Tag Archives: restaurants

Spoon & Cellar

I should have known better. In a restaurant world where most establishments located inside hotels have names akin to “Candles” or “Sparks”, I had high hopes for Spoon & Cellar, located inside the new Holiday Inn on the corner of Broadway and Seventh Streets. I don’t place a lot of credence in Yelp reviews, but the first few for Spoon and Cellar were glowing. Upon reflection, they may have been written by the employees themselves. I will give credit where credit is due, though. I have never seen a Holiday Inn as nice as this one. The restaurant within, upon first examination also looks great, albeit a bit homogenous.

After parking in the extremely convenient attached garage, we sat down at the bar while we waited for our friends to arrive on an icy Friday night in the Queen City a few weeks after the restaurant opened. Luckily, I don’t suffer from epilepsy or any other similar affliction, because one entire bank of recessed lights in the bar area incessantly flickered, to the point of distraction. I don’t normally feel like I have the right to ask a restaurant to change its lighting scheme, but this time I had no choice but to ask the manager to turn off these particular lights.

While sitting at the bar, we did enjoy the Spinach and Artichoke dip, served with delicious salty lavash crisps. The mojitos were another story though. Per my convesation with one of the bartenders on duty, he was of the opinion that mojitos should be served with approximately as much sugar as a large glass of southern sweet tea. He was wrong. A mojito should be lightly sweet, slightly effervescent and crisp. When we asked him to make the next round less sweet, inexplicably they arrived at out table more syrupy than the first round.

When the last of our friends arrived, we were seated initially at a table much too small for six people, even though the restaurant was mostly empty. We asked to be moved to a more comfortable location and after some confusion about which server was going to be lucky enough to incur our wrath for the next few hours, we were graced with the presence of Frank, a very attentive and honest young man.

I say honest because Frank was extremely forthcoming in his lack of knowledge about the menu. We ordered the Charcuterie and Artisan Cheese board as a starter and when I asked Frank what each of the pâtés were and what one of the cheeses on the board was, Frank said, “I’m gonna be real honest, I don’t know what pâté is.” That’s definitely an excusable offense, but as server, I felt like he should have retreated to the kitchen to find the answers to my questions, rather than just letting me know that he had no idea.

As far as the rest of the meal, none of the six of us ordered anything that would entice us back to Spoon and Cellar. My filet was good, but in a city with standout filets at every Jeff Ruby restaurant, Otto’s or Alfio’s, it certainly didn’t approach the level that would lure me back and I think all five of my friends felt exactly the same, which is too bad. Spoon and Cellar’s streetside location and upscale decor really gave them a chance to rise above typical hotel restaurant.

 

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Wild Eggs

As much as I love chicken wings and beer or cabernet and steak, my favorite meal of the day has always been breakfast (or as I become older and gayer, brunch). When my brother and I were kids, we looked forward to breakfast for dinner almost as much as the customary Friday night pizza at the Dixon Road Pizza Hut in Kokomo before the Wildkats home football or basketball game. Needless to say, it isn’t much of a stretch to state that I always anxiously anticipate the opening of a new breakfast or brunch joint, especially one as close to my hood as Wild Eggs.

Wild Eggs is a Louisville-based small chain of breakfast and lunch restaurants with a little bit of a Kentucky spin on the menu. For example, the Kelsey KY Brown is Wild Eggs’ take on the ubiquitous Kentucky Hot Brown, one of the most repulsive dishes to ever grace a tabletop. (I must state the following disclaimer: while I have lived in Greater Cincinnati for over 20 years, I have never developed a taste for some of the signature regional dishes, i.e. Cincinnati style chili, goetta, or Greater’s Ice Cream.) Luckily for the marketing department, most of the dishes on the menu sound much better than the Kelsey KY Brown. I did say sound though, because in my limited experience, Wild Eggs has a very long way to go to compete with local legends like The Echo and Sugar N’ Spice, not to mention comparable chains such as First Watch.

