A Downtown Oasis

After some terrible weather last week, I was absolutely delighted to finally enjoy some sun this past weekend, which has continued through this week. I decided that Sunday was the perfect day to take a long overdue trip to Findlay Market.

Located downtown, in historic Over-the-Rhine, the market is the continuously operated public market in Ohio. This is definitely not Quincy Market for those of you in Boston but more along the lines of Eastern Market in DC, although not as big. The market is open year-round and features a variety of merchants that sell everything from basic produce to bison meat to quail eggs.

I purposely held off on having breakfast at home so that I could head right to Taste of Belgium, this absolutely phenomenal store that sells, well you guessed it, Belgian waffles. I'm usually quite content to have a plain Belgian waffle but this time I decided to spring for the ham and gruyere crepe, which was bigger than a Chipotle burrito but 10 times better. It was impossible to eat and walk, which prompted me to sit, eat, and indulge in some people watching. College students, young children with their parents, tourists, musicians, and more pervaded the area that day. As the market is located in Over-the-Rhine, it attracts a very diverse group of people. OTR has a rich history as a German neighborhood back in the 19th century. However, over the past 100 years, the area has seen a significant decline and many of the beautiful buildings have fallen into disrepair. The good news is that there are many efforts from several organizations to redevelop the area, and from what I've read and seen, it seems like those efforts are working. Here's an interesting photo I took of one of the doors. Note that both pets AND handguns are not allowed in the building.



It should be interesting to see what happens in the neighborhood as Findlay Market truly is a diamond in the rough.

A trip to Kentucky: Maifest 2010

On Sunday, I traversed the Ohio River and found myself in Covington, KY. Cincinnati readers may be shocked (or not) to hear that many outsiders do not realize that Kentucky (aka The South) is immediately adjacent to Cincinnati. Meaning, right across the river. Here's an analogy - Cincinnati : Covington as Boston : Cambridge. Make sense?

There's a great area of Covington called MainStrasse, an historic district with obvious ties to the rich German heritage of the area. When I have a free weekend and the weather is better, I'm going to make a more substantial visit to MainStrasse. Like Cincinnati, the village is home to many annual festivals, including Oktoberfest and Maifest - the latter is the festival I visited on Sunday. As you probably guessed, Maifest is an annual festival held in May to celebrate the beginning of spring. Too bad that the weather was more reminiscent of the beginning of winter! Like any festival, food is the main attraction (at least for me), so I thought I would share the menu and some pictures (please forgive the photo layout and quality). Bon Appetit!

What I ate/drank at Maifest 2010:

Fried Goetta balls
Crawfish with lots of seasonings
Boneless barbecue ribs
Kentucky Ale
Christian Moerlein IPA
Deep Fried Oreos

Here's the scoop on ice cream

I always love finding new and fun websites and here's what I found today: Cincy Favorites. This site is dedicated to all of the best foods the Queen City has to offer. What's more, the site features online ordering and delivery so that you can enjoy all of these comfort foods outside of Cincinnati. Considering that so many Cincinnati ex-pats are very attached to some of the local food, this is a great idea. Two of the featured products were ice cream so here goes...

The two ice cream companies with which I am most familiar are Graeter's and UDF (United Dairy Farmers). Both stores are located all over Cincinnati and their products are available in grocery stores, so there's no hiding. Graeter's brands itself as having perfected the traditional French Pot process, utilizing lots of eggs and cream. The result is a very creamy ice cream with lots of flavor. During Cincinnati visits when I was younger, a trip to Graeter's was always on the itinerary.

In the other corner, you have UDF ice cream. They, too, boast of their heavy use of cream which also lends itself to a smooth and decadant consistency. What always threw me about UDF is the fact that it's part ice cream parlor, part convenience store. I have yet to find a UDF that didn't have a gas station attached to it, and I can't think of any gas stations/convenience stores in the Northeast that serve premium ice cream! As such, I didn't have my first UDF ice cream until after I moved here...and realized there was a UDF a stone's throw away from my apartment. So I HAD to go there, obviously.

