Another Period / Kevin (from work)

Two off-the-beaten path comedies 
show the sitcom is alive and well

     Comedy Central has aimed at the crosshairs of the cultural zeitgeist over the past decade with Chappelle’s Show, The Daily Show (or, as we thought of it, Jon Stewart four nights a week), The Colbert Report, and South Park (creative, yes, but I can’t watch it for more than ten minutes because the animation is metaphysically awful i.e. it’s ugly and is supposed to be).  But, right now, Comedy Central is hitting the bull’s eye with Tosh.O,  which deals with a male’s curiosity and panic about homosexuality while checking out computer videos to an extent that seems endless, especially since it’s repeated interminably, Key & Peele (finally up for Emmy awards), Inside Amy Schumer and new this season Another Period.

Key and Peele

     That’s a pretty heady line up.  No other show right now says more about America’s preoccupation with race, politics, history, and the male psyche (straight and gay) than Key & Peele, though Jordan Peele does some of the best drag work on TV since Flip Wilson or Lily Tomlin.  Inside Amy Schumer works in a narrower vein for women and sexuality, though she goes very deep and usually gets raunchier the further she goes.  Another Period skewers the higher brow soap Downton Abbey and the lower brow reality soap Keeping Up with the Kardashians.   Both series have entered the popular consciousness in a way where people who have barely or never watched know more about the characters than they may initially admit.

Creators Natasha Leggero and Riki Lindhorne

     Another Period (Tuesdays at 10:30 p.m.), created by Natasha Leggero and Riki Lindhome, both of whom are probably familiar from their guest star roles on various shows, presents the decadently rich Bellacourt family and their servants in 1905 Newport, R.I.  A large, gifted ensemble work the darkest aspects of the vast gap between the wealthy and the poor – one in which the perpetual servants are not even seen as human by their masters.  The latest episode saw hissy fit thrower Lillian (Leggero) trying to buddy up to her brother’s fiancée by hosting a seventeen-course gourmet dinner for their dogs.  When the dogs refused to eat the food, it had to be thrown out immediately.  One of the servants sneaked a bite, though he knew he could lose his job, because he was curious what ‘food’ tasted like since the servants got by on gruel.  Like much of Monty Python’s classic work, there isn’t a drop of human kindness or compassion in the Bellacourt’s world.  If two characters – whether related, married, or working alongside each other – seem to get along, it’s only for a moment and it’s an anomaly.  

Jason Ritter

     It’s touched upon various hot topics including incest (Lindhome plays the drama queen idiot savant in love with her dullard Senator brother Frederick played straight by the darling Jason Ritter), homosexuality (easier for the family to address wrongly about Frederick than the incest, while overlooking the sisters’ actual homosexual husbands), abortion, women’s liberation, prostitution, capitalist exploitation, the sociopathic arrogance of the entitled and the self-abnegating response of their slaves – I mean, servants.  Whenever I watch a period movie or show, I always wonder about kitchens and bathrooms since these have evolved over time.  While Downton Abbey (and Upstairs, Downstairs before it in 1971 – 1975) have presented culinary detail like a fetish, Another Period showed servants having to transport feces buckets after a genteel afternoon event hosted by the Bellacourts and somehow played even that for laughs.  

Noah Reid and Paige Spara

     If Another Period doesn’t sound like your proverbial cup of tea, then ABC Family offers Kevin from Work on Wednesdays at 8 p.m.  Like other shows on ABC Family, the cast is very diverse in terms of ethnicity, body type, and age, though the lighting makes everything look like the most beautiful ice cream shop or gelateria imaginable. Like other shows on ABC, it moves lightning fast and it’s easy to miss a sight gag or the significance of a line of dialogue that might reverberate later.  Scrubs (2001 – 2010) was the game changer that transformed American slapstick into this high tech, quick cut format and it reached its zenith in the brilliant, frenetic Happy Endings (2011 – 2013).  Kevin has used some clever and beautiful graphics to show what’s happening on the characters’ computers in this work place cubicle comedy.

