New Menu Items at La Poste

Clifton's destination restaurant (La Poste) has debuted a spring menu.
While several reliable dishes remain available -- such as the Roasted Crimson Pear appetizer ($12 for almost a meal in itself, with prosciutto, herbed goat cheese and arugula, served warm), Wild Mushroom Ravioli ($18 and incredibly rich, but you can ask for an appetizer sized portion and be satisfied) and Seared Diver Scallops ($16, with the preparation altered somewhat from Day 1 of the restaurant) -- there are new salads, a bowl of mussels in a garlicky fennel broth, and several new entrees.
Click here to see the current menu.
My husband ended up ordering off-the-menu specials for both his appetizer (a mushroom/onion soup) and entree (amberjack with lots of veggies).
Someone had to sample new menu items, so I went with a Smoked Duck Breast appetizer ($13, pictured below), followed by a fish that I've never seen on their menu, and we've been regular patrons for the 3-4 years they've been open.

La Poste: Smoked Duck Breast

It was Skate Wing with quite a few sliced veggies and a caper sauce; I didn't care for the too-salty "sunchoke galette" that the fish and veggies sat on, but the rest of the dish worked well.
 

Skate Wing entree

We split a very nice Mandarin orange creme brule for dessert.
And you can always rely on the staff at La Poste to suggest appropriate wine pairings for each dish. 
 

Family Night @ La Poste

Or maybe they're calling it community night. In any case, beginning this week La Poste in Clifton will be closing on Mondays except for one time a month. On the "second Monday" they'll open for a few hours in the evening for a family-style meal.
Monday November 11 was the inaugural event; here's a photo of the buffet table.
For $20  a person, there won't be a menu, but platters of food will come out of the kitchen from 6-8 PM. This week the entrees were fried chicken and roast pork, with enough pasta and veggie sides to satisfy vegetarian eaters, as well.
Alcoholic drinks are not included but are available.
Though you can't see it in my no-flash photo, there's also a jazz band playing, which will be part of the scene ongoingly. Children are welcome, and many were in attendance.

Cincinnati's #1 "Neighborhood" Restaurant

Thanks to La Poste for the lovely re-opening reception last night. What a spread -- beef tenderloin, smoked salmon, steamed mussels, sauteed whole mushrooms, excellent cheeses and much more... not to mention a lively, engaging crowd of interesting people from all over the area.
The evening reminded me why this restaurant has got to be the best non-downtown or OTR dining spot in the metro, or at the very least, one of the best.
We Cliftonites are so lucky to have this gem in our 'hood -- just around the corner from our other blessed neighbor, the Esquire Theater. Yes, we'd love to have a grocery store back, but in lieu of that, thank goodness for La Poste & the Esquire.
Seriously though, what other Cincinnati neighborhood(s) have a restaurant that can compete in quality with La Poste?
Enoteca Emilia springs to mind as a wonderful addition to O'Bryonville -- major props to that establishment for elevating in-town, non-downtown or OTR dining.
I'm hard pressed to think of anything comparable in Hyde Park, which is full of chain restaurants of acceptable quality but no independent stars.
Am I missing something? If anyone has a neighborhood favorite -- not counting pizza parlors, tacquerias, burrito dens, etc -- please leave a comment. Oh, if you go across the Ohio there's also Bouquet in Covington. What else?

A Neighborhood Gem (and in MY neighborhood)

Long-time readers know that I love this restaurant: La Poste, on Telford Street right here in my neighborhood of Clifton. It's around the corner from the six-screen Esquire Theater and is by far the best choice for dining -- and a peerless wine list -- before or after a movie.

Baked Pear & Prosciutto Salad

My husband and I are well known by all the staff, no surprise since we drop in for drinks and/or a meal at least a couple of times a month, and often more frequently than that.
This week we had a pre-holiday dinner--soup and a fish special entree for him, pear salad and appetizer-portion scallops for me. He doesn't drink liquor, but I had the restaurant's sommelier select two half-glasses of different white wines (which is what went best with my light dishes) to go with each of my courses. I think all four wines were French -- always good by me -- and my favorite was a white Cotes-du-Rhone, a Roussane/Marsanne/Viognier blend that went beautifully with the salad's ingredients of pear, prosciutto and goat cheese.

Scallops appetizer -- plenty of food!

If you live in the Cincinnati metro area and you haven't tried La Poste yet, you need to get on down there. They serve lunch Tuesday - Friday, and dinner Monday - Saturday.

Best cocktails in town?