When I walked into the recently opened Oakley location, situated in the parking lot of the Oakley Kroger Marketplace, for a moment I thought that perhaps construction hadn’t quite wrapped up yet. Or at the very least, the decorator was still on the premises. Lo and behold, I was wrong. If I were to sum up the appearance in one word, I would say chintzy. I totally understand budgetary constraints, but the bigger problem might be the lack of a cohesive theme. I can’t completely put my finger on it, but the oddly placed counter seating with 1950’s style barstools stood out like a sore thumb against the 1980’s color palette. I can forgive an ugly restaurant though if the food is good. It isn’t.

I ordered the “Zax I am Fried Eggs and” which was a basic eggs, potatoes and meat breakfast. You can’t screw that up, right? Wrong. There is no way that the self-proclaimed skillet potatoes came out of a skillet. They were soggy, as if they had either been frozen or perhaps baked, not to mention that they were utterly tasteless. The eggs themselves were fine, but the sausage patty was so rubbery that I could have stretched it like a rubber band. Was it perhaps turkey sausage, which might explain the rubbery texture? I don’t know, but that wasn’t what I ordered. The meal was served with an interesting “Everything” muffin that I did enjoy quite a bit, although I thought that the savory flavor might be better suited to a meal other than breakfast.

Sometimes great service can make up for a lackluster meal, but this wasn’t one of those occasions. My actual server was a very attentive young lady, almost too attentive. I felt like she specifically timed her frequent visits to my table with my every bite, but the bigger problem was someone who appeared to be in a managerial position. When he stopped by my table to check on my dining experience, I kid you not, he leaned over and came within about a foot of my face when he interrogated me. (He didn’t interrogate me, but I was afraid that he might be headed in that direction.) Close talkers make me nervous when I know them. When I don’t, they make me want to run for the hills, which was fine in this instance, because I was more than ready to leave.

Wild Eggs will probably be successful, if not solely because of their high traffic location. That being said, there are so many better places to have a great breakfast (most of them within about a mile of Wild Eggs) that I am fairly certain that I won’t be back. Don’t waste your time either.

Coming Up Next:dscf1004

Coming Soon: The Return of What’s in Bill’s Mouth

As some of you may know, I decided to take a hiatus from my blogging duties about nine months ago. Several reasons factored into my decision, not the least being a degree of burnout. Since then, I have recharged my culinary batteries and I am ready to hit the ground running again.

In the meantime, all four of the establishments in the photo above have disappeared from the Cincinnati restaurant and bar scene, a remarkably low 10% failure rate among the establishments that I reviewed. So many more have opened in their places and I am excited to share my opinions and experiences with anyone who will listen. If there is anything of which I have an abundance, it is opinions.

Watch for my next blog in the upcoming days. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy!

Coming Up Next: dscf1025

Senate

Wieners on Vine. That’s what one of my good friends likes to call Senate, but talk about an oversimplification. When Senate opened in 2010, the very idea of gourmet hot dogs, not to mention locating a restaurant on Vine Street in Over the Rhine, seemed preposterous. Almost six years later, Chef Daniel Wright’s flagship restaurant (the others are Abigail Street, Pontiac and the forthcoming Blue Ash location of Senate) has received not only local, but national acclaim, setting the bar very high for the Over the Rhine food scene and all of the restaurants that have since followed in the footsteps of Senate.

Senate of course has a great bar, with not only a fine selection of wines and local beers, as well as incredible craft cocktails, but I don’t feel like I am missing out if I don’t have a drink when I go to Senate. The food is so much different than not only anyplace else in Cincinnati, but also any restaurant I have ever dined at, period.

