Sunday is usually a day that you have to pry me off the couch, especially during football season. However, I had heard about the once-a-month New Orleans Jazz and Food lunch at Washington Platform (1000 Elm St., Downtown; 513-421-0110), and since whatever the Bengals did wouldn’t matter, I asked my friend Barbara to check it out with me.  

Jim Gilliece and his wife Pati have owned the MainStrasse fixture Chez Nora since 1994 when they bought the bar/restaurant from the legendary Nora Dempsey. So, yes, at one time there actually was a “Nora”! Previously, Gilliece was a stand-up comic living in Manhattan, but upon reaching “a fork in the road,” he decided to move back to his native Covington.  

Hong Kong native Alex Chin has been an innovator in Asian cuisine in Cincinnati for over 25 years, from his first small restaurant in Clifton to his critically acclaimed Pacific Moon Café. Currently Chef Chin is overseeing the kitchen at Suzie Wong's. The sleek dining room serves as the backdrop for Chin's modern take on all things Asian.  

Every so often I stumble onto a restaurant that makes me say “Wow, that was insanely good!” Aunt Flora’s House of Soul in Silverton is the embodiment of that statement. Aunt Flora (aka Katrina Mincy) and her gregarious husband, Ron, opened their new restaurant in August on Montgomery Road in a slightly hard-to-find storefront that used to house a Chinese restaurant.  

With The Classy Pig in Ludlow, Pinky Sue's in Newport and Riverside Barbeque and Drive Thru on River Road in Sedamsville, suddenly Greater Cincinnati is sprouting some of the little barbeque gems that you find in so many other parts of the country. If Guy Fieri ever decides to return to Cincinnati for his 'Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives' show, he has to stop at these new spots.  

After retiring from the Bengals at the end of the 1994 season, Cleveland native Tim McGee stayed in town and is now making his mark in the restaurant world instead of the football field. McGee, who also is a prominent sports agent, opened Geeter's Bar & Grill in Mason.  

Airport dining usually conjures up thoughts of overpriced, processed fast food, but I discovered that could not be further from the truth when I recently had lunch at the Sky Galley Restaurant at Lunken Airport. Located in the charming Art Deco terminal, the Sky Galley is a throwback to a time when dining (and air travel) were both more relaxing and civilized than they are today.