Tag Archives: Food

Second Secular Season of Fish

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Yes, that image at right looks pretty much identical to the opening image in last year’s Lenten wrap-up post (A Secular Season of the Fish). In fact, this entire post looks about the same as that post, as well as every “season of fish” post I have ever done. It is simply a report on the seven fish fries I attended during the season. Six of them are new to me, and the seventh is a repeat I’ve had planned ever since I ate there last year.

The pictured map comes from the Cincinnati Fish Fry app, which I discovered and started using partway through the 2023 season. Anyone checking in at four or more fish fries through the app is entered into a prize drawing. I met the requirements in both years I have used it, but have won no prizes and expect the same this year. That’s not my goal in the least. I use the app to find fish fries, and it does a mighty fine job. I did not record the number of offerings in 2023, so cannot say whether this year’s drop from 87 to 73 is a trend or a blip. My guess is that, for commercial enterprises, it’s a trend. That is where most of the exits occurred. Participating commercial operations went from 16 to 4, while churches and others only dropped by one each, going to 53 and 16, respectively.

The first Friday of Lent coincided with the first day of Bockfest, and I had plans, weather permitting, to attend the Bockfest Parade at 6:00 PM. What could have been a scheduling dilemma was avoided by Pride of the Valley Masonic Lodge 95 and its 10 to 8 serving schedule. The pictured catfish meal, with coleslaw and a piece of cake hiding under the fries, was $12. Soda and water were $1. Some very good eating. And the weather did cooperate in allowing a dry parade. Check it out here.

I acquired the next week’s fish fix at Duwell VFW Post 7570 in Harrison, OH. The cod dinner was $15, and the iced tea was $2. Everything about the meal was good, but the standout to me was the inclusion of a human-sized portion of coleslaw. OK, maybe the amounts of both it and the same-sized mac & cheese were more than I needed, but it was a welcome change from restaurants that apparently think a little cup with a couple forkfuls of slaw is a serving.

I went outside the fish fry app for week three of Lent. I was in Darke County doing some chauffering for my stepmother, which allowed me to take in the fish fry in my old hometown. When I was five years old, we lived directly across the street from Ansonia American Legion Post 353, although the building has been replaced since then. $10 gets all the fish and fixings (there was applesauce, too) you can eat. Soda and bottled water was $1.

Week four saw me back within range of the app, though once again near its far western limits. Miller-Stockum American Legion Post 485, like the VFW of two weeks before, did not skimp on coleslaw.  This was the $12 cod dinner with a $1 bottle of water added.

I definitely got outside the lines on the fifth week of Lent. This is very much not a fundraiser for a non-profit. It won’t bother me at all if you count this as a complete fish fry miss. I was in Jasper, IN, and a search for fish fries revealed that one of the town’s most popular Lenten events was the Friday night seafood buffet at one of the town’s most popular restaurants. The restaurant, Schnitzelbank, was already on my radar, so it became my Friday fish find. It was a feast. At $28, it was decidedly outside the normal Lenten Friday budget, but that plate, which followed one from the well-stocked salad bar and preceded one with a couple pieces of fish and a dab of seafood alfredo, contains fried fish, baked fish, fried shrimp, steamed shrimp, new potatoes, scalloped potatoes, mushrooms, a mini crabcake, and a biscuit with apple butter. The Weihenstephaner Hefeweissbier Dunkel was $5.50.

This was my second out-of-state fish Friday adventure for 2025. Florence, KY, Elks Lodge #314 is on the Dixie Highway, so I can claim a few historic auto trail miles this week. The tasty and filling cod dinner was $15, and the Yuengling was $3.25.

Here is the single repeat from last year. Gailey VFW Post 7340 is actually the only 2025 stop that was not entirely new to me. I was also here on Good Friday in 2024 when I ate beside a lady who had recently turned 100. The place was packed last year, but no more than half full this year. I was there very soon after it opened this time, so maybe it was my timing that made all the difference. Unfortunately, neither of the women I asked knew anything about the centenarian I had met, and one of them worked there as a bartender. The meal looked and cost the same — $12 — as last year. This Yuengling was only $2.

A Birthday in Hoosierland

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I set another personal age record yesterday. Even though the celebration was spread over three days and 300 miles, I am reporting it with a blog post rather than a multi-page trip journal for no particular reason although laziness could be a factor. The seeds were planted when I saw that Jason Wilber and Dave Jacques (John Prine’s long-time accompanists) had a concert planned in Chattanooga. I was interested, but before I could act on that, a date in Jasper, Indiana, was announced. When I realized that the Jasper concert was on my birthday and that a single front-row seat was available, I grabbed that seat and built the rest of the party around it.