There are other items on the menu, but the real reason to eat at Senate is the hot dogs. They all have catchy names like The Trailer Trash, The Una Noche con Nick Lachey and my personal favorite, The Lindsay Lohan, an all beef dog with goat cheese, caramelized onions, bacon, arugula, and balsamic vinegar. Just listing the ingredients doesn’t really do it justice, but the Lindsay Lohan is a great combo of meaty, cheesy and salty goodness with the sweetness of the caramelized onions and the tang of the balsamic thrown in for good measure. All of the dogs are served on a small cutting board with a fork and knife and there is no way to accomplish eating them without the utensils (unless you have giant hands and are wearing a big-boy bib.) But before you get to your hot dog of choice, no meal at Senate would be complete without an order of poutine. Perhaps I have waxed poetic about Senate’s poutine before, comparing it to dishes at Incline Public House, Pontiac and Tela, but Senate is the original as far as Cincinnati is concerned. French fries topped with cheese curds, braised shortrib and brown gravy is a variation on a common French Canadian dish, served even at McDonald’s in Canada. While I will admit that at first poutine did not sound like an appealing combination of ingredients, it won me over immediately. If you do try it and inexplicably it is not your thing, try the truffle fries or the duck fat fries. If you are lucky enough to eat at Senate on Friday, go for the delicious bacon fat fries (served only on the ubiquitous Bacon Fat Fridays.)

If you have saved even one square millimeter in your tummy, the Warm Pretzel Beignets with Caramel Mascarpone are heavenly. Salty and sweet is my dessert of choice and these particular beignets hit the spot. For the uninitiated, in the United States beignets are a common deep fried French Creole pastry, often served with bananas and powdered sugar, akin in some respects to a doughnut. But better. Way better.

Senate is closed on Sunday and Monday, so make your plans to devour some poutine on any day Tuesday through Saturday. The service is always great, so feel free to set your expectations high. Prep yourself for a wait as well, but 1215 Wine Bar & Coffee Lab is right across the street to keep you occupied in the mean time.

 

Best and Worst of 2015

There is no doubt that 2015 was a great time to be a foodie (or even just a hungry person!) in Cincinnati. I thought that before I get to the business of catching up on a few reviews that I have yet to publish from last year as well as reviews for the barrage of new restaurants opening this year that I would do a quick recap of some of the best and worst things that I had in my mouth in 2015.

Best New Restaurant: Lots of good places opened last year in the Queen City, and even a few great ones, but I would be hard pressed to compare any of them to Mita’s. The food and drinks are phenomenal, the service top notch, and the atmosphere beautiful. The Mercer is also great, but a little pricey for my blood. Son of a Preacher Man met all of my expectations, and the building and architecture at Taft’s Ale House are stunning, but all of the elements come together perfectly at Mita’s in a way that should make other restaurants envious.

Worst New Restaurant: Without a doubt the worst place that I ate this year was J Bar Pizzeria in Hyde Park. Apparently I wasn’t the only person who felt that way since they closed in less than a year. Horrible food, dreadful service and apathetic management are clearly a recipe for failure. A top notch location in Hyde Park Square will no longer suffice as the only draw. Deans Hops and Vines in Cheviot was fairly dreadful as well, but not nearly to the degree of J Bar. All of the right elements are there for Dean’s, especially in a part of town where the idea of a good restaurant starts with the word Bob and ends with the word Evans, but I don’t think the ownership or staff cares enough (or maybe doesn’t know how) to make the restaurant a success. Although it is far from new, the crown for the most disgusting restaurant of the year goes to Longworth’s Tavern. Hands down, it was the dirtiest place I went this year (maybe ever) and the food was almost as bad as the halfhearted service.

Best New Bar: This is probably the most difficult category as so many great new bars opened this year, like Nation (also a restaurant) or Tafts’s Ale House (a restaurant as well), but the prize here goes to two great bars, Sundry and Vice and Myrtle’s Punch House. Myrtle’s was brought to us by Molly Wellman and her staff so I knew from the outset that it would be great, but Sundry and Vice was a super cool (albeit pricey) surprise. Both bars cater to a slightly more adult crowd than is typical, so for this 45 year old, they were just what I had in mind.

Still Holding Out Hope: Lachey’s has such a great concept, a sports bar in a neighborhood filled with mostly sit down restaurants and trendy food. While Lachey’s menu has its trendy twists (like the delicious bison burger), most of the items are standard bar fare. When those items are executed properly and the service is on point, Lachey’s can’t go wrong. The problem is, rarely do all of those elements coincide. I have been to Lachey’s more times than I can count and it is still a hit or miss experience. I still believe in home town boys Nick and Drew Lachey and I will be rooting for Lachey’s long term success.

