I had a couple of tickets for Grace Potter and the Nocturnals this past Friday night. Originally Kim was going to go with me to see this amazing singer, but she decided to stay home with Trey after just getting back from a tiring vacation. I convinced my friend Rob, who also just moved back to Cincinnati from Denver, to go to the show with me. Despite being the only guys in the audience without a female in their group, we had a wonderful time. Guys should not be afraid to rock out with Grace Potter.

If you have never seen Grace Potter perform before, get off your butts and go check her out. She has an amazingly powerful voice that soars over her accompanying organ and guitar. Not to mention that she is quite the entertainer with her always sparkling short dresses and her wild dancing across the stage. Her backing band, The Nocturals, are all very talented musicians as well, who can really turn a song into a long jam when needed. However, they also know when to keep it down and let Ms. Potter shine.

This was my fourth time seeing them play and my favorite show of theirs to date. Previous performances have all been either short festival sets, or an opening slot for another band. This night was a headlining performance, complete with a powerful encore with Grace performing  “Nothing But the Water (I)” alone on stage with only a pair of drum sticks to lead the clapping crowd. This was of course followed up with a rocking  “Nothing But the Water (II)” that eventually faded out with the band leaving the stage chanting the chorus, “Tried my hand at the bible, tried my hand at the prayer, but now nothing but the water is gonna bring my soul to bare.”

See also: a praising concert review from Cincinnati.com.

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.

And then there was one. That’s right, only one state left that I have yet to visit. We spent the last four days knee deep in the water at Virginia Beach with Kim’s family, but before doing that we made a slight detour over to Delaware, state #49 for both Kim and I. We left after work on Friday and drove to Hagerstown, Maryland for some sleep. Saturday morning we were up bright and early to get a good jump on the day. We pointed the car toward Milton, Delaware home of Dogfish Head Craft Brewery. Tours are offered of the facility, but we didn’t think to make a reservation until the day before and everything was full. But even if you can’t take the tour, it is worth a stop at the brewery for three ounce samples of some of the beers and a gift shop filled with all kinds of merchandise and even some harder to find ales. Plus it was on our route to Rehoboth Beach anyway.

Once we made our way to Rehoboth Beach, our intended destination for the trip, we immediately found Dogfish Head Brewing & Eats, which I will review in full at another date. Not only does this restaurant serve an incredible number of Dogfish Head beers and tasty food, it sits on the site of the breweries beginnings dating back to 1995. We arrived just past 6pm and found a very short wait for a table, and even though we weren’t very hungry we figured we better take a seat while we could. We ended up sampling nearly a dozen different beers and eventually having some good food to go along with it. After a couple of hours there we made our way down to Rehoboth Beach and the neighboring boardwalk. Even with the sun already beginning to set, the heat of the hot day was still lingering. We all took a quick dip up to our knees in the Atlantic Ocean before returning to the car and calling it a night.

This was an excellent way to start a great vacation. I have a bunch of photos on our various cameras that I will attempt to get online soon. For now enjoy this photo of Kim and Trey at Rehoboth Beach.

And if you are asking yourself, “What’s the last state left?” It is Oregon, and I hope to scratch that off sometime within the next year or so.

Rehoboth Beach on Dwellable

Last night we caught O.A.R. at the PNC Pavilion, which is attached to Riverbend. I have never been a fan of Riverbend, but right away I knew that I would have different feelings towards the PNC Pavilion. The pavilion has only a 4,000 person capacity, which is less than a fourth of what fits in Riverbend. One of my biggest problems with Riverbend is the terrible lawn with some of the worst sight lines I have seen. The pavilion doesn’t have any of theses problems as there is no lawn, and the entire seating area is tiered really well. There is a small pit area in the front with two different levels of seating behind that. And to top it all off, the entire thing is under a roof, which is critical in the Cincinnati rain. Or as we found out last night, it works just as well to block out the sun from a really warm summer day.

O.A.R. at PNC Pavilion

The show itself was really good as well. We missed the first opener, Kelley James, but saw the entire set from SOJA. SOJA was a really fun reggae  style band that I would watch play again. I was given a nine track sampler from one of the band members that I will take a listen to soon. O.A.R.’s set was high energy and full of some extra jams. Two songs had to be scratched off of the setlist due to the extended nature of some of the songs. The band is touring with an added two piece horn section that is really good. Highlights of the night included 52-50, Road Outside Columbus, and So Moved On. Be sure to catch them out of tour this summer.

