You all know how assy I can be about BBQ, having found very little to write home about either here in Ohio, or in our travels.  On our recent trips to Kentucky and Tennessee, I wasn't even interested in trying out an of the local barbecue joints, because it seemed it was always a disappointment. Dry brisket, fake smoke flavor, and shitty sides.

About a year ago, a business acquaintance of mine left his post at a prominent local company to start up a BBQ joint with his wife and her family in Englewood.  It would be called Company 7 BBQ, after the majority of family starting this venture, who are all fire and EMS workers.  I kept in touch for a while and kept promising to make it up there to try it, and letting loose that I had a secret life as a food blogger.  Life has a way with making things slip your mind, so come this summer, I still hadn't made it to Englewood to try Company 7.  One night that cooking at home sounded too labor intensive, we headed north to check it out, based on the recent recommendation of a friend.

I was hoping to see my friend, but I figured since he was one of the head honchos, it'd be tough to catch him on the floor. Wrong!  We hadn't been seated for two minutes before he popped behind the bar and started filling drinks.  Come to find out later, the guy who brought our food out and chatted Mr. FvF about Texas BBQ was another owner, his father-in-law.  You can tell that the presence of owners and management keeps this place running pretty smoothly.  They had live bands on one side, a room full of full bellies on the other, apparently a buffet in the back, a full bar and still a little room to grow.  I'm not familiar with the area, so I'm not sure what this place used to be, but the size of it certainly surprised me (insert "that's what she said" joke).

Perusing the menu and the table-toppers presented some info I was happy to see.  Something along the lines of "When we run out of a meat - that's it. We won't have any more until the next day, because we smoke it for 18 hours."  After deciding that neither of us wanted to pick just one meat, we both got a two-meat combo, which comes with two sides and a cheese muffin. I chose pulled pork and brisket, and the Mister got pulled pork and smoked sausage.  We also threw in a last minute order of smoked chicken wings, for little other reason than the price was right.  I don't normally care for wings at all, but...
I obviously had no problems polishing half of this order off.  They were super crispy, likely smoked then maybe flash fried - and not too greasy. They come naked, because C7 already has six of their signature sauces on the table (no sugar added and painfully hot sauces also made in-house are available for the asking). I didn't use the sauce on my wings, but tried them all via finger-lickin' method (very scientific) before our entrees arrived.  Chief Smokey and Lieutenant Tangy were definitely the front runners for me, though they were all pretty good.  I was hoping I wouldn't even need the sauces, though. You know the rules.  Good BBQ doesn't need sauce. 


He's really the expert here, so I'll defer to him for comment.  From the desk of Mr. FvF:
It's really good - very sweet & spicy.  Close to Kruez's, but not the same as Black's.

The pulled pork was probably some of the best I've had in a restaurant.

Everyone loves fair food, so there's no point in reviewing it.  But, I want to tell you about an old love...



And a new love...



It's probably best that I found myself too busy to attend more than one fair this summer, because otherwise - helloooooooooo, gestational diabetes.

 The pork was okay - just okay.  they sprinkle some kind of "proprietary seasoning" over top of it that perhaps is supposed to make me think it's been dry-rubbed.  All it makes me think is, "I wonder if Longhorn is pissed that Rippy's stole their patented Prairie Dust?"  Our friend had also raved about the sauce, which I tried in spite of my better judgement.  We've been over this, eaters - good barbecue does not. Need. Sauce. I'm willing to try and give a sauce kudos to complimenting the meat when warranted, but this was not one of those times.  It had a decent spice to it, but was a vinegary disaster.  The Mister didn't care for his baked beans because they had big chunks of onions mixed in. That doesn't mean they were bad, just not for him.  Fries were decent, but likely of the frozen persuasion.
My onion rings were mighty tasty, but didn't make up for the sub-par pulled pork, or the diabetes-inducing sugar-laden cole slaw.  I'm a big fan of a sweet, dairy based slaw, but this bordered on unrecognizable. Plus it was hot inside and out, and I don't think the slaw had been well refrigerated.  Regardless of where it's from - if the slaw's not cold, I ain't the kind of gal to eat it.

