Good Eats: Cold Turkey

Yesterday, I ate for the first time at Cold Turkey. It's on Sixth Street in the space formerly occupied by Frisch's. And it won't be the last time I eat there. The menu is really straightforward (intentionally so): seven-dollar sandwiches and salads; four-dollar soups, and two-dollar sides. I know some will think seven bucks is too much for a sandwich, but try one and then ask yourself: is this worth two dollars more than a foot-long from Subway? The answer is yes, yes, yes, oh-my-gosh yes.

I had their ultimate grilled cheese sandwich. Three kinds of cheese, molasses-cured bacon, lettuce, and tomato--though I had it without the tomato. The molasses-cured bacon? Amazing. They should use it on all of their sandwiches. Or maybe they should use it instead of bread. Or just bring me a big plate of the bacon.

My friend had a different sandwich (I forgot which, but it also came with the bacon, and he concurred in my assessment of its porkiliciousness). He also had a bowl of their turkey noodle soup, which he said was quite good. And the sandwiches came with cajun pretzels, which packed just the right amount of heat.

The restaurant's atmosphere is perfect. To an extent, I think it's filling a void left by the departure of Kaldi's. The walls are filled with the works of local artists, and they (the art) are all for sale. There's also live acoustic music. While we were there, a pianist was performing (I'd assumed it was a recording until we reached the back of the restaurant and saw the piano). The pianist was CCM grad Della Enns, and her performance was quite wonderful.

The service was great, although--apparently to prove that I'm not just getting old, but curmudgeonly as well--I wondered aloud to my friend whether our server's employment was in compliance with child labor laws. (It was a joke--she was wonderful: she knew the menu, was attentive but not overly so, and was very friendly.)

And Cold Turkey's hours are also great: on Friday and Saturday nights, they're open until 6 am (which I believe makes them officially the kitchen open latest downtown). It's too bad I didn't know that a couple weekends ago, or I would have insisted on a pilgrimage following the Cincinnati Imports Debauchery Happy Hour. With a restaurant serving food that good open that late, local Waffle Houses may go out of business.

Next time I'm there, someone remind me to try the brownie. Those looked good, too.

Berding Loses Dem Endorsement

It was nearly a foregone conclusion, but the Cincinnati Dems dropped the hammer on Councilmember Jeff Berding today and revoked their endorsement. Berding knew it was coming and he should not be surprised that when you launch a big attack against your party's fellow elected officials and you use negative scare tactics in support of a police union that takes stances regularly inconsistent with your party, someone is going to be pissed off. The question remains, will this hurt him enough to lose? At this point I am sure people will spin it like mad, but this may be an election where we learn a little about party affiliation, the power of the Enquirer endorsements, and how do conservatives actually vote in city election (or how many of them are actually left?).

Tony Fisher, on the other hand, I hope has seen the light and understands that if you want to have a long term political future, you don't diss your party during your first election for public office. You have to earn maverick status, you don't just decide you are to be one as a campaign tactic.

Remembering September 11, 2001 - What Shall The Dead Tell Us The Living?

LEAP

By Brian Doyle

A couple leaped from the south tower, hand in hand. They reached for each other and their hands met and they jumped.

Jennifer Brickhouse saw them falling, hand in hand.

Many people jumped. Perhaps hundreds. No one knows. They struck the pavement with such force that there was a pink mist in the air.

The mayor reported the mist.

A kindergarten boy who saw people falling in flames told his teacher that the birds were on fire. She ran with him on her shoulders out of the ashes.

Tiffany Keeling saw fireballs falling that she later realized were people. Jennifer Griffin saw people falling and wept as she told the story. Niko Winstral saw people free-falling backwards with their hands out, like they were parachuting. Joe Duncan on his roof on Duane Street looked up and saw people jumping. Henry Weintraub saw people "leaping as they flew out." John Carson saw six people fall, "falling over themselves, falling, they were somersaulting." Steve Miller saw people jumping from a thousand feet in the air. Kirk Kjeldsen saw people flailing on the way down, people lining up and jumping, "too many people falling." Jane Tedder saw people leaping and the sight haunts her at night. Steve Tamas counted fourteen people jumping and then he stopped counting. Stuart DeHann saw one woman's dress billowing as she fell, and he saw a shirtless man falling end over end, and he too saw the couple leaping hand in hand.

Several pedestrians were killed by people falling from the sky. A fireman was killed by a body falling from the sky.

But he reached for her hand and she reached for his hand and they leaped out the window holding hands.

I try to whisper prayers for the sudden dead and the harrowed families of the dead and the screaming souls of the murderers but I keep coming back to his hand and her hand nestled in each other with such extraordinary ordinary succinct ancient naked stunning perfect simple ferocious love.

Their hands reaching and joining are the most powerful prayer I can imagine, the most eloquent, the most graceful. It is everything that we are capable of against horror and loss and death. It is what makes me believe that we are not craven fools and charlatans to believe in God, to believe that human beings have greatness and holiness within them like seeds that open only under great fires, to believe that some unimaginable essence of who we are persists past the dissolution of what we were, to believe against such evil hourly evidence that love is why we are here.

No one knows who they were: husband and wife, lovers, dear friends, colleagues, strangers thrown together at the window there at the lip of hell. Maybe they didn't even reach for each other consciously, maybe it was instinctive, a reflex, as they both decided at the same time to take two running steps and jump out the shattered window, but they did reach for each other, and they held on tight, and leaped, and fell endlessly into the smoking canyon, at two hundred miles an hour, falling so far and so fast that they would have blacked out before they hit the pavement near Liberty Street so hard that there was a pink mist in the air.

Jennifer Brickhouse saw them holding hands, and Stuart DeHann saw them holding hands, and I hold onto that.

See the Ballet's New Works

Cincinnati Ballet's season opener, New Works, is a great introduction to Ballet for the arts fan who wants to explore an art form new to them. Last night's opening was an extra special event with live music from world class musicians all from Cincinnati. Three of the dance pieces premiered with live accompaniment from the song writers, which included Over the Rhine, Peter Adams, and Jake Speed & the Freddies.

Heather Britt's piece set to the new music from Peter Adams (Bad Vein-esque) and Joy Jovet's brilliant interpretation of Jake Speed's music were my favorites of the evening, along with the stunning mix of music, photography, and dance in "Retrospect" by choreographers Missy Lay Zimmer & Andrew Hubbard set to the haunting and bountiful voice of Karin Bergquist (from Over the Rhine)

The remaining performances will be to recorded music, which is too bad, because the use of live music with the dances added so much to the performances. It was a collaboration that I believe is something that is critical to dance, and art form I will admit I've only experienced a few times.

The next performance is 8PM tonight at the Ballet's Studio (1555 Central Parkway, Cincinnati, OH 45214) and the show runs through next weekend, with final show on Sunday afternoon September 20th.

FOP Approves Deal

Via Multiple Twitter posts it is being reported that the Cincinnati FOP membership has approved the concessions plan, meaning no police will be laid off. A very good move by the FOP. The vote was 565-433.

Fire Him

Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice shame on the City. This is a repeat offender, his discipline is clear. If you have been fired from your job as a police officer once for excessive use of force and get your job back via poorly created arbitration rules, then you use excessive force again, I don't think there is any question that you should be fired, again. Let's just hope this time it sticks.

FOP Voting?

I believe it was reported that the unions, FOP and CODE, were meeting to vote yesterday and today on the city's plan to save jobs through furloughs. I have not seen any news on how the voting is going. Anyone know when the results will be announced?


UPDATE: Expect some results tomorrow.