You're probbaly figuring out by now that I have a ton of back-logged reviews.  congratulations! You're very intuitive.  Your mother says so. On another morning when Lil FvF was with the grandparents, we decided to finally get around to trying Lucky's for brunch. We get in a bad habit of always wanting to go to Golden Nugget, so our breakfast and brunch wishlist is long.  Blind Bob's menu always looks great, but for personal reasons, I don't eat there.  Lucky's brunch menu is on the smaller side, which isn't always a bad thing - plus they offered gluten-free banana bread French toast.  Score!

Well, not so fast.  It was just alright.  It was very mealy, which can be expected from g/f items, so I can't place that blame on the recipe or the cook.  I didn't taste the slightest hint of banana, either. The density inside and crunchy outside were tops, but the overall texture and taste was just off.  I got a little bit of both the maple breakfast sausage and smoked bacon, both of which were excellent.  The eggs were just eggs.  Nicely cooked, but by no means fluffy.

Mr. FvF really enjoyed his chorizo breakfast tacos, but the "home fries" went to waste because they'd been cooked with peppers and onions (not noted on the menu), both of which he can't stand.

Our server had an almost empty house, with only us and one other party of drunken ladies brunching, but she was pretty out to lunch the whole time.  We had to go to the bar and ask for refills and had no flatware on our table when our food came.

Reasonably priced, free lot parking, bloody mary bar and perfect meats give them a lot of aces, but they need to offer a few more better-executed options to keep us coming back.

Howdy, my little lunchboxes!  A lot of people have been wondering if mommin' has me on hiatus from FvF, but not for another couple months.  The lack of posts has little to do with my parasite, and everything to do with err'day life and work.  I know, I know - it's hard to believe that this website doesn't have me wiping with dollar bills, but food samples an adoring fans still don't pay the mortgage - although I heartily appreciate both.  So, since there's a LOT to catch you up on and little time to do it, here's a recap and some upcoming fun stuffs.

• Are the tomatoes from your own garden so good that you're disappointed when eating one in a restaurant?  Peter and Laurie at Figlio totally understand, so they're letting you bring in your OWN tomato this week to be used in their Caprese Salad.  "Bring Your Tomato to Figlio Week" started yesterday and runs through this Saturday, August 27. 

• BEERS!  Not only is Dayton AleFest this weekend at Carillon Park, but it will also cap off Dayton Beer Week.  from their press release:                                                                                     "AleFest will be held from 2 to 6 pm on Saturday, August 27 at Carillon Historical Park.  Featuring an expanded selection of draft and cask ales, AleFest offers attendees a selection of over 300 different beers from over 140 different breweries. Many of the exact details for this year's event are still being finalized, but tickets are currently available at finer dining and food and beverage locations throughout the greater Dayton region for the advance price of $35 ($40 at the door).  As in the past, tickets get you entry to the event, a sampling guide, 20 craft beer samples and a commemorative sampling glass.                                                                      Dayton Beer Week, held August 19 - 26.  Dayton Beer Week officially kicks off with the "Beer Pride Parade" in the Oregon District on Sunday, August 21 and continues throughout the week with a series of unique events, tastings and dinners held at various locations throughout the greater Dayton region." 

• Peeled Snacks will be doing some serious sampling of their dried fruit offerings at Costco stores across the nation tomorrow, 8/24.  The one in Dayton isn't open yet, but Columbus and Cleveland could get up on this.  I've always like dried fruit, but I was a little skeptical when I saw "Organic" and "no sugar added" on the freebies they sent me.  However, the stuff is delicious.  Will have a full-on product review coming your way soonly. 

• Speaking of free food, I'll be giving away more freebies from McDonald's. You can call me a sell-out all you want, but I like giving people prizes, and the local indies aren't exactly chomping at the bit to give out coupons.  Hopefully, this one will go over better than the last, since it's a sandwich offering and not a salad.  I won't boast its low calorie content, because that will probably turn you all right off of it just like the salad.  Look out for another Facebook contest soon.  Unlike the last contest loot, I promise to get these prizes out in a timely fashion! 