Service is to Rippy's what a pleasant experience is to your local bargain theater.  They're not mutually exclusive.  The water glasses were mostly left empty and our server never asked if we wanted refills on our cocktails.  Our buddy had asked us to bring him back a bottle of their  barf amazing sauce, which we asked for twice and never got.

Anycrap, after my brief match with Prednisone in October, about 8 pounds have crept back on, and I simply am not havin' that shit.  So, our lunches and dinners are going back to the lower end of the glycemic index, as to make nice with our waistlines again.  


A lot of South Beach recipes don't appeal to me that much, so sometimes I'll take Adkins recipes and cut a lot of the fat out of them.  Everyone loves the lettuce cups at PF Chang's, but i don't have the patience to dice chicken or the stomach to put it in a food processor and think it'll ever be clean enough again.  I really don't care for ground chicken, either, since I'm allergic to nasty.

Thanks to the recent goings-on around my office, I found myself in an offsite meeting all day at the Marriott near UD.  No one else there knew the area we were in, so it fell on me by default to decide where we'd lunch.  No problem!

We were initially going to hit Brown Street and see what we could find, but I wasn't paying attention to where the driver was going, so we quickly ended up downtown.  One of my dining companions mentioned she'd had a great dinner at Jay's seafood, but after parking, we realized they weren't open for lunch.  The other two aren't huge Thai food fans, so Thai 9 was out.  I hadn't been there yet, but figured SideBar was worth taking the gamble on.

It's set up the same way Pacchia was, with the coffee bar entrance to the restaurant. The only problem is, I couldn't seem to find a hostess stand - or a hostess.  Regular readers will know it takes me about 60 seconds of waiting to find out how I'm to be seated before just dipping out and finding another place.  In just under that 60 second mark, the hostess finished her cell phone conversation and we were seated.  Our incredibly friendly server took our drink order and gave us a few to peruse the menu, and explained that they'd revamped the lunch selections.

Once I saw the Pork Churrasco with chimichurri, I was sold.  My co-workers chose the white fish, eggplant, and shrimp salad, respectively.  The food came out relatively quickly, despite the awkward lingering silences involved with dining with people you don't know very well.  I tore into mine like a well-mannered wild animal, slowly noticing I'm always the only one at business meetings to clean their plate.

The pork was well-cooked and seasoned, as well as super tender, and the chimichurri was bonkers with flavor.  The veggies were all cooked well, too - just soft enough, but with a little bite left to them. The Spanish style rice & beans, I could have lived without, but I usually don't eat rice anyway.  But then, the dish completely won me over again with the fried plantain chips.  Nice touch. Plated really nicely, as well.

Unfortunately, my co-workers were not equally impressed with their selections.  Apparently the eggplant was mushy, and the house-made vinaigrette for the salad had zero flavor.  But, considering I don't know most of these people well enough to pass judgement solely based on their opinion, I can only rate Sidebar on my personal experience.  MY food was tops, and the service (aside from the hostess) was great.  Pricing was fair, considering the scale of restaurant.  So, half a point off for the hostess and half a point for unhappy lunch buddies.

I ordered the Taste of Woody's (heh heh), which includes spare ribs, BBQ pork loin, beef smoked turkey, broasted BBQ chicken, and of course, two sides. Oh, and Texas toast. I wanted cole slaw and onion rings as my sides, and they didn't even up-charge me for the rings. Score. I actually wanted to order a different sampler, but they were out of brisket. This was fairly late in the dinner hours for this sort of place, so I wasn't too miffed about it, since they had plenty of variety in their combo platters.

Last weekend we headed to Young's Dairy for the first time with our buddies Matt & Ginger and their baby nerds. We goofed around, looked at the baby goats (Satan's most adorable creation) and their creepy sideways pupils, then sat down for an early-bird dinner at the Golden Jersey Inn. Basically, I was only interested in the fried cheese curds, but I knew if I just ordered three plates of them for dinner, I'd be hawking Activia harder than Jamie Lee Curtis by Monday.

