Other priorities

So for anyone who may have actually been reading this, I started school at UC and suddenly got really busy. I also started writing for The Cincinnati Man when I have the time, with a different focus than just informative. I may come back to this when things die down, but regardless, check out Cincinnati Man.

Greater Cincinnati Independents Restaurant Week

Similar to the downtown Cincinnati restaurant week last month, this week (Sep 14-20) is The Greater Cincinnati Independents Restaurant Week. 33 Restaurants in the Cincinnati area are offer fixed menu 3 course meals or 2 meals for $26.09. The downtown restaurants include Washington Platform and Nicholson's.

Oktoberfest Zinzinnati

Eat, drink, and be merry with 500,000 of your closest friends at the country's largest Oktoberfest this weekend in downtown Cincinnati. 5th street between Race and Broadway will be blocked off to make room for tents filled with food and beer available for purchase on the street. There's a large variety of each, with food varying in price while domestic beer is $4 for a regular, $10 for a large souvenir cup, and $6 for a large refill.

There will be plenty of music throughout the festival as well. The food and beer part of the event runs from 11 am to midnight on Saturday and 11 to 10 pm on Sunday.

Add a dollar to each of those for Premium. There will also be wine, "twisted tea," and soft drinks.

New this year will be the "partyzelt," a sports tent and beer garden in the parking lot next to the Millennium Hotel on 5th & Race. There's also the runner of the Weiners, a dachshund race, at Fountain Square at noon on Friday.

*Photos from the official Oktoberfest Zinzinnati Newsroom

Weekend Shenanigans

This is a weekly installment a friend of mine sends out to let people know about different events going on over the weekend. I'm going to start including them on here. They should be every Friday, around noon.

Today:
- DERF Happy Hour at Pavilion at 5:30 pm. $10 includes your choice of 10 Bud Lights - or - 6 Three Olives cocktails – no cover.
- Casual Friday Wine Tasting by the Art of Entertaining in O’Bryonville from 5:30-8:30 pm. $22 for 6 wines and finger foods
- Reggae on the River on the Purple People Bridge from 7-11 pm. $10 at the gate, but tickets bought in advance come with 2 free drink tickets: http://www.givebackcincinnati.org/v3/reggae.asp
- Karaoke at the West Chester Bar & Grill at 9 pm.
- Lodge honors Hometown Heroes today. $2 Miller drafts, $2 Coors drafts, $5 Bubble bombs

Saturday:
- ACO Turfway Park Cornhole Tournaments in Florence at 11:30 am. $10-$50 entry fee – you can win up to $800. http://www.americancornhole.com/

Other:
- GCI Restaurant week is next week from the 14th-20th. 33 locally owned restaurants from around the city will offer a three-course prix-fixe dinner menu for only $26.09. In addition, some casual themed restaurants are offering dinner for 2 for $26.09. http://www.gcindependents.com/
- Tailgating and football weekend – games galore

Feel free to shoot me an email if you have any questions!

Cincinnati Beerfest

Cincinnati Beerfest starts today at 5 on Fountain Square. Different local brewies and national chains will be there, where you can trade tickets (10 for $10) for 3 ounces of beer. There will also be Mexican food and wings, as well as live music.

The food, drink, and music should last until sometime around 11.

Best view in Cincinnati - Devou Park

I've decided it would be fun to try and determine the best view of the area here in Cincy. It doesn't necessarily have the be a view of downtown, it could just be any good lookout point. I'll go to a location, snap a few photos, and post them on here. I'm going to keep searching for good lookouts, and if anyone thinks they have a good place, please let me know and I'll check it out.

To kick off the "Best view" series, I went to Devou Park across the river in Kentucky. These pictures are the view from the grass near Drees Pavilion.

The western edge of downtown, North of Devou Park

Directly East of Devou Park, looking at Covington

North-east, a different part of Covington

And the best part, North-east of Devou Park looking at Downtown Cincinnati

The same direction from the park, zoomed out to see a more comprehensive view.

Good view? Bad view? Ideas for a better view? Again, not necessarily the city, just good general overlooks.

Riverfest

I checked out both the rubber duck regatta and the fireworks this past weekend.

The regatta, honestly, was a bit disappointing. I wasn't expecting a nail biter race or anything, but I thought it'd be funny to watch the ducks float along the river and pretend to get overly dramatic about the ending. Instead, the regatta did a very poor job of engaging the spectators.