I definitely have a few favorite bartenders, and cocktails. Some of the best are:

--Molly Wellman at Japp's (and a bourbon bar in Covington KY), OTR

Molly Wellman, Japp's

--Rommel Wells at Rookwood Restaurant, Mt. Adams

Rommel Wells, Rookwood

--Nikki at La Poste, Clifton

Nikki, La Poste

--Whoever's behind the bar, Bakersfield, OTR

Bakersfield

--The folks at Local 127, downtown






Of late, I've been especially wowed by the craft cocktails at Bakersfield. You have to ask for the cocktail list; otherwise, the menu includes only margaritas (boring, sugar-laden drinks, IMHO) and sangria. One of their standards is a spicy bourbon concoction called the "Red-headed Stranger," which stays on the cocktail list everlastingly. And we can all be grateful for that. Among the newer offerings is a delicious, tequila-based delight called "The Drifter."
Up at Rookwood, the house made tonic is usually available to brighten up your gin, and there's often house made ginger beer or ginger ale.
I haven't tried the bar at the new Metropole, downtown -- or the restaurant, for that matter. I'm betting it's going to jump right onto my list of Cincinnati's great places to imbibe.

New menu, bartender, pastry chef and beverage director at La Poste

La Poste restaurant in Clifton (Cincinnati) is our neighborhood fine-dining option, and we're happy to have such a high quality place within walking distance of our house. But it's also worth a drive across town, if you haven't been -- and return visits if you have, of course.
We went last week to try the new fall menu -- I had the salmon entree pictured, which has spaghetti squash in its "bed" -- a nice sweet touch to the dish.

Salmon entree at La Poste

 Here also is a photo of the new head bartender, whose name is Nikki (didn't catch her last name).
Among new personnel are a beverage director (Tucker, again did not get his last name) as well as the restaurant's first-ever pastry/dessert chef.

Before now, desserts were a significant weak point at La Poste. Thank goodness, that has changed! We split this pumpkin cake with cinnamon ice cream for our dessert.

All good!

La Poste debuts fall menu, and fall cocktails too

La Poste in Clifton will debut its fall menu update on Monday. They'll keep some of their most popular items, such as the excellent mushroom ravioli, and tweak the ingredients on a couple of others. Look for the mussels and clams appetizer to morph into mussels only, with a somewhat updated preparation. (I found the mussels & clams a reliably good app or even a light entree.)
Bartender Suzy also will be mixing an array of seasonal cocktails, and she previewed a couple of them last Thursday for my friend Tricia and me. Tricia tried a delectable bourbon-based drink fizzed with egg white that was light while being plenty boozy. For me, Suzy made a "classic sidecar," a cocktail I've always loved when it's made right. Suzy's did the trick -- I'll definitely be ordering that as the days continue to get shorter and the chilly air deepens.

 

Wine Guy (another try)

The mini-chain based in Columbus OH, Wine Guy, opened a Cincinnati location last fall. By coincidence, their opening happened at almost the exact time as another wine-oriented restaurant started up--La Poste in Clifton. As someone who drinks wine with almost every dinner, home or away, I tried both of them within a week of their debuts.
As readers of this blog probably have noticed, La Poste was an immediate hit with me. They have a sommelier, one of the few in the city and definitely the only one in my 'hood, Clifton. The food passes foodie muster, but it was and is the adventurous, unusual wine selections that impresses the most.
My first experience at Wine Guy was much less happy, in part because I look for healthier menu choices and had a hard time finding any on their menu, but mostly because I was so disappointed in the wine selection. It was just all too familiar, IMHO.
So this week I decided to give the place another try. (I can't even explain why it took me so long to have that brilliant idea -- duh!) I slipped in on my own for lunch, when it's not anything like as noisy as it was the Saturday night of my previous visit.
Well, it was a much nicer experience. While I still had a bit of a time finding an appealing food choice and had to ponder the wine list awhile as well to get past the stuff I've had all too often, I did come up with a satisfying meal.
By selecting from the premium wines by the glass at the bottom of the list, I found a delicious California pinot noir, not inexpensive (about $13 for a good pour) but it was worth it. For food, I had a well-prepared grilled vegetable ciabatta ($8.99), which came with either chips or a small fruit cup. The only false note was that the fruit seemed to have been cut up not all that recently, but the sandwich was delicious and I ate the whole thing.
The waiter was friendly and answered my questions about the restaurant and listened kindly to my suggestions about kicking up the wine list. Wine Guy is also a wine shop, and its shelves contain lots of really interesting bottles. While you can select any bottle and drink it at your table for an additional $10 corkage fee, I wish they would include more of those unusual selections by the glass and (even better) in their flights.
One of the things that excited me about this place was that they offer flights of wine, which almost nobody in this town does. But as of now, there's not one of their flights that tempts me. My waiter said they're about to redo the wine list soon, and I do hope they'll make at least one of the flights something outside the box of chardonnay, cabernet, Italian reds, and so on.
The restaurant is in a prime location, the space is inviting, I love the bar area and the wine shop is first rate. Good luck to Wine Guy, and I promise to keep checking it out.