Reid and Sedaris

     The initial hook is that Kevin (Noah Reid) leaves his job for a dream one in Italy and he writes a drunken letter telling his cubicle neighbor Audrey (Paige Spara) that he loves her.  Italy falls through and he has to beg his crazy boss played to the hilt by the wild Amy Sedaris (remember when Stephen Colbert was her co-star on their collaboration Strangers with Candy?) before facing Audrey.  A variety of interesting characters have been introduced and ABC Family smartly ran the first two episodes back to back, allowing viewers to get a firmer grasp of where the show may go.

DiStasi's Sunday Brunch

A Mary Poppin's Seal of Approval—

practically perfect in every way

      A few weeks ago, Eric and I decided to check out DiStasi's Sunday Brunch.  I had met with them regarding an upcoming brunch event so I thought we should at least get a preview of what to expect.  I had a positive impression from meeting with Mary Ann DiStasi so I pretty much just wanted to confirm how I already felt.  

DiStasi's Bar and Dining Room

     The space has been completely redesigned from the former Sturkey's restaurant.  The bar and dining area was warm with wood tones and natural textures, lit with a row of windows looking out onto the gazebo in the adjacent Wyoming park.  Distasi's operates primarily as an event and banquet facility so expect your dining experience to be possibly shared with a special occasion party.  The layout of the restaurant allows for them to be in separate rooms, so you will only be sharing the food with them.  Speaking of which, replenishing the food items occurred well beyond the designated closing time. 

The Pastry Table

     The spread was just the right size…a table of bite-sized Breakfast Pastries, Fruit Salad and Lox & Bagels.  The other long table held a row of heated servers filled with fluffy Cherry Blintzes, some of the best Sausage Gravy anywhere and a hearty Beef Stroganoff (the pasta selection changes weekly).  

My First Plate

When hit with a buffet offering multiple choices, the common sense thing to do would be to fill one's plate with smaller portions so that more offerings can be sampled.  That works for the first plating, but pacing is left behind when you find more choices than usual that definitely require a second serving.  That was the case at DiStasi's.  Everything was so good that we couldn't just eat a little.  Oh, to have some of those delicate pastries right now…mmmm!

     Of course, not everything hit the mark.  The biscuits were hard from being on the warming tray too long (perhaps a covered basket would work better) and the eggs were cold at times depending on when your were getting them.  But all in all, my expectations were met…and then some.

www.400wyoming.com

 

Drood by Dan Simmons

Triumphant tour de force

    I’ve wanted to read Dan Simmons’ Drood (2009) since it was first published, but I was intimidated by its length (771 pages in hardback) because I’m a slow reader.  When I finally got around to reading it, Martha asked me, “How long will it take you to read that?”  I replied, “Probably a month if I make time to do it.”  Actually, it took four weeks, but part of that was due to a plane flight.

Dickens with Daughter Katy (right)

     Simmons focuses on the friendship between Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins.  It’s Collins who narrates the book, addressed to a Dear Readers sometime in the future (around 2008 or so).  The relationship between Dickens- the Inimitable and acknowledged as Britain’s greatest living writer at that time – and Collins – originator of the suspense and detective novels works complexly on a number of levels:  friends, collaborators, relations by marriage (Dickens’ daughter Katy was married to Collins’ brother Charley, who was Dickens’ illustrator), mentor and protégé (Dickens was always willing to give avuncular advice, though not so willing to take it), and most tellingly, bitter rivals.

Wilkie Collins

     The rivalry, however, was on Wilkie Collins’ side.  Dickens may or may not have been aware of it.  There are allusions to Iago, and they’re accurate, though Wilkie feels both justified and disgusted by his feelings and actions.  The daily domestic details of their two lives as they relate to Victorian England (and, to a lesser extent, the U.S.) in the 1860s are both fascinating and pretty awe-inspiring.  Simmons lists his research in the end acknowledgements and it’s on the level of a graduate thesis (or dissertation).

Staplehurst Railway Accident

     However, what pulled me through hundreds of pages was the horrific mystery Simmons sets up with the Staplehurst railway crash disaster in 1865.  Dickens was traveling with his mistress Ellen Ternan and her mother and the three miraculously survived the crash.  In the aftermath, while assisting others, Dickens encountered Drood, a spectral figure that might be a master criminal or the leader of a cult or a demon.  Dickens tells Wilkie about this and it becomes his obsession.

