5chw4r7z:: the ethos of downtown Cincinnati

Thanksgiving warmpup

Not much better than fantastic food with good friends, except for fantastic food and drinks.

Our fantastic hostess, epi-ventures, one of the top two best cooks in the city.

That's what she said

Christmas ales, winter ales you have a world of choices, I tried to find something that wouldn't compete with all the flavors a typical Thanksgiving dinner contains. The Never Summer ale was a good choice, a nice beer on its own it complimented everything on the plate.

geez fantastic much? the fantastic button must have stuck
[where: 45202]best place to learn how to live downtown cincinnati ohio the ethos of Cincinnati
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Big Mac in the fog

[where: 45202]best place to learn how to live downtown cincinnati ohio the ethos of Cincinnati
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1 neighborhood, 2 people, 3 parties in 4 hours

Except it stretched out to about 6 hours.
You know its getting crazy when you hit one Lucy Blue pizza to sober up enough to get you to the next Lucy Blue for the energy to get home.
But Lets start at the beginning.

The OTR Holiday Preview party showcasing OTR restaurants and all the happenings this holiday season. I always love popup shops and this one in the old Metronation space will give retailers without a brick and mortar store a physical presence during the weekends running up to Christmas. The popup store will also be the place to buy your OTR shopping bag to receive discounts at all the local retailers. I could repeat everything they told us, or you could just go to the OTR website for all the details.
And the food, the food as you would expect was all exceptional.

Once the preview party wrapped up almost everyone packed up and headed over to the Coffee Emporium for Jack Speed. Everyone loves them some Jake Speed.
All hosted by Yelp.

hell dude, you're the BEER GUY, you ARE special.

Was it me or was it starting to really cool off? Well it felt like it heading to Lackman for the Cincinnati Imports. When I walked in the glasses frosted up and I couldn't see for about 5 minutes, totally hilar when you're half blind anyhow.

might have to pawn one or two off to pay for the evening

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the entropy death of dopeness

It started out as what was supposed to be a relaxing evening, hanging out and people watching. No where to be and no hurry to get there, The weather was pleasant so we looked for outdoor seating. I have to say, one of my few complaints of downtown is the lack of outdoor seating areas. Having one or two tables out front is a start but really doesn't cut it, we could do with more room.
Some day, we'll have Sunday streets, where maybe we'll close down Vine to cars, that's the dream anyhow. Once the streetcar is up and running that's something I'm going to pursue.
While txt'n and tweet'n little did we know what was in store for us later.

We got hungry and ran home for a quick bite before heading out again to discover a soggy door mat.
WFT??
Turns out the washer discharge hose had popped out of the drain. luckily or not, it is what it is, the water never made it to the carpeted bedroom instead finding a low point in a storage area with an unfinished floor which drained the water down the inside of a wall to the floor below. Four days later, dehumidifiers and industrial fans running non stop the water was gone leaving some bubbled tape and some water spots.
I suggest if you haven't done it yet, zip tie your water discharge to a water line so you don't suffer through this too.

At least I was able to enjoy that Cuban cigar I brought back from Paris before everything went pear shaped.
I can not believe I didn't take one picture of all that equipment, I'm slipping.

[where: 45202]best place to learn how to live downtown cincinnati ohio the ethos of Cincinnati
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Eiffel Tower

Between my blog post yesterday and all the chatter about travel on twitter yesterday had me reminiscing about France and the Eiffel Tower.

I never got tired of this view in intersections

At first I thought I caught the beam reflecting off something, but it turns out there's a light on each side and as they sweep to the farthest point, it hands off to the next light. I wonder what they were because right before they lit up you'd hear a loud psssssTHHHPP and it would pop on.
[where:Paris, France]best place to learn how to live downtown cincinnati ohio the ethos of Cincinnati
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Pho Lang Thang

One of the, if not the last nice day of fall weather we walked to Findlay Market, I forget just how beautiful it is walking up Elm, definitely need to walk to Findlay more often. We've wanted to try Pho Lang Thang, the Vietnamese restaurant everyone has been raving about for some time and today was the day.

Got there in time to find they had to shut it down. But not not closed forever shut down, these guys are so popular they had to close just to catch back up. I saw them carrying bags of vegies in and realized they had probably way underestimated just how good and just what a buzz they had going.
I'll admit my knowledge of Vietnamese food is limited to Cilantro in Clifton, but this was amazing, of course when they only have to walk a short distance for ingredients, you know they'll be as fresh as fresh vegies can be.

But you know what? Good for them, that just adds to the mystic right?
So I want to throw it out there right now, if you want to try Pho Lang Thang do not wait, get there early and get there soon because when you're standing out on the side walk with the long face looking in, you can be sure I'll walk past with an I told you so.

Boy does this remind me of Paris. Its remarkable how I've looked at OTR in a new light since I've gotten back, they have a lot in common. The alleys, courtyards and graffiti, man was there a ton of graffiti in Paris. All the little things like the street signs on the buildings add up to a unique and interesting place.