I finally got the chance to visit a restaurant that has been at the top of my list since it’s opening earlier this year, A Tavola. I brought my wife to this trendy Over-the-Rhine eatery for her birthday a couple of weekends ago. We had heard that the line for a table was often long, and they do not take reservations, so we found ourselves lucky to talk in around 6:30 and find just a twenty-minute wait. We could have been seated immediately at the pizza counter, but decided to wait for a more spacious table.

Inside A Tavola

While waiting for our table, we found a couple of seats at the nearly packed bar and enjoyed a drink. I was impressed by the selection of draft beer and my wife found new love in a glass of red wine. She loved it so much that she took down the name so she could try to find a whole bottle later. Before we could get too far into our drinks, our table was ready.

After being seated pretty much in the center of the dining area, we glanced through the menu filled with a wide variety of pizzas along with a selection of salads and appetizers. Our server gave us a nice introduction to the restaurant after finding out it was our first time. He also suggested ordering a couple of appetizers and then splitting a pizza. He said that the pizzas are too large to be considered a personal dish.

House Salad And Chicken Meatballs

Following our servers advice we decided to split the house salad and one of the items on the seasonal menu, the chicken meatballs. The house salad was a basic mix of greens, shaved  parmigiano, and a delicious balsamic  vinaigrette. The salad greens were very fresh and tasty, in fact some of the best I have ever had. As good as the salad was, the chicken meatballs stole the show for me. The mix of tomato sauce and salsa verde was delicious and the meatball itself was perfectly seasoned. I wish that this would become a permanent item on the menu.

Artichoke + Goat Cheese

As for our pizza we went with the artichoke, goat cheese, salsa verde, tomato sauce, and mozzarella. With such good results with our appetizers I was expecting to be blown away. Unfortunately I was a little let down. The combination of ingredients tasted great, but I had a problem with the crust. I felt that it was too flimsy in the middle. When I picked up a slice with my hands nearly the entire slice would flop down toward the ground. I would have liked for it to be a bit crisper on the outside but still chewy on the inside. Other reviews seem to indicate a better cooked pizza so I hope for better results on a future visit. Even with this mistake, A Tavola is definitely worth a visit and I hope to be back soon.

This past Saturday was game five of six in our season tickets to University of Cincinnati football. We lucked into another great afternoon for football and started with a morning tailgate. The Bearcats took on the Mountaineers of West Virginia in an exciting game despite coming up three points short in the end. UC showed a lot of heart keeping the game close and nearly claiming a victory even after their starting quarterback went down in the first half and didn’t return.  Despite the loss, the team can still win the Big East Championship and will start that effort this weekend at Rutgers.

Similarly the Bengals came up just a bit short in their game against the Steelers this weekend. I haven’t written much about them this year since I cannot easily sit down to watch their non-sold out home games. However the team is managing to do much better than most would have thought this years team could provide. I may even try to get to a game before the season is over.

My fantasy football teams didn’t perform much better with only 1 win out of 4 leagues. My teams are now in 2nd of 10, 4th of 12, 8th of 12 (after five straight loses), and finally 1st in my divisional based game. I am in 2nd place in the pro pick’em game and 4th in the college edition. Finally my team in the salary cap game has moved up to 9th place. I don’t think I’ll win this one as I’m now nearly 200 points out of 1st, but I hope to continue moving up in the standings.

My hockey team had a big win on Sunday night against a team that we had previously lost to. After 6 games we are now 4-2 and are in 2nd place behind an undefeated league leader. We will be playing against the 1st place team this weekend so I’m hoping for another big win.

Since returning to Cincinnati there was one item on my craving list that I had not had until a couple of weekends ago, Adriatico’s Pizza. I had never had their pizza before starting classes at the University of Cincinnati in 1998, but before long it was a college staple. They sell a pizza called The Bearcat, which is 18 by 24 inches and has 30 slices! Not only is it big it is also on really thick  Sicilian  crust. The Bearcat pizza was often seen on campus for various meetings, off campus at a wide variety of events, and  occasionally  it found its way into hungry college students’ residences. I’d be lying if I said that my roommates and I hadn’t ordered a number of Bearcats before.

The Bearcat

When my family decided to come over to help my wife and I pass out candy for  Halloween, my wife and I both agreed that it was a great time to pick up a Bearcat, which would easily feed the six hungry adults. My wife picked up the pizza from the Clifton restaurant and when it arrived at our house I was happy to see that it had not changed. They still layer each slice of pizza with its own piece of giant pepperoni. The sauce is still as spicy and tasty as I remembered, and the crust was wonderfully thick.