     During this period, Collins wrote his masterpiece The Moonstone, while Dickens finished Our Mutual Friend, conducted a number of exhausting reading tours, and began yet failed to complete The Mystery of Edwin Drood.  It’s fascinating to realize that magazine serialization and dramatic adaptation were the primary sources of fiction writers’ income, rather than book publications and sales.

     Like one of those serialized Victorian novels, Simmons takes the reader on a tour of England – primarily London – that examines all social classes, the city and the country, the rules for men and women in legal and clandestine relationships, and the official versus the literal underground economy.  Simmons tackles big subjects while enticing the reader through suspense in the manner of the great 19th century British novelists.  He does so without ever losing sight of the action’s main through line. 

The Dickens Family

     The intriguing aspect that ramps up the horror comes out of Dickens’ interest in mesmerism (we’d call it mind reading or mind control nowadays) and it’s eventual connection with Wilkie’s laudanum (the primary ingredient being opium) addiction.  A drug addict as first person narrator calls into question reliability, which Simmons uses as a way for the reader to analyze the plot, especially everything involving Drood.  Even as Wilkie does horrible and eventually monstrous acts, I kept wondering if he was worse than Drood.  Simons pulls a surprising twist at the end, which leads back to the primary relationship between Dickens and Wilkie Collins.  It made me go back to check out earlier conversations between the two to see how he’d set things up.

Dark Places

Is it a super episode of “Cold Case”?

     Gillian Flynn’s novel Dark Places (2009) moved with inexorable dread as it cut between the last day in the life of a family about to be killed and the two surviving children (one in prison for the murders) trying to come to terms with each other over twenty-five years later.  When I heard it was going to be a movie starring Amy Adams, I thought ‘uh oh’ because she seemed too sweet.  I know she was lauded for American Hustle (2013) playing a con artist, but she was miscast, though a terrific dancer.  When Charlize Theron was cast instead, I thought, ‘Yes, she’s the one.’

Charlize Theron as Libby Day

     Theron takes off in the role of Libby because she projects such an edge of danger.  For viewers that don’t know the book, they might believe Libby killed the family from Theron’s intermittent spiky sullenness.  ‘A picture is worth a thousand words’ is generally stated to support primacy of the visual – especially the photograph – over the written word.  However, a thousand words can build up a sense of texture through description and telling details that a camera cannot.  

Chloë Grace Moritz
as the badass girlfriend

Even though the production design captures the rural 1980s, it cannot discuss how many smaller farms were driven out of business because of changes in federal policy, which is the primary reason behind the ensuing tragedy.  A viewer cannot re-read a sentence, line of dialogue, or scene the way a reader can; therefore, a viewer cannot decide what is important or intriguing, but has to rely on the editor and director.

    Neil didn’t feel that the suspense built and he was right.  We’re looking for a solution and when we get it in the movie, there was a sense of completion, but not the devastation over the waste for the main characters that there was in the book.  (And yes, it’s a book especially worth reading).  Gilles Paquet-Brenner edits the book well into a workable screenplay and has cast it very well.  It’s competent, but it doesn’t buzz like David Fincher’s Gone Girl.  Instead, the theme of loss for people affected by a murder over decades matches CBS’s Cold Case (2003 – 2010), though it didn’t always capture the specific historical eras as well as this.

Gas Light Cafe

The debatable #2 city burger

 The #2 Gas Light Burger

      We've been remiss in hitting the dining options in our neighborhood and the Gas Light Cafe was one of those never making it to the top of our list.  Then, CIncinnati Magazine once again called them out in their burger issue as being their #2 choice in the city, moving it up in their rankings from #4 a mere four years ago.  That was enough to make us take notice and call Jan and Mike (burger foodie friends-bff's) to join us for the tasting.  