I finally made it to my first Red’s game of this season on Sunday afternoon. A friend of mine, who lives in Denver but is originally from the area, was in town and got together a small group for the day game to wrap up the series against the Cardinals. We bought some of the cheapest tickets for the stadium out in the Kroger Bleachers, but the view from the seats was actually really good. The only big complaint I have is that I couldn’t see the big scoreboard from our seats, which is above this seating area. Also the rows of bleachers seem to be a little too close together, so getting in and out can be tricky. Otherwise, the bleachers have backs on them and we managed to stay in the shade for the entire game.

View From Bleachers

The game itself was pretty entertaining as far as baseball games go. The Cardinals took an early lead in the second inning off of an early home run. Once we made it to the sixth it was all Reds from there, including a home run of their own from shortstop Zack Cozart. Eventually the Reds went on to win the game 3-1. The crowd was a little weak for the game. I blame that on a couple of things, the heat of the day and the extra $5 applied to ticket prices for this series since it was a “select” game.

I made my first stop in for a sandwich at Carl’s Deli just a couple of days after moving into my new neighborhood. My wife had asked me to pick up some sandwiches on my way home, but I couldn’t find any good options along my route. Fortunately Carl’s is just up the street from our new house, so we took a walk to the shop to try it out.

Menu Boards

Chalkboards hang above the counter with over 30 different sandwich choices, and if that isn’t enough you can create your own. There were a couple of other customers ahead of my wife and I, which allowed us time to work our way through the extensive menu. Two employees constantly worked behind the counter assembling sandwiches as quick as they could. When it was our turn to order I went with the #15 –  chicken salad &  Swiss  on rye with lettuce, tomato and honey mustard – $6.50. My wife decided on the #6 –  â€œJoanie’s” hot crab & artichoke salad on a toasted croissant – $7.75.

Chicken Salad & Swiss On Rye

The chicken salad used on my sandwich was fairly standard but still very tasty. The sweetness mixed perfectly with the spicier than normal honey mustard. Also the rye bread was good, but once I saw my wife’s croissant I wished that I had ordered that instead. The croissant was  flaky  and buttery just as you would expect.  My wife was really happy with her crab and artichoke salad sandwich and one of the girls behind the counter commented that it was her favorite as well. Though I didn’t have any of it, based on these two recommendations I would say it is worth a try.

Hot Crab & Artichoke Salad

Carl’s deli has a handful of tables on the inside and even a few on the  sidewalk  out front. In addition to the wide variety of sandwiches they also have a large selection of sides, drinks, and other grocery items. They also have beer and wine available for sale, though we didn’t partake during this visit. Even if  Carl’s wasn’t the closest eatery to my new house, I would definitely return in the near future. I’m so happy to have a great place for a quick bite so close to home.

Inside Carl's Deli

It seems that 311 has toured under the unity tour headline for years. I know they used the name in 2007 when I caught the summer tour in Denver, and according to their  Wikipedia  page the same was true for the 2006, 2009, and 2010 tours. But why fix something if it isn’t broken? Saturday night Kim and I attended their performance down at Riverbend and it was just as good as any of their other shows I have seen in the past 15 years.

Beautiful Disaster

Their latest album, Universal Pulse, was released today. Though I haven’t heard the studio release, the band played the first three songs from the album at various points on Saturday. “Sunset in July” is this first single and was by far the catchiest of the three. The rest of the set (full setlist) consisted of nineteen songs, mostly from their oldest material, which happens to be my favorite material. Only one song was played from their previous two releases, which I have honestly haven’t heard that much of, so I was more than okay with that. The set closing combination of “Do You Right” followed by “Creatures (For a While)” was awesome.

Feels So Good

Though we arrived a little later than I had originally planned, we were still able to catch a large chunk of Sublime with Rome’s  opening set. If they really did start playing at 6:30 like I thought they were, then they played a two-hour set and it should be billed as a  co-headline  gig. We arrived between 7 and 7:30 and they played tons of old Sublime hits with a few new tracks thrown in the mix. I was pleasantly surprised how much I enjoyed hearing them perform all of these old Sublime songs.  They too have a new CD out so we heard a few of their newer tracks as well.