• I know you guy are probably all, "What the hell, Vizz?  You didn't post ANYthing during Restaurant week!"  Yeah, it's because I'm busy. Or lazy.  You decide.  Either way, we only had the time to go to McCormick & Schmick's, which was good, but not stellar.  Expect my review of that soon, along with the much-anticipated thoughts on Company 7 BBQ in Englewood*.                                         *According to Dre, always up to no good.

I love my friends SO much that I'll let them make me go to the same shitty place more than once. I like to think that placed in a similar situation, they would do the same for me. I've never decided to go to The Greene, Dayton's fancy outdoor walk-around mall, on my own. Aside from trekking out there to meet one of my favorite authors, my visits have always been at at least somewhat at another person's request or invite.

You see, the first time I went to the Greene, something weird, embarrassing, and life-alteringly shitty happened there. I'm not going to go into detail, but let's just say I think of it as my personal Vietnam. So naturally, I don't like the place too much. Besides, although I love commerce, places like this exemplify my hate part of our love/hate relationship. The food options are really not much more impressive than your regular indoor mall eating options, they're just far more overpriced. They all have $10+ appetizers and outdoor patios and verandas, and if you're a smoker, everyone looks at you like you're eating a live baby. It's all your standard fare of Brios and P.F. Chang's, occasionally a chain restaurant masquerading as an independent, but their decor and prices aren't fooling anyone. Then of course, there are your Fleming's and McCormick and Schmick's, where you don't even know if you're ordering up, because there aren't always prices on the menu. Oh, then there's this nest of turds called The Pub. Not to be confused with Dayton's original and independent Dublin Pub, which happens to have delicious food, stellar service and a staff who know a it's a dick move to review an Irish pub based on ordering the fucking filet. They have steak on the menu at Denny's, too - but that doesn't mean you should order it and base your opinion of their food as a whole on an item that's clearly not within their realm of expertise - but, I digress.

Back to my original point that one of my best gals craves the curry fries at The Pub. I'd never had them, or even seen them - but I assumed they must be worth the trip. This day was all about her, and I made sure to eat a decent lunch so that I wouldn't order much there. I ordered the Cheese Bollocks, large balls of mozzarella, beer battered and deep fried.

Of course I want to say they were terrible, but they really weren't. The batter was on the bland side, but it's still beer batter, filled with melty cheese. Gin got the fries and their soup of the day, corn chowder, which she just said "tasted weird."

Wendy's Pick Two: Their new deluxe salads are totally legit, and now you can opt for a smaller salad and pair it with one of their value menu items for just $4.99. Today for lunch I had the chili and BLT chicken cobb salad and it kept me full until well into dinner-cooking time.

Okay, they may not technically be imports, but they're imported to Ohio! We stopped by Belmont Party Supply to pick up some drank and I decided since we're having ribs tonight, we should have beer, too. I'm not a big beer drinker myself, but sometimes I like to experiment. I know, I know - you're supposed to do all of that in college, but I dropped out, so cut me some slack.

Tonight I'll be sampling Sea Dog Raspberry Wheat Ale, Wheach (wheat peach ale, go figure), Samuel Smith's Organic Hard Cider, and Mr. FvF will be having a go at Lagunitas Brewing Co Belgian Triple Ale, graced with two different Frank Zappa album covers, as well as Shiner Bock Bohemian Black Lager.

Now you wanna know about those black cherry cola ribs I'm cooking up, right? Well, check back in tomorrow when I once again team up with Man-B-Que and blow your effing mind.

Two of my favorite ladies and I decided to head to Chappy's Tap Room in West Carrollton last night for our not-nearly-often-enough girls night. I'd heard pretty good things about the place, but never seemed to get around to going even though I work less than two miles from it.

We got there around 9pm and there was still a wait for the dining room, which I consider a good sign, since people must be enjoying themselves. We were seated in far less time than the hostess had proposed, and we'd all snacked so we wouldn't be ready to tear someone's face off when we ordered dinner. Our server was super friendly and wasn't annoyed by me playing 20 questions with the menu. While debating the menu, we ordered some drinks and a half-order of their loaded kitchen chips.