Art Deco Appeal

      There's nothing appealing about the Gas Light from Montgomery Road next to Everybody's Records.  In fact, you might even walk or drive right by it.  No windows from the street give it that seedy, dive bar look that turns back time and then some.  The inside boasts a lot of art deco wood designs that I'm assuming were original pieces.  We chose a Friday 

A Bustling Friday Night

night for our excursion, appropriately during Burger Week in Cincinnati.  The place was bustling, but we found a folding table at the front door that would serve our purpose.  There's nothing fancy about this place or its presentation, so I was prepared to leave my hoity-toity attitude outside the door.  

      Every Saturday night was burger fare at our house growing up.  Mom's was well done (she felt everything should be cooked that way) causing me to slightly soften my palate in later years. I also grew up with McDonalds, Burger Chef and Burger Boy Food-O-Rama (BBF-home of the twirling satellite to Columbusites).  So…my burger mastery was ready to take action with the Gas Light Burger.

Gas Light Burger with Onion Rings

      To make things simple, we all ordered the same aforementioned and heralded burger.  It comes with American cheese, head lettuce, tomato, onion and mayonnaise.  Eric ordered his rare and without mayonnaise.  Our server warned that the burgers are produced at the cook's discretion, which was usually on the well done side.  I could see the disappointment.  After all, Cincinnati Magazine had mentioned that the Gas Light cooks their burgers to order.  I can assure you, that was not the case.  In fact, all the burgers came to the table prepared in the same manner—well done and with mayonnaise.  It was a deal breaker for Eric.  He didn't want to send it back, which I can appreciate since we were with friends, but I've come to believe one should get what he or she orders.  The restaurant deserves the chance to make it right.  Otherwise, one leaves an unsatisfied customer, which is what happened in this case.  The rest of us were more pleased, although none of us thought it was the second best in our city.  It was a very good hand-pattied burger and the bun was key, but our biggest gripe was that it fell apart.  Making a burger that's hard work to eat is not much fun.  The sides that were 

Waffle Fries

touted by CM (Waffle Fries and Onion Rings) were nothing that would elevate them to stardom.  For those joining the craft beer craze, there is a nice selection on the blackboard that changes daily.

      How to save the evening for Eric: a trip to Aglamesis for ice cream afterwards.

facebook.com

 

Kate Atkinson’s Life After Life

99% of readers and reviewers 

love her, but here’s the 1%

     I loved Kate Atkinson’s first novel Behind the Scenes at the Museum (1995) because it was a funny, intelligent, biting family saga covering the 1950s through the 1990s in York, England.  The main character was the same age as Atkinson over those years, but I never felt she was a stand-in for the author or that the story was autobiographical.  Instead, the details of middle-class England at that time both resonated and reverberated.  There’s a hilarious sequence when the family goes on a car vacation and things go wrong, both logistically and emotionally.  I also enjoyed her second novel Human Croquet (1997), though it was almost too inventive with its time travel armature.  Everything about Shakespeare, however, was excellent.

Kate Atkinson

     What I noticed about Atkinson was that her novels always had a tricky resolution plot-wise.  In mysteries and thrillers, writers employ what I’ll call ‘shadow plotting.’  What I mean is that the reader is being led down one path by the author, who is creating a completely different pathway that will result in the climax and be explained in a denouement.  For instance, Agatha Christie created a different path for each of her suspects and either Poirot or Miss Marple or Tommy and Tuppence explained who had done what from before the beginning.  Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler practiced this technique, usually through the set up of what seemed to be a simple case, but which was really the lead into something far more treacherous, dangerous, and complex.  Edmund Wilson’s problem with Chandler’s writing was the weakness of the resolution in comparison to the degree of depravity or decadence suggested by the mystery.  In Wilson’s opinion, the resolution would never live up to the intrigue.

     Atkinson would throw in an element that didn’t really add anything to what she had brilliantly created:  penetrating, witty portraits of petit bourgeois Britain.  She’d reveal something at the end that instead of seeming like a Joycean epiphany, just felt peculiar and unnecessary.  I ignored her next couple of books until Stephen King went wild about Case Histories (2004) in Entertainment Weekly.  This was back when his column “The Pop of King” was probably the best all-around accessible popular criticism since Pauline Kael’s 1970s movie criticism.  The difference is that King acknowledged his preferences upfront before critiquing works.  I wish a collection of “The Pop of King” would be published as a book, especially since EW is pretty much dead in the water and has been ever since Jess Cagle left as the editor.

