Last weekend, we celebrated our 5-year Ohioversary. It is actually pretty crazy to reflect on the fact that we have lived here for half of our marriage. Time seemed to go by more slowly in the "good ol' Lafayette days".
One of the first restaurants we ever visited in Cincinnati was
Melt Eclectic Cafe. We came here in May 2011 to celebrate my brother's college graduation. We were looking for a mini-road trip, and Cincy was close enough to make a long weekend completely doable. We enjoyed our first meal at Melt so much that we came back the very next day for brunch. They're extremely vegetarian-friendly, but they have omnivore options as well, and I remember remarking at the time that I wished Lafayette had restaurants like this.
Since then, Melt has actually moved down the street to a much more modernized location and changed ownership. I think I read recently that they are changing ownership again, but so far, I feel like much of their original menu has remained intact. I also love that they've since added cocktails to their menu. Their drinks are creative and reasonably priced.
We actually had quite an interesting dining experience that day. I'm not sure if they were training new people or what, but the number of things that went wrong was almost comical. They brought out two of my drink originally, and when Francisco clarified our order, they already had his ready, sitting on the bar. Francisco had ordered The Joan of Arc with seitan as his entree, but after his first bite, he asked the waitress "is this actual chicken?" It was. :(
She promptly had a fresh sandwich made for him, and I enjoyed my macaroni and cheese. Everything seemed ok until she brought out the check and we were charged for three cocktails even though we'd only had two. Francisco went up to get this straightened out, and when she brought the bill back, she had adjusted out the extra cocktail and comped the sandwich. Other than all the back-to-back mistakes, we enjoyed our meal overall.
In the morning, we decided to continue our trend of visiting Cincinnati restaurants that were meaningful to us so we went to
Sleepy Bee for breakfast. I started with a Hazelnut latte, and we both ended up going with the specials of the day. For me, this was Banana Split pancakes, and Francisco had some McGriddle-esque sandwiches that he loved.
And of course, no Cincy-celebration weekend is complete without some Cincinnati-style chili. We ordered a small smorgasbord of food from
Gold Star Chili. We usually get Skyline, but I actually like Gold Star so much more - and their vegetarian chili is much more true to authentic Cincinnati-style chili.
If nothing else, this weekend definitely reminded me that Cincy has some damn good food!
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