In all my years of eating Adriatico’s pizza I have never tried their thin crust, though I have had multiple people say good things about it. I may one day get around to trying it, but in the meantime I’ll always look for any excuse to grab some family or friends and order a Bearcat.

After taking the Newport Gangster Tour my family and I headed to Dixie Chili for lunch. We walked past the restaurant during the tour and were all  surprised  to hear that this restaurant had been in operation since 1929 on the same block in Newport.  Nicholas Sarakatsannis worked at Empress Chili, the first of the Cincinnati chili parlors, before starting Dixie Chili in an 8×30 foot room. Today the restaurant occupies a much larger section of the block.

6-Way

Unlike Skyline Chili parlors, customers at Dixie Chili enter the restaurant and are queued up to an ordering counter along with a big menu on the wall. My family and I all stared at the menu for a few minutes and most of us decided to order their exclusive 6-Way, which combines  chili, spaghetti, beans, onions all topped with fresh chopped garlic and cheese. The garlic is what really makes this combination different from anything I’ve eaten before. Also the chili at Dixie is spicier and not as sweet as Skyline’s chili. I liked it a lot.

Chili Cheese Sandwich

As I often do, I combined my favorite chili way with a chili cheese sandwich on the side. I’m not a hot dog eater, so this is my substitute for the traditional coney on the side. Again, I really enjoyed this. Another interesting item on the menu is the vegetarian chili, which my wife tried as a 6-Way. It was a little more Tex-Mex style than the regular chili, but still a great option for the non-meat eaters out there. It is also available in jars to go, along with the traditional chili. If you have not tried Dixie Chili before do yourself a favor and go now.

It was brought to my attention that I forgot to write about the Newport Gangster Tour that I took a couple of weeks ago with my family. This is put on by the same people who did the Queen City Underground Tour that we all took earlier this summer. We actually bought discount tickets for the gangster tour after enjoying the underground tour so much.

Owners and Tour Guides

We were in for a special treat on this tour, as we soon learned that the founders and owners of the company would be our guides for the afternoon. The amount of research and interviews these two gentlemen have conducted helps fill the tours with tons of historical information and stories. For me the underground tour was great because of the architecture and hidden chambers we were able to tour, whereas the gangster tour was great based purely on the educational material presented.

Northern Kentucky Gambling Museum

I had no idea that Newport was once home to so many casinos and gambling halls. It turns out that there is a Northern Kentucky Gambling  Museum, which granted us free admission during part of our tour. In addition Newport was home to many adult entertainment venues, brothels, and some of the biggest gangsters around. While we didn’t get to go into many of the buildings, as most of them have been completely renovated for other purposes, it was very interesting to hear all the guides stories as we walked a few blocks of Newport.

Outside Enjoying The Tour

I’ve really enjoyed both of the tours I’ve taken from American Legacy Tours and I hope to take more in the future.

My last stop on our food tour of the western Cleveland suburbs came on our last night in town. After hanging out at Merry Arts for a good chunk of the afternoon, none of us really were in the mood to drive the three or four hours home. So my family and I reserved a few hotel rooms, picked up some beer, and ordered pizza from Pizza By Robert. There were actually a couple of other places that we considered but we decided on this shop based on favorable online reviews.

Half Sheet Of Pizza

We all agreed on  pepperoni  and mushroom for our toppings and decided to order the biggest pizza available, the half sheet. This 24 slice monster is enough food to feed an entire family, and it did the job perfectly for us. The sauce that they used was traditional and very tasty. The cheese was also good and toppings were piled on high. It only cost $22.15, which seemed like a great price for the large amount of quality pie.

In case you live in a cave, today is election day. I made it out to my polling location over lunch to color in my ballot. The past couple of years in Denver we had voted through the mail in the weeks before the election, so this my first time voting in person in a while. I was afraid I’d find long waits or complicated processes, but it all went smoothly even though I have yet to obtain my Ohio license.

There were a handful of very important issues on the ballot. The biggest for me is the proposed issue 48. Regardless of your stance on the planned streetcar, this charter amendment impacts much more than it. If it were to pass it would block the streetcar as well as any other rail projects until the end of 2020. I was very happy to cast my vote against issue 48 and I hope you all will join me. It is time for our city to progress into the transportation future.

My dad and I really wanted to watch the University of Cincinnati football game versus South Florida while we were in the western Cleveland suburbs a few weekends ago. I did a quick search online to see if there was any sort of Cleveland alumni group but I didn’t find much other than an event listing for a game watch at Merry Arts Pub & Grille earlier in the season for the NC State game. After a quick phone call to the bar, and a phone call back from them, we were on our way to the bar.

