behind Naked Pizza is a healthier pizza, a more natural one.  They use meat and cheese raised without hormones or antibiotics. The  crust is made “from an Ancestral Blend  of 10 grains plus prebiotic agave fiber and probiotics (healthful bacteria like the ones found in yogurt for balance and digestive health) bound by water and made by hand.” It all sounds like a great idea, but is the pizza any good?

Superbiotic Pizza

My wife and I asked ourselves that same questions and decided to place a delivery order through their online ordering system. We were told it would be thirty minutes, but it was actually much quicker than that. So the new shop was already doing things right in my eyes. We ordered the superbiotic pizza with  artichoke, spinach, bell pepper, mushroom, garlic, red onion, and cilantro. And we also ordered a custom BBQ chicken pizza, after realizing it was cheaper to make it ourselves than to buy the smokehouse combination.

Custom BBQ Chicken Pizza

The verdict? The pizza is actually pretty good. I wouldn’t say that it is outstanding, but I did thoroughly enjoy it. It is hard to find a pizza with as many vegetables on it as the superbiotic, which we really liked. The BBQ chicken pizza was pretty good, but could have used possibly another ingredient. We added pineapple to the  hickory-smoked BBQ  sauce, onion, and chicken. Next time I would consider adding some jalapeno to spice it up even more.

Having lived in Kansas City for a number of years, I still get a craving for good BBQ from time to time. While it’s true that I don’t eat brisket or ribs, I do enjoy smoked chicken, turkey, and even pulled pork. In Denver we had Moe’s to satisfy our BBQ cravings, and now that I’m back living in Cincinnati at least I have City BBQ. There are a few other BBQ places around town that I would like to try, but it is nice to find a  convenient  go-to place that gets the job done when needed.

Pulled Chicken Sandwich Platter

On this visit to the Hyde Park location I went with the pulled chicken sandwich, which comes with two sides. I choose mac & cheese and baked beans. They claim that their beans have chunks of brisket in them, but I found no such thing. They were still a great combination of smokey with just a hint of sweetness. The mac & cheese was also good, but next time I would have to mix up the sides. Half of the fun of going to a place like this is trying all the sides, which there are many.

Special Platter

The serving sizes are huge, especially the sides. The pulled chicken is very good and there are a variety of sauces to sample from sweet to spicy and even mustard based. My wife ordered some sort of special that they had going that day with pulled pork, spicy sauce, jalapenos, and sweet vinegar slaw on top of a thin corn shell. I didn’t have any of it, but she said it was good. It would be hard to go wrong with such a flavorful dish, but I think the real deal here are the sandwich platters.

While on vacation in Virginia Beach I had a couple of good dining experiences. I found most of the food on the boardwalk to be average at best, but one day my wife and I stumbled into Side Street Cantina just a block or two off of the boardwalk on 11st Street.  I have to admit that I’m not much of a seafood eater, so perhaps that’s why I had my best dining experience in a Mexican style restaurant.

The service inside Side Street Cantina restaurant was very quick and efficient. Within seconds of sitting at our table, a server quickly dropped off a basket of chips along with two different sauces. First was a standard but freshly prepared salsa. The other sauce was a secret white sauce that I was not such a fan of. The sauce was a little too sweet for my tastes. I almost took them up on their table side prepared guacamole, but my wife and I decided to keep our lunch on the lighter side.

Lunch Chimichanga

Again keeping our meal light, we both ordered from the lunch menu. I went with the chimichanga, which is a fried burrito that I had filled with chicken, then smothered with nacho cheese and red sauce. The menu indicates it is served with rice and beans, but I opted to have it with a side of guacamole instead. The guacamole looked much too good to pass up on completely, and it was really good. The chimichanga wasn’t as deep-fried as most of the others I have had from other restaurants, but the cheese sauce on top added a nice element that I’m not used to.

My wife put together a lunch combination plate of a quesadilla and a chile relleno. We made a bad assumption that the chile relleno would just be cheese filled, and instead it came filled with beef, which neither my wife or I eat. We were too hungry to complain though, so we just dug the meat out and enjoyed the very spicy shell of the relleno. I also received a free taco for checking in on Foursquare, which could have been the highlight of the meal for me. They have a rather large section of the menu dedicated to tacos, as they should.

I should  also mention that the margaritas were also good. They weren’t too sweet or too sour, just right in the middle. They were more refreshing than anything. Overall we had a great dining experience and will definitely return should we be back in Virginia Beach in the future.

If you ever find yourself in the state of Delaware, you should make your way down to Rehoboth Beach to visit Dogfish Head Brewing & Eats. In my quest to visit all 50 states, I recently found myself in Delaware (my 49th state). Dogfish Head was a planned stop on our trip and I’m glad that it was. Originally I pictured the restaurant and brewpub to be a tiny  shack on a small and somewhat isolated beach, similar to the beaches and towns I found up in Connecticut and Rhode Island. I was completely off on my vision, as Rehoboth Beach is quite the booming beach town. Plus Dogfish Head is multiple blocks from the beach. Though once we made it inside, I was not disappointed at all.

First Round Of Samplers

We arrived around 6pm one Saturday evening and found that there was only a fifteen minute wait for a table. Even though we weren’t too hungry at the time, we figured we better take the opportunity to sit down inside, or else we may miss the chance. Our table inside the cramped room was ready quickly. Before we could even think about eating anything we had many important decisions to make selecting what to drink. The  tap list  is constantly changing, in fact one of the choices from the freshly printed menu, 120 Minute IPA, was already dry.

