Alexandra "Alex" K.'s Profile

A few weeks ago, I made reservations at Nicola's, one of my favorite restaurants in Cincinnati. The restaurant is owned by Nicola & Maureen Pietoso and operated by chef Christian Pietoso. It was Downtown Cincinnati's Restaurant week so the usual extremely expensive (but well worth it) prices were down to $35 for a three course meal.

Last October, my mother brought Justin and I here for my birthday dinner. Probably one of the best meals I've ever eaten. It was also very expensive! This restaurant makes you feel so special, the service is to die for! With three people eating, three servers brought out each plate, and synchronized the placement of the plates onto the table. They place the napkins on your lap for you and refill your sparkling water every two minutes. The servers are courteous and friendly.

The first thing to hit the table was their always impressive bread basket. You can see some that are cooked with a slice of zucchini or tomatoes, and a really long skinny one sticking out of the side. There was two of those, but I ate one. ;) The first time we came here, the waiter (who happened to be our waiter again this evening) joked about how the first course wouldn't come until we'd eaten all of the bread in the bread basket. He was very humorous!

My mother and I both had the same first course. A caprese salad with buffalo mozzarella, a delicious garlicky crostini, and locally grown cherry tomatoes and basil. The olive oil that was drizzled on top was SO green and so delicious. That's another thing I love about this place, they use a lot of local ingredients, not everything, but what they can.

For the second course, my mother had pork tenderloin wrapped in pancetta with potatoes, fava beans, and a white wine pork jus. She seemed to enjoy it!

My second course was the house made Maine lobster and ricotta ravioli with peas and pancetta. I'm not exactly sure what the sauce was, it was creamy and green...any ideas? Either way, it was incredibly delicious!

For the third course, my mother had the crème brulee with fresh berries. It was delicous! I had to work her down to let me have a small taste. She wasn't going to part with any morsel of this dish. The top of it crackled perfectly!

And I finished things off with their tiramisu with espresso crème anglaise and zabione gelato. This dish was absolute heaven. Every single bite was pure pleasure. The whole thing appeared as a piece of toast. The lady finger type bread was almost like pudding, and it surrounds the white creamy stuff in the center. The brown liquid it was sitting in is the espresso. The little swirls in the dish were a raspberry sauce, which added a great contrast to the dish!

My mother and I also both had a nice glass of Chianti with our meals, which pushed the price up a bit, but we had a good time! We were both very full and kinda tipsy in the end.

http://www.halfpastate...

I just learned that Ollie's does fried turkeys for Thanksgiving. No mess, no stress, just go pick one up!! I'm going to have to try this!

This state park is amazing! The island is inaccessible by cars as their are no roads!

We rented kayaks on the causeway that goes to Honeymoon Island and paddled out to the island. First thing we did was head south along the eastern edge of the island and into the mini harbor that leads to amazing mangrove tree kayak trails. They were beautiful and relaxing and a whole lot of fun. It took about 30 minutes to leisurely paddle to the harbor. Then we paddled back up to the north western side of the island and parked our boats on the beach and went swimming for a while. I agree that this is one of the best beaches I've ever been too. The sand was soft and clean and the water was somewhat calm that day so it was an enjoyable swim.

The whole trip was a lot of great exercise, sun, and fun. I would recommend getting the boats for four hours as your gonna need it!

I recently visited the museum in St. Petersburg while on vacation visiting some friends there.

First off, the museum admission is pretty pricey for the size of the museum. However, I enjoy supporting arts organizations and institutions so I understand the price helps them run the place and probably only covers 20% of their funding.

I was expecting much more art before my visit as a friend told me it took about 2 hours to get through the museum. I was surprised when I only spent about 40 minutes viewing the entire collection. I was also expecting more recognizable works of Dali (which are mostly located in the museum by his hometown or in more reputable museums)

My favorite work was by far the infamous Lincoln painting. Pretty neat! What was also interesting were reading the plaques next to each piece which taught me a lot about Dali and his life.

Not sure if this is a temporary exhibit, but in the rear of the museum were some pictures and media examples from somewhere in Italy. They had a photo montage of a war torn European city that was used as the setting of "The Adventures of Baron von Munchausen". I immediately recognized some of the settings and thought this was pretty neat. However, nothing helped me tie in how this exhibit related to Dali.

Another thing to note is that they just broke ground on a new Dali musuem somewhere else in St. Petersburg. The info in their gallery didn't say where it was, but was soliciting donations for the effort.

I just saw a performance this evening of "Amadeus" by Peter Shaffer, and it was phenomenal!

I knew a few actors in the cast and recognized some of their resident actors. They were all great, they embodied all of the characters excellently. I was on the edge of my seat almost the entire show.

I will be back for more!

The next show I'm excited about seeing is Tom Stoppards new version of Anton Chekov's "The Seagull".