From the BBC Series Case History
with Jason Isaacs and Millie Innes

     Case Histories was extremely well written, but Atkinson juggled four different cases (twice what most of the classic mystery authors generally presented in books) and, though Ian Rankin does the same in his Rebus series, Atkinson creates more complex characters than Rankin so the connections between the cases were more tenuous or indirect than in contemporary mysteries that are more seriously focused on the genre.  I skipped the next three, though I wondered why she was so intent upon writing private eye books, rather than the tragicomic family sagas with which she started.  By the way, the PBS series starring Jason Isaacs as Jackson Brodie, the private eye, was highly entertaining, though I still didn’t think there was a strong connection between many of the characters (primarily the suspects in the multiple simultaneous cases).

         Life After Life (2013) received adulation on both sides of the Atlantic.  It showcases Atkinson’s elegant, funny style while trumpeting her ‘shadow plotting’ to the nth degree.  In this case, the main character keeps getting killed off and we return to the basic premise – upper-middle class English family from 1910 – 1968 trying to survive and thrive during the tumultuous 20th century, though primarily during World War II.  The English stiff upper lip and genteelly fighting spirit provides the undertow throughout the novel.  The one constant (besides Ursula – named for the little bear star, the protagonist that’s killed off more times than Bill Murray in 1993’s Groundhog Day, but finds herself in a different situation somewhere in Europe during the period every time she’s resurrected) is the family house.  This is no accident.  ‘An Englishman’s house is his castle’ is the old saying and it’s as culturally endemic as ‘American as Mom, the flag,  and apple pie.’  

     For a sense of Atkinson’s style, here are two sequences involving the parents Hugh and Sylvie and their first attachment to the house:

     ‘Lottie (Sylvie’s mother) died with less fuss than was expected and Hugh and Sylvie married quietly on Sylvie’s eighteenth birthday.  (“There,” Hugh said, “now you will never forget the anniversary of our marriage.”)  They spent their honeymoon in France, a delightful quinzaine in Deauville, before settling in semirural bliss near Beaconsfield in a house that was vaguely Lutyens in style.  It had everything one could ask for – a large kitchen, a drawing room with French windows onto the lawn, a pretty morning room and several bedrooms waiting to be filled with children.  There was even a little room at the back of the house for Hugh to use as a study.  “Ah, my growlery,” he laughed.’

And a little later (and, yes, the English love to name their homes):

Fox Cubs

     ‘”Look,” Sylvie whispered.  Two small cubs sprang out onto the grass and tumbled over each other in play.  “Oh, they’re such handsome little creatures!”

     “Some might say vermin.”

     “Perhaps they see us as verminous,” Sylvie said.  “Fox Corner – that’s what we should call the house.  No one else has a house with that name and shouldn’t that be the point?”

     “Really?”  Hugh said doubtfully.  “It’s a little whimsical, isn’t it?  It sounds like a children’s story.  The House at Fox Corner.”     

     “A little whimsy never hurt anyone.”

     “Strictly speaking though,” Hugh said, “can a house be a corner?  Isn’t it at one?”

     So this is marriage, Sylvie thought.

     Though I think that Atkinson is an excellent writer and Life After Life is the best book I’ve read by her, I don’t think she’s great.  The London Blitz sequence, while incredibly detailed and graphic, is not as memorable for me as the one in Sarah Waters’ The Night Watch.  Part of this may be that Atkinson ambitiously takes on most of the 20th century in this book, while Waters presents only a few characters in London during and immediately after the Blitz.  In her latest, Atkinson revives Teddy, Ursula’s younger brother and an RAF pilot during the War, as her protagonist.  I hope she focuses her plot centrally.  I look forward to it.

Sotto

Food and service deserve plaudits, 

but hopefully the business model 

doesn’t stumble

The Bar at Sotto

     We went to Sotto for our anniversary because a number of friends had said how much they liked it since the opening over a year and a half ago.   We decided to make a reservation because we had a gift card to Nada, another restaurant owned by David Falk.  The card said it could be used at Falk’s three restaurants (the other being Boca).  

