Coming in January: The Good Dog! And a Streetpops Update

After the first of the year Lunch on Main will relaunch with a new name and a new concept – gourmet hot dogs. Lunch on Main chef/owner Adam Easterling tried out a few last summer (which I wrote about here) and told me he thinks the new incarnation will do more to set his restaurant apart. After two years at 633 Main Street, I’m guessing Adam is also ready to unleash more culinary creativity – which was deliciously evidenced by those trial-run dogs. Here’s my personal favorite: the Bob Cobb, with a splendidly fresh Cobb salad and homemade bleu cheese dressing atop a kicky 100% beef dog from local favorite Avril-Bleh.

The Good Dog promises more than a dozen gourmet dogs – including vegan dogs –
along with soups, sides, and salads, at an affordable price point. (Lunch on Main’s hefty hot dogs were an across-the-board $5.) I’m looking forward to tasting what The Good Dog comes up with.

Meanwhile, I ran into Sara Bornick of Streetpops (who launched her business last summer in Lunch on Main’s kitchen) at Cincinnati Magazine’s Best of the City party (thanks, Toya and Randy, for letting me ride shotgun). Streetpops, which won a Best of the City award, has moved into the Over-the-Rhine space formerly occupied by much-missed Fork Heart Knife, which Sara plans to operate as a retail space/restaurant, not just a commissary. She and her team have been making changes to the space, and she is looking to offer soups and breads from it later this winter.

As I scramble to finish my holiday preparations and hit the road to spend Christmas with my family, best wishes to all the talented cooks, entrepreneurs, bloggers, and friends of all ilks I have had the pleasure to meet – or get to know better – this year. It has been an amazing year of good blogging karma, and my eggy heart is filled with gratitude for your friendship and inspiration!

Cheers!
xoxo, eggy

Lunch on Main: Around the World in 80 Dogs?

The Kraken, Lunch on Main's Mediterranean-inspired hot dog with red pepper hummus,
tzatziki, chunky feta, and sliced pepperoncini

I don’t know how sixth graders these days celebrate their birthdays. But in my girlhood, it was customary to invite all the girls in your class (our mothers didn’t want anyone to feel left out). One classmate’s birthday party stands out in memory. Not just because it was a perfect summer afternoon for splashing in the pool and having a backyard cookout, but because it was where I had my first Avril’s hot dog. Turns out my classmate was related to the Avril family that founded the Court Street butcher shop and sausage-maker in 1894, now Avril-Bleh’s. Her mother also provided “ordinary” hot dogs, in case the Avril dogs proved too spicy for our tender 12-year-old palates. I’ve come to love Avril’s hot dogs, and pretty much all the other wursts they make themselves.

Restaurateur Adam Easterling must share my affection, because he uses Avril’s 1/4-pound dogs exclusively in his expanded hot dog menu ($5 each) at Lunch on Main. And then takes them a step – or three – further. LOM offered a series of hot dog specials over the summer and is now bringing them back, a couple at a time, during the fall and possibly into winter. The most popular will remain on the menu.

The Voodoo Child, topped with Lunch on Main’s own jerk sauce, black beans and rice, red bell pepper strips, and sauteed onion with papaya

I hear the Caribbean-inspired Voodoo Child will be one that sticks around. It’s tasty, and packs plenty of heat!

The Bob Cobb, topped with fresh tomato, greens, hard-boiled egg,

bacon, and Lunch on Main's homemade bleu cheese dressing

If you’d like something cooler to complement the kick of an Avril’s dog, you can’t beat the Bobb Cobb – one of my favorites – and it’s on the menu this week! I would never have thought to put a Cobb salad with a hot dog, but this combination works.

The Conquistador, with LOM's homemade black bean and corn salsa, lettuce, 

sour cream, shredded cheese and tortilla strips

Lunch on Main’s hot dogs, like all their sandwiches, are served on breads from one of Cincy’s best bread bakers, Shadeau Breads. And you can always count on freshly sourced veg to perk up your LOM ’wich.

This place has become one of my downtown noon-meal mainstays since it opened almost two years ago. The sandwiches are hefty and satisfying at an across-the-board $6.50, and a thoughtful combination of fresh ingredients and housemade condiments goes into each.

The Main

Like the red onion marmalade and roasted fennel that accompany pastrami and Swiss on Shadeau multi-grain bread in The Main.

The Red Meat

Or the horseradish sauce and sprouts that go with the roast beef and smoked gouda on a Shadeau baguette in The Red Meat.