Things got started on Thursday with breakfast at a favorite restaurant just inside the Indiana border. Folks at the State Line Restaurant make their own goetta (in and on the omelet) and strawberry jam (soon to be all over the toast), which makes it one of the best places ever to start a birthday party. The restaurant is not only on the state line; it is also on US-50, and that’s what I headed west on.

Although the trip was organized around a concert, this turned out to be the splurge of the outing. I visited the West Baden Springs Hotel with a group of friends back in 2007. At that time, it had only been open for a few months following a long closure and major restoration. I told myself I would stay there someday, and today, a little over seventeen years later, I did.

I stayed in this room and ate dinner at the hotel’s Ballard’s Restaurant, which uses a small section of the 200-foot diameter “Eighth Wonder of the World” dome as its dining area. The photos are from and of my table. That’s baked cavatappi on the plate and Trash Panda blonde ale in the glass.

Friday started with breakfast at Nila’s Place and ended with dinner at Schnitzelbank. When I began looking into Jasper eateries, Schnitzelbank consistently appeared as one of the best in town. I penciled it in as a likely spot for my birthday dinner. Then I went looking for a fish fry for the Friday night I would be in Jasper. It did not take long for me to discover that Schnitzelbank holds a very popular seafood buffet every Friday during Lent. So, a seafood buffet became my Friday fish fry, and I got rid of any problem I might have coordinating dinner at this very popular restaurant with the Saturday night concert. Here’s that buffet from one end to the other.

I definitely lucked out on my birthday breakfast spot. I’m pretty sure that everyone else at a rather busy Cranberries knew each other, and the waitress called me honey multiple times. I found a pretty good place for dinner, too. The fact that Pub ‘N’ Grub was about a block from the concert venue was a big plus. With the steady rain, I wished it were closer.

The Astra Theater is not exactly on the town square, but its entrance is accessed through an opening between two buildings at a corner of the square. It opened as a movie theater in 1936 and operated as a movie house until closing in 2002. After much refurbishing, it reopened in 2018 as a combination movie theater and performance venue.

That front-row seat was great for hearing and for seeing but not so great for photographing. Jason and Dave played a bunch of Prine songs and told a bunch of Prine stories. Sam Lewis and Andy West, both friends of John’s, joined them for a few songs and shared their own stories. This was a great kickoff to a tour they are doing, which will include a variety of guests at the different shows. Yeah, it’s a pretty good way to spend a birthday.

ADDENDUM 7-Apr-2025: Partially because they didn’t fit smoothly into the narrative and partly because I wanted to make sure the post was ready for Sunday morning, I omitted some of the things I did other than eating and sleeping. I doubt anyone is surprised that visiting breweries filled some of my idle time. I reached West Baden Springs way too early for check-in on Thursday, so I drove about fifteen miles south to check out Patoka Lake Brewing. On Friday, I tried out Saint Bebedict’s Brew Works in Ferdinand, and I also visited the Dubois County Museum in Jasper. I took no external pictures there and very few inside. A 1910 Sears Runsbout did catch my eye inside the large and impressive museum. Part of Saturday was filled with visits to the Santa Claus Brewing Company in Santa Claus and Yard Goat Artisan Ales in Huntingburg.

A Pair of Urani

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I have been to the original Uranus Fudge Factory in Missouri a few times since it opened in 2015. With the opening of the second Indiana “factory” outside of Richmond in December, there are now a total of three. The first Indiana “factory” opened three years ago in Anderson. I visited both of the Indiana stores on Friday, which I guess means I could do a “My Caboddle” post on them if I wanted.

The Missouri location is marked by an elaborate giant neon sign and a twenty-foot-tall Muffler Man style statue of Uranus Mayor — and owner — Louie Keen. Richmond has the huge block letter sign in the opening photo and a pair of not-so-tall Mayors. It also has a 110-foot cross. The cross was left by the previous owner, New Creations Chapel, much like someone might move and leave behind a couch that doesn’t fit in the U-Haul truck they rented.

Mayor Keen is not ten years old, but either has a really good memory or took really good notes on every potty joke that made him laugh at that age. The potties here, of course, have jokes. The establishment’s name lets you know what to expect, but there is a line that the signs, slogans on merchandise, and endless double entendres from employees do not cross. If you can laugh like a ten-year-old boy, you’ll be just fine.