 

Firehouse Grill

Firehouse Grill, in the giant building on the corner of Reed Hartman Highway and Pfeiffer Road in Blue Ash that has formerly housed a litany of failed restaurants including Watson Brothers, Garcia’s and Apsara, is somewhat off of my restaurant radar. Yet surprisingly, I have been there several times since they opened in 2011. Why should I (and you too, for that matter) go there more often? Just hold your horses buckaroo, I will get to that in a minute. Why do I never think about going there? For starters, it is located in an area filled with office parks and hotels that cater to business travelers and restaurants that fit that same profile. That’s not exactly the winning formula to launch an independent restaurant, yet somehow Firehouse Grill succeeds where many restaurants have failed before. The sheer size of the building would be a turn off to most restaurant operators, but it works perfectly in this case.

On the busy Friday night that I most recently visited Firehouse Grill, I waited almost an hour to be seated. Not too long of a wait for a Friday but longer than I usually wait at Firehouse. I think the two largest contributing factors were the suffocating snowfall several days before causing a mass case of cabin fever, as well as Firehouse hosting events for Cincinnati Beer Week. On this particular night, it was a “Meet the Brewmaster” event featuring Warped Wing (a new Dayton brewery) and 50 West from Mariemont. I was seated along the back wall below one of the seemingly hundreds of TV’s, tuned to nothing in particular. (What in the world is there to watch on a Friday at 7:00pm anyway?) The noise level was loud, about what you would expect from a sports bar/casual dining restaurant on a Friday night, but at no point during the meal did I feel like I needed to scream across the table to be heard. The food menu is broad in scope, much like many casual restaurants that it competes with in the area (i.e. Applebee’s and T.G.I. Friday’s), but the beer list is chocked full of local offerings that are far less likely to be found at a chain. Right away I ordered a Blank Slate Pat’s Rip’n Kolsch and before I turned my head it was delivered to the table. I very quickly figured out that this was not going to be a leisurely dining experience, which was fine by me. I also started off the evening with an order of the Buffalo Chicken Rolls, consistently named the Best Appetizer at Taste of Blue Ash. I can certainly see why. While I rarely order food in the “Buffalo” genre that I don’t like, this appetizer was a cut above. Filled with not only the obligatory chicken, mozzarella cheese and buffalo sauce, but also pepperoni, they definitely out rate the obligatory premade frozen appetizers on the menu of every chain restaurant in the country. As their menu proudly states, almost every menu item is made in house down to the potato skins, sauces and salad dressings. Pretty impressive in my opinion. I have also had the Baked Pretzel Sticks and the Spud Bombers on previous occasions and they both put chain restaurant appetizers to shame.

I ordered a classic Cowboy Burger for my main course. It was not only served juicy and hot, but also topped with barbecue sauce, onion straws, cheddar cheese and crisp bacon and served with either kettle chips or fries. (I, of course, elected to top those fries with cheddar and bacon.) It also arrived at my table in record time. Was it a Terry’s Turf Club quality burger? Of course not, but it definitely trounces all of the local competition in the Blue Ash/Kenwood area. My dinner companion ordered a pasta dish from the entrée section of the menu. The Chicken and Tasso Penne was a delicious and savory combo of pan seared chicken and Cajun pork, with red peppers and spinach served in an alfredo sauce that was most certainly not from a jar.
I hope that by now you are seeing the same theme that I see.

Is Firehouse Grill ever going to be the hippest, coolest or trendiest restaurant on the proverbial block? Absolutely not, but if you live in the northern burbs, or don’t mind making a short drive, Firehouse is a worthy adversary to the usual suspects in the casual and family dining categories. Fresh, tasty food delivered promptly to your table with a smile on the face of the service staff makes Firehouse Grill a cut above the rest. Just when I least expect it, I’m sure I’ll be back.

Pontiac Bourbon and BBQ

Smokey XThe first thing that comes to mind when I hear the word “Pontiac” is a 1970’s muscle car with a screaming chicken on the hood (a la Smokey and the Bandit). You might be screaming about your food when you leave Pontiac Bourbon and BBQ but it probably won’t have anything to do with a black and gold Trans Am.