I knew we were in for a treat when we walked in after kickoff to find that the game was already on the biggest screen in the bar and the sound from the game was on too! And it only got better from there. Their beer list was really good, and we later found out that they were all really affordable pints too. This is your classic neighborhood watering hole and we watched as many regulars arrived at the bar with their newspapers in hand, ready for a long Saturday at the bar.

Turkey Panini

Being that the game started at noon, eventually we were ready for some lunch. I had read many reviews mentioning their tacos, but soon realized that they are only available on select days. Eventually I settled on the turkey panini. This isn’t a thin sandwich from a panini press but a thick grilled sandwich topped with french fries, cole slaw, and tomatoes. I’ve had sandwiches similar to this in Pittsburgh, but wasn’t aware that they were available outside of the steel city. This sandwich was very good and the onion rings were awesome!

Slider Basket

My dad went with the slider basket with seasoned fries. I did not sample the sliders but my dad said that they were very good. Their seasoned fries were also a nice touch. The basket did have four sliders, but I couldn’t snap a picture before my dad had already devoured one of them. Distance runners sure do have a  ferocious  appetite. We stuffed ourselves full of great food and watched as the Bearcats went on to win the big football game.

Most of my free time this week (and some of the last couple of weeks) has been dedicated to getting oarsa.org updated. We use the Coppermine Photo Gallery to drive not only the photos section but it is also the backend of the user login system. The software package is updated regularly, but we never bothered to upgrade it on oarsa.org mainly because we had modified some of the source and didn’t want to lose those changes.

Well our version 1.3.x was completely obsolete a few years ago, and it wouldn’t run with PHP 5. We built our own version of PHP to use with the website, but when that stopped working a couple of weeks ago, we were forced to use the PHP 5 version on our host. That means that we had to upgrade Coppermine, as well as some of our own code that wasn’t compatible with the PHP upgrade.

The upgrade actually wasn’t too bad once I got down to it. oarsa.org is now utilizing Coppermine version 1.4.27. The 1.4.x releases are no longer supported, so I may have to upgrade to the latest 1.5.x in the near future if I want to avoid the catastrophe that happened the last couple of weeks. Live and learn I suppose.

Another stop on our short trip to Cleveland was to Fat Head’s Brewery & Saloon.  I actually planned to check this place out before our trip even started. A friend of mine is a frequent visitor of their Pittsburgh location and I’ve watched their brewery rise to much fame at the Great American Beer Festival the last couple of years.

Fat Head's Brewery

Fortunately Fat Head’s was just a few minutes drive from our hotel in Westlake, Ohio. My parents joined my wife and my son for a nice Friday lunch before a wedding later that evening. We arrived to find the very large restaurant mostly empty, though there was a growing crowd at the bar and a few other tables throughout the spacious dining areas.

Another Brewery Painting

I forgot to take pictures of the beers we sampled, but they were all  delicious. Their Head Hunter IPA has won back to back medals at the previously mentioned GABF and is wonderful. My dad and I both started with a tall glass of this. Altogether we also sampled the Kolsch, Citra Pale Ale, Up In Smoke Porter, and a few others that I cannot remember. I enjoyed everything that I tasted and wish I could enjoy them more regularly.

Aloha Chicken

As good as the food was, I was really impressed by the food. Not only are the portions  gigantic  but everything tastes very good as well. Just take a look at the plates of food that were served to us.

Smoke House Wings

Beauty & The Beasty

Huge Sandwiches

I had to include  my wife in one of the photos so you could see just how massive the sandwiches were and how much food you are given. I had the Aloha Chicken sandwich with a grilled chicken breast topped with ham, provolone cheese and grilled pineapple. Finished with a splash of Extra Medium Sauce ($8.95). My wife had the Beauty & The Beasty sandwich with pulled pork in Beasty BBQ Sauce. Topped with creamy cole slaw, pickles and raw onions ($10.95). Both were great sandwiches and the accompanying home-made chips were very good too.

The wings were recommended by my friend who is a regular. I was amazed at how large the wings were. My dad and I couldn’t get over how easily the meat fell off the bone from the hours of smoking, which gave a nice smokey flavor to the wings. We tried the Fat Head’s Original Buffalo sauce, which added a nice kick to the wings. It wasn’t too spicy to overpower the other flavors, just enough heat to get my dad sweating a little bit.

We all really enjoyed our lunch here. I definitely want to go back sometime in the future. I just wish it wasn’t so far away.