The Rookwood

Burger #19: Rookwood – Barnsdale Burger   12 to 14$

Rookwood.  Not my picture.

Sitting down and writing a review seems to be the hardest thing for me when there is awesome weather out like today.  I just got in from walking around Newport on the levee and caught some awesome funk music from Leroy Ellington and the E Funk band.  There were two singers, one guy and one lady, and I will say that the female vocals were just amazing!  You should check them out sometime if you are into great music outdoors during the summer.  Also, if you weren't in Newport this weekend, you missed the seafood festival.  It isn't my favorite thing to have 50 kinds of fried seafood since it isn't likely to be anything but frozen so I didn't grab any food, but I do like walking through the crowd people watching and the watching a good band.  I think people watching has got to be one of my favorite things ever!  Does that make me a creeper?  Don't judge me!  You are probably reading this while having "reality" tv on in the background.  People watching is reality in it's best. 


This week we will be talking about the Rookwood's burger in Mt Adams.  My burger was the 19th I've had this year and "the list" has it as number 15 and I made it out there on Tuesday, June 21, 2011.  I don't know if you've been there but it's a gigantic place up on the hill that is actually an old, historic pottery company. 

The outdoor area is huge.  Not my picture.

The "world-renown" Rookwood Pottery Co. was a manufacturing facility for ceramics that started in the 1870's and closed in 1967.  There is ample outdoor seating, as well as some unique seats inside the actual kiln that used to fire the ceramics.  It kind of makes me feel like I'm in a horror movie when I think of being in a kiln, but they really are nice, secluded areas for a date.  The ceiling has an industrial feel to it with big vents running up the walls and along the ceiling.  This is an upscale place that is still within a reasonable price range. They use local foods on the menu that changes often. 

Very cool industrial look.  Not my picture.

This was supposed to be a friend's going away celebration at the same time as a burger.  She is a doctor and got a job in Chicago where she is from.  I was told there would be several coworkers there and I asked if they were all doctors.  She said they are all doctors and nurses and not trying to make waves, I told my friend I would lie and tell them I was a doctor too, and see how long I could go with that.  So when I got there, I arrived with another friend, a girl also, and it turns out there was a table of no less than 12 FEMALE only coworkers quite a bit older than me.  :-/  So as I sit down someone mentions, "oh, is this the burger guy", like my life story had already been told.  The entire conversation stops and I have 12 female doctors all looking at ME for entertaining stories.  Well, I knocked the conversation out of the ballpark and normal conversation continued.  Into the meal, I was asked what I did for a living, so I mentioned my initial plan to pretend to be a doctor and how awkward it was for me to be at a table full of female doctors.  After that, I guess they liked me, because this is where my name for my blog came from.  I was told that I could just go by "Burger Doctor" since I am so studied on the subject and I'll be needing a real doctor soon enough once my heart fails from cholesterol!  Hahaha, I couldn't help but laugh it up with that and now I have my official title. 

As I look at the Rookwood's menu I notice that this is not your average offerings.  I kind of want to go back just to try one of the appetizers.  There is a chicken fried bacon with jalapeno honey for 6$ that sounds like it's right up my alley!  Also, I am interested in the sweet breads and waffles with honeycomb butter and pickled blueberry syrup.  I'm not sure what to expect with pickled blueberries because my mind was blown by pickled tomatoes texture.  Another app is the hanky panky which is goetta, beef, jalapeno cheese sauce, giardiniera, and jewish rye.  I know cincy loves it's goetta and this combo sounds scrumptious. One sandwich that sounds deliciously, deadly is the pork belly with smoked bacon, fontina, watercress, pickled red onions, mayo and fried egg.  Yup, heart attack is on the way!  This is the second place that I have found in Cincinnati that has house-made andouille, along with Virgil's, but they use it in a unique way, a creole paella with blue prawns, sausage and tomato broth. 

Tasty burger and fries.  Not my picture.

There is one other burger that I would like to try, the Rook Melt – burger, house mustard, caramelized onions, purple cabbage, swiss, fry sauce, caraway rye.  I don't even know what fry sauce is, but I'm sure it's amazing.  This is one of the better burgers I've had during this quest.  I had the Barnsdale burger which was topped with carmelized onions, fontina cheese, pickles and thyme aioli.  It's by no means the best but I'd go back for it definitely.  The thyme aioli is not as strong flavored as I'd like, but the delectable seasoning in the burger more than made up for it.  My burger came cooked medium well, not really pink in the middle like it should and it wasn't greasy.  The bun was fresh and soft.  I paid 2$ more to get my side upgrade from regular fries to grippo's fries...yes you heard me, mother!@#$%^* grippo's fries!!!  You know that smile you get on  your face when you see a bag of these chips right?  Well they take Grippo's bbq potato chips, grind them up into a powder and cover their fries with it and holy s#@$ was it amazing!  I'd go back just for these fries.  It's like crack I'm serious.  This is the first time I have ever heard of  something so ingenious. 

