Best of Taste Award Winners

2008 “Best of Taste” Awards

Appetizer
Best of Taste: Burbank’s Real Barbeque - Southern Smoked Chicken Tenders
Award of Excellence: Buffalo Southwest Express – Wings & Egg Rolls
Award of Merit: Bangkok Bistro – Crab Rangoon

Soup & Salad
Best of Taste: Indigo Casual Gourmet Café – Black & Blue Tuna Salad
Award of Excellence: Carrabba’s Italian Grill – Mama Mandola Sicilian Chicken Soup
Award of Merit: Market Street Grille – Potato Soup

Entrée
Best of Taste: Carrabba’s Italian Grill– Chicken Bryan
Award of Excellence: Taz Restaurant – Chicken Kabob Sandwich
Award of Merit: Pit to Plate BBQ – Hickory Smoked Pulled Pork

Seafood Entrée
Best of Taste: Shanghai Mama’s – Seafood Shanghai Noodles
Award of Excellence: Carrabba’s Italian Grill – Grilled Salmon
Award of Merit: La Petite France – Crabmeat Crepe

Vegetarian Entrée
Best of Taste: Arloi Dee – Vegetable Pad Thai
Award of Excellence: Balboa’s Philly Steaks & Pizza – Slice of Cheese Pizza
Award of Merit: Bella Luna – Grande Ravioli

Dessert
Best of Taste: Buca di Beppo – Tiramisu
Award of Excellence: Bella Luna – Dark Chocolate Bread Pudding
Award of Merit: La Petite France – Chocolate Berries & Fruit Crepe

Best Damn Dish: Chicken Bryan

I'm sorry. I really am, but non-Cincinnati based restaurants shouldn't be able to win "Best Damn Dish" at The Taste of Cincinnati. I know, I know, they say it's "Best of Taste"-- but I'd prefer La Rosa's or Skyline to win over Carrabba's. I know that logistically, it would be hard for a restaurant to do taste if it is fairly small (though Bella Luna and La Petite France seem to do well), but I'm thinking Jeff Ruby's could do a booth (potatoes Anna, anyone?), and Jean-Robert Group does The Flower Show every year. I don't mind if national chains are present, but they shouldn't be able to win awards.

The Dannimal

I'm a Democrat (although I'll admit, I've been having second thoughts about that lately) and a defense attorney. I was pleased when Marc Dann won the election for Attorney General. (I had been particularly offended by the Republicans' repeated suggestions that Dann was unsuited for public office because he had represented defendants in criminal cases).

I'm now horrified by what Dann has done in the Office of the Attorney General. Everyone around him agrees that it's time for him to go. (Ironic, isn't it, that Dann's campaign blog was called "Coins for Change: Returning Trust to Ohio"?) Whether Dann should resign seems beyond debate. Instead, I'm more interested in the answers to two other questions:

1. Why won't Dann go? Could the reason be financial? I don't know what Dann's personal or family wealth is. As an attorney, he'd been in practice at a relatively small Youngstown law firm. A comfortable living, no doubt, but not Stan Chesley dollars by any means. Could Dann be worried about what he'll do to earn a living if he resigns?

2. What impact does this have on Ted Strickland's chances of becoming the Democrats' candidate for Vice-President? There's been lots of discussion that HRC might ask him to join her on the ticket if she won (though we now know she's lost). Today, some of the Sunday morning talking heads suggested that Obama could also tap him as his running-mate, on the theory that Obama should choose a Clinton-supporter as a means of extending an olive branch to those who voted for her during the primary season. Is there fear that Strickland could be tied to Dann? And will Dann hurt Ohio Democrats in down-ticket races? Remember, we won on a wave of anti-Republican-corruption sentiment. Now the Republicans can remind voters of Philanderer General Dann's obstinate refusal to leave his office.

How Does This Happen?