To the non-Cincinnati readers, you may enjoy a side-by-side comparision (just the facts) of Graeter's and UDF. Here's my chart. I had way to much fun making this. Note: I used a 5 mile radius of my neighborhood.



As for taste, there are some differences. This is probably going to sound contradictory but Graeter's, with all of the creamy texture, is actually very light and airy compared to UDF. It's as if the ice cream had been whipped, so the richness comes from the particular flavor. For example, my all-time favorite ice cream is peppermint stick, which is often only available during the holidays. Graeter's has a delicious version that packs a ton of pepperminty taste but it's not heavy. UDF also has a peppermint stick ice cream, and while I also enjoy it (particularly in milkshake form), it is more dense than its counterpart over at Graeter's. However, dense can be good, like the Vanilla Fudge swirl at UDF. If I had two cones in front of me right now, I would quickly reach for Graeter's but finish up with UDF. There's no need to limit myself to one ice cream cone, right?

To the Cincinnati readers, I want YOUR feedback. Don't be shy. If I'm totally off the mark here, let me know. If you're mad that I left out Aglamesis', speak up. In my defense, I have yet to try the latter.

Until then...Happy Ice Cream Season!

Shall We Dance

"You see, every once in awhile I suddenly find myself dancing" - Fred Astaire


Not really about Cincinnati or Boston but I do want to wish Fred Astaire a happy birthday on what would have been his 111th!

I've been hooked on Fred ever since that first viewing of Top Hat years and years ago. I fully give my Dad credit for making that introduction particularly as it was a tough sell, initially. A black and white movie with singing and dancing isn't exactly at the top of an elementary student's movie list. However, Dad successfully coaxed me into watching when he promised that Ginger Rogers would be wearing some dresses that could "twirl". They did.

I've done a lot over the years for Fred, including the following:

1. Scoured used book stores and Ebay for out of print Fred-focused books, including his autobiography.

2. Treked up to Chatsworth, CA (aka The Valley) from Los Angeles this past summer to find his grave. After combing the desert-like cemetery for about 45 minutes, we finally stumbled up on it. Thanks, Jenny!

3. In pre-DVD days, I would study the New York Times TV schedule and record all Fred movies on VHS...no matter what time of day! I'm happy to say that I probably captured about 25 of his 30 musicals on tape. I'm sure they are collecting some major dust back in Connecticut right now.

What can I say, he was the best! A singer, dancer, actor, father, husband, golfer, humanitarian. You know that question that people always ask? You know, the one where you can have dinner with anyone (dead or alive)? Yup, I never have to think twice about that.

I leave you with a picture taken this past summer in Hollywood. Fred and I aren't dancing cheek to cheek here, but rather, palm to palm.

Derailed!

I had hoped that this post would be an exuberant recap of the adventure I alluded to earlier this week. Alas, the trip was derailed. Here's the story.

On Tuesday, I had the tremendous opportunity to travel from Cincinnati to Washington, DC on a private railcar called The Chapel Hill, originally known as Hussar, was built in 1922 for Marjorie Merriweather Post (familiar with Post cereal brands??) and E.F. Hutton. This was a different time when train travel was THE way of traveling for prominent Americans. If you had private railcar, you would use it the way people use private planes these days - for business or pleasure. The Hussar was no exception. This couple would use the car to travel between New York City, the Adirondacks, and Palm Beach. Tough life, right?

Almost 100 years later, this car, renamed the Chapel Hill, is now available for charter trips and excursions. The railcar can go anywhere in the country that Amtrak travels to and has traveled extensively throughout the continental U.S. That said, the Chapel Hill is at the mercy of the Amtrak schedule, which is quite limited in the Midwest. The Cardinal Route, which travels from Chicago to NYC, only passes through Cincinnati three times a week...and arrives at Cincinnati's Union Terminal at 3 am! Here was our proposed itinerary for the trip:

Tuesday night: Cocktails and dinner on the train after which we all adjourned to the private bedrooms on the car.

Early Wednesday morning around 3:00 am: Hook up to the Cardinal train coming down from Chicago and start the eastbound journey through Kentucky, West Virginia, and Virginia. Wake up to breakfast in the formal dining room and enjoy the ride for the rest of the day.

