Aug 22 2014
We have been married 48 years on Aug. 20th. My
wife asked if I was going to take her out to eat. I said why don’t we just go
somewhere and stay a couple of nights and eat out somewhere good. We had not
had a vacation in over 3 years. My wife had both knees replaced about a year
ago and thought she was up to the trip. We decided to go to Cincinnati Ohio and
get a good steak somewhere. Our son and wife had lived there for a while and
said if you want a good steak go to Jeff Ruby’s. We decided it looked like a
great place even though it was pretty pricey.
My wife booked us in at the Garfield Suites Hotel for the 19th
and the 20th. It is an older hotel and one of the cheapest. It
turned out great we had a suite with a living, dining area, small kitchenette
and bedroom and a small patio overlooking the city from the 12th
floor. They also had free shuttle service to most of the good restaurants in
town.
We left on the 19th for the two hour drive and
stopped at a mall outlet for the wife to do a little shopping and ate lunch
there. We arrived at the hotel before rush hour and got settled in. I had taken
my small pocket camera with me and went on the patio and shot some pics of the
city; after the 5th shot it said memory card full. I had checked it
before we left it was empty and said 16 so 16 gig was plenty. I checked again
and here it was just 16 megabytes and that was all it would hold.
For the night’s dinner I picked out a place called Toby
Keith’s; it said live music and good home style food. Toby is a country singer
and I like country music, the bar was 85 foot long and shaped like a guitar.
Well it was not so great; the live music was just Friday and Saturday nights.
The food was good but just mediocre and we were the only diners there! Usually
it is my wife who creates the memorable moments but here the first night I had
two!
Wednesday we ate breakfast in the hotel restaurant which was
good. We then went for a walk and after 4 blocks we were both wore out. We did
see the restaurant we had picked out for our lunch, Jean Robert’s Table just a
half block from the hotel. It is a French bistro style place.
We walked over for lunch at 1:30 and planned to eat light
since we would have a big dinner. It looked neat with a nice bar, casual dining
and an area for a little more formal. The lunch menu had several items that
included duck or confit of duck. We shared an heirloom tomato salad which I
wish I could recreate. It had dark red, red and yellow tomatoes a light
seasoned dressing and basil. For our
entrée my wife had a ruby trout BLT and a side salad; I had the same but with
French fries.
The sandwich was served on a hard crust roll; the trout was
cold and tasted great. I would never thought of including fish on a BLT but it
works. I had a horseradish sauce on mine. The French fries were just right,
thin, crispy and not greasy. I found that Jean Robert is a pretty famous chef
and wished I was closer to try some more of his creations.
We had reservations at Jeff Ruby’s Steak house for 7:30 pm.
We arrived early and had a 15 min. wait for our table; the place was packed. I
was given an envelope to open and it was a gift card from our son and wife. We
were sitting in barber chairs waiting and in pops our son! We sure was not
expecting him, we knew he was flying out from there that evening for a week-end
golf outing at Myrtle Beach. He just stopped to say hello and surprise us.
We were finally shown to our table. The place is decorated
in 1930’s style, giant crystal chandeliers hanging; and a beautiful bar. By the
time we got seated all who waited on us knew it was our 48th
anniversary. We wanted to try one of their appetizers or soups but knew we
couldn’t eat that much. We both ordered a Caesar salad and their barrel cut 12
oz. filet mignon. My wife had garlic butter and I had Foie Gras for a topping.
We had sides to share, potatoes anna and asparagus. The waiter said the salad
is large enough I can split it if you want so we did.
There was some good fresh bread served with a patty of herb
compound butter and plain butter done up in a pretty square. My wife just had
ice water and I had one of the local draft beers, a nut brown. The steak was
one of the best I have ever had fork tender and juicy done just right for me,
med. rare plus. It was my first time ever having Foie Gras and I loved it. The
toppings were served in a separate dish but after tasting mine it went on top
of the steak.
I managed to eat all of my steak and the wife ate all but
two bites of hers. After we were done our waiter brought out a piece of cheese
cake with raspberries and topped with a little whipped cream on a plate with
two forks; he said my treat for your anniversary. The waiter ask if we wanted
the potatoes and asparagus to take, my wife said she would like them but I
didn’t want to mess with them; he listened to my wife and brought them back in
a nice tote bag.
Our night at Jeff Ruby’s was the most enjoyable dining out I
can remember and the steak was the best! If you are in Cincinnati and want a
great steak I highly recommend it. It is pricey; the steaks run from 12 oz. to
30 oz. at a price of $44 to $80. We don’t do this very often and it was nice
for a special occasion. There are two Jeff Ruby’s; the Steak House and the
Pricinct. There will be a third one soon on the waterfront of the Ohio River.
I would also recommend Jean Robert’s Table; a French bistro
and very good food. Our lunch was $40.
If you want BBQ the Montgomery Inn is recommended. Our son
told us to try Eli’s BBQ and our waiter at Jeff Ruby’s said it was a fun place
to eat with good BBQ. We would have had to drive there so we didn’t go and I
can fix good BBQ at home.
After eating breakfast Thursday we headed home and it rained
about all the way. I didn’t want to fuss with supper; my wife said if you have
some good meat in the freezer we can have it with the potatoes anna and the
asparagus. I thawed out some of my Serbian stuffed pork loin and we had that
along with some toasted garlic ciabatta buns. It only took me about 20 minutes
to whip up our supper. I was glad the waiter listened to my wife and sent the
leftovers home with us!
Waiting for our table
Potatoes anna
My steak
With Foie Gras
Our supper at home Thursday