Sotto Dining Area

     Sotto is a basement restaurant and the space has been completely re-worked since it housed La Normandie over a decade ago.  Though shadowy, it’s easy to see other guests and the food you’re eating.  It’s also been described as loud, but we didn’t think it was a din, unlike many other restaurants downtown and in the Gateway Quarter.  We were able to take in the friendly and efficient service by all of the staff.  Our waiter was excellent and dealt quickly with a communication hiccup over part of our order.  As he pointed out, portions are meant to be shared and, fortunately, since the menu is not extensive, a party of four could cover most of the selections.  We followed his suggestions for dishes.

Chicken Liver Mousse
with Pistachio Bruchetta

     We started with the Chicken Liver Mousse with Pistachio Bruschetta (there are six choices) and it was excellent.  The mousse was buttery and glossy, but held its texture when spread on the toast.  The nuts lent both a bright color and piquant sweetness to the dish.  We had the grilled bread (yes, you pay for bread at a Falk establishment) and it was a great way to mop up the sauces of our two Primi choices.  

Semolina "Gnocchi"

These were the Semolina “Gnocchi” and the Short Rib Capellacci.  The gnocchi are semolina – not potato – based and they were like a lighter, warm polenta with a tomato sausage sauce topped with pecorino.  It was filling, but the sauce had light citrus notes.  The capellacci is a must order.  

Short Rib Capellacci

I realized later that it was what Judy and Karen and Tom had ordered on different visits and all had enjoyed it.  The pasta is parchment thin holding a pillow of the meat, which was slow-cooked to perfection.  The sauce is a delicate butter, highlighted by thyme.  

Buttermilk Panna Cotta

     We decided against a Secondi because we didn’t want to stuff ourselves, though all three choices sounded very attractive.  Instead, we ordered the Panna Cotta for dessert.  It’s buttermilk vanilla with a few macerated chopped strawberries.  It was also a delicate dish and simply presented.  It was very good, though my gold standard is Zula’s version.

Pasta Makers

     Everything was fine until we found out that Nada is being spun off into its own brand and they couldn’t take our gift card.  Thanks, David Falk, for deciding to become an empire builder and leaving customers in the dust.  After a few moments of awkwardness, the manager worked things out with exemplary skill.  It’s lucky that Falk hires such a good staff.  One thing to keep in mind:  the Commissar brothers also built an empire and it crumbled and Jean Robert has seen one partnership fall apart, but is currently building another.  Be careful with your business aspirations, mes chefs, when you’re known for your food.  Cameron Mitchell, out of Columbus, has been able to build and spin off ventures because he has always put the dining experience ahead of great, unique food, though it’s always been very good.

sottocincinnati.com

 

Amy

And no one could save her

     Amy portrays singer-songwriter-guitarist Amy Winehouse from the age of fifteen until her death.  The media routinely use the word tragedy to refer to something that is actually a disaster such as an airline disaster or a terrorist mass killing.  Tragedy requires a hero or heroine who falls from the heights because of a flaw, usually pride.  Amy Winehouse was a tragic heroine because her extraordinary talent could not save her from those closest to her and from her need for boundaries that were never maintained.  She was a potentially great jazz singer (she acknowledged Dinah Washington and Sarah Vaughan as influences and Tony Bennett saw both Billie Holliday and Ella Fitzgerald in her), who was flung into an international pop career that was bigger than anything she envisioned or really wanted because of her songs that were sad, edgy, and far more autobiographical than I originally realized.  Neil did understand that at the time (2007) she first became big in the U.S.  

Amy with Husband Blake

     Although she wanted to play in smaller venues, ‘the star-making machinery behind the popular song,’ as Joni Mitchell described it in “A Free Man in Paris,” wasn’t having any of that.  Simultaneously treating her as a commodity and as an artist in desperate need of help, music industry professionals tried to get a grip on her, while media representatives both lionized and ridiculed her.  Although she was both helped and hurt by family members (most significantly her drug addict husband and her exploitative father), her friends kept reaching out to her, but she was sporadic in her dealings with them once she catapulted to fame.  She was revealing both in her lyrics and her interviews, knowing that she was responsible, but she could not use that skill in permanently changing her life for the better.