Wednesday evening: Arrive at Washington's Union Station and enjoy cocktails and dinner on the train, followed by post-dinner drinks with friends in DC.

Thursday morning at 7:00 am: Delta flight 2081 to CVG from DCA. Back to reality.

We managed to get through Tuesday night but early Wednesday things went awry when Amtrak decided not to bring us to DC. Politics and bureaucracy stood in our way, and when we woke up on Wednesday morning, we were not cruising through the countryside of West Virginia. Instead, we were still in the train yard in Norwood, Ohio! Disappointing, to say the least, and there was no Thomas the Tank Engine to pull us to Washington.

That's the story. I don't completely understand the reasoning behind Amtrak's decision, but it certainly highlights an organization that seems to have some MAJOR issues. Another thing to point out - the Cardinal was slated to arrive in Cincinnati around 3 am. As it turns out, it was running late and wouldn't be picking us up until closer to 6 am!

In the end, I have to say that I'm lucky to have enjoyed about 30 hours on the Chapel Hill. I also should mention that I did get to ride up in the engine prior to dinner on Tuesday night (for about 100 yards), and the railcar did travel a couple of miles down the track before being denied by Amtrak. I immensely enjoyed the company of my fellow travelers so the trip was not a total loss. I do look forward to another opportunity to travel on the Chapel Hill; hopefully, we'll be able to make it out of Ohio!

A little R & R on the C & O

Birthday parties, horse races, and work have all kept me occupied over the past couple of weeks. It's not a great excuse for not blogging; in fact, the busier I am, the more I should be documenting these activities.

The good news is that I have a mini-adventure this week that will prove to be a fun blog post with lots of accompanying photos. I won't spoil the surprise but I will say that the next post will be TRAIN-tastic!



All Aboard!

Happy Birthday Mrs. Jack...and Libby MacVeigh!

There are a number of things I miss about Boston. Aside from close friends, I miss the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. The museum is a real Boston gem and is sometimes overshadowed by the neighboring Museum of Fine Arts and others.

During my last year in Boston, I was an information desk volunteer at the Gardner. I worked at the museum several times a month, helping visitors acclimate to the museum. My favorite part was interacting with them in the galleries because the questions almost always had to do with the history of the museum…which is what makes this institution so remarkable.

In a nutshell, the museum was founded in 1903 by a prominent Bostonian named Isabella Stewart Gardner. The picture to the left is a well-known portrait, painted by Anders Zorn and rests in the museum. She built a Venetian Palace in the Fenway area of Boston to house her vast collection of art. Upon her death in 1924, “Fenway Court” became the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Mrs. Jack, as she was known, stipulated that nothing could change in the museum. As such, the art in the galleries is placed in the same exact manner that she intended. Any violation of this agreement and the contents of the museum would be sold at auction with the proceeds going to Harvard University. Talk about a tough cookie.

Today is Mrs. Jack’s birthday – she would be 170 years young! It’s easy to remember as the museum’s courtyard always features hanging nasturtiums (her favorite flower) in April. I wish I could be there to pay homage to this remarkable woman but also to wander through the galleries and view one of Rembrandt’s self portraits, Titian’s famous Europa, and John Singer Sargent’s El Jaleo.

If you appreciate history and a good mystery, you may want to educate yourself about the famous “Gardner Heist” that took place 20 years ago. Thirteen works were stolen in the middle of the night, including several Rembrandts and a Vermeer, and have yet to be recovered. An excellent book was published last year called The Gardner Heist, written by a longtime investigator of the crime. Even if you aren’t an art aficionado, you will enjoy this book but will be dismayed that such priceless works are still missing. To learn more about Mrs. Jack herself, check out the aptly named Mrs. Jack, a wonderful biography on an amazing woman. To those who are in Boston, or are planning a visit, I wholeheartedly recommend a visit.

This all reminds me that I need to pay another visit to the Taft Museum here in Cincinnati. Like the Gardner, the Taft is a collection housed in a private residence and its existence is owed to former citizens who believed in the sharing of art and history with the public.

Happy Birthday, Mrs. Jack. Thank you for leaving such a wonderful legacy.