On the way home from the honeymoon, Mr. FvF and I decided to grab dinner in the Charlotte Airport since we had such a long layover before heading back to the Gem. We'd spotted a BBQ place when we caught our connecting flight on the way to Cancun earlier in the week, so we already knew what we'd be having.

It's a good thing I filled up on snacks that I bought at the airport during our flight, because this was pretty disappointing. I ordered the pulled pork, and the Mister had the brisket, each with two sides, a fried pickle and cornbread.

The fried pickle and broccoli cheese casserole were the highlights of my meal. The pork was not only over-sauced, but the sauce was a Carolina-style red that was overwhelming with vinegar. My cole slaw had a shitload of raw onions in it and was bland aside from that. The cornbread was stale and dry. I tried a bite of Mr. FvF's brisket, which was also drenched in the same sauce and registered around "meh" on the taste-o-meter.

The service aspect is pretty much null & void, since it's a food court atmosphere - they just ask what you want and ring it up.

Finally, a recipe! The FvF household has been in such a tizzy lately prepping for our upcoming marital bliss that coming up with new recipes hasn't been at the top of my priority list. But, Dot's Market has butterfly pork chops on sale for a song, so I wanted to come up with something different than souvlaki to use it for.

We're getting pretty excited about our trip to the Riviera Maya, too, and I figured I might try something with a little Mexican flare. I made a marinade of orange juice, olive oil and the typical things you'd find in taco seasoning and gave it a whirl. Here's what you'll need for that part:

1/2 C OJ
1/4 C olive oil
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp chili powder
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/8 tsp cayenne
1/4 tsp cinnamon

Other stuff you'll need:
Skewers
Cherry tomatoes
Lime
Cilantro

Mix all of those together in an airtight container and set aside. Trim your chops of fat and cut into 1" cubes, toss them into the marinade, replace the top and give it a good shake. Marinate for at least 4 hours or better yet, overnight.

Once they've marinated, thread them onto skewers (don't forget to soak wood skewers for at least 20 minutes), interlacing them with cherry or grape tomatoes. Give them a little squeeze of fresh lime juice and place them on a hot grill (about 400 degrees) for about 4 minutes per side, until there's just a bit of give left to the pork. Let them cool for a moment, the squeeze a bit more lime juice on them and dust with fresh chopped cilantro.


The truth is, I wanted these to be really amazing, but they were missing something. I didn't marinate overnight like I normally do, so I think that may have taken away from the flavor. This marinade also didn't have as much oil in it as most marinades I make, so the pork dried out a bit, despite not being overcooked. I think some sort of richer, maybe dairy-based sauce to drizzle over before serving would have suited them well. If anyone has any ideas, I'm all ears!

In the end, though, I'm a sucker for grilled veggies (okay, grilled anything) and a colorful plate - so it wasn't a complete disappointment.

I've raved a few times about Tickets Pub in Fairborn and how much I love their Souvlaki. But, I don't always feel like driving across town to get it. Since it's grilling season, I may as well step to my Weber and learn to make it myself, tzatziki sauce included. It was not only easier than I thought, but sooooo much more delicious than expected. Most of the prep is done the night before, in order to let flavors meld and marinate, and even that only takes about 20 minutes.

Follow your nose over to Man B Que and see what all the fuss is about!


Editor's note: the heat index today was nearly 100 degrees, so it hardly seemed grilling weather, but this was so, so worth it.

After waiting several weeks with baited breath and a hankerin' for ribs that even North Carolina couldn't satisfy, Smokin' Aces finally opened for business today. Naturally, I have better things to do on a Friday night than cook dinner, so the mister and I headed there to let them do the cooking.

Back in May, I interviewed the owners and manager of the new Xenia eatery and got all of the scoop on the upcoming menu. Chef Andrew Englar impressed me with his menu plans and talked a good game about his know-how when it came to the grill - so I was really hoping he'd deliver.