There was a duckie mascot walking around, but about half the time it just got in the way instead. In terms of trying to see the actual duckies, the spectators were kept about 15 feet away from the end of the water, and the finish line was right against the Serpentine wall, making the finish impossible to see.

The regatta itself just seemed like a formality with very little enjoyment. Most of the actual "race" along the serpentine wall actually consisted of the rubber duckies being towed to about 15 feet from the finish line, then let loose.


At least the sight of 100,000 rubber duckies was still pretty funny to see:



The fireworks that night were awesome, though. We got to Sawyer Point a bit late, finding a seat at about 9:00, so we had a somewhat obstructed view by a tree, but it was still a great fireworks show.


If that picture's not patriotic, I don't know what is. Maybe if I could get a little better lighting on the flag.

The show lasted somewhere between half an hour and 45 minutes, I think. I found it much easier to get an unobstructed view last minute in Kentucky last year, on the hill East of the Purple People Bridge. We decided to try the Cincinnati side this year, but I'd probably go back over the river for next year's fireworks.

New bar & grill in Newport

Brother's Bar and Grill will open a restaurant/bar in the space next to Barnes & Noble at Newport on the Levee. They plan to open their doors in October. You can read the short article here.

That space next to Barnes & Noble has been empty since I moved here. I'm glad something is finally making use of a good location.

Sully's closed

As proof of how often I have time to go to bars or read the newspaper, I just noticed tonight that the awnings over Sully's were now blank and there was a for sale sign in the door. A quick Google search confirmed to me that Sully's abruptly closed August 18. I had seen it empty a few times as I drove by during the day but that wasn't entirely unusual for Sully's... hence why it's closed.




You can read the Cincinnati Enquirer article here. In a nutshell, it was a mutual agreement for Sully's to move out and the building owner is hoping to get a more relaxed "American fare" restaurant to move in.

Boi Na Braza 9th Anniversary

As I wrote a few weeks ago, Boi Na Braza's $35 restaurant week deal was delicious and well worth it, in my opinion. Fortunately, to celebrate its 9th anniversary, Boi Na Braza is giving the same deal every Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday in September. If you're a carnivore, check it out.

If you do go, the website stresses to call ahead and make a reservation, and to say that you are going for the 9th anniversary special when you make your reservation.

All Star Blast at the Ballpark

A common complaint about fireworks events is how crowded it can be if you want to be situated in a place to see the fireworks and how you usually can't sit down due to those crowds. If these kinds of feelings will be keeping you away from the riverfront this Sunday night, consider the All Star Blast at the Ballpark. Essentially, you buy tickets to be in Great American Ballpark for the evening, including tours and dinner, then go to the upper deck seats for a great view of the fireworks.

Best of all, proceeds go to The Wellness Community, which supports cancer patients.

Riverfest this weekend

Unless you've just recently moved to Cincinnati, you probably already know that Riverfest occurs the Sunday before labor day every year. There will be booths with food, drinks, and music on both sides of the Ohio River all day, leading up to the fireworks between the Big Mac bridge and the Roebling Suspension bridge at 9:05 pm.

The fireworks shoot off in synchronization with the music played on 102.7 WEBN, which is one of the main sponsors of Riverfest.

Also, the Rubber Duck Regatta will take place at 3 pm in the Ohio River. I didn't know about this event last year, but I've heard it's a really fun one to watch. The Rubber Duck Regatta is a fundraiser for the Freestore Foodbank where people can "buy" ducks, and a waterproof sticker is placed on the duck.

After selling tons of these ducks, all of them are thrown into the river and they race a quarter mile along the serpentine wall. One of the ducks will cross the finish line first, and whoever has a number matching the sticker wins a 2010 Honda Insight Hybrid. Ducks are $5 apiece or 6 for $25, and can be purchased following the link above.

The race should be really fun to watch, and gives a good excuse to get down to the riverfront and check it out way before the fireworks!

Kittenbus!

I've noticed this really interesting car parked across the street from my apartment during the day. The license plate is "KITNBUS" and the car certainly matches the plate.

Next time I see the car when I am home I'll get some closer pictures.

Has anyone else seen the KittenBus around the city?

Rumble at the River

Next Saturday (Sept 5), Miami of Ohio will play their season-opener at Paul Brown Stadium against Kentucky at noon. Gates will open at 10 am, and there will be a "Tailgate Town" set up on the Southeast corner of the plaza, also beginning at 10 am.

The game will also be head coach Mike Haywood's first game with Miami.

