Restaurant Review: Local 127

If you haven’t eaten at Steve Geddes’s downtown restaurant, Local 127, recently – or at all – you need to remedy that.  As you may know, Geddes is the ONLY head chef in America who is also a master sommelier. While his wine savvy thus is terrific – even the short by-the-glass list is incredibly thoughtful and fairly eccentric—it’s his deft cooking that keeps me coming back.

Truth be told however, we had somehow let a year or more go by since our last visit.  And I’m happy to report that his kitchen is still firing on all cylinders. While you definitely can get some relatively indulgent dishes here – such as the deliciously rich “Porkopolis” entrée – my husband and I had no problem enjoying a healthy-foodie meal. That is, pretty guilt free and at the same time, yummy.

If you're interested in a drink before dinner, the choices here are excellent. Along with the aforementioned wines, there's also about a dozen beers on tap -- including some adventurous, unusual choices along with a couple of more common ones -- and a lovely reminder of the cocktail b lounge that used to be next door to Local 127 before it moved to this location. That is, a short list of classic, carefully crafted cocktails. I had one of my favorites, the Liberal Liberal (bourbon, high end sweet vermouth, Campari and bitters) -- not that different from the Manhattan I can make at home but somehow much better.

My cocktail & his beer @ Local 127

 LOCAL 127: 413 VINE STREET

Open for dinner, Monday - Saturday

Participates in OPEN TABLE 

Or call 513-721-1345 for reservations

Menu highlights include White Onion Soup and a Bibb-lettuce Waldorf Salad with roasted hazelnuts -- our healthier choices. There's also a roasted beet salad with goat cheese and bacon, smoked trout, potato skins and wings -- none of which will remind you at all of skins or wings you've had in most restaurants. Appetizer prices range from $9-$13.

Our entrees were even tastier -- I had the chicken as I often do here because Steve just has a way with chicken. The menu describes the dish as "Chicken Breast, napa cabbage, mushrooms, mustard sauce" but doesn't begin to approximate the range of flavors and textures in this dish. One of the best things about Steve's cooking, to me, is the way every dish has an element of crunch. Toasted bread crumbs is what I think gave this chicken its crunch but in any case the total effect was marvelous.

George loved his sea scallops -- pictured in the background -- which are always on the menu here, just with varying preps. 

Chicken, and Scallops Entrees

We opted out of dessert, but I've had the panna cotta and loved it before. And I've also ordered the well designed cheese plate as a dessert. Entrees cost $14 (a burger) - $28 (striped bass), with most in the $22-$24 range. Desserts are $11-$13.

It's not an inexpensive night out, but once in a while, it's sure worth considering!

Restaurant Week at Metropole & 21C

August 5-11 is Downtown Cincinnati Restaurant Week. You can find a list of participating establishments by clicking here.

Rooftop Bar @ 21C

We decided to try the new rooftop bar at 21C Hotel and then partake of the special menu at Metropole, the hotel's excellent restaurant. It had been a while since we'd fit Metropole into our dining schedule, and we were reminded that it's really one of our favorites.
We started the evening at the cocktail bar on the 11th floor, which was far less crowded than it usually is, according to the staff and what I've heard about the popularity of the spot. We hit it on a Tuesday at about 6:30-7:30, which was a nice time to go.
Downstairs at Metropole, our Restaurant Week menu choices were limited to either of two appetizers -- a simple green salad or seared octopus -- we selected the latter, pictured here.

Seared Octopus with Garnishes

 Main course selections are Chickpea Panisse (hard to describe -- vegetarian, with summer veggies and an olive puree); Seared Monkfish (with tomatoes, gnocchi and fennel) or Braised Pork Shoulder (with polenta and zucchini). We avoided the meat and each had one of the other entrees; both were good.
For dessert, no choice -- just the Dark Chocolate Tart, which was an interesting combination of flavors (it included sea salt, olive oil, white chocolate ice cream and candied olive -- very unusual!). I also enjoyed some of their French press coffee with the tart.
 
While Restaurant Week is a great way to get people in the door,  I think it's best viewed as an introduction to (or reminder about) some of the city's best offerings. Once you see the regular menu -- at least at Metropole -- you'll likely want to come back and have a chance to partake of the whole range of intriguing choices. This works at any of the participating eateries, of course, but I think you'll be especially interested in what Metropole is dishing out.
We'll definitely return!