The Bleu Bison

Or The Bleu Bison (it’s made with chicken, not buffalo meat), a grown-up chicken salad sandwich with all the components of traditional buffalo wings, like celery and LOM’s creamy homemade blue cheese dressing, plus heat that stops just short of making you wish for a cold beer to wash down some hot wings when it’s only lunchtime.

I'm a pretty darn loyal customer when I find a lunch place I like, but I also appreciate it when my favorite vendors keep things interesting by changing up my options. Lunch on Main has started offering wrap specials, like the turkey-asiago wrap, pictured here with their signature tomato-basil soup.

Turkey and asiago in a tomato-basil wrap, with 

baby spinach, carrot, cucumber, and ginger-sesame mayo

They make a few wraps fresh each day, and when they're gone, they're gone. My turkey-asiago wrap was served cold, appropriate for the raw veg inside, and the tomato-basil flatbread it was encased in was fresh too. I'm looking forward to trying LOM's latest, a roast beef and cheddar wrap, with lettuce and horseradish sauce.

Lunch on Main always has a soup or two to round out your meal. In addition to their tomato-basil, which is almost always available, they're currently serving up clam chowder. And I'm hoping that if I ask really, really nicely, they'll bring back this spectacular squash and apple soup I had last autumn.

Lunch on Main Squash and Apple Soup, with (Legends of the) Fall Turkey sandwich

From time to time you'll also find interesting mac 'n' cheeses on the menu (from buffalo chix, to turkey + bacon, to Philly cheesesteak versions), as well as salads and Buckeye brownies and Streetpops. LOM was the kitchen home to newcomer Streetpops before Streetpops decided to move into Fork Heart Knife's old location, and continues to offer these yummy frozen pops.

Lunch on Main's name is pretty straightforward: They serve lunch only, and they're located on Main Street (633 Main Street, to be exact, which is on the west side of the street between 6th and 7th - in the same block as Izzy's, but on the opposite side of the street and a tad farther north).

There's a lot of interesting food going on inside LOM's unimposing storefront, however. They may not have 80 different hot dogs on the menu yet, but I admire them for keeping things fresh enough to manage their turnover, and creative enough to be interesting. Check out what Adam and his friendly crew have to offer, and where they'll take things next.

Summer in the City! StreetPops, Pho Lang Thang + Roeblingfest

Blueberry Lemon Thyme, Chocolate Chili Pepper, Grapefruit Tarragon. As soon as I heard about fruit + herb combinations like these, I knew had to try the "grown-up" popsicles from Streetpops.

Lucky for me, one of my favorite downtown lunch joints, Lunch on Main, carries Streetpops, and my first taste was a delightfully puckery keylime-sicle. While it would be a perfect on a hot, humid Cincy summer day, it perked up my spirits - and taste buds - after one of our all-too-frequent recent mid-day storms. I saved the strawberry-mint Streetpop pictured at the top of this post for an afternoon snack yesterday, and was glad I did. This not-too-sweet treat made from fresh fruit was something to look forward to. By the time I pulled it out of the office freezer at 4:00, I was thinking "strawberry." But the first lick made me sit up straight and take my mind off work. What made it different? Oh, yeah, that fresh mint.

Today I had a chance to pick up more Streetpops and meet Sara Bornick, who is bringing her Streetpop cart to Fountain Square for Acoustic Thursdays at lunchtime.

Streetpops will be featuring even more intriguing flavors this weekend when they team up with Pho Lang Thang at Roeblingfest, including Vietnamese Coffee, Cucumber-Jalapeno, and other combos featuring lemon grass, coconut, and mango.

Lunch on Main owner Adam Easterling and his friendly crew were excited the first time I asked to buy a Streetpop from them, and now I know more about the story behind their familiarity and enthusiasm for Streetpops. Sara told me she rents kitchen space from LOM. Love to see locals supporting locals! Park + Vine will also be carrying Streetpops (vegan). Otherwise, you can catch Streetpops at Findlay Market, Second Sunday on Main, and other festivals and events around town.

More about Roeblingfest, in Covington, KY, filled with music, food, history, and fun, and celebrating the Roebling Bridge, our little prototype of the Brooklyn Bridge, here, here, and here. Happy weekend!

Springapalooza - Fishapalooza

Truth be told, I don't approach Lent as a season of asceticism or deprivation. In my corner of the world, Lent coincides with the wobbly and unpredictable emergence into springtime. An often three-steps-forward, one-step-back dance of hope, stoicism, and the practicality of various outerwear options. Is today the day I can put away my winter coat for good? Is the morning chilly enough I should opt for that wrinkle-free rain jacket I can stuff into my bag by the end of the day when temps are in the upper 60s? Do I dress for the predicted outdoor weather, or the HVAC realities of my downtown office building, which are frequently at odds with each other?