With UK an hour and a half away and Miami 45 minutes away, Paul Brown Stadium is a great meeting point for the game in a more populated setting. This, coupled with the fact that thousands of Miami alumni live in the Cincinnati area, should lead to a good atmosphere for an early season college football game.

Tickets in the lower seating area can be bought for $45, and in the upper seats for $35. For more information, visit makeitred.net

Thoughts about the streetcar

I was out of town in Seattle and Vancouver last week, and I spent a day touring Seattle with a friend who lives out there. I noticed streetcar lines running through the downtown area, and started asking her about it because of all the debate I read about with the streetcar here in Cincy.

She told me that it's only really used by tourists, and that there aren't very many cars that go along the actual cables. Another friend I talked to the next day also said that the streetcar is only used by tourists, independently confirming what I had observed and heard the day before.

I feel strongly that public transportation is important for a city, but this made me take a second look at the streetcar. At first it made me think that the streetcar may not be a very good idea after all, since maybe the people who lived in the city wouldn't use it too much. For the streetcar proposal as I see here, for the main streetcar route, I think it may be a concern. However, the extension to Kentucky would likely boost the ridership quite a bit, and just starting the project would be a lot of progress towards what would overall benefit the natives of Cincinnati in the long term.

Another thought came from this tourist-centric streetcar in Seattle though: A lot of the debate seems to be around how people who live here would use the streetcar, but the idea of tourism doesn't seem to be touched on as much.

I don't know of many people who plan a trip to visit Cincinnati just to visit the city. It's a lot more attractive to visit a city when you have more options for getting around then renting a car, and a lot of times, tourists are not too keen on buses. In the short term, the streetcar would give people downtown a chance to visit some of the attractions in Cincinnati much more easily, since it would connect downtown to Findlay Market, the Cincinnati Zoo, and UC.

I think the streetcar would definitely benefit those who live here with a new mode of transportation within the inner core of the city, but we shouldn't forget about the benefits it would give Cincinnati in terms of attracting those from outside the city.

Downtown Cincinnati Restaurant Week- Jeff Ruby's

Checked out Jeff Ruby's last night for their $35 3 course dinner deal as part of Downtown Cincinnati Restaurant Week. I had the caesar salad, 6 oz. steak, and NY cheesecake.

The salad was not what I had expected- it was 3 large leaves of lettuce covered lightly in dressing on a plate. Maybe that is the norm at upscale places, but I usually like salads cut up in a bowl. It still tasted good.

The steak was delicious, as was the cheesecake dessert. I did glance at the normal menu beforehand, though, and I don't really think the $35 charge for these courses is a deal of any kind. I didn't notice any steaks that were smaller than 12 oz. on the menu, and the 12 oz ones went for around $33, so maybe call the 6 oz. steak $20 (buy in bulk, it gets cheaper). The caesar salad was about 7, and I didn't see the cheesecake in a glance at the menu, but I imagine it couldn't be much more than $8. Add those up, you're at the $35 you paid for.

I have to say, I think Boi Na Braza gave a much better value for the week. But when you're a staple like Jeff Ruby's, I guess there's not a need to sell yourself in the same kind of way.

Regardless, looking forward to it next time! For now, it's back to frugal ways.

Restaurant Week- Boi Na Braza

I went to Boi Na Braza last night for the Downtown Cincinnati Restaurant Week deal. For $35, unlimited salad bar, unlimited cuts of meat from of 5 differerent kinds, and a dessert.

The salad bar had quite the selection. A good variety of fresh cheeses, lots of vegetables besides just lettuce, and a few cooked side dishes like shitake mushrooms and mashed potatoes. It was one of the better salad bars I've seen, but you don't go to a Brazilian Steakhouse to fill up on salad. After a small sampling plate, I flipped the plastic market from red to green, indicating to the servers that I wanted meat. For the next 45 minutes, different pieces of chicken, lamb, filet mignon etc., some wrapped in bacon, was constantly ending up on our plates.

We were finally stuffed, our server, Uziel (I apologize if I spelled it wrong) came by to offer dessert. He recommended the papaya cream, because it tasted great and it "helped with digesting." We decided to at least try a spoon of the papaya cream since it was included in what we paid for.

Uziel was absolutely right- the papaya cream was amazing and it did help settle our stomachs after eating all that meat. We ate it at a relaxed pace while having a lively discussion with Uziel about the lack of public transportation in Cincinnati and differences between American and Brazilian culture.

