Red Smoke Barbecue
573 Monroe StreetI was home from our Cincinnati for about a day and a half then it was back on the road for work. I spent a couple of nights in Detroit on the company so while I was looking forward to getting back to my own bed, I wasn’t about to turn down quite a bit of overtime and a trip to The D.
The company put it us up at the Greektown Hotel. We got to Detroit pretty early and decided to see if we could check in early. We were a little too early and our rooms weren’t ready yet. We didn’t have any place to be at that moment so we decided to go for lunch knowing it could be the only meal we got that day.
Monroe Street near the Greektown Casino and Hotel is a pretty good place to be if you’re hungry. There are several restaurants along this stretch and we had our pick of anything from Greek food to pizza.
We chose barbecue.
Red Smoke Barbecue is on the east end of Monroe Street near St. Antoine Street. The buildings in Greektown are all individual storefronts but they’re all connected with a common wall. There’s a small outdoor dining area right along the building near the main entrance but we’re not al fresco kind of guys. Read more…
Blue Ash Chili (Mason)
4200 Aero Drive #LCincinnati chili. I hate that I know what Cincinnati chili is because of Big & Rich. Their hit single Coming to Your City included the line “Grabbed a bowl of that Skyline Chili along the way.”
I had no idea what Skyline Chili was at that time. I do now and while we passed several Skyline Chili’s on our adventure around Cincinnati, I wanted to try one something from not a big chain despite Skyline being essentially the originators of Cincinnati Chili.
Blue Ash Chili is a small chain of chili parlors with three locations in the Cincinnati area. the orignal location is in Blue Ash and has been open since 1969. This is the location Guy Fieri visited 2010 for Diner’s, Drive-Ins, and Dives.
We were closest to the Mason location of Blue Ash Chili. The restaurant is part of a larger shopping complex on Aero Drive near Tylersville Road. The restaurant is visible from Tylersville but has to be accessed from Aero Drive or Stitt Road. It’s on the southern end of the complex that also include a Donatos Pizza and Penn Station East Coast Subs. Read more…
Marion’s Piazza (Mason)
6176 Snider RoadDid you know Dayton pizza was a thing? I didn’t but I found it was and boy, am I glad I did.
We spent all day last Friday at the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Gardens. We started our day with breakfast at Waffle House but we didn’t really eat anything at the zoo. When we got to the car, J asked if I had another restaurant in mind.
I had several but I knew I would be taking a chance with the kids at a sit down place after a long, hot day walking around the zoo.
Not to worry. I had also scoped out pizza places near our hotel and that’s how I discovered Dayton style pizza.
Marion’s Piazza is the originator of what they call Dayton Style Pizza. There are nine locations around the greater Dayton area with one somewhere between Cincinnati and Dayton is Mason, OH not too far from where our hotel was.
Marion’s Piazza in Mason is on Snider Road just off Tylersville Road a couple of miles from the I-75 interchange. The restaurant is visible from Tylersville Road but you have to enter kind of on the backside from Snider Road. The large building and large parking lot are part of a larger retail complex among several others in the area.
Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden
3400 Vine Street- Cincinnati, OH 45220
- (513) 281-4700
- Website
I have looked forward to our annual zoo trip for the last several years now. L is getting older and will actually remember these now. Every year, J and I reminisce about our past trips and look forward to making new memories even if it is just her and I that will remember them.
Our choice this year was the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Gardens. Cincinnati is one of the last zoos within about a 4-5 hour drive from Kalamazoo that we haven’t been to and it’s another one we’ve always heard really good things about.
The Cincinnati Zoo is the second oldest zoo in the country with only Philadelphia having an older one. It opened in 1875 in the Avondale neighborhood north of downtown. The main parking lot and entrance is off Vine Street near Erkenbreacher Avenue. There is a $10 charge to park but it’s collected at the ticket booth. You’re given a parking voucher at that time to get you out of the lot.
The parking lot is pretty large and the best part, a lot of it is covered parking. Read more…
Waffle House (Mason North)
5377 Beach BoulevardWhen I planned this trip to Cincinnati, I got a cheap, crappy hotel by Kings Island. I didn’t mean to do that but I was looking for something a little bit cheaper. I was not looking for crappy..but hey, that’s what ya get for going cheap.
There was thing I was excited about this location though. There was a Waffle House right across the street. No one else in my family has been to Waffle House and they were missing out. I was ready to show them why I stop every time I head south.
We picked the Waffle House on the north side of Mason, OH near Kings Island. The restaurant is right at the intersection of Beach Boulevard and Water Park Drive. No surprises in the size or design of the place. It looks like pretty much every other Waffle House you’ll find dotted across the landscape in the Southern US.
12071 Mason Montgomery RoadWe made it through a five hour drive. We had a wonderful time at the Newport Aquarium. Now, it was time for dinner.
It was kind of early for dinner but we sort of skipped lunch. We ate a pretty big breakfast at K & H Truck Plaza before we left Illinois and no one asked for lunch so we didn’t stop anywhere. We just forged ahead and figured we’d eat early and get to bed.
There really weren’t any hotels downtown or near downtown that weren’t insanely expensive. The Cincinnati Music Festival was happening the weekend we were there so prices were a little jacked up.