Spring celebrations come in many forms here in the Queen City. It snowed Wednesday on “Fountain Day,” when the Tyler-Davidson Fountain was turned back on for the season. I celebrated by getting a warming grilled cheese and tomato soup from Tom + Chee, who are back on the Square for the season!

Be forewarned that T+C's Fountain Square offerings aren’t as extensive as what you can get at their Court St. location across from the county courthouse, where they have a full kitchen. But you can always get some mighty fine grilled cheeses and soups from their Fountain Square booth. They announce each day’s specials for both locations on their facebook page.

Opening Day wasn’t much warmer, but was certainly better attended. Rather than compete with the baseball crowds and the Findlay Market Opening Day Parade that day, earlier in the week I sampled one of Lunch on Main’s gourmet hot dogs, the Aristocrat, with horseradish coleslaw, fried onions, and bbq sauce. Quite a dog!

Now I have to go back and try their new Conquistador Dog, announced with the wit I’ve come to know and love from their quote-filled facebook page: "Today, I consider myself, the luckiest man on the face of the earth" – Lou Gehrig, after eating the new Conquistador dog at LOM. That's right - there's a new hot dog to help celebrate Opening Day! The Conquistador - 1/4lb dog, homemade black bean/corn salsa, shredded lettuce, sour cream, shredded cheese and tortilla strips."

But what about the fish, you ask? My Friday turned into a fishapalooza indeed!

The New Orleans To Go food truck has been back at 5th and Race several days a week lately (typically Wed.-Fri. – stay tuned to their facebook page for updates). As my faithful readers know, I’m a huge fan of the food served up by New Orleans native Toya and her husband Randy, who runs front of house, er, truck, and greets every customer with his broad, impish smile. Their offerings change daily, which I love, because I just keep getting to try more of Toya’s amazing cooking. I’m never gonna say I’ve had her best dish, because I’m always ready for more. However, this crawfish etoufee-smothered tilapia over seasoned rice I had Friday was one of the most staggeringly delicious things I have eaten in the past year.

New Orleans To Go also has plans in the works for a special Crawfish Boil. Although they haven’t yet announced all the details, they’re talking boiled crawfish, cajun corn, fried fish, shrimp and crawfish etoufee, at $25 per person, prepaid, May 6 in NKY. Stay tuned for confirmation, but Eggy wants to be in the NOTG Clubhouse for this!

From the Gulf Coast to the East Coast, I picked up a couple of lobster roll “kits” from Lobsta Bakes of Maine in Newtown Friday after work.

Good thing I called to reserve them, because owner Kevin Smith told me he’d sold out of them this week. A native of Maine, Kevin is serious about lobsta rolls, down to the authentic buns he gets from Maine.

Kevin told me he was trying to get more buns to fill more orders this week and that some of his customers said they’d be happy for the lobster salad even without the buns. Yes, the lobsta salad is that good. But even more #winning on one of those buns :)

I’m sure Kevin will be offering more lobsta rolls in the weeks to come, but I do recommend you call ahead and reserve. Your best bet for staying on top of what he’s offering when is to sign up for the weekly Lobsta Bakes of Maine e-newsletter – just look on the left-hand column of Lobsta Bakes website to join. This venerable seafood monger has much more to offer than lobster, and usually gets his carefully sourced fish and seafood shipments in on Thursdays (they’re closed Sunday and Monday). In addition to fresh seafood, Lobsta Bakes offers some prepared items, including chowdas and seafood quiches, and if you’re looking to make a dish at home that calls for fish/seafood stock, you can find the real deal here, especially if you call ahead.

He’s also kicking off his first open-to-the-public Lobsta Bake of the season April 9 in Newtown’s Moundview Park. It’s a prepaid event, at various price points depending on which entrée you select (lobster, king crab, filet mignon, or ½ chicken). These go on through the summer and fall, and I’m determined to get to one of them this year.

Before I sign off and delve into the cioppino I also bought from Lobsta Bakes last night, I want to send out a big Eggy hug to three of my dear blogger friends who have suffered losses this week. Chickory, who always inspires me with her art, photos, and wit, lost her mother (and wrote a poem that brought me to tears). Aunty Belle also lost Granny Cracker this week . . . and gained a tribe baby. Aunty, you asked for comfort food suggestions to celebrate Granny’s passing – the foods I’ve mentioned in this post all comforted me because they were unquestionably made with love. I send that karma forward to you, knowing your clan will celebrate Granny in high style. And to Shamy, who lost her beloved Jake, but is continuing to cook her way through her sorrow, I know you’re not exactly the hugging type, but I wish you well and am glad you’re still blogging, my friend.