There is, naturally, merchandise aplenty. Uranus, MO, sits beside Historic Route 66, and the inventory there reflects that. The Richmond store sits beside US 40 and could be considered to be on the National Road. Road fans should note, however, that it is not on the National Old Trails Road. It is on the stretch of National Road bypassed by the Dayton Cutoff, which the NOTR followed.

And yes, there is fudge; really good fudge in a bunch of different flavors. I left with a little Praline Pecan and a little Mint Chocolate. Uranus ice cream and sodas are also available, but I skipped both in Richmond. Gotta save something for the day’s other Uranus.

Fudge and ice cream might make you think of an amusement park, and Uranus has a bit of that, too. There is a shooting gallery in a back corner and a Vortex Tunnel near the exit. Without that handrail, there is no doubt that I would have been sprawled on the floor within just a couple of steps. Outside, the animatronic dinosaurs will be turned on “any day now” and will eventually guard a miniature golf course.

I then moved on to Anderson, IN. There is no statue of Mayor Keen here. I guess that could be him dressed as an astronaut, but I doubt it. The real Louis Keen is on the premises, however. The Anderson fudge factory opened on April 1, 2022, and is celebrating its third anniversary a tiny bit early with a party on Saturday featuring a fudge eating contest. One of the employees I spoke with indicated that Louis was next door, resting up for the big day.

Standing in front of the main building is something featured at all three locations: a fully functioning Zoltar. Here is the one at Richmond. The inside is packed with fudge and merchandise.

In Anderson, ice cream is served in a separate building. I got pistachio. The Anderson Putt Pirates Mini Golf, featuring the deep blue sea, is beyond the ice cream parlor. There are some dinosaurs and other figures here and there, but they are not animatronic, and they are not hanging out at the golf course.

I will close with this pictorial observation from the Richmond factory and my own observation about this post’s title. When I looked for the correct plural of Uranus, I was told that it was a proper noun and there was no need for a plural. Maybe so, but that was before Louie Keen got involved.

Cincinnati Chili Week II

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Cincinnati Chili Week is back. Today is the final day of its second coming, so you can still participate if you’d like. I’m taking the day off after participating in all six of the week’s previous days. Although there are no actual repeats from last year, the list of visited restaurants looks kind of familiar. Just one entry is 100% new to me, and I only avoided full on repeats by patronizing different locations of three restaurant chains. That is not the fault of event organizers. It’s mine.

There are several interesting restaurants on their list that don’t make my personal list of candidates because the only chili they serve is on cheese coneys or in bowls. I simply don’t care for cheese coneys, and although I don’t really dislike chili by the bowl, I can’t say that I really like it either. To be entirely honest, I guess what I do like is pasta and cheese, and I have learned to enjoy both chili and marinara toppings because I Iive in Cincinnati.

Monday: Chili Hut was not one of my stops during last year’s Chili Week, but I have eaten here before. Their primary mode of operation is as a food truck, but they do have a brick-and-mortar location in Loveland that kept regular hours for a short period and is now open on special occasions like Chili Week. Their chili is meaty and slightly on the spicy side. My only previous visit was during the summer of 2022 when the Loveland location was open full-time.

Tuesday: This is the only completely new to me restaurant on this year’s agenda. Since Cincinnati’s chili scene was started by a couple of Greek emigrants, having a 4-way at Mezedes, a restaurant started and operated by real Greeks from Greece, might be seen as going back to the beginning. The chili here is fairly meaty and definitely spicy but not painfully so,

Wednesday: This was my first time at Champions Grille, but I have eaten Empress Chili before, which is what they serve, so I can’t count this as a totally new experience. Empress is where Cincinnati Chili first began back in 1922, and at one time there were several Empress Chili parlors in the area. Just one remains, in Alexandria, KY, but there are other places like Champions that license the name and recipe. I feel that Empress is one of the mildest chilis in the area, so it might be a good one for noobies to start with,

Thursday: The rest of the week is filled with almost repeats. I included the original (but moved slightly) Blue Ash Chili in last year’s chili week. As many as three locations of this small chain have existed in the past. Now, there are just two. I believe I’ve eaten at the Tri-County location before, but it has been remodeled and was not at all familiar. The 4-way, however, was very familiar. It’s a personal favorite with what I consider just the right amount of spice, meat, and cheese.

