Weekend Mojitos

My best buddy from college came to visit me in Cincinnati this weekend. He wasn't really sure what he wanted to do, and I can be just awful at coming up with plans. I'm always worried that I'm going to pick things that my guest doesn't end up enjoying at all - I can have strange tastes after all! So, that led to some initial poring over menus online before we decided to go to Taqueria Mercado, which Yelp proclaimed to have some of the most authentic Mexican food in town. They are located up near Jungle Jim's, which was our next stop, so it was fairly convenient. The food was fine, but the atmosphere was disappointing.

At Jungle Jim's, we were mainly on a quest for ingredients for a couple of cocktails that we had decided to try our hand at making. My first mojito, folks! I was maybe a little too excited to muddle some mint and juice some fresh limes. :)

I played bartender for the evening, and we had selected a Capri as our second cocktail. This is a mixture of vodka, Campari, and apricot brandy along with some club soda and freshly juiced grapefruit. I had never tried Campari before, so it took us a while to find it at the liquor store. And it was kind of pricey - $28.00 per bottle! My passion for trying new drinks often comes with a high price tag for a bottle of something that only gets used in a single recipe. Campari is an alcoholic liqueur that's obtained from the infusion of herbs and fruit in alcohol and water. It is definitely bitter in taste, so this drink turned out very strong.   
We pulled out a game to play (Back Asswards) and decided it would be a great idea to play only using British accents.

Francisco had gotten stuck working both Saturday and Sunday, 6 AM - 6 PM, so it turned out to be a perfect weekend for Joe to come for a visit. After Francisco got home, I mixed him a drink and we all attempted to play Munchkin together, but it was clear that you needed to learn these rules sober first lol.

However, that meant it was the perfect time to play some Wii karaoke! :)

In the morning, Joe and I headed out to drive around a bit and visit some of the key neighborhoods around Cincinnati, including Indian Hill, one of America's 10 most affluent neighborhoods, and Over-the-Rhine, what I've come to think of as the heart and soul of Cincinnati.  I recently learned that Nick and Drew Lachey are filming an A&E reality show about a new sports bar they will be opening in OTR.  We ended up driving in to Kentucky and eating at Brothers Bar and Grill at Newport on the Levee.

The weather was great for walking the Purple People Bridge that spans the Ohio River, linking Ohio and Kentucky. We had enough time to squeeze in one more game back at home before Joe headed back to Northwest Indiana. It was a fun visit - here's hoping to doing it again soon! :)