I'm pretty sure these are house made BBQ chips, and they're loaded with cheese, bacon, sour cream, green onions and tomatoes. The half order was just enough to nom on while we chatted over cocktails and waited for our food.

I have a big weakness for anything beer-battered, so it was really tough for me to pass up their beer-battered chicken dinner. My sister decided to order that, so I invited myself to have a bite of hers once it came to the table. She'd eaten there before and said they're chargilled burgers "taste like summertime," so I was really struggling with what to go with. After a solid 20 minutes of perusing and a lot of questions for our server, we finally decided on our orders.


I chose the smothered chicken, Ginger picked the battered shrimp Po'boy and Skillz opted for the beer-battered chicken. Once it all came to the table, everyone's dishes looked plentiful and delicious, but between the size of the fillets and the wonderful smell it was producing, we were all drooling over the chicken in front of Skillz. We all dug into our own food until we were offered a bite of the beer-battered goodness, and WHOA. Gin & I instantly regretted out own orders and wished we would have gotten that instead. Don't get me wrong, our food was great - but this chicken, which clearly had malt vinegar IN the batter - was nothing short of perfection. The camera had Sasquatch eye again, so you'll have to forgive me for not quite honing my shutterbug abilities with the ten million damn settings on this thing.



The sides: We all ordered the mashed potato casserole at our waitresses suggestion. It didn't look impressive when it arrived, but it was a delight. They whip their potatoes with sour cream and cream cheese, then top it with cheddar and scallions and bake it.

The dranks: They have a wonderful beer selection here - somewhere between a dozen and 20 beers on tap and a bottle selection that's four pages long (including two gluten-free beers). Their wine selection is a bit limited, but if neither of those float your boat, they have a full bar and make a mean bloody mary.

I hadn't had that much beer (yet), so I had no problems cleaning my plate, and no problem announcing to our server that I don't need a box like those other two jerks because I'm awesome. After our meal, we headed over to the bar area where a local musician was playing a nice acoustic set. We'd joked beforehand that it was probably going to be awful like most Friday night cover bands playing in a restaurant, but the guy was actually really good. I wish I could remember his name to give him props here - but I can't recall to save my life. He wasn't hard on the eyes, either (I'm spoken for, not dead) - and apparently he plays there every Friday night.

I'm sure all of their food is excellent, but when I go back, I'll definitely be ordering the beer-battered chicken and I suggest you do the same. And trust, I'll be going back soon.


5 out of 5 sporks!

I met a few friends here last night to grab a post-work drink. I'm not the world's biggest beer lover, so a pub that specializes in beer-lover's beers isn't exactly right up my alley. But here's the rub - they serve Pizza Factory pie. I hadn't had a slice from there in ages, since I worked at a bar downtown and we'd order in. I was supposed to be waiting to have dinner with Mr. Food vs. Face, but I couldn't resist grabbing a slice of my sister's Hawaiian style pizza. Pizza Factory has a crust to die for. I'm not sure what kind of ovens they use, but it's a perfectly blistered near-Neopolitan.
I really, really wish I had planned ahead and brought my camera to take a photo of this little lovely. Ham, bacon, pineapple and just enough cheese on a perfect crust.

I also ordered up a Samuel Smith's Organic Raspberry Ale, which was aces. It came in a gigantic bottle that allotted almost 3 pilsners worth of beer, and rang in at just under $5. It's not nearly as sweet and candy-like as Lindeman's Framboise Lambic (which is basically not at all beer, but I love it all the same), yet much sweeter than the Raspberry Ale they used to serve at Thirsty Dog. When it hits your nose, it almost smells of sour raspberries, but don't let that deter you. It's light to medium in body and pours a dark maroon color with a very sweet, mild malt. If you dig fruity brews, give this one a whirl. For those of you that like non-sissy beer, South Park Tavern normally keeps 18 specialty crafted microbrews on tap and over 100 other beer and wine options to choose from.

Making the experience all the more pleasant, our waitress was top notch. Often when I go to a joint meant for beer snobs, my indecisiveness is met with a scowl. However, our server at SPT didn't tap her foot or looks at her watch while I lamented over the menu, and even made a few recommendations.

4.5 out of 5 sporks!