We have for you the holy trinity of parenting hacks — and yes, it involves sandwiches. Pleasant Ridge’s Red Balloon Café + Play is a one-stop destination for baby care, play time and to grab a quick meal. While the menu has a number of kid-friendly options (cheese sticks, turkey cubes, freeze-dried strawberries), parents are welcome to let the playroom take the kids off their hands for a while and dine solo on scratch-made meals, like avocado toast on Sixteen Bricks rye for breakfast or a curried chicken salad wrap with a side of watermelon gazpacho for lunch. At Red Balloon, your little angels are free to climb, push and pull on an array of toys and playground staples (slides, ladders, peek-a-boo huts). The entire concept is designed for ages 1 to 6, and the shop also includes a selection of natural family goods for purchase, from postpartum teas and diapers to teething tablets. Having trouble getting the hang of that baby wrap? Stop in for advice or attend one of their classes, where you can try out different types of carriers before you buy. Red Balloon Café + Play, 6200 Montgomery Road, Pleasant Ridge, 513-620-8328, redballooncafe.com.
Previous Winners
We write these words not to encourage the fine proprietors of Over-the-Rhine staple Senate to raise their prices but to acknowledge that without such a deal many of us would not often indulge in such fare. The “$25 wood-grilled, dry-aged ribeye” — which costs just $24 — with marrow butter and truffle fries is kind of like getting half-off a badass fancy meal. You can spend the other 20 bucks on the restaurant’s excellent beer, wine and cocktail lists. Or, if you’re one of those people who uses a budget app to make yourself feel guilty about how often you eat out, go with the $17 seared scallops or slum it with a $10 award-winning street dog until you’re deserving of the full steak treatment. Senate, 1212 Vine St., Over-the-Rhine, 513-421-2020, senatepub.com.
Some might argue that any good restaurant on the West Side is a hidden gem, but Sakura truly takes the cake. Located off I-74, this Japanese steakhouse is really hard to find from the street and must be accessed from Old Rybolt Road past the BP gas station or via Rybolt Road past the Holiday Inn, near the closed (we hope) Imperial House Hotel. The adventure continues inside, where patrons can choose from a seat at a Teppanyaki grill table or a spot at the sushi bar for classic rolls and rice dishes. If the music and lights emanating from the adjacent Hillside Gastropub tempt you, just head next door for drinks, jams and dad dancing. Sakura Steakhouse, 5510 Rybolt Road, Dent, 513-574-9666, searchable on Facebook.
Very few things beat waking up in the morning as a kid and sliding twin Pop-Tarts into the toaster for a morning jolt of sugar. Benjamin