The Reds batted out of order in the 9th inning this afternoon in the third game of their series against the Mets. It didn't make a big difference in the game; David Ross hit when Corey Patterson should have, and lined out. Patterson was charged with the out rather than Ross (it's scored as a put-out by the catcher). And then Ross, who should have batted immediately after Patterson, batted again, this time hitting a single. Still, though, there's a lineup card in the dugout (that Dusty says was correct). Not to mention the big scoreboard in center field, which generally lists the first three batters due up in an inning. Once all the dust settled, the Reds lost the last game they'll ever play at Shea Stadium.

As long as I'm polluting Griff's blog with sports news that has nothing to do with Miami (OH)*, congratulations to the Cincinnati Cyclones, who yesterday scored four goals in the third period to force overtime against the South Carolina Stingrays and then scored again, thus taking a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven conference finals. If the Cyclones win the series, they will face the winner of the Las Vegas Wranglers-Utah Grizzlies series for the league championship and the Kelly Cup. If the Stingrays manage to rally, the next contest in Cincinnati would be Game 6 on Monday, May 19.

* Yes, I know the parenthetical strikes anger and resentment in the hearts of Miami (OH) fans everywhere. Muhahaha.

(Re)Introducing: Number 23

For three years in the 1990's, I lived in Chicago. It was the first city I'd lived in with an NBA franchise. Like most of my fellow students, I quickly adopted the Bulls as "my" team. It wasn't hard: the Bulls of that decade were perhaps the most dominant team of all time. Michael Jordan was amazing. I remember marveling at him. We even cheered for him after his brief dalliance with baseball. Particularly memorable was the night, back from his "retirement," when he lit up the Knicks for 55 points at MSG.

A few years later, though, his glory days as a player clearly over, he started wearing a Washington uniform (I don't recall if they were the Bullets or the Wizards then). He was still MJ. You couldn't root against him. But it was tough to see him, playing in games that his team would certainly lose. He remained a professional. He stayed committed to winning. You just knew he wasn't going to get there. He could have had lots of other roles in the game at which he'd excel: as a coach, a general manager, even, with his millions, an owner. But he shouldn't have been out on the floor dunking anymore.

Today, I feel the same way about Hillary Clinton. I came of political age when the Clintons were in their glory years. I cheered when she was elected to the US Senate. I think she'll ultimately be one of the most brilliant Senate majority leaders in history.

But now she's leading a team that can't win. She still Hillary Clinton. I can't root against her or her husband even as I root for Obama). But as I watch her, I wonder why she doesn't realize her role in the game has changed. She's no longer destined to reside in the White House. It's time to play out the rest of her career in the Senate. But the presidential game has passed her by.

Hillary: you're starting to resemble the heavyweight boxer who kept fighting for too long. Time to pass the torch. But Barack: you'd better be more ready to carry that torch than you've appeared these past few weeks.

Eric Flack vs. Reality

Brian beat me to the punch with respect to Channel 5's hit-piece on downtown progress earlier this week. I really wanted to pull the "news story" apart piece-by-piece, but just don't have the time (and besides, I think its unfairness is manifest). I thought I'd point out my favorite part, though.

At one point, Flack suggests that few people stay downtown after attending a Reds game. To support this, he approaches a twenty-something-looking couple with a baby (who appeared to be six to nine months-old at most), coming out of GABP. Flack reports the time to be about 10:00. The couple says they're headed home. For Flack, that's good enough, quod erat demonstrandum.

What? At 10:00 at night, a couple with a small baby isn't going to stay downtown? They're not going to the Cadillac Ranch to set the little tyke on the bull for a ride? If downtown isn't the place for six-month-olds to hang out until the wee hours of the morning, then there's no hope at all for the future of the Queen City. (I've never really understood parents that take children that young to night games, anyhow, but that's for another post.)

Finally, why didn't Flack's piece show pictures of places where people are? On a temperate evening, for instance, on the patio of the Cadillac Ranch? Lined up to get into Bang on Fourth Street (in fairness, I think one of his shots showed the valet line at the end of the night)? On Fountain Square?