Friday: The next almost repeat from the inaugural Cincinnati Chili Week is Dixie Chili. I visited the original location in Newport, KY, last year, and I know I have eaten at the restaurant on Dixie Highway, but the tiny chain has three locations, which means one remained for a first-time visit. This is the Covington store where I enjoyed a familiar and tasty 4-way.

Saturday: As I did last year, I made Gold Star the sixth and final 4-way supplier in this year’s run. Last year, I simply went to the nearest location which I guess could be called my “regular” Gold Star restaurant. I did not want to repeat that but had little criteria for selecting a different location from the 50+ partictpants in the promotion. The very first Gold Star was in the Mount Washington neighborhood of Cincinnati. It’s long gone but I decided to visit — for the first time — that neighborhood’s current Gold Star restaurant. I always think of Gold Star chili as spicy but it isn’t really hot spicy. It’s just flavorful spicy.

TG ’24

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I did it again. I dunno, maybe I’m in a rut. I see that last year I had thoughts of Thanksgiving dinner at an Ohio or Indiana state park but waited too long to make reservations. I wrote that only the meal, and not an overnight stay, was actually considered for Ohio so maybe the lodges had already priced themselves out of contention. They certainly had this year, which made me drop them from consideration for the meal so quickly that I can’t say whether or not I would have been too late. But I did pick an Indiana park and I did make a call only to learn that the meal was sold out. Thankfully, Kentucky was there for me once again. BTW, one way of producing a washed-out photo such as this is to grab a camera last used for shooting in the dark and start snapping away without so much as a glance at sensitivity settings and such.

I again picked a park I had never been to in a part of the state that I was pretty unfamiliar with as well. Buckhorn Lake State Resort Park lies about 75 crow miles southeast of Lexington. I decided to reach Lexington on a semi-official Dixie Highway alignment, then head to the park on new-to-me back roads. I feared that the Log Cabin Inn would be closed on Thanksgiving Day but it was serving breakfast and had a sold-out dinner planned for later. Today I learned that the dog-trot cabin that forms the oldest part of the restaurant was moved here from Bardstown in the late 1800s. There’s a giant fireplace in each half of the original cabin and some good advice over the bar.

I called this section of Dixie Highway that passes through Falmouth, KY, while connecting Cincinnati and Lexington, “semi-official” because it was included as an alternate path then the Dixie Highway Association disbanded before an official choice was made between it and the original alignment through Florence, KY. Most of the route has been taken over by KY-17 and US-27 and become quite modern looking but some still looks much like it did when it was the DH. Some of the locals seemed mildly interested in my passing, though others could not care less.

That 75 crow miles between Lexington and Buckhorn Lake State Park became a little more than 110 road miles most of which looked like this. I thoroughly enjoyed the drive but there was near-constant — mostly quite light — rain and I did not take many pictures.

My scheduling was far from precise but at one point it looked like I was going to reach the park with nearly an hour to spare. Then I missed a turn. By the time I realized it and backtracked, all my cushion was gone. I reached the lodge at 3:31 for my 3:30 — last of the day — seating. The girl at the desk correctly guessed my name and I hurried downstairs to the dining room. The platters weren’t overflowing but there was still plenty of turkey, ham, and catfish plus most of the trimmings. Stuffing, it seems, had been depleted before I got there. I avoided a more significant disappointment with a preemptive strike. The dessert area was in full view from my table with the pie table filled with pumpkin and pecan pie when I sat down. At some point, I looked over to see the pumpkin pie side still well populated with just one piece of pecan left. I altered my plans just a bit to park that piece of pecan pie beside my plate while I finished the rest of my meal.

I now had time to check into my room in the lodge. It included a balcony which I’m sure offered a very nice view during warmer months. In late November, it simply let me verify that the pool was closed for the season and so too, apparently, was the lake.

Of course, it was too cold to sit on that balcony and really too cold to explore the park. I did return to the lobby to grab a shot of the Christmas tree and a clearer view of the lake at “low tide”.

As I headed out in the morning, I did a little exploring in the warm dry car which suited me much better than on foot in yesterday’s cold and damp. I’ve assumed that the low lake is an annual thing but don’t really know that and wish now that I had asked. I did not see any black bears but did read the instructions. I did see some other visitors. Only a few rooms were occupied in the lodge last night but a whole bunch of cabins had at least one car parked nearby. State parks are a pretty good place for families to spend holidays.

