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!
I know this is a long story but from my goof with the memory card you don’t have to look at many photos!
Jeff Ruby's
http://www.jeffruby.com/cincinnati/menuJean Robert's Table
http://jrtable.com/menus/Waiting for our table
The potatoes
My steak
With the Foie Gras
Our Thursday supper at home
Smokin Don