Unity Tour

This tour is definitely worth catching if you are a fan of either band from any time period, but especially if you loved them both in the mid 90s. I will warn you that it was definitely a loud show, one that made me wish I had a pair of earplugs for myself. I will have to remember that for next time.

Our first meal out in our new neighborhood came quickly. We started unpacking boxes in our new house three Fridays ago, and the next day we made our way to Arthur’s in Hyde Park Square. Friends of ours stopped by that afternoon for a tour of our place, one of whom was on her way back to Denver after a few month stint in Australia. After showing them around we made the quick walk up to the square for lunch. This was my first time heading into Arthur’s but I quickly realized that this could be a popular spot for my wife and I. They have a solid beer list and a wide variety of sandwiches and salads to satisfy us for many visits.

Chicken Salad Croissant

On this visit I went with the chicken salad  croissant, a  blend of white meat chicken, sliced water chestnuts, celery, snow peas, a touch of curry, and mayonnaise on a butter croissant with lettuce and tomato. I also upgraded my side to sweet potato fries  with their curry ketchup. I was very happy with my choice and could easily eat this sandwich again. The croissant was very good and quite large. The chicken salad was great. I loved the touch of crunchiness from the various vegetables and the curry in the mix was a wonderful addition. The fries were good and the ketchup was a nice touch, though I would have liked even more of it.

Chicken Salad Closeup

Arthur’s specializes in burgers and a couple of people at our table verified their claim to a solid burger. My wife ordered the turkey burger “Santa Fe” style with  freshly made roasted poblano relish and topped with pepper jack cheese, seasoned tortilla strips, sliced red onion, and chipotle mayonnaise. A friend of ours had the Arthur’s burger and was also happy with his selection. I will definitely try the spicy black bean burger on a future visit, which I’m sure will be soon.

Before moving away from the  west-side  of town and into our own house, we joined my wife’s family for dinner at a popular restaurant in the area, Nick & Tom’s. We actually bought Groupons in early May expecting to use them quickly but ended up using them on our last week of staying with her family. My wife and I arrived with our infant son to find our group already at the table. Shortly upon our arrival a server was by to take our drink orders and then soon after they delivered some appetizers they had ordered before our arrival.

Inside Nick & Tom’s

The first item I sampled was a slice of the Primavera pizza appetizer. This is a homemade ranch dressing topped with red and green peppers, tomato, broccoli,  mushrooms, jack cheese, and chicken. I wasn’t expecting much from it just by judging the  appearance  but it was actually really good. The pizza was definitely big enough for a full meal, likely with some leftovers to take home. We also had a combo platter with potato skins, chicken tenders, and onion petals. The onion petals were good, but the chicken tenders were pretty standard.  I did not get to try a potato skin.

Primavera Pizza

For my meal I went with the Black and Blue Pasta, which I will talk about more later. Each of the pastas is served with a cup of soup or house salad. There were at least five different soups to choose from and they all actually sounded good to me. I went with my servers suggestion of the buffalo chicken soup. He promised that it would be spicy and it definitely was. The nice thing about the spice is that there was some flavor to go along with it. I’m not sure what else went into the broth but it was tasty. I would easily recommend this soup, or any of the soups really, as they all looked good.

Buffalo Chicken Soup

The black and blue pasta was a combination of blackened chicken breast,  fettuccine, sundried tomatoes, scallions (which I don’t remember), mushrooms, and blue cheese. I really like all the flavors of this dish on their own, but when they were put together I felt the blue cheese really dominated the dish. I was hoping for more spiciness from the blackened chicken but it was only slightly there. I found that if I mixed it all together a little better that the spice came through better than before, but still not as much as I had hoped.

Black And Blue Pasta

My wife went with the chicken chili, which is a special recipe of chili seasonings and tomatoes, simmered for hours, with chicken instead of beef. It was served with onion and cheese on top and looked a lot like a bowl of Skyline Chili. This actually makes sense as Nick and Tom are members of the  Lambrinides family, the founders of Skyline. Not only did this chili look like it was from Skyline it actually tasted like it too, in a very good way. They also serve beef chili in a bowl as well as three, four, and five ways. The five way here adds onion and jalapeno. The “ultimate  way” includes onion, jalapeno, and black beans. I would love to go back and try one of these items after sampling the chili in the bowl.

Chicken Chili

Overall this was a much better dining experience than I had at other  west-side  restaurants such as Cabana on the River and Price Hill Chili. I hope to return sometime in the future.