Dinner at the Red Roost Tavern: New farm-to-table downtown

Red Roost Quinoa Salad

For our 18th wedding anniversary, my husband and I dined at the new restaurant in the Hyatt Regency Hotel downtown, the Red Roost Tavern.

It's an impressive operation, combining a front-of-the-house sports bar atmosphere with an expansive bar and a dozen large-screen TVs and a more intimate dining room facing the open kitchen in the rear. On our Monday night visit the bar area definitely had a lot more patrons, but on other nights the dining room also fills up, according to staffers.

How to describe the Roost in a nutshell? What impressed me, at least, is its farm-to-table orientation, a varied menu that includes plenty of healthy choices but also heartier and more casual fare, and an environmentally conscious approach to everything from sourcing of ingredients to recycled materials in the decor and an Eco-friendly kitchen.

We started by sharing one of the entrees as an appetizer -- an organic grit cake that turned out to be our favorite dish of the evening. The grits are enriched by a touch of smoked Gouda, and is presented with fava bean and corn succotash (also available as a side), crunchy kale chips and dried cherries. Highly recommended!

There are three salads on the dinner menu, and we each had one. The Quinoa Salad my husband had was a winner--lightly dressed, a tasty combination of chewy grains and crisp veggies. The grilled radicchio on my Baby Romaine Hearts salad was the bomb -- I just wished there had been more of it and less of the relatively boring romaine.

Organic Grit Cake

For entrees, he had a big, fat, juicy burger -- not a beef but a bison burger, layered with avocado, arugula  and Gouda. My Salt Grilled Shrimp was more than I could finish, as were the sides I had chosen, but it went home with me for future consumption.

We appreciated that each entree comes with two side dishes, and the choices included the expected mashed or roasted potatoes as well as a few more unusual options, such as "crunchy cauliflower" and pan-fried quinoa or peppered pappardelle.

Grilled shrimp, with potatoes and cauliflower sides

I thought that the cocktail list was adequate -- I had a serviceable mint julep -- and the wine list barely so. (My husband suggested that the restaurant doesn't aspire to offering significant wines, just enough familiar varietals to provide acceptable accompaniment to the food.) I would add that an upgrade in the glassware would make me happier. All they had were small, white wine type glasses -- which I don't even like for white wine -- that diminish one's enjoyment of a wine's bouquet and taste.

We'd had a big meal and shouldn't even have ordered dessert....but we did share (and only half eat) a lemon enhanced creme brûlée that would have been delicious under other circumstances.

Overall, I think Red Roost Tavern will and should be a success in its location. The hotel chain has invested millions in refurbishing the lobby, meeting space and guest rooms here, and being across the street from the Convention Center will bring in lots of business to the restaurant and bar.

Red Roost replaces the old Champ's sports bar, and is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner seven days a week -- another good thing for downtown, since it can be hard to find a nice meal on a Sunday.

Healthy foodies, you're going to be happy here, I think!

New Hot-Spot (very hot) in OTR

Zula Restaurant and Wine Bar is the latest addition to the restaurant and bar scene in the part of downtown Cincinnati known either as the Gateway Quarter or, more broadly, by its traditional moniker "Over-the-Rhine" (OTR for short). Having opened toward the end of February, Zula has been discovered by hordes of young urbanistas who have made it hard to find a table at the area's other watering holes and foodie destinations (A Tavola, Abigail Street, Senate, Bakersfield, to name a few). Unlike most of their neighbors, however, at least Zula does take reservations.

One of the bartenders at Zula

We arrived early-ish on Saturday night without reservations but were lucky enough to find a couple of seats at the bar, where we started with cocktails and moved on to sample menu items from Chef Tsvika Silberberg, who goes by "Vic."  He has spent the past 12 years cooking at the Celestial in Mt. Adams before getting this chance to open his own place.

Menu specialties include an array of interesting preparations of mussels; we tried a simple tomato-and-garlic sauce and appreciated the plump, fresh shellfish in a tasty broth.
Otherwise, we split a nice salad that included hearts of palm and haricots verts, then each had a "hot plate" -- lamb moussaka for me (a surprisingly light version of what often is a heavy dish) and sliced, cured salmon for him (which he "yum-yum"-ed through every bite).
We also split a pleasantly light dessert, an olive-oil based pound cake topped with citrus salad, no cream or ice cream to weigh it down.
For those who crave something heartier, though, there were richer desserts.