WLWT is apparently taking its "fair and balanced" cues from Fox News.

UPDATE: Just to be clear, this post discusses the Flack-attack that was on the 11:00 news. I hadn't yet seen the piece archived on WLWT's website (which apparently aired somewhere in the 5:00-6:30 local news marathon). While the linked piece is a little more balanced than what aired at 11:00, it's still laughable that Flack seems astonished that there's not much police presence at 2:00 am in a stretch of downtown that a) isn't residential and b) doesn't have any businesses that are open in the evening (that section, in fact, is mostly law offices, with a few eateries that cater to the courthouse crowd, notably absent at three in the morning).

Second Sunday On Main - Mothers Day

Tomorrow this year's first installment of Second Sundays on Main, a charming event that brings together a great neighborhood. It includes great music as well, come out and hear the likes of: Tupelo Honey, Tracy Walker, Seedy Seeds and Messerly & Ewing. It starts at Noon and runs until 5PM. Since it is also mother's day, bring her out to a cute area with nice shops. The first 200 moms get free flowers. Check out www.secondsundayonmain.org for more.

Silence Is Golden

Long time readers have come to expect certain things from me. One of them is bashing Peter Bronson, something that is akin to playing chess with a corpse. The other thing I've got a reputation for is defending Cincinnati against city-haters, mostly Suburbanites scared of their own shadow, who haven't set foot in the city, outside of a Reds or Bengals game, in 20 years.

This week I've been silent while Sweeps weeks hype is put on television and attitudes of suburban city-haters is blasted on tri-state airwaves, pushing forward the most ignorant views on something I've heard in a long time.

Joy rains in Cincinnati, however, because the positive thinkers prevailed! 5chw4r7z had a great post showing a nice promotion video for the city that I think would be totally educational to everyone living in Warren County, not to mention most of the staff at WLW and WLWT.

The 'Nati Life hit back the hardest with this post.

Mayor Mallory found the simple underlying fact about the average suburbanite who is afraid of Downtown, they haven't been her in a long, long time.

Great blogging from

Runners and Lawyers and Bearcats, Oh My!!!

Congratulations to two groups this weekend:

• First, to anyone who completed the Flying Pig Marathon or any of its associated races this weekend. You should truly be proud of yourselves. I considered participating in the Flying Pig several years ago, but then realized it had nothing to do with eating sausage while traveling by airplane, so I withdrew. Maybe next year. Those who ran the full marathon actually ran an extra quarter-mile this year. More than 22,000 athletes participated in the various weekend races. There's rumors that next year, Channel Five might even include showing the race as part of its three-hour "coverage" of the marathon.
• Second, to those who completed a different kind of marathon: Ohio's newest lawyers. On Friday, the Ohio Supreme Court released the names of 283 individuals who passed the February 2008 bar exam. Particular kudos to my alma mater, the University of Cincinnati College of Law, as all six of its graduates taking the bar exam for the first time in February passed the three-day-long examination. The new lawyers will be sworn in on May 12th in Columbus (although any new attorney can choose to skip the trip and ask a local judge to swear him or her in). For those who don't know, the bar exam is administered twice annually, in July and February. The February exam is by far the smaller (with respect to number of applicants) of the two, but the passage rate for first-time takers is the same for the two exams (so February test-takers have no easier a row to hoe than their more traditional July counterparts!). Welcome to the bar, guys! As a reward, please promptly submit your biannual registration fee to the Supreme Court.

Bizarro World

Clearly, I'm getting old. Not just older, but old. Because today, I find myself at least somewhat sympathetic to Peter Bronson's Sunday column, and completely at odds with Jim Borgman. The lions have laid down with the lambs at last.