Pontiac is the latest venue to open in the Gateway District on Vine Street in Over the Rhine. I have been eagerly awaiting its arrival since it was announced last year by the owners of Senate and Abigail Street, both restaurants that have garnered not just spectacular popularity, but national acclaim as well. As is evident by the name, Pontiac specializes in barbecue. This is not your garden variety chicken breast slathered in Open Pit, or even City Barbecue for that matter. Let’s start at the beginning though. Pontiac has a unique seating philosophy, especially for Over the Rhine. As is typical for the neighborhood, Pontiac does not accept reservations. However, you may procure a table by waiting in the restaurant until one becomes available. The extremely friendly staff will find you at the bar and let you know that you may be seated once your table opens up. They do not participate in the roulette style game where diners in the neighborhood put their name in at every restaurant conceivable and eat at the first place to call or text them with an open table.

All of these shenanigans are worth the wait though. There are ten beers on draft and between twenty and thirty in cans and bottles, comprised of a nice mix of locals like Blank Slate and Rivertown and popular craft brews from around the country such as Ommegang, Founders and Southern Tier. If you aren’t a beer drinker, the mixed drinks are great as well, including one that is now called “Purple Drink”. I say “now called” because it started out with another name that several people with nothing better to do found offensive. In the words of Joy Behar, “So what. Who cares?”. And of course, there is a bourbon for everyone (most of which are well beyond my palate).

We ordered the Pulled Pork Nacho Cheese Poutine as an appetizer as well as the Pimento Cheese with Ritz crackers. The cheese had a little kick to it and disappeared before we could really figure out why it was so tasty. Were we really hungry or was the cheese delicious? I’m not sure but I’m going to go with the delicious cheese theory. The Poutine was great too, but if you have preconceived ideas of what poutine should taste like based upon a visit to Senate (or elsewhere), leave those preconceptions at the door because this another dish entirely. For those of you not familiar with the most delicious dish ever to cross our Northern border, poutine, by definition, is a Quebec Canadian treat made of French fries covered in a light brown gravy and cheese curds. Needless to say, poutine at Pontiac is highly modified from that familiar formula. For entrees, Pontiac offers sandwiches or smoked meats by the pound. Everybody at our table wanted the Smoked Brisket, but apparently so did everyone else in the restaurant, as they were out of brisket by 7:00pm when we ordered. I settled upon the turkey, which was moist without being soggy. Others at the table ordered Pulled Pork and St. Louis style ribs. The barbecue sauce itself (both regular and spicy) is served in ketchup style squeeze bottles that remain on the table. The entrees were all good, but the stars of the main course were the side dishes. They are all served a la carte and are only $3 each. I think between the four of us, we tried nearly all of them. The Bacon Fat Grits were delicious (if you like grits) and so was the Mac and Cheese.

I don’t remember exactly how much the check was when we paid out, but Pontiac definitely ranks among the more reasonable venues in the neighborhood. As usual, when eating in Over the Rhine on a weekend, park your black and gold Trans Am in the garage across the street and plan to make a night of it.

Cock and Bull Public House-Hyde Park

Do you remember back in the heyday of American Idol, Simon Cowell was quite forthcoming in his assessment of potential competitors? I specifically remember him telling one singer that he or she was “simply dreadful.” I’m sure that you know where I am headed with this.

Cock and Bull Public House has three locations, Covington’s Mainstrasse Village, Glendale, and Hyde Park. The convenient Hyde Park location is on Hyde Park Square, on the corner of Edwards and Erie. I had already eaten dinner this Tuesday when a friend asked me to play trivia with a group at Cock and Bull, but I didn’t let that stop me from going. All I could think about was the mile long draft beer list (confusingly organized by ABV and not by style) that always includes one of this Hoosier’s favorite brews, Three Floyds, the almost mythical microbrewery located in northwest Indiana in Munster. On this occasion, the featured Three Floyd’s was Gumballhead, a wheat ale. This happens to be my favorite, so the night started out on a high note. But alas, it was not meant to be.

