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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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