Go read Bronson's column for yourself. I'll not put myself at the center of a flamewar by again expressing my ambivalence about streetcars. But I'm bothered by the argument that Borgman is repeating today: that increased American ethanol production and consumption is somehow responsible for global famine.

The basic argument goes like this: around the world, there are places where people don't have enough to eat. Corn is a global staple. Americans have more food than they can eat (despite our growing waistlines). But instead of shipping our corn to Third World and developing nations, we instead convert it to ethanol. It's really just a slightly more sophisticated form of reasoning than your mom used to employ when you were a kid and you didn't eat all your vegetables; she'd tell you that you should, since there were children in [fill-in-the-blank] starving.

As far as I can tell, the argument is flawed on many levels. First, so far as I know, we're not importing corn for the purpose of making ethanol. If we're only using American-grown corn, it's not clear that we're causing shortages in the world-wide market.

Next, if the corn weren't being used for ethanol, why are ethanol opponents sure it would be produced at all? Our agricultural policy (as opposed to our manufacturing policies) has always been protectionist in the extreme. Remember, in the 1980's, we were paying farmers not to grow certain crops at all so as to keep prices artificially high. It's one thing to have to import most of our consumer goods; it'd be another thing entirely if we were dependent on foreign countries for our food supply, and our government won't ever allow that.

Finally, we saw in the late 80's and early 90's that famine was not always so much a problem of supply as it was distribution. A combination of civil wars, under-developed infrastructures, and government corruption always seemed to contribute significantly to famine in Third World and developing nations. I suspect the same is true today.

I think well-meaning people (like Borgman) are falling prey to arguments being crafted by those with an agenda of their own (at least one website I found perpetuating the "ethanol famine" vitriol seems to be funded by a group advocating hydrogen-based engines). So let's be careful when we blame ethanol for world-wide hunger.

Amazing Gifts!

The Late Patricia Corbett has bequethed 30 million dollars to several arts organizations around town, including CCM, the CSO, and Music Hall. This bodes well for these organizations and provides much needed funds for new programs and improvements.

Tres De Mayo For Obama

The NKY Obama backers are holding a fundraiser on Saturday May 3rd at the The Crazy Fox Saloon in Newport from 8PM to close.

CinWeekly Lineup For Taste

CinWeekly is back again sponsoring a music stage at the Taste of Cincinnati. Here is the line-up. Highlights include the Lions Rampant, Bad Veins, The Seedy Seeds, and The Chocolate Horse.

Maupin Service: Open Thread

I did not attend the Maupin memorial service today. (I've been in the office most of the day.) I drove by just before it started; apparently, the staging area for the Patriot Riders was Broadway just north of the ballpark, and Fifth between Broadway and the highway. It was really something to see all those motorcycles in one place.

The Enquirer has posted Peter Bronson's account of the ceremony. Ignore a couple of snide remarks about "places in America," and it's a really nice column.

If anyone was at GABP this afternoon and would like to share his or her thoughts, feel free to do so here.

Praise God, Pass The . . . Hotdogs?

First, let me be clear: I have nothing but the greatest respect for Keith and Carolyn Maupin. Losing any family member--particularly a child--to a sudden death is devastating. Doing so under the circumstances they've experienced--four years of uncertainty and in the public eye--would be unbearable for most. That they've channeled their grief into efforts to support our troops overseas is admirable. Beyond admirable, really, but I'm not sure I can come up with a better word.

And while I've thought our local media and leaders have been a little over-the-top in their coverage and predictions for how many would attend the memorial service (was there really much chance so many would attend an "overflow" area would be needed?), I thought it was a nice gesture by all involved (most notably, the Maupins, who could have very understandably demanded that their privacy at this difficult time be respected) to have the service at Great American Ballpark.

Accommodating the service came, I'm sure, at no small effort for the Reds organization. A stage had to be built. Advertisements along the walls were covered with bunting. I've heard Reds officials quoted over and over again as saying that on Sunday, GABP should be "church."