Haricots Verts Salad

All in all, we had a great time and were impressed with just about everything -- the drinks, scene, food, etc.

Salad station @ Zula

Metropole Restaurant -- in 21c Hotel

Metropole Salad

We had another meal at Metropole, the restaurant in the new 21c Hotel downtown. I had a delicious cocktail made with rye whiskey and clove soda, which sounded strange but worked really well. And we were delighted with the healthy choices we were able to pull from the menu. This was all prior to going across the street to the ballet, Prokofiev's Romeo & Juliet (absolutely wonderful, that).
Photos show a sugar snap salad (with various nice accompaniments) and my husband's vegetarian entree, a chick-pea panisse (that's what they called it -- basically, a baked fritter) also with good extra ingredients. He also had a different salad, I had a swordfish entree.
Yum and more yum.

Vegetarian entree at Metropole

Mayberry: OTR Dining

Mayberry is on Main Street, a couple of long blocks from the action on Vine Street (aka the Gateway Quarter) but still within the urban-renewal section of Over-the-Rhine, Cincinnati's classically beautiful neighborhood that has fallen on hard times, to say the least. All you have to do is raise your gaze above street level and appreciate the meticulously crafted building facades to see why OTR is considered such a diamond in the rough. A century ago, it was gorgeous; fifty years ago, it was in decline; today city leaders are uniting in a great effort to restore the area to some of its former grandeur.

Chef Josh Campbell

That's a long lead-in to my post about dinner at Mayberry the other night. We already loved chef/co-owner Josh Campbell's cooking from the earlier, closet-sided incarnation of the restaurant in the central business district of downtown, plus he helped supply World Food Bar, a stall at Findlay Market (no longer there). In February they moved to a much larger and nicer spot on Main Street -- just a block or so from the excellent cocktail bar, Japp's -- and this was our first chance to have a meal there.
Speaking of cocktails, I liked Mayberry's short but inventive cocktail list (I had a tasty blackberry old fashioned) and the feel of the bar/dining room -- lots of dark wood, nicely appointed tables, a diverse crowd of all ages. The menu is short, including a handful of appetizers (listed as Snacks & Salads) and perhaps eight entrees, divided by "from the land" and "from the sea."
We split a large salad ($10) that consisted of a hefty chunk of fresh mozzarella, a smear of pesto, piles of local heirloom cherry tomatoes, grilled slices of Shadeau multi-grain bread and a mound of arugula in a refreshing lemon vinaigrette.

Flatbread

For entrees, I tried ("from the land") duck breast flatbread ($17) with peaches and goat cheese, while my husband had the salmon entree ($22) with roasted beets,black rice and a few other ingredients. We thought the quality-price ratio was quite favorable.
It was a stormy evening so the expansive patio in back wasn't open -- a shame, given that the outdoor space actually is larger than the indoor dining room, so the house was at capacity. Our server sang the praises of the outdoor ambiance and told us that there's also a full bar outside.
I'll go back, and hope to hit it on a night when the patio is available.
Mayberry is open for dinner Tuesday - Saturday, lunch Monday - Friday and for Sunday brunch.

Nicholson's Tavern & Pub -- Under-appreciated Chef?

Mark Bodenstein has made a splash at other area restaurants, most notably the departed (and lamentedl) Chalk, in Covington. For several months now he's been cooking at Nicholson's in downtown Cincinnati. His talent shines through despite the lackluster, pub-grub menu.

Chef Bodenstein

We dined at Nicholson's on Friday near the end of the "Taste of Tavern Restaurant Week" -- a promotion at this and the group's three sister restaurants (Polo Grille, deSha's and The Pub at Rookwood) -- offering three courses for $25.
Our server forgot to give our party the special menu, and for the first 10 minutes we pondered the aforementioned pub menu. When we asked for, and she brought, the promotional menu, all four of us knew right away that these were the dishes that came from Chef Mark's heart.
The first course was a choice between Summer Corn Bisque with pickled chanterelles (yum) and a watermelon salad; we all chose the bisque and found it delicious.
Second course: potato gnocchi with summer beans or baby vegetable ratatouille; I had the veggies and the others went with the gnocchi.I'd say the gnocchi was more satisfying if only because the ratatouille had a too-rich cream sauce that overwhelmed the delicate vegetables.