We had seven in our party and there were several other large tables in the back room where the trivia game was being played. I counted 11 tables in total. General knowledge would dictate at least two servers, maybe three, dedicated to this section of the restaurant, especially since the remainder of the restaurant was deserted and the staff seemed to amble about aimlessly without a purpose. In the infinite wisdom of the management staff at Cock and Bull, there was one server in the entire room. ONE SERVER for eleven drunk, rowdy, trivia playing tables! I think we had to ask for water for several people at the table three times. But if subpar service was all that we had to complain about, the night would have gone well. Our appetizers, Bavarian Pretzels served with beer cheese dip, and Sweet Potato Fries served with maple aioli, both arrived after our entrees. The pretzels were hot and delicious as was the beer cheese, but the sweet potato fries were another story. They were barely lukewarm and freezer burnt to top it off. Everyone who ordered a main course seemed to be satisfied, if not thrilled with their entrees. This certainly beats the last time that I ate at Cock and Bull when an appetizer that looks to have disappeared from the menu was delivered to my table topped with raw ground beef. The one person in our party who ordered dessert chose the Black and Tan, chocolate and blondie brownie bites topped with caramel sauce and whipped cream. I don’t think that they would have even been passable to serve at TGIFridays. Freezer burnt (I sense a theme), dry and bland is the most flattering description that I can come up with. No wonder they were only $3.99. Maybe Simon Cowell could have put it more succinctly, “simply dreadful.” I know that the halo of “Hyde Park” makes a lot of things more passable than they should be, but I won’t be going back to Cock and Bull. Well, maybe for the Gumballhead.

Quatman Cafe

Last night, I stopped in at Quatman’s (as the locals call it) to grab a burger and a beer. Certainly most of you are asking yourself at least one, if not both of the following questions. What the hell is Quatman’s? And where the hell is Quatman’s? The second question is an easy one. Quatman’s is located at 2434 Quatman Avenue, of course. I can hear many of you saying right now, “I’ve never seen that street in Over the Rhine.” You may be shocked to know that Quatman’s is in Norwood. Real Norwood. Not the Hyde Park/Rookwood/Norwood area that eastsiders pretend is really Hyde Park so that they can justify shopping and/or eating there and telling their friends about it. I know that it may be difficult to believe, but I enjoy going to restaurants all across the Queen City (even a few that are west of I-75, but only when my West Side friends are gracious enough to unlock the gates at Queen City and Sunset and escort me in. But I digress. We will visit the West Side soon enough.) Quatman Avenue (and Quatman Café) are located about a mile north of the Norwood Lateral off of Montgomery Road, very close to Holy Trinity Catholic Church.

If the picture above this blog post looks as if it were taken in 1966, it very well could have been. Quatman’s opened in 1966 and from the looks of things, not much has changed in the interim. Red checked tablecloths set the mood and if you are lucky, the Xavier game will be playing on one of the large flat screen TV’s. Prepare for a few changes in the décor though. Construction is almost finished on a brand new space right next door that will feature outdoor seating as well. I’ve just recently discovered that there is also a location in Mason (a.k.a. No Man’s Land). The menu is tiny, but what’s on that menu is irrelevant. You are here for the burger. A burger that Cincinnati Magazine has called the best in the city upon more than one occasion. And who am I to argue with Cincinnati Magazine, at least in this instance. There are lots of great burgers in Cincinnati and I’m sure we could debate all day long which one is the best. But, you won’t hear me joining in that debate. It is very likely that in the course of this blog that I may never call something “the best”. What you will hear is me referring to something as “my favorite” and that’s what the Quatman’s burger is for me.

Let’s talk a little about this burger. It will arrive on the table with very little fanfare. The server will not ask you what temperature you prefer because they all come out of the kitchen reliably well-done. Not char grilled well-done, but certainly no pink. There will be no bacon, no grilled onions, no gorgonzola cheese, no salsa, no avocado. Nothing that might be perceived as gourmet or fancy. Up until just a few short years ago, the only options were a myriad assortment of deli style cheese, ketchup and mustard. As the server once told me “When you have good meat, you don’t have to decorate it.” And she is right. I’m a purist so I always order mine plain with just spicy pepper jack cheese, and that’s really all it needs. The burger is juicy without being greasy and comes with a side of fries that are hot and crispy and taste a little like what you remember McDonald’s fries tasting like when you were a child. (Were those fries really that tasty? Probably not, but don’t steal my childhood memory.)