Then it was quite a few more miles of the sort of road that finished up yesterday but without the rain. One of these pictures was taken inside the Daniel Boone National Forest and the other just outside it. Hard to tell the difference, eh?

Breakfast was in Hazard at France’s Diner. Good food, good people, and a little local history on the walls.

I finally made it to the Mother Goose Inn in Hazard. It was built as a market and has been a store, a B&B, and a private residence but I couldn’t tell you what it is now.

I backtracked just a little from Hazard to pick up the Hal Rogers Parkway and head back into the Daniel Boone National Forest. I left it at London to head north on the Dixie Highway. Following one DH alignment to Lexington to start the trip then taking the DH back to Lexington and following another alignment back to Cincinnati seemed rather natural to me but it makes that Kentucky Thanksgiving rut I mentioned a little more obvious. Two years ago, I didn’t even do a Thanksgiving meal but spent the day driving this pair of DH alignments in Kentucky. The blog entry is here.

I paused to take a picture from the Clay’s Ferry Overlook and another at the 1871 bridge below. I contacted owner Jay Webb when I realized I would be coming by the overlook and, although we did not connect today, I do think we will be meeting here around Christmas.

Just a few miles north of the river, a large brontosaurus stands alone in an empty field watching traffic. About a quarter mile away, a smaller version uses a shed as a viewing platform. I assume they are somehow connected but what they are watching for is a mystery.

When I drove these two Dixie Highway alignments in 2022, I did them in the reverse order but that’s not the only difference. I could not cross the Roebling suspension bridge southbound because it was closed for a foot race that has since relocated to TQL Stadium. I did not cross it northbound because a slight detour prompted me to abandon the DH in the dark. This year, it was the historic Dixie Highway and the even more historic John A. Roebling Bridge both going and coming.

Goetta Again

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GoettaFest is that eight-day festival that is spread over two four-day weekends with a gap in the middle. Two years ago I made it to the first day of the first weekend. This year I made it — just barely — to the first day of the second weekend. I knew of the festival’s opening last week but had other things to do. When I did get around to thinking about this week’s itinerary, the predicted weather did not seem a very good match for outdoor activities. Several days of rain were predicted with possibly severe thunderstorms arriving just about the time of the festival’s opening. But, as opening time approached, those storms and even the rain were still marking time in Indiana. I decided to give it a try.

The Ferris wheel is new this year and “The World’s Only Goetta Vending Machine” might be too. I did not try it and now regret not studying it closer so I could describe it here. I believe this is the world’s only Goetta festival so one Goetta vending machine might be enough.

I have previously explained that the Cincinnati area has a near monopoly on Goetta and that Glier’s Meats has a near monopoly on Goetta in the Cincinnati area. The festival is officially the Glier’s GoettaFest. Next to the vending machine, there is a tent filled with Giier and Goetta information. The tent is a Goettafest fixture and I’m sure that the “Goetta Guy” has been here before but this was our first meeting. The “Goetta Guy” is Dan Glier, President of Glier’s Meats since 1977 and the second generation to run the company. Dan’s a very friendly fellow who is there to answer questions or just chat and that’s what we did. I was well aware that Glier’s Meats is located sort of across the street from Anchor Grill where I’ve consumed a fair amount of Gliers Goetta. Today Dan pointed out that the two began in the same year (1946) and have always been neighbors.

Here are a couple of other things that I had not seen previously but which may very well have been here before. I didn’t see anyone riding the mechanical bull while I was there but it was early and the bourbon bar was pretty much idle too. I suspect the two work well together.

Full-time music was happening on both of the festival’s stages with the Billy Brown Band opening on the west end and Red Hot Riot opening on the east stage. They would be followed by Vinyl Countdown and the Kevin McCoy Band.

Of course, there were plenty of food booths offering a variety of creative Goetta-based treats.

I opted for a Goetta Bun Link which, despite the word new on the sign and the fact that I’d never had one, were introduced in 2000. It was quite good and I even have a pseudo-drone shot for the truly curious.

I had every intention of riding that Ferris wheel and, now that I was fed, I turned my attention to it. There was no line but as I was about to approach the ticket booth, I felt the first drops of rain and noticed the breeze had picked up a little. I thought it over only briefly before heading for the car. I was inside the garage before the rain became steady and inside a nearby bar with a $2 PBR before it really cut loose. There was water running in the street when I left but the rain had slowed to a light drizzle.