I Think I'm In Love

For our first round of tasters we selected Hellhound On My Ale (Imperial IPA),  Indian Brown Ale (American Brown), Sah’tea (Sahti),  Theobroma (Chile),  and Black & Red (Imperial Stout). All of these beers were good, though all quite different from the next. Hellhound was a delicious and hoppy replacement for 120 Minute, though I still would have liked to have had another try of 120. Indian Brown is available year-round but is a great example of the style. Sah’tea was very interesting, with an almost chai tea taste at times. Theobroma was the biggest surprise, with flavors of chocolate and chile packed into a lightly colored beer. Finally Black & Red was a high alcohol stout with lots of fruit and mint flavors mixed in.

Revolutionist Pizza

While enjoying the tasty samples of beer, my wife and I decided to order a little food. We agreed to split the  Revolutionist  Pizza which is topped with  roasted garlic olive oil, Cypress Grove Midnight Moon aged goat cheese, caramelized onions, green apple, and fresh thyme. The wood fired crust with bits of  wheat, barley, and un-fermented ale was thin and crunchy. The toppings were a perfect complement to some of the outrageous beers that we were sampling. The flavors could easily go with any beer they have on tap.

75 Minute IPA

Eventually we ordered another round of tasters. Unfortunately I forgot to take a photo so I forget some of the samples we had, but I know that  Chicory Stout, My Antonia, and  Raison D’Etre. We may have also had  Chateau Jiahu and  Namaste, or maybe I’m getting confused since I bought a bottle of each of these from the production brewery for beach enjoyment later on our vacation. I also ordered a glass of the 75 Minute IPA on their cask system, a tasty blend of 60 and 90 Minute IPA’s. All of the beers were tasty, that’s for sure.

Chicory Stout Bacon Chocolate Cheesecake

To wrap up the night, my wife and I split a piece of the  Chicory Stout Bacon Chocolate Cheesecake. In theory this sounded like a tasty mix: beer, bacon, and chocolate. However, the desert fell a bit short. I think the bacon could have been a bit crisper, since find a big piece of chewy bacon in your desert is really strange. The flavors went together pretty well, but the texture was hard to adjust to. I’d try one of the other beer infused deserts if I were to make it to the restaurant again.

Overall we had a really great experience at this legendary establishment. I would highly recommend checking it out if you are ever in the neighborhood.

A couple of weekends ago I arranged for a happy hour with a few friends and my wife at the Oakley Pub & Grill before heading over to the nearby St. Cecilia’s church festival. Happy hour specials run from 3-6pm Monday through Friday and feature $2 off appetizers and 50 cents off beer. We arrived shortly after 5pm expecting to find the small space completely packed, but there were only a few tables occupied. We grabbed a table for our group and ordered a couple of rounds of appetizers.

Boneless Buffalo Tenders

First up were the boneless buffalo tenders served with homemade blue cheese dressing. The menu also indicated that there would be celery served with the dish, but we received none. For the happy hour price of $5.95 the tenders were quite a bit of food and were tasty. They weren’t drenched in sauce like buffalo wings tend to be, the sauce was cooked into the chicken tender more, which was a little cleaner to eat.

Basil Chicken Quesadilla

Next up, my favorite of our choices, was the basil chicken quesadilla. This quesadilla is a little different from normal with the inclusion of fresh basil and mozzarella cheese, but I found the change refreshing. Plus the standard grilled chicken, tomatoes, salsa, and sour cream are included to give it a little standard flair. During happy hour this dish is only $4.95, which is a deal! I saw a couple orders of nachos being served and those too looked good.

Chicken Philly

We split the appetizers a few ways, so my wife and I were still hungry for a little more food. We decided to split the chicken philly sandwich, which was served with fries for $6.95, which is very reasonable. This sandwich is served with grilled onions, mushrooms, and banana peppers, along with provolone cheese and an olive tapenade. The menu didn’t indicate that pickles, tomatoes, and raw onion would be included, but that can easily be removed if not wanted. My wife and I left the fixings on the sandwich, but still found it to be fairly bland. Maybe we should have swapped the mayo that is served on the beef philly in place of the olive tapenade.

A friend of ours had the grouper fillet sandwich (sorry no photo) and really enjoyed it. I’ve read other reviews praising this sandwich, so that should be a safe bet. The burgers are also supposed to be good, but  no one  in our party tried one. I’d also like to give the pizza a try on a future visit. I’m sure we will be back for this very affordable happy hour if nothing else.

Everyone who knows me knows that I love pizza. Therefore it was hard for me to admit to my friends that I didn’t have a favorite Chicago style pizza place while on a recent trip to the windy city. The truth is that as many times as I have been in Chicago, I have had very few experiences with the city’s pizza. Fortunately we had an extra afternoon on this visit so one of my native Chicago friends offered to take us to his favorite pizza place in the city, The Art of Pizza.

This restaurant isn’t a fancy sit down place that I had imagined most places serving this type of pizza would be, instead we ordered at the counter and my friend recommended that we just get pizza by the slice. They had three different cases full of varying pizza by the slice to choose from in both stuffed and thin crust. I decided to get one of each, a slice of pepperoni stuffed and a slice of jalapeno and sausage on the thin crust.

Thick And Thin Crusts

I first started with the slice of stuffed and it was delicious! The crust was crisp on the outside and chewy on the inside with a nice buttery flavor. The cheese and pepperoni were piled high and then smothered in a tasty red sauce. This was exactly what I was expecting from a slice of Chicago style pizza. One slice of this stuffed pie is probably enough for a decent size lunch. But for the sake of my reviews, I suffered through a slice of thin pizza too.

The thin crust was also good, but it is hard to compare with the stuffed. The crust wasn’t as crispy on the outside, so the entire slice of pizza was a little more doughy. Other than that the toppings were great and the sauce to cheese ratio was perfect. I would easily order either kind of pizza again, but for me the stuffed is the way to go since it is hard to find something like this in other parts of the country. In the future I will definitely remember The Art of Pizza during any Chicago trips.