Andy's Mediterranean Grille

90s Nassau Street, Cincinnati, OH

513-281-9791

Mark called last night to tell me that our babysitter was on her way home and that we were going out to dinner. Sweet!!!  And it was going to be somewhere we would never decided to go ourselves.  Both Bryce and Tini have been there.  Emmy had a gift certificate that we used...guess we will have to pay her back someday by taking her when we go back...it's one place she hasn't been to.

The building looks big on the outside but the dining area where we sat not so much.  And word to the wise...do not attempt to go when the church across the street is having services...no parking available on the street at all.  We parked a little ways away but got o see some pretty amazing houses.

Homemade, fresh from the oven pita bread.

The Mediterranean Sample

Labneh...Lebanese yogurt spread with garlic

Baba Ghannouj...eggplant and tahini

Hummus...chickpeas and EVOO

Tabouli...diced parsley, green onions, tomatoes, EVOO and lemon juice

and of course olives

Mark's dinner...The Combo...one shish kabob (steak) and two shish kabob tawook skewers, salad and rice

My dinner...a half order of shish tawook...marinated and charbroiled chicken breast on a bed of rice

Winner of The Best Entree Award at The Taste of Cincinnati

Before I had a chance to get a picture of dessert...baklava...it was gone!

I was reading the menu online and found that there is belly dancing of Friday and Saturday nights.  We might jut have to go back just to eat the baklava and see the belly dancers.

The food was very good.  Not to spicy at all but lots and lots of garlic.  Servers was very attentive.  Yep, I am definitely putting this on the short list.

Schoolhouse Restaurant and General Store

8031 Glendale-Milford Road  Camp Dennison, OH

The Schoolhouse is one of my favorite places to eat because it is really old school cooking and really different.

The schoolhouse was built in 1863 an is believed to be the first two-story school to be built int he Midwest.  It was built in the renames town of Camp Dennison, formally called New Germany, which was a recruitment and training camp for the union forces during the Civil War.  Over thirty thousand troops came through the camp during the war, which also served as a hospital barracks for wounded soldiers.

Abraham Lincoln visited the wounded soldiers at the barracks in Camp Dennison during the war and was said to also visited the Schoolhouse while he was there.  One of the only military actions north of the Ohio River and the only known death happened in Camp Dennison when John-Morgan and his infamous Morgan's Raider's burned government wagons in a skirmish with Union troops.  The skrimish resulted in the death of Daniel mcCook who was not inlisted but was riding with the troops as a volunteer.

Several of Morgan's troops were captured but Morgan escaped.  The camp was disbanded in 1865 but the railroad insisted that the town remain the name of Camp Dennison.  

The schoolhouse was a two room school serving all grades through the eighth grade.  Upstairs was the auditorium and community meeting room.  The schoolhouse was a working school until 1950 when the children were transferred to Indian  Hill school system.

The restaurant was opened in 1962 by Don and Phyllis Miller with the idea that everybody needed a place to go and get a great home cooked meal at a fair price.  It is still run by he family with Phyllis and son Chris and with daughters Pam and Beth helping out when needed.

The menu is written on the original slate backboard at the front of the classroom.

Tables come with a lazy Susan.  The meal  is served Family style.  House salad, and homemade Cole slaw...yummm!

We chose green beans, mashed potatoes and cooked carrots.  And it comes with the most mouth watering cornbread.

Mark ordered fried in a pan chicken livers with onions.  He said they were good but not as good as his Grandmother made when he was growing up.

Give me some good old crispy fried chicken.

lemon meringue pie

Blackberry cobbler with a huge scoop of ice cream (and the waitress brought two spoons...how did she know?)

After dinner or while you are waiting for your table, there is a playground with tether ball and some climbing equipment to play on.

The General Store has lots of treasures.  It is a refurbished barn.

There are ducks and geese to feed.

A turkey to talk to.  There were some goats but they were in the barn and would not come out.  I tried.  They must have known that I would try to take them home with me.

Old Town Diner

16098 Pike Street, Laurelville, OH

right on the corner...can't miss it

Reuben with sweet potato fries

Can you guess who ordered this cheeseburger.

pizza sub

delicious Cole slaw

Best BLT I have had in a long time.

cheese stick appetizer as a main dish

We were on our way to Hocking Hills for a day of hiking and got hungry...imagine.  Nothing in sight until we rounded the corner and say the Old Town Diner.  We must have gotten there right after the lunch rush  There were only a few Formica table available.  We are in what was probably the old dining room of this house.  The floors were uneven.  It looked like we had stepped back into maybe the 50's.  Knotty pine walls.

And the cubby hole the cut out for the bathroom was beyond description.  But the good was really good.  and I hope we stop again on our next hiking adventure at Hocking Hills.