Restaurant Week & Zincinnati Oktoberfest

This week is Restaurant Week!  Unlike the Restaurant Week we recently had, you are not limited to downtown. This time, you're limited to independently-owned restaurants.

The Greater Cincinnati Independents, a group of more than 30 locally owned restaurants, are offering prix-fixe menus of $26.09 per person. This generally includes 3-courses, including dessert. Beverages and taxes are not included, but many places are offering paired wines or wine flights for a special price.

The point of all this, of course, is to give you a chance to try a new restaurant and to support the little guy while you're at it. After all, why eat at a chain when you can eat at a unique-to-our-city cafe? Before you roll your eyes at me, Restaurant Week includes places such as Dilly Deli Cafe, Mesh, Hugo, York Street, Lavomatic, and more. Restaurant Week runs through Sunday, so get out there and give it a try!

While you're debating on the restaurant you want to visit, you can enjoy the early start to Oktoberfest. The Goodwill, er, Gemuetlichkeit Games start on Thursday with the Beer Stein Races at noon on Fountain Square. Contestants race across the Square double-fisted with full beer steins that weigh around 35 lbs. The winner is judged by both best time and the amount of beer left in the container. A second is added onto each contestant's time for each ounce spilled.  After the Beer Stein races, you're treated to the Pretzel Toss. Basically, it's cornhole with pretzels.

I love Friday's event, however. It's the Weiner Dog Races, again at noon on the Square. It had to be one of the cutest – and most hilarious – things I witnessed last year. You can bet I'll be there again, camera in hand, to snap those adorable dogs running (and aimlessly wandering) while dressed as hot dogs. I'm a little bothered by the hot dog vendors on the Square during this, but Kevin finds it wonderfully funny. 

Enjoy!

The Moerlein Lager House is Coming

As I pulled into the driveway last night, I heard this news on the radio. It made my night!  After all, we love our wine, but we're equal opportunity beer and cocktail folks as well.

We love our German beer here in Zincinnnati (see Oktoberfest and Hofbrauhaus). So why not open a biergarten / brewpub featuring one of Cincinnati's original German brews? Christian Moerlein will be opening a 15,000 square foot restaurant and brewery, complete with outdoor biergarten, down on the Banks.

The new multi-story brewpub will be built on top of a parking garage across from the Great American Ball Park.
The restaurant, to be called the Moerlein Lager House, will seat 500
inside and 600 in the beer garden.  It will span the block on Main Street between Mehring Way and Theodore M Berry Way, in stumbling distance from the ball park, really.

According to the Business Courier, "Preliminary designs for the two-story building include a green roof,
balconies and terraces with views of the river, Roebling Suspension
Bridge and the ballpark."  I fell in love with green roofs in Vancouver, so I'm pretty excited about just that one small detail on its own.

The new restaurant will also offer brewery tours. It's slated to open in 2011.

I can't imagine the place being anything but packed all the time. When I lived in Maryland, my friends would go to the store looking for Moerlein beer, which just baffled me at the time. After all, I'd grown up with it. Moerlein is nationally known as a maker of craft brews and, combined with the ball park, will be a huge hit for tourists.

Repost: At the Bar: McCormick & Schmick’s

Kevin and I are often downtown for shows and end up at different Happy Hours. So welcome to my new feature: At the Bar.
Recently, we were in
search of an affordable dinner and we ended up at McCormick &
Schmick's for their $1.95 Happy Hour.

Yes, you read that right. In the bar area only, McCormick &
Schmick's offers a $1.95 Happy Hour menu, available with the purchase
of two drinks per person. Don't roll your eyes – those drinks do not
have to be alcoholic. Yes, for the purchase of a coke and an iced tea,
you can have a giant $1.95 hamburger.

I absconded with a menu. The $1.95 munchies include a half pound
cheeseburger with cajun fries (also available as a cajun burger),
steamed mussels, beer battered fried mushrooms, fish tacos, and spinach
& artichoke dip. There is also a $3.95 menu that includes crab
& shrimp dip and fried calamari. I went with the gigantic 1/2-pound
burger, cooked to order, and Kevin chose the fish tacos. We also chose
the spinach & artichoke dip. The food is excellent, especially
considering the price.