I found a reasonably priced hotel in the northern suburb of Mason near Kings Island. The price should have been a warning as to how bad it was but I assumed it couldn’t be that bad. We don’t have really high standards.
Anyway, I decided to just get out of downtown before we stopped to eat. I searched in a pretty wide radius around the hotel but there’s a lot of chains in that area. Eventually, I found a place that I two things I really like in the name….burgers and beer.
Flipdaddy’s Brilliant Burgers and Craft Beer is a small, Cincinnati chain of restaurants with an emphasis on burgers and craft beer. There are four locations with two each on either side of the Ohio River.
I picked the Symmes Township location of Flipdaddy’s to stop at because it was near where we were staying. The restaurant is on the corner of Mason Montgomery Road and Governor’s Hill Drive. The restaurant looks like it could be one of the larger chain restaurants sitting on it’s own pad near the Interstate 71 interchange with Mason Road.
Newport Aquarium
1 Levee Way- Newport, KY 41071
- (800) 406-3474
- Website
Our family vacations the last several years have been big city zoo trips. We’ve been to just about every zoo within a four hour or so driving distance. We decided we had to branch out just a little bit further this year and planned a trip to Cincinnati.
We got up early on Thursday morning to make the drive. We were actually coming from my parents house in Iroquois County. The kids got to spend some time with Grandma and Papa before we left on the trip while J and I still had to work three days that week.
I didn’t want to do the zoo on the day we drove because I knew it was going to be a lot for the kids. A five hour car ride and a five hour zoo trip just seemed like it was going to be a disaster.
I had to find something to do though that was kid friendly and it didn’t take me long to find a great aquarium just across the Ohio River.
Newport Aquarium is part of the Newport on the Levee. This massive entertainment complex has an AMC IMAX Theater and several shop and restaurants. It’s just across the Taylor Southgate Bridge on the Kentucky side of The Ohio. We were a little confused on the parking situation at first but it looks like there is a garage there. We parked across the street at a cash only surface lot because that was the first thing we saw other than valet.
K & H Truck Plaza & Family Restaurant
1043 Crescent StreetMy kids have never spent six days at my parents before and B has never spent that much time away from us. It was a nice break for J and I as we got to spend some time together and my parents had a blast with the kids.
Our plan was to spend Wednesday night at my parents and leave early in the morning to head to Cincinnati for our little mini-vacation. I wanted to get up early and get on the road because we lose an hour heading back in to the Eastern Time Zone.
My mom was able to get five of the six days off work but she had to be back in at 4 AM on the Thursday we were leaving. She waitresses at a truck stop that was sort of on our way back to I-65 so she asked if we’d stop in for breakfast so she could say good-bye.
K & H Truck Plaza has been around as long as I can remember in the small Iroquois County, Illinois town of Gilman. The restaurant is part of the truck stop complex on Crescent Street (US-24) east of the Interstate 57 interchange on the south side of town. The restaurant building is part of the main gas station and they use the same entrance. You go right for food or left for snacks.
Beer Church Brewing Company
24 S. Whittaker StreetIt finally hit the point of the summer that we get to go on vacation as a family . The kids had been at my parents for six days already. J and I had to work until Wednesday and as soon as I got off work Wednesday evening, we loaded up the car for an extended weekend and headed to Iroquois County, IL to pick up the kids.
We were anxious to see the kids but first, we wanted to get dinner. Dinners with nobody whining or fighting are rare so we wanted to take advantage of it just being J and I one more time.
We got on the road and started heading west on I-94. There are two breweries in New Buffalo now and we were determined to eat at one of them on this drive.
I let J pick since I picked Paw Paw Brewing the night before. She just wanted to sit on a patio with a big drink and she wasn’t able to do either at Paw Paw. The patio was being used for a private event and they didn’t have any ciders or sweeter drinks on draft.
I thought the drink menu looked better for her at Ghost Isle but the only thing on the menu she was really interested in was the pulled pork…the same meal she had the night before.
She ended up picking the one I was really hoping she would pick. Beer Church Brewing Company.
Beer Church Brewing Company likes to point out they were New Buffalo’s first brewery. They’re located on Whittaker Street near downtown. If you come in to New Buffalo from Exit 1 on I-94, you can’t miss the old Water’s Edge United Methodist church just to the south of Buffalo Street. Read more…
Paw Paw Brewing Company
780 S. Gremps StreetJ and I had a few nights without the kids and we wanted to take advantage of eating out without having to entertain them. Monday night we just weren’t feeling it and I had an UberEats coupon so we just ordered in. We didn’t want to repeat that Tuesday night though.
J texted me about an hour before we got off work and said she wanted to go out. I had been wanting to go to the new Paw Paw Brewing Company and asked if that was OK. She was on board.
I got off work a little early then we headed to Van Buren County. I have already written two blog posts about Paw Paw Brewing (2012 and 2018) but a few months ago they moved from their small building on East Michigan Avenue to their production facility on S. Gremps Street on the southwest side of town. The new taproom is in the back of the building. There’s a great outdoor patio right as you walk in but there was some kind of event happening in that space so we had to go inside.
SW Michigan Dining 