     It’s a wrenching and suspenseful documentary, though we know how it will turn out.  There’s a continual current of ‘if only . . .’ as her life progresses and as we connect earlier events to later outcomes. Director Asif Kapadia employs a technique that he developed in his documentary Yenna (2010) about the late Brazilian auto racer whereby there is no spoken directorial voiceover and no current talking head interviews looking back to these events.  Instead, all of the visual narrative is found imagery, whether interviews with Winehouse during her life, paparazzi film, home movies, phone videos that are arranged to form a cohesive narrative.  The audio narrative includes interviews with those shown in the earlier pictures and scenes, Winehouse speaking and, more importantly, singing.  If Inside Out is about how joy and pain work together to develop a personality, Amy is about joy and pain working against each other and draining a smart, funny, enormous personality through alcohol and drugs. 

Alreddy Coffee & Cafe

Alreddy enough…

don't wear out the welcome mat

The Front Dining Room

     We'd love to have a place like the Alreddy Café in our neighborhood.  It's quaint, vibrant, and adds some new twists to a menu that deals with basic café fare.  Service is laid back with the feel that this is a family owned and operated restaurant.  (That's just an assumption.)  I've been there 

Side Porch Dining

3 times in the past 9 days, which would lead one to believe that it's a pretty special place.  That's true, but I don't want to get tired of it early on so I must let up this week.

Hot Ham & Brie Sandwich

     Having been there several times for lunch, I feel like I can give it a pretty fair review.  On my first visit I picked the Choose Two from a wide choice of sandwiches, quiche, salads and sides.  I went with the Hot Ham & Brie half sandwich and Tortillas with Mango Salsa and Red Pepper Hummus.  I had asked the server for suggestions on a side, but he pointed to the Fruit Salad and Fried Pickles.  I'm sure they're good, but neither struck a cord with me.  The sandwich came with chopped cucumber, tomato and onion with a creamy Raspberry Dressing.  All was good except the dressing portion was a little overwhelming making the sandwich difficult to eat and masking some other flavors.  The tortillas were abundant and the homemade salsa was pleasing.  It was nice to mix it with the hummus.  Karen had 

Tuna Melt with
Funnel Veggies & Dip

the Choose Two with Tuna Melt and Funnel of Fresh Veggies & Dip.  Jeff went with my second choice: the French Dip.  Both were hits.  We were sitting next to the pastry case and I had my eye on the scones.  I eventually took a Mocha and Caramel one with me, but I found it on the dry side.  That may be more traditional, but I love my scones soft and creamy (thank you Jenny at Bluebird Bakery in Glendale). 

French Dip
with Alreddy House Salad

     Dominic accompanied me for my second visit.  He had the Trio Salad with two servings of Egg Salad and one of Chicken Salad.  He found the egg very tasty, but the chicken was a little on the dry side.  I did Choose Two again with the French Dip and Alreddy House Salad, a combination of greens, toasted pecans, craisins, feta, strawberries and cucumber with an apple cider vinaigrette dressing.  Very nice.  We topped it off with their Cherry Cheese Cobbler, which I found to be like a pound cake, rather than a traditionally crumbled pie.  

Quiche of the Day and Seafood Bisque

     For my third visit, Eric and I went together for a late brunch.  He had Choose Two (there's a trend here) with the Quiche and cup of Seafood Bisque.  The quiche was an individual serving made with asparagus that day.  The bisque sounded so good I had to have a cup also.  It was full of seafood pieces in a rich cream that made us lap up the entire cup.  My Broken Yoke Angus Sandwich was 

Broken Yoke Angus Sandwich and Seafood Bisque

more than I expected.  It was piled high with a "runny" egg, as I preferred.  I think the next time I'll order it with just one slice of bread as it would make it easier to eat with more emphasis on the egg and various fillings.  We ended with the Peaches & Cream Cake–a variation on the cobbler from a few days back.  

Peaches & Cream Cake

Served warm, this one was the 2009 winner of Best Dessert at The Taste of Northern CIncinnati.  And one should not forget that this is a coffee house too.  They serve excellent brews.

     I see another visit in my future…soon!

alreddycafe.com