Did I mention the pricing? If you come on a Monday, Thursday or Saturday, the Daily Special which consists of a Cheeseburger, Fries and a Drink, is only $6.58. Did you just gasp, because that is the appropriate response. Oh, and also, that drink can either be one of the zillion different kinds of pop that Quatman’s stocks in their cooler, or a cold draft beer. Last night the selection consisted of Christian Moerlein Helles, Yuengling Lager, Hudy Delight, Miller Lite and Coors Light, although some of the handles rotate occasionally. I’m pretty sure that I couldn’t eat at the aforementioned McDonald’s for that price, and the last time I checked, McDonald’s doesn’t serve beer.

Definitely make a point to check out Quatman’s. It won’t break the bank and you will be surprised how much better the burger is than the fast food that you are probably used to eating. Be sure to bring the kids too. They are probably going to love it as much as this 44 year old kid does.

Lachey’s Bar

I’ve visited Lachey’s Bar at 56 E. 12th St. in Over the Rhine twice since it opened to the general public on New Year’s Day, both on busy Friday nights.  Lachey’s is the highly anticipated sports bar/gastropub from Cincinnati natives Nick and Drew Lachey of 1990’s boyband 98 Degrees, and 4EG, the gurus behind Keystone Grill, Igby’s, The Lackman and several other popular bars and restaurants. The Lacheys bring the star power in the form of a reality show (currently filming) that will air on the A&E network in the spring and 4EG brings the marketing genius to this particular venture, both with great success. Lachey’s is the perfect venue in the perfect location at the perfect time.

Up to this point, the Over the Rhine restaurant scene has been known for its boutique sized restaurants with epic weekend wait times. Lachey’s Bar is a much larger venue and so far, they seem to have a handle on the crowds. Once your name is on the waitlist, not only will the staff text you when your table is ready, they also text you a link so that you may check your place in line. And to top it off, the 13 flat screen TV’s and giant tickers keep you on top of the latest sports scores, games and stories while you wait for your table.

On my first visit, which in the interest of full disclosure was on Lachey’s second day of business, I arrived around 6:00pm and put my name on the waitlist. I was dining with ten friends so I expected a long wait, however we were surprisingly seated by about 7:30. As we waited, I enjoyed a Bloody Mary. While it was a little less spicy than I prefer, it was definitely above average for a sports bar. Many of my friends ordered specialty cocktails from the drink menu as well. Of particular note were the Cincinnati Street Railway and the Counting Stars. Several wines are on draft (yes, wine!) as well as local brews including Rhinegeist and MadTree.

After we were seated in one of the large red banquettes under the windows facing 12th Street, we ordered food that took well over an hour to arrive. (On my second visit it arrived much more promptly.) The appetizers were exceptional, especially the Buffalo Chicken Dip served with Ritz crackers for dipping, and the Tater Tots, served in a choice of three varieties, jerked spice, bacon and cheese, or garlic parmesan. While my Bison Burger was not cooked to the temperature that I ordered, it was still delicious. The second time was perfection.

If I have one complaint, it is that the service staff even after my second visit, still seems disorganized and slightly less than knowledgeable about the menu and drinks. I would be remiss if I did not mention that a good friend of mine is employed at Lachey’s and she is a consummate professional. Hopefully her experience will rub off on some of the less well trained staff.

If you decide to visit Lachey’s (and I hope you do), please keep in mind that parking meters in Over the Rhine and Downtown are now in effect until 9 Monday through Saturday and from 2-9 on Sunday. The garages on the corner of Vine and 12th and Vine and Mercer are great places to park as well. As in any city setting, parking is not free, but it is extremely reasonable. (Approximately $1/hour at a meter, payable by credit card, slightly more for a garage.)

Regardless of some small kinks in the service, I am certain that I will return to Lachey’s Bar often. It is exactly what Over the Rhine has been waiting for.