I am disappointed that I missed my chance to ride the big Ferris wheel on Thursday but just seeing it reminded me of a time when giant “dueling” Ferris wheels were proposed for both sides of the Ohio River. It was just a few years ago that Newport, KY, had plans to build a 230-foot tall wheel on the flood wall near where GoettaFest’s 90-foot wheel was placed. At the same time, Cincinnati had plans to build a 180-foot wheel near the north end of the Roebling Bridge. In a sort of trial run, a 150-foot tall (137-foot diameter) wheel did operate at that point temporarily and I did get to ride that one. Read about it here.

Wassup, Big Boy?

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Frisch’s Big Boy restaurants have been in the news quite a bit recently. In fact, when I sat down to write this article yesterday, a pointer to this photo essay was waiting in my email. It seems likely that the essay, like this article and my Friday outing, was inspired by not particularly cheerful reports such as this one from a few weeks ago. It was that article and other news of restaurant closings that prompted me to finally check out the museum that opened in 2018 inside Frisch’s Mainliner.

The Mainliner, Cincinnati’s first year-round drive-in, opened in 1942 and was named for an airplane. Several sources, including the Mainliner’s own signage, identify that airplane as a tri-motor but I think not. The plane that those sources are almost certainly referring to is the Ford Trimotor which was produced from 1922 to 1933. Boeing’s DC-3, which United Air Lines actually called the Mainliner when launched in 1937, would have been the most well-known passenger plane when the restaurant opened. The plane on the iconic Mainliner sign certainly looks a lot more like a DC-3 than a Ford Trimotor, and, despite the nose being a little extra pointy, I’m not aware of it ever having more than two propellers. At present it has none. I do, however, have a short video of the sign “at speed” from a few years ago. I’m sure there are more and better videos online.

The Mainliner was remodeled when the museum went in and has the latest generation of the Big Boy statue standing by the door. There are pictures here and here of previous generations on display a few miles away at the American Sign Museum. A cool mural greets customers right inside that door.

I sat at the counter and placed my order before walking over to the museum area. Only then did I realize that it contained what appeared to be some quite usable classic seating areas. There were people at one of the museum tables when I left.

In addition to the throwback seating, there are several signs and cabinets filled with artifacts in the museum. Among the artifacts was a reminder that once upon a time people might look for something to help them “dial the right number every time”.

I was probably still using a dial telephone the last time I had a Big Boy but it seemed the right thing to order today. Has corporate ownership brought a decline in quality that others say they see? Maybe, but maybe not. The sandwich was pretty much as I remember it although my memories aren’t very recent. I sensed the same slight understaffing that I feel in just about every restaurant I visit these days. No more. No less.

As I wrote this, it occurred to me that Frisch’s has been in my life longer than any chain restaurant. Although it’s no longer there, a Frisch’s restaurant sat at the edge of the seat of my home county. It was the place where, maybe once a year, the band bus would stop on the way home from an away game. When my friends and I began driving, it marked one end of our Saturday night cruising route. An A&W rootbeer stand marked the other. When I got my first co-op job in college, a Frisch’s was just about the only place within walking distance for lunch. The one at right is within walking distance of my current home and I stopped there on my Saturday afternoon walk. Rather than a Big Boy statue, this door is guarded by one of the Mr. Redlegs sculptures that were placed around the area as part of the Cincinnati Reds 150th Anniversary Celebration in 2019. Inside, a localized (Mason hosts the Cincinnati Open ATP Tournament) mural hangs on the wall. A big reason that I had not had a Big Boy in so long was not that I never patronize Frisch’s but that when I do I almost always have a fish sandwich. On Saturday I reverted to form.

I’m certainly no fan of corporations taking over privately held businesses. Maybe it was a decline in quality or some accountant’s idea of improved efficiency that led to those closures. Personally though, I’m more concerned about those missing props on the Mainliner sign.

CincItalia 2024

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It looks like CincItalia came into being in 2010 so it is not an ancient Cincinnati tradition I need to feel guilty about not attending in years gone by. But it was something I was aware of and thought sounded interesting so I was kind of pleased when things worked out for me on Friday. Yes, it is a church fundraiser and that is something I’m trying to cut back on but I realize that my flesh is entirely too weak to completely avoid a little backsliding now and then.

One of my first stops at the festival was in a large building where some presentations take place and where a couple of culturally significant items are displayed. One is a Sicilian Festival Cart from Palermo, Italy, described by the sign propped against it. The other is a plaster cast used in replacing a bronze statue stolen from Cincinnati’s Eden Park in 2022 as summarized on a nearby sign. A fuller telling is here. A photo of the currently displayed statue is here.

