What I Ate This Week

Well, well!  Spring has sprung—with forecasted highs around 60 and sun as far as the eye can see, I think that we’re all cued up for the best time of the year—at least until the other best time of the year (fall)!  And there’s no question, Cincinnati is coming out of hibernation!  In support of this point of view, I humbly submit two “early spring” Cincinnati rituals!

Art of Food—A Little Art, A Little Food, A Little Bit Average

Art of Food is actually an art exhibit—a collaboration between the hosting venue—the beautiful Carnegie Arts Center in Covington KY—and a wide variety of artists who either love food, or just love making art about food.  Friday was the opening of the exhibition, which as with so many openings is turned into an event.  What makes the event interesting and noteworthy is that many of the city’s best kitchens are there, turning out bite-sized (well, almost—but we’ll get to that) noshes for patrons.

We entered the hall to the spinning beats of a DJ—while not audible everywhere in the space, it certainly let you know this was not your “average” art installation.  Unfortunately, “average” is my word of the night for my first visit to Art of Food.

So first, what of the art?  It came in two varieties—art about food, and art made of food.  Above is one of several lovely pieces that fall into the latter category.  I certainly felt like the art made of food far surpassed the other more traditional art media.  Here are a couple of examples:

All of the chandeliers in the main hall were made of candy!  Well, presumably the light bulbs and wire were real, but where strings of glass beads should be, you find rock candy or suckers.  Sarah pointed this out to me, and it added a wonderful touch of whimsy to the event!

And my favorite was a potato chip mural sponsored by local favorites Mike Sells.  This was awesome.  I won’t speak to the other pieces of art, as I fully recognize that I’m even less an art critic than a food critic!  But I do want to own this piece of bacon carpet:

OK, so what about the food?  Well, big names were there!

Cristian Pietoso from Via Vite & Nicola’s!

Amazing Head Pastry Chef Summer Genetti of The Palace! (in the center, not the dude in the shorts)

Marc Bodenstein of Chalk Food + Wine!

Julie Francis from Nectar!

Even Jean-Robert de Cavel!  Even though he didn’t have food available!  Also “in the house” were Chris Burns from JeanRo, Jeremy Luers from The Rookwood, Nick Marckwald from The Quarter, Paul Weckman from Otto’s, Matt Winterrowd from The Summit and more!  So if nothing else, Cincinnati’s food stars were all there!

So what OF the food?  I actually left pretty disappointed.  Don’t get me wrong, there were some lovely bites—I particularly remember the pulled lamb from The Rookwood, which was topped maybe with currants or some other lovely dried sweet fruit, and an amazing chocolate pate with bacon from Nectar—and our friends raved about the braised meat from The Quarter, but by 7pm (only a third of the way through the event) they had sold out.  Seriously?  The folks at Top Chef would be none too pleased!  They also wouldn’t have loved how hard most of this food was to eat, party-style.  The room was full of folks holding glasses of wine and balancing small plates on top so that they could try to use their spoon or fork to eat.  Precarious!

Oh and about that wine—tickets were $40 to the event (and the gallery is free on every other day) and they still charged $4 per glass!  Wowie!

Most disappointing, for me personally, were some of the more intriguing bites:  the tuna stuffed peppers from Via Vite (way too salty), a slimy beet salad.  My bigger disappointment is that this combination of all these great kitchens couldn’t possibly live up to the hype—just like Top Chef, we know that chefs don’t do their best work when doing “entertaining” gigs—it’s just too tough of an environment!

Overall, I love what the event was ABOUT.  I just wished for… a little more.

Bockfest:  Cincinnati’s Spring Rites

Last night, we headed down to Bockfest, and I’ll admit it was my first one!  Twelve years in this town and I just never made it down to this celebration of Over the Rhine, Bock Beer, goats (don’t ask), and German culture.  Dozens of bars and a brewery (dubbed Bockfest Hall for this weekend) open their doors, serving Spring’s new brews on draft and a party/carnival atmosphere.

I loved it.

It reminded me of Cincinnati’s greatest summer festivals, but indoors, and celebrating the coming of spring—which always gets me excited!  We sampled the wares at a few spots—at Arnold’s we tried a new Spaten Bock for the season—a little dark and rich for me, but tasty.  At Courtyard Cafe, we tried the new Emancipator (Christian Moerlein’s Doppelbock) and it was a vision!  Light and tasty, but still with the hint of caramel flavor that distinguishes a good bock beer.  It went great with the bockwurst sandwiches we had to celebrate the season!

At Mr. Pitiful’s, we enjoyed the “host beer” Schoenling Bock, my favorite of the night—perfectly balanced, warm flavors, very inviting.

And at Bockfest Hall, we enjoyed the sounds of Strawboss, doing the party band honors, and enjoyed a couple of tacos from Senor Roy’s (both trucks were in the lot for this evening—they seem to be friends not enemies, such a Cincinnati way for food trucks to get along!) and a waffle from Taste of Belgium for the long walk back to the car.

I highly recommend this festival—and if you’re reading this today (Sunday) the party goes on!  Get down to Over the Rhine and enjoy it!

And if you miss it… well, find your own way to welcome Spring, because it’s here!