Potato gnocchi

Finally, the main course was either pan roasted scallops or beef sirloin (my choice). Again, I thought the dish that I didn't choose was the more successful. My beef was very tough, and a tiny portion.
All told, it was an interesting meal and definitely a significant value.
As far as drinks, Nicholson's specializes in a mind-boggling selection of Scotch (not my thing, alas) and a lot of beers (also not anything I would drink). The cocktail list wasn't impressive, but the bartender is quite knowledgeable; he made me a personalized Old Fashioned with a little orange flower water that rocked. Also of note, Nicholson's offers Purple Trillium by the glass for $9 -- significantly less than I've seen it for elsewhere.
The place was fairly empty during the dinner hours, which I hope is just a summer aberration. I'd like to see this chef do well, and hope also that the regular menu will continue to move more in the direction of eclectic, regional American and away from the original Scottish-pub food that Nicholson's started with.

Pan roasted scallops

Dining on Vine (Gateway Quarter) -- the best in town!

No contest: the winner, hands down, for a vibrant and varied dining/bar scene in the Cincinnati metro area is the strip of restaurants on Vine Street off Central Parkway, known as the Gateway Quarter. Widen the geography just a little bit to extend a couple of blocks down to Main Street (where you can eat at Mayberry and drink Molly Wellman's great cocktails at Japp's), and your choices get even better.
On Vine Street itself, there's Abigail Street (our favorite as of now), A Tavola, Senate, Lavomatic, Taste of Belgium and Bakersfield. Plenty of young and not-so-young revelers have discovered this scene, and very few of the restaurants take reservations, so you either have to get there early, get lucky, or plan to wait. But the good news about waiting is that virtually all of the establishments have well-stocked bars, and there are a couple of other drinking spots right next door (a wine bar and a beer-oriented place).

Gnocchi at Abigail Street

Most recently, we have chowed down a couple of times at Bakersfield -- where the price/quality ratio is very high -- Lavomatic, and Abigail Street.
Abigail Street wowed us with every dish we tried, from a perfectly springlike flatbread topped with ricotta cheese and fresh peas to a lick-your-plate gnocchi and just-as-good sauteed cod. Everything is small plates here, so you get to try a few things rather than stick to one big entree. There are enough healthy choices to pass our healthy-foodie test. This is the one we long to return to, and will soon.
Bakersfield is one of the very few Mexican restaurants around here that makes their own corn tortillas, and their little tacos are delicious, filling, and cheap. The bar puts out some super craft cocktails, as well.

Tacos at Bakersfield

A Tavola packs people in for the artisan pizzas, and I'm also impressed by some of their cocktail offerings.




Most recently, we tried Lavomatic, where the healthy-foodie choices were pretty good. I had a vegetarian entree that was generous and filling: a delicious cup of gazpacho (my favorite thing of the meal) along with a vegetable terrine atop a bed of couscous salad. It was more than I could eat. For starters, we tried the warm goat cheese salad, and liked it.
Here are a few more photos from our dining adventures on Vine:

Crostini at Abigail -- half eaten!

Abigail Street Cod

Gazpacho & Terrine from Lavomatic

A Tavola

Fig, prosciutto and arugula pizza

Adding to the already hot Gateway Quarter scene in OTR, A Tavola opened in early summer with a simple but effective concept. They do thin-crust pizza from a wood-fired oven, and not much else. They do it very well, however. Along with the fairly short list of pizzas, the menu adds a few salads -- I had a good cauliflower salad with lemon vinaigrette, and my husband tried the grilled asparagus salad (pictured). The signature pizza starts with a base of fig jam, then adds fontina cheese, prosciutto and arugula -- we ate that (also pictured).
The overall effect was no-big-deal but good, if that makes sense. I didn't feel it was a true destination eatery, but if you're in downtown Cincinnati looking for the best pizza in the neighborhood, this would be the place to go.
A Tavola also has an inviting bar with a few bar tables and a short but interesting cocktail list. Most if not all of their drinks seem to use house-made mixers, which is always a good sign.