It was a great night, and if you have the appetite, a good value. Uziel gave us each 2 $10 gift certificates to use when we come back some time as a parting gift. I think I heard that is pretty common practice at Boi Na Braza.

I meant to bring my camera and take a picture of all the cuts of meat on my plate, but I sadly left it at home. Insert a mental image of a plate of different delicious meats here.

One thing that surprised me was how empty the place was. Granted, we went at 9:00 on Tuesday night, but I had figured a lot of people would relish the opportunity to have all you can eat meat for $35. I'm not sure what the normal rate is for the place, so maybe it was not much of a deal. They usually have 15 different cuts of meat, but the 5 included for the restaurant week deal were plenty.

Off to Jeff Ruby's tonight!

Downtown Cincinnati Restaurant Week

Starting today thru Sunday (Aug 10-16) is Downtown Cincinnati Restaurant Week. 20 Downtown restaurants are offering either a three course dinner for $35, or two dinners for $35 at the cheaper restaurants. Click the link to see the list of restaurants.

As far as I can tell, there are one or a few choices for each of the appetizer, entree, and dessert for each of the 3 course restaurants.

I generally try to live somewhat frugally, so I still have not been to Jeff Ruby's Steakhouse in the year I have lived in Cincinnati. Now that it's just around the corner and this deal is going on, I'm taking this opportunity to check it out for the first time. I may try to go to one other restaurant this week as well.

Canoeing on the Little Miami

Friday afternoon I went on a 6 mile canoe trip down the Little Miami River. We started from Morgan's Canoe and Livery at Fort Ancient near Lebanon. Thanks to the heavy rain on Tuesday, the water level was pretty high and rocks weren't much of a problem. I went canoeing down a different 6 mile stretch of the Little Miami a few weeks ago with Scenic River Canoe, starting from Milford. It's amazing to me how you can drive 20 minutes from downtown of a major city and end up at a quiet river.

One of the canoers from yesterday brought a camera so I'm hoping to upload a few pictures once I get them from her.

Goettafest

This weekend, Goettafest returns by the river at Newport on the Levee. I stumbled upon this last year when I was checking out Newport for the first time, and it was a pleasant surprise. It's a fun little niche festival for a local product, serving Goetta in a variety of different and creative ways.

If you haven't tried Goetta, I'd highly recommend checking out the festival. According to the goettafest website, Goetta is a "mixture of pork, beef, steel-cut (pinhead) oats, and seasonings. " The easiest thing to compare it to is a breakfast sausage, but it's not the same.

Purpose

The purpose of this blog is to journal about the different things going on around Cincinnati, specifically the things I do. I'll explain why I chose to write this in a minute, but first some background about myself.

I grew up in Evanston, Ill, right next to Chicago. I'm definitely a city person, and that influence from Chicago is probably what drove me to live in downtown Cincinnati. I moved to Cincinnati in July 2008, soon after graduating from college, to start an engineering job. I lived in Oakley the first year, but was too busy to really go out and see much of the city.

Things have calmed down recently. I moved in with my girlfriend (also from Evanston, also a city person), and I've started to really explore Cincinnati and the surrounding area. I like what I've seen thus far, and there is still a lot to get to.

I hear a lot of people talk about how there is not much to do in Cincinnati and how downtown is devoid of life. One person I told I was moving downtown responded, "Just get your concealed weapon permit and you'll be all right."

These kinds of comments caused me to hesitate about the city, but Oakley felt too much like the suburbs and I had always wanted to live in the city, so I decided to try it anyway. I haven't regretted it.

Granted, downtown is not exactly bustling with people at 3 am on a normal weekend and it can be tough to find a place to eat on a Sunday (at least in my limited experience), but it's nothing like the impression I originally had.

I know what I'm doing here isn't exactly original- in fact some of the other blogs about Cincinnati and specifically downtown are part of my inspiration. There's a group of people who seem to have the same mentality as me, which I think can be summed up as follows: "Why do so many people think there is nothing going on in Cincinnati?"

I decided I should pitch in. What I'll be doing in this blog is chronicling the different places and events I visit. I'm doing it because my first year in the city, I had no idea about a lot of places to visit and different events going on, and many people I talk to don't know either. By keeping a record of my own experiences in and around the city, hopefully others will find out about some of the fun things going on, and hopefully some people will tell me about more things I may have missed!

So, if you have any suggestions of places to visit or events, please let me know and I'll try to get around to them. Otherwise, enjoy!