Lavomatic is a unique establishment. This restaurant was created in what used to be an old laundry mat. I've heard the name pronounced several different ways - Lavomatic and "Lavomatique". It's a Jean Robert Restaurant of Pigall's and Greenup Cafe fame so using the French pronunciation is always fun.

I often have lunch o dinner meetings here for business when I'm at work as I work around the corner. The place is sunny with light colored wood floors. There are dining areas downstairs, upstairs, as well as a balcony that looks over the street on nice days.

The food is pretty good, but by no means phenomenal. Its priced about just right for the quality you get. 6 or 7 dollars for a burger and 8 or 9 dollars for an entree. I've had their blue cheese burger (delicious) and for lunch have had their grav lax smoked salmon sandwich (yum).

Now there is one small problem I've noticed. This restaurant is burning bridges left and right. I've always been served in a timely manner, but almost every time I've been there I've heard from other customers who sat down before my party, that they had still not been served, even when I was done eating. This wasn't even one occasion, this has happened several times.

I don't understand how I can get my food in 15 minutes and someone else has to wait an hour. Something is going screwy here. So beware! Keep on your server, and pester them about where your food is if it's taking too long. I've yet to figure out where the problem is, whether it's the kitchen or the servers.

This new sushi bar, restaurant, and late night lounge just opened in Over-the-Rhine on Main Street and seriously, you've got to check this place out!

First of all, the place is just gorgeous. There is a DJ booth and a fountain to your right when walk in , an open sushi bar with all the ingredients displayed to your left, and tall two floor ceilings above you. There are tables throughout the first floor, on many levels, some levels contain couches that look over the room. It really screams modern decor.

The owner saw that it was our first time there and gave us the grand tour of the building. The building had five floors total, and he's finished three of them including a balcony out back. They are all decorated with a different style. The second floor has a huge section of the floor cut out of it (where the tall ceilings are downtairs) and has it's own bar and DJ booth. There is an old elevator and a new elevator. Inside the old elevator on the second floor is a little couch. The elevator doors even still close! The third floor is more of a private party rental area, it has a pool table and cute little couches. All of this furniture and couches he makes himself up on the 4th and 5th floors where he will eventually make more party space.

Ok, now onto the food. Seriously people, I can honestly say this is the best sushi I have ever had. And I can say that after living in San Francisco, Chicago, and Boston. I ordered a philadelphia roll which is now my second favorite sushi combination (salmon, avocado, and cream cheese) and then for the first time had tempura fried sushi. They make the sushi with some posh ingredients, and then tempura fry the whole roll! It was heaven!!! You don't need any soy sauce or wasabi it's so flavorful!

Now the best part of my visit was that it was happy hour. I'm pretty sure it's Tuesdays-Fridays from 5-7pm, all sushi is half off, there are drink specials, and half off certain appetizers. This happy hour made it SO affordable. After ordering 5 rolls between my boyfriend and myself and two drinks, the whole meal was only about $30 after tip!!!

I call that affordable, hip, and yummy food!

The other good thing about this place is that everyone dining in the restaurant is so diverse. There were all sorts of shapes, sizes, and colors in the restaurant. I like seeing this in Over-the-Rhine more than anywhere else.

Kismet has two locations, one in Cincinnati, and one here in Yellow Springs. They are owned by the same people that run the Pangea right down the street from this location.

The store has really cute dresses, tanktops, skirts, and lingerie for women. It's all really hip, and cute. Some of it is hippy style but other styles are modern.

Watch out as some things can be kind of cheaply made, but most of the stuff is good quality. They also have shoes that are hip and unique. Some are expensive but the flats might run you around $12 or so.

I've always had a good time here at Club Masque. Granted my visits were well before the smoking ban in Ohio was enacted so when I was there I was always bothered by the smoking all around me. Now I'm sure it's much more pleasant to attend.

As Brooke mentioned, the drag queen/king shows are always a super blast and really entertaining.

They sometimes have deals for students as well. However, if you are under 21 you'll pay more to get in.

It's nice to find a GLBT friendly bar in a place like Dayton. It was always a destination for my friends and I to get away from Antioch College's campus.

I adore this park in Sharonville. My parents used to bring me here growing up and I always had fun.

Some of the highlights. There are many gorgeous trails to walk on and they go pretty deep into the woods. I saw many snakes, frogs, and other creatures when I was little and always had a ball trying to chase them. My other favorite activity was the paddle boats. It was so fun to go out on the water and paddle around! They have a really big lake and you can go under several bridges. There are lots of water birds to gander at.

The nice thing for kids is the giant playground. I remember this playground more vividly than others for some reason. It's really newly constructed and is safe for kids. They have that rubbery stuff on the ground so that falling doesn't hurt. The monkey bars are cool and twist and turn so it's a real work out! There is also a little stream of water that kids love to play in.

There is a snack bar place right next to the playground and bathrooms as well so you never have to go to far!

During the holiday season, the entire park is covered in lights. People drive through during that time of year just to look at all the stuff. It really is a beautiful place.