After dinner my friend forced me to eat dessert, which I normally don't do.  But never try to put your hand between a girl and some chocolate. We had a hot brownie, with caramel, salt, cream, berry jam, and fried bananas and wow was it one of the best desserts I've had!  Fried bananas are one of my favorite things after that night.  The other ladies had some of Jeni's Splendid ice cream, which they have a wall of flavors writen in chalk on a wall. 

I have been to the Rookwood before and I'll definitely go again.  I'd recommend getting their burger and their grippo's fries, as well as some dessert if you have room.  This is high up on the list of burgers for me. 

City View Tavern

Burger #2: City View Tavern - Big Ted Deluxe $6.75

The view is second to none when compared to any other cheap, shady burger joints!

Look I can see my house!

 

Well I bet you probably thought I'd forgotten to write about my burger experience for this week, but you were wrong.  I have been told by so many people that they are living vicariously through my burger quest so I must appease the masses.  This review is more important than getting my homework done, so let's get on with it.

For the 6th burger I drove across the river from my northern Kentucky apartment up to Mt. Adams on a quiet Tuesday night to burger #2: City View Tavern - Big Ted Deluxe $6.75.  The drive was literally 5 minutes from my house and there is free live music on Tuesday nights over at the Tap and Go rugby bar, so this was a no brainer when I was asked to drive up the hill that night. City View is located at 403 Oregon Street, Cincinnati, OH 45202 which is surprisingly a few blocks off of the main businesses in Mt. Adams.  When I drove up the hill and turn onto the street  where it is located I thought I turned down the wrong street because there was literally nothing on your  left side but a hill and on your right there are houses.  This bar is in the middle of a residential street with nothing else on the entire block.  Once again, it is not where you'd expect one of the top burgers in the city.  I arrived earlier than my friend who lives in Mt Adams, so I walked in by myself.  There is no huge sign to let you know about this bar, and a bar it is.  This is NOT a restaurant so don't go here expecting that.  When I walked in I was greeted by a pool table on my right with what looked like 2 workers talking.  The walls just looked like this was a corner bar anywhere else in the city.  In front of me was the bar with 2 older looking gentlemen who  were definitely into their late 60's having a beer.  The walls have lots of old pictures and sports stuff on them and there are blue christmas lights that are just out of place.  There is nothing special about City View, but the one thing that brings you there.  Walking towards the bar the left side of you opens up into a seating area with a young couple eating their burgers and staring out a window spanning the entire wall that looks out onto downtown and northern Kentucky!  I really was put off by the shear size of the window, but it was gorgeous to say the least. One more thing I just found out is that they have one of the worst websites I've ever seen.  cityviewtavern.com‎  I highly suggest checking it out.

When I went up to the bar I didn't notice a large selection of beer, but I did see Kentucky bourbon barrel, I guess it's catching on around the  city.  City View tavern isn't known for it's beer though, it's know for 3 things I read, the Big Ted deluxe, the bloody Mary's and the jukebox.  I didn't read about these until after I had visited there.  I hadn't heard any particular music when I was there so I can't tell you about the jukebox.  I loves me a bloody Mary, but I didn't have a bloody Mary, that really appeals to me more so on a Saturday or Sunday morning, not a calm Tuesday night.  The menu that was written on a chalk board behind the bar had about 3 things on it, but when I went to their website they have 5.  I guess they dumbed it down for a Tuesday night.  The big Ted deluxe was voted "best cheeseburger in paradise" by readers of Cincinnati Magazine.  It starts with a 6oz fresh, hand made burger and is topped with american cheese, brown mustard, onion, mayo, lettuce, catsup, tomato when in season, and pickle.  They also have the Teddy burger, bbq beef, Myrt's Wurst, and Silas' Really Good Chili, a Texas chili for those with good taste.  The burger took about 15 minutes to get to our table.  I ordered it medium and it was cooked perfectly on a soft bun.  This burger is 2 oz smaller than most half pound burgers on the list.  There was no distinctive seasoning in the meat and nothing from my burger was particularly great.  The burger, which was greasy and tasty,  took on the flavor of the strongest ingredient, the brown mustard.  I question as to how this burger became #2 on the list, but I guess most of the readers of Cincinnati magazine must live in Mt. Adams (oh and Mt. Lookout to get Zip's up on the list too).  I mean these burgers were voted by the readers.  The burger comes with chips, Grippo's bbq chips is what I ordered.  These are one of my favorite chips so I was very happy about the change up from fries.  For 6.75$ this is well worth every penny just for the view, but as a burger it's an average C rating, nothing else.  I will definitely recommend to people to go up and try it when the weather gets nicer.

And don't forget to get out to Tap and Go afterwards every other Tuesday night for free live music from some unknown artists.  I heard a great show after and ended up buying his cd I liked his performance so much.