They have several drinks on the Happy Hour menu. I tried a peach
apple sangria for $5.50, around the average price of their Happy Hour
martinis. Draft beer includes Blue Moon, Stella, and Guinness for
$5.75/glass. For those not as picky about their beer, Michelob Light is
$2.75.

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Downtown Cincinnati Restaurant Week

Did you know Cincinnati was big enough to have two different Restaurant Weeks sponsored by two different organizations? Neither did I. The event I usually promote is sponsored by the Greater Cincinnati Independents and brings attention to locally owned eateries. The latest Restaurant Week is all about eating downtown, which I find to be equally important. 

Downtown Restaurant Week includes over 20 downtown restaurants. For those of you who haven't been downtown in years, yes, we have that many restaurants. In fact, this is a great opportunity to experience the new downtown, from the Gateway Quarter and resurging Over the Rhine to the remodeled and lively Fountain Square area and on down to Sawyer Point.

Downtown Restaurant Week runs from Monday, August 10 through Sunday, August 16. For $35 you get a 3-course dinner. At some of the restaurants, you'll get two dinners for $35.  Menus are available at the Do Downtown web site. 

Participating restaurants include Akash India, Arnold's, Black Finn, Boi Na Braza, Bootsy's, Daveed's, JeanRo Bistro, Jeff Ruby's Steakhouse, Lavomatic, Mixx Ultra Lounge, Montgomery Inn Boathouse, Morton's, Nicholson's, Nicola's, Orchids, Palomino, Scotti's, Sung Korean Bistro, Trattoria Roma, The Palace, and Via Vite.

Oh, and that other Restaurant Week? It's currently scheduled for Sept 14-20. The deals are just bustin' out all over!

What are you doing for dinner tonite? How about a Palace Deal?

This was buried in my email and it almost slipped my mind. But then, no kidding, I dreamed of miniature cupcakes and remembered.

For those of you new to the blog, a few months ago the honorable old Palace Restaurant, in the Cincinnatian, started offering sporadic Thursday night deals. (You can read about our own recent experiences at the Palace.)

You see, the Palace has a new Chef, Jose Salazar, as well as my favorite Pastry Chef, Summer Genetti. The two of them are working pretty hard at breathing new life into an old establishment. They've made the food more friendly and approachable and the prices have been lowered a bit. In the midst of that, they've managed to keep the menu creative and at a high quality, using mostly locally sourced ingredients.

And then there are these random Thursday deals that really do qualify as a deal.

For $60 total (excluding tax & tip), you get a huge dinner for two plus a bottle of wine. You usually get to choose from between about 5 or 6 different bottles, all of decent or better than decent calibre. As for those courses, in my experience it's more like 3-courses with bonuses. You'll start the meal with a complimentary amuse bouche and finish the meal with a complimentary dessert. They say it's only the first 10 people who reserve that get free dessert, but they never actually tell you if you're in the first 10. So, no promises on that free dessert, but I bet you get it. There are also complimentary pastries with the check.  All in all, you're getting quite a lot for $60. And no, that's not $60 per person. It's per two-people.

The full menu for tonite is after the jump. Make sure you call ahead to reserve a table, 513.381.3000. Tell them "Wine Girl" sent you.  And folks, I know I promote the Palace pretty heavily. I get nothing out of it – I swear – except maybe a few tasty cupcakes here and there. Mostly I just want to see two young chefs succeed with some great ideas.

Update: I just read on the Palace Facebook page that this deal is now every THIRD Thursday. Hooray! Tonite, they add, Summer is offering 1/2 price desserts, so that dessert might not be tossed into your meal this time, but make sure to try some anyway. If you look through my Palace photos, you'll see that I just love her desserts. And I highly recommend the miniature cupcakes.

Related Posts:

• Photos
• Our Own $60 Dinner at the Palace
• The Palace: $60 Thursday is Back!
• Oh What a Deal! The Palace at the Cincinnatian

Tonight's prix fixe selections include:

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