I was here for my evening meal and thought of it as essentially just another dining-out occasion and not so much as a wild festival. With that in mind, I made one “browsing” pass through the area identified in the opening photo as “Little Eataly” and then selected my three-course meal.

Toasted ravioli made a great appetizer and lasagna was perfect for the main course. That’s CincItalia Pils, brewed by West Side Brewing especially for this event, in the cup. Mini-cannolis were three for the price of two. I forced myself.

Plus there were plenty of food and beverage choices that I did not get around to.

No self-respecting Cincinnati church festival would omit several raffles and other games of chance but that’s another thing I did not get around to. I did poke my head into one of the cooking demonstrations but it was full and I’m pretty sure it would have been over my head anyway.

I definitely enjoyed the many “Leonardo’s Fun Facts” that I spotted but I know that I missed a bunch.

Even though I was there, as I’ve said, only for the food, I did stick around for a bit of the Naked Karate Girls show. These guys are definitely entertaining and one or two of them may even know some karate. If so, that would mean their name isn’t a complete lie.

The festival is a three-day affair with Saturday and Sunday presented as family-friendly events. I assume that means, among other things, that the carnival-style rides I saw parked around the edges will be operating. Saturday runs 3:00 to 11:00 and Sunday runs 1:00 to 9:00. Friday’s 6:00 to 12:00 run was billed as adults only but I’m not sure whether that meant a wild Bacchanalia throughout the grounds, some dirty jokes from the bandstand, or old folks nodding off at sundown. I left before I found out and before I nodded off.

ADDENDUM 2-Jun-2024: These photos were not part of the original post but, after tagging a Facebook link to it with the line “There’s a party on the Buddy LaRosa side of town.”, I thought them appropriate. Yes, LaRosa’s Pizza had a trailer there and San Antonio Church had a booth. That’s the church where Buddy sold his first pizzas using sauce made from his Aunt Dena’s recipe.

A Secular Season of the Fish

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Partway through last year’s Lenten season, I decided that I no longer wanted to support the Catholic (or any other) Church by patronizing their Friday Fish Fries. I explain that decision at the end of Another Season of the Fish. I still like fish and therefore still like fish fries and I am more than happy to support the many non-religious organizations that take advantage of the season by operating their own piscatorial-powered fundraisers.

Between the first and second weeks of Lent 2024, I discovered a Cincinnati Fish Fry app, similar to the one I recently used for Inaugural Cincinnati Chili Week. My unaudited count of the listed sites identified 54 churches, 16 commercial operations, and 17 others. The “others”, of course, were my targets.

I began the 2024 season at American Legion Post 513 in Mt. Healthy, Ohio, where catfish and cod were both available. I went with the catfish. This tasty meal was $11 plus $2.25 for the Yuengling draft.

The second week’s fish was a bit more expensive than last week’s but the meal included one of the biggest pieces of cod I have ever seen. Everything in the picture plus a piece of chocolate cake was $17 at Cincinnati Shriner’s.

Plans for the evening ruled out a week three fish fry dinner so I decided to do lunch at a place I’ve frequently thought of visiting in the past. This is the McDonald’s location where the first filet-o-fish sandwich was served. It is also Ohio’s first McDonald’s and my only stop at a commercial restaurant this year. Although the location was listed in the Cincinnati Fish Fry app, the app refused to let me check in here. That original filet-o-fish sold for 29¢. My tab was $9.48 but I did get fries and a drink.

My second Americal Legion visit this year was at Post 318 in Anderson Township, Ohio. The pie added $2.50 to the total. Without it, my only baked fish (cod) meal of the season would have been an even $12 including the drink (iced tea).

Week number five had me venturing across a state line to the Wilder Fire Department in Wilder, Kentucky. Fish, shrimp, and chicken were available with no options other than white or rye bread (which I declined). The entire meal, including the green (because it was almost Saint Patrick’s Day) beer and an unphotographed piece of cake with green (because… you know) icing, was $14.

For the second week in a row, I was in Kentucky and drinking Bud Light. Last week’s green Bud was only $1. This week’s yellow Bud was $2. The rest of the meal at Newport Elks Lodge #273 was $13 and it just might be the best of the year.