The owners let me know that they had some issues opening because of, well - let's just say typical contractor issues. So, they had to ixnay the private tasting they'd planned and decided to open up shop today. They were itching to open, so the signage and decor is still a bit lacking, but in due time they'll have the place rockin' & rollin' as far as looks. And guess what? When I want ribs, I'm not looking for ambiance, I'm looking for good ribs.

They're a bit short on wait staff because everyone seems to think Xenia is out in the sticks, when really, Smokin' Aces is only about 11 miles from the woodman entrance on 35. It still didn't take them longer than 30 seconds to let us know we could sit where ever we'd like. Our server greeted us quickly, then one of the owners (Kate) came over to say hello and take our beverage order. They won't have their liquor license until Monday, but big props for having Coke Zero!

We were so famished that we opted for a full order of hog wings to start off with. You can get a half order, but really - why would you do that when they look like this?

I'd been really anxious to try these since it was a piece of pig I'd never tried before. They looked a bit different than I'd pictured in my head, but they were LEGIT. Mr. FvF barely took the first bite of his and said "These are amazing!" I replied, "You barely even had it in your mouth yet," which of course, yielded a "that's what she said." But honest to hog, they were amazing. I wouldn't be surprised if on my next visit, I ordered them as my entree. They were perfectly juicy with hardly an ounce of solid fat on them. They didn't really require any sauce, but they came with the house-made red sauce and mustard sauce. Both sauces had great flavor, but we both loved the gold sauce enough to bathe in it. (Okay, maybe that was just me.)

As for the entree, we played our usual hand - ordered the biggest ting on the menu and split it - the BBQ sampler. This was a half-slab of ribs and pulled pork served over johnny cakes with two sides. I picked the onion straws, and Mr. got the parmesan-garlic potatoes. The food came out quickly, but not so quickly that it made you suspicious of how long it had been sitting under a heat lamp.
You could actually pick up the scent of smoke coming off of the food. Knowing Chef Drew uses only real smoke, that small is enough to make you fist-fight someone over the plate. First, let's discuss the sides so I can blow my wad later talking about the meat. My onion straws were more than plentiful - I actually wasn't able to finish them. Somewhere between onion rings and haystack onions, they were sweet and crispy, but not greasy at all. The Mister's potatoes (which I forgot to snap a photo of) were top notch - scalloped-style with a few crispy edges and amazing flavor.

Now, my pretties, let's talk about meat. I consider myself pretty finicky about BBQ because my old man does such a fantastic job of it. It needs to have the right amount of fat, right amount of bark, real smoke flavor, and need not require sauce. Any place else in the Miami Valley serving BBQ have officially had their asses handed to them. Chef Drew did more than just talk a good game - this dude has perfected the technique. The pulled pork was ideal - the perfect ratio of meat, moisture and bark, and it paired perfectly with the house gold sauce. The ribs were cooked absolutely perfectly. It is so, so easy to overcook ribs, and to over-flavor them with both sauce and rub. These weren't sauced and had a killer dry-rub on them that made them easy to handle. The one end-all trait of good slab of ribs is when they don't need anything extra, and these didn't. I think I dipped into the gold sauce once or twice just to see if it matched up well (which it did), but they were so good that I didn't want to mask the flavor with it. Beautiful smoke ring, magically crispy bark - this is the stuff a carnivore's dreams are made of.

I really can't say enough wonderful things about this place. They're still getting their feet wet as far as operations go - but keep in mind, this is their first venture as proprietors in the restaurant biz. The floor was about half-full today on our visit, but I don't think those empty tables will last long if they're consistently serving food this delicious.

Yesterday an acquaintance of mine posted on Facebook that he was helping open a BBQ joint and needed some wait staff. Ever the gumshoe, I started shooting emails back and forth with him and arranged to meet up with both him and the owners today to get the scoop on the location, opening date, and most importantly - the menu.