So I was bemused to find this line in the Enquirer's article covering the event:

The concession stands are open, and are selling hot dogs and soft drinks.

I'm a pastor's son, so I've been to church lots of times, for lots of different occasions (both happy and sad), in lots of places. And I don't remember ever seeing a hot dog stand at church. But I guess Bob Castellini and/or Sports Service had to find a way to make a few bucks during a weekend the Reds are out of town.

Often, I know, ballparks let volunteer groups work the concessions for a portion of the profits. Maybe that was the case today; I certainly hope so. But I haven't seen anything about that anywhere. And I'm wiling to say it: neither the Reds nor Sports Service should touch a dime of the proceeds from the sales. (You read correctly--proceeds, not profits.) Perhaps the most appropriate place for the funds to go would be the Yellow Ribbon Support Center.

If the Reds and Sports Service had already planned to donate all monies collected, either to the Maupins' organization or a similarly worthy charity, I apologize and I'll immediately post an update. If not, though, they should be ashamed.

Something's Wrong Here

I have no problem with people debating the Street in a public forum. John Schneider is going to wipe the floor up with Chris Monzel. The only thing saving Chris is the fact that the Blue Chip Young Republicans are sponsoring the event and I am going to guess a large portion of that group is against Streetcars.

Here's what is wrong: This event about Streetcars in the City of Cincinnati is taking place in the City of Norwood. I understand how many non-city residents are concerned about this issue, but I am puzzled as to why and why there is so much opposition outside the City? Also, why is it so loud outside the City? Reading the comments on the Enquirer's site it was a surprise to realize that some many people from places like Harrison, Loveland, and Florence are so concerned about what happens in Cincinnati. I think they could show their concern a little more by coming down to the city for dinner once in a while.

Streetcar Plan Passes

Great news for Cincinnati came yesterday with the vote to support Streetcars. We have a long way to go before I start hearing the cars go by my OTR Condo, but we are closer to have a date when that will happen.

Local Bloggers shared the news:
5schw4r7z had the celebration.
Urban Cincy has analysis.

Glass Bleg

I have to get my windshield replaced, and it's unlikely my insurance will cover it (long story). Any suggestions on who's good/reliable/reasonably priced?

Please Make Sure Your Trash Is Pre-Approved

I couldn't help but laugh at the following line from this article in the Enquirer:

Monzel wants a $100 fine for anyone caught by police putting inappropriate garbage in the cans.

I'm glad the Republican Party is working so hard to protect us from the evils of "big government." But wait: there's more:

He also wants a quarterly report from public services to council's neighborhoods committee, including the number of all can calls and how quickly the complaints were resolved.

Really? A big, new government program to keep the citizenry safe from "inappropriate garbage"? And a bureaucracy devoted to tracking complaints about trash cans?

It's heartening to see the GOP stepping forward to take on such a critical issue. In the post-9/11 world, we must be safe from inappropriate garbage!

How Loud Is Too Loud?

An interesting article in Sunday's NY Times explains that because of a new European Union worker protection law governing the amount of noise to which workers can lawfully be exposed without hearing protection, European orchestras have had to alter the way they rehearse and perform.


Our own Cincinnati Symphony is just returning from a twelve-concert European tour. I wonder if the law impacted their performances and rehearsals (or if the Europeans aren't all that concerned with the hearing loss of an American-based group of musicians).

I also wonder how Paavo managed to schedule 12 concerts without a single performance of anything by Mahler....

Northside Tavern Expanding

CinWeekly's Soundcheck is reporting that that Northside Tavern is expanding with the addition a new room, doubling the size of the bar. I can't picture where it is and what the new room will look like, but the story indicates the improvements should be complete by late May or early June, so I won't have to wait long to find out. Will there be a second bar as well? Most important to the expansion is that you should be able to see the band playing. Let's also hope they get a new sound system. I love the Tavern, but for rock bands, the sound usually sucks.