Lent officially ends on the Thursday preceding Good Friday. Many institutions wrap up their fish fry operations before the Easter weekend is reached but enough don’t to make a seven-week season of fish easily accomplished. I finished my 2024 seven-week run with this $12 meal at Gaily VFW Post 7340. Food is ordered at a central location then hand-delivered so you need to find a seat before ordering to supply a table number. A couple sitting alone welcomed me to their table. A lady in a wheelchair soon occupied the spot to my left and she was immediately greeted by several locals who were delighted to see her. I never did catch her name but learned that she was 100 years old then learned through personal experience just how peppy and friendly she was. She told me she had been coming to the post since its founding in the 1950s. I admitted that this was my first time there but promised to come back to see her next year. Now I have something to look forward to.

Inaugural Cincinnati Chili Week

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Today, February 25, 2024, is the very last day of the very first official Cincinnati Chili Week. With all the noise that has been made about this iconic Cincinnati food over the years, it is really hard to believe that this did not happen long ago. While waiting, I had my own “Chili Week” in 2013. Because I was in control, I synchronized it with this blog’s schedule and got in visits to seven different chili parlors for Chili All Week and It’s Cold, Too. With the official Chili Week week running Monday through Sunday, one day remains when the Sunday morning post is published but that also means it can include only six days of chili.

Eleven years is a long time ago. Of the dozen chili parlors covered in that 2013 post and a follow-on 5 More 4s second chapter, four have closed and another has relocated a block away. Three of the closures were of a brand’s only location and three brands that were part of my 2013 dozen have chosen not to participate. The result is that exactly six of the dozen chili brands I wrote about in 2013 were candidates for visits during the six days of Cincinnati Chili Week preceding this post. Coincidence? Perhaps, but, despite being saddened by the closures, I’m happy to be spared the need for tough choices for the official version of my unofficial Chili Week.

Monday: In 2013, the Monday of my full week of chili saw me at one of the two Empress Chili parlors that remained. That location has since closed so this year I headed to Empress Chili in Alexandria, KY. Other restaurants in the area serve Empress brand chili but this is the only place where the restaurant itself carries the Empress name. Their slogan, “The first edition of a Cincinnati Tradition” comes from the fact that Cincinnati-style chili originated in the Empress Chili parlor on Vine Street in 1922.

Tuesday: An article that mentioned Price Hill Chili was the seed that led to the 2013 week of chili and it is where I ate on the Sunday that got that week rolling. That was my first time ever at the restaurant but I’ve been back multiple times since then and was happy to make it my second stop for the first official Cincinnati Chili Week.

Wednesday: The spread of Cincinnati chili across the region began when an Empress Chili employee set up shop in an 8 by 30-foot space across the river in Newport, KY. The original, but greatly expanded, Dixie Chili location is still in operation and two more restaurants have been added. Today, owner Spiros Sarakatsannis ate lunch (chili & salad) and conducted a little business at a nearby table while I enjoyed my third 4-way of the week.

I went overboard on Wednesday and indulged in dessert while in Kentucky. In the same spirit that area sweet shops have served macarons and beignets disguised as hamburgers during Burger Week, Frosthaus, in Covington, served this sundae disguised as a 3-way. I had no idea that spaghetti ice cream even existed but apparently, it is fairly common in Germany and it’s the perfect basis for a Chili Week dessert.

Thursday: Cincinnati Chili Week is wrapped around National Chili Day and this is it. I celebrated the doubly special occasion at Blue Ash Chili. In April 2021, the store where it all started in 1969 was closed and the operation moved about 500 feet away to this strip mall location. It’s not as photogenic as the standalone building was but it looks great on the inside and the chili is just as good as it ever was. My standard order is a 4-way with onions but that’s a stock 3-way in the picture because that’s their Chili Week special.

Friday: There’s a lot to like about Camp Washington Chili including the fact that it is just a few blocks away from the American Sign Museum which makes it the perfect stop before or after a visit to the museum. I followed my fifth Chili Week check-in with a stop at the museum where I could hear sawing or grinding on the other side of the wall as work on the expansion area continues.

Saturday: Even though Cincinnati Chili Week promotional materials say there are 50+ Gold Star locations taking part in the event, I had my sixth and final 4/3-way of the week at the same one I visited for that 2013 blog post. At around two miles distance from my door, it’s the closest.

Skyline Chili is the 140-store gorilla that’s not in the room. According to event organizers, “They opted not to participate as they did not want to discount or offer a $5-$7 special.” I doubt the absence does much harm to the company and it did simplify my schedule for the week. C’est la vie.