My buddy Jason Ledbetter met sous chef Andrew Engler several years ago working at Moraine Country Club. Angler eventually moved on to the Downtown Cafe in Xenia, but recently decided it was time to venture out on his own. When Enlger and his girlfriend Kate Pasquinelli decided to make the investment and open a new restaurant, Jason was the first person he called to help get Smokin' Aces on its feet.

I met the three of them in their new location in downtown Xenia, just around the corner from Downtown Cafe where Angler most recently cheffed it up. Smokin' Aces is located in the former L.A. Sports bar space, which before that housed Noble Roman's Pizza, and apparently a handful of other retailers and eateries.

I always get to the important questions first, so YES - they do have a liquor license. They will be serving beer, wine and cocktails until 1 a.m. Monday through Saturday, and will give themselves a day of respite on Sundays. The proprietors were quick to let me know, though, that this wasn't just a bar that serves food - they'd prefer people think of it as the opposite - a great, family-friendly restaurant that happens to serve drinks. Based on the next hour we spent talking about food - that's no joke.

They'll have the standard BBQ fare you'd expect - ribs, pulled pork, chicken and steaks. Some of the side items will include house-made Saratoga chips, cole slaw, and Tabasco onion straws. You're also going to see a few things that aren't common in BBQ joints, or in Dayton at all. Instead of serving wings or chicken chunks (really, once Wendy's gets in on the action, it's no longer inventive to put it on your menu), he's going to do skewered chicken in the style you might find in a Chinese or Thai restaurant, with a few different options of marinades.
Another thing that I've personally never laid eyes on and can't wait to try, are the Hog Wings. They're basically a small section of pork shank, still on the bone, about the size of a chicken leg and very lean, tender meat. From the sounds of it, it's like eating ribs but the effort vs. reward ratio seems a lot better with hog wings. Engler will also be making his own barbecue sauces from scratch, starting with the basics - a sweeter red sauce and a Carolina gold sauce. He said he'll probably be adding a hotter version of the standard sauce if he thinks his customers want to see it. He's also using real smoke, not tossing in some Liquid Smoke, like some other chains whose names we'll omit as to not publicly shame them.

The price points are very reasonable, even for those of you ballin' on a budget. Smokin' Aces will have meal options starting around $5 for a daily special basket, up to about $16 for a giant ribeye steak or a full slab of ribs meal. Since they want to appeal to families, they'll have options for the kiddos, too - things like burgers, chicken tenders and hot dogs. They've got some desserts in mind, too, like the cheesecake-filled won-tons dusted in cinnamon and sugar that Andrew shared with me. Anything that comes as a sandwich will actually be served on pita bread, as opposed to a bun, but you can opt for a bun if you like, or even a tortilla. As for the ribs, Engler prefers not to put a name on them, but they'll all get the secret dry rub, but can also be sauced if you want'em that way. If you're not a big meat eater, or your life is empty -er, I mean if you're vegetarian, they'll have veggie options that will change daily. There's also the house salad, which will be an Iceberg-Romaine blend, topped with tomatoes, bacon, Engler's own signature horseradish dressing, house blend of cheddar, pepper jack and smoked gouda cheeses, and Tabasco onion straws. Diners will also be able to dig into family-style dining, and enjoy Smokin' Aces BBQ anywhere once their catering business gets its legs.

They plan on opening up the first week of June. The owners and operations managers had tentatively set a date of June 1, but are now possibly looking at a more realistic date of June 8 to open up shop. They're located at 40 West Main St (35) in downtown Xenia, just past 5/3 Bank in the Clocktower Shopping Plaza. They're still looking for a few good folks to add to their serving team, too! If you're interested, contact Jason Ledbetter via Facebook.
Considering the lack of good BBQ joints in the Dayton area, and the complete void of them east of town around Xenia, I think Smokin' Aces is going to do Gangbusters business. So, keep your eyes peeled for their grand opening, because you're definitely going to have to brawl with me and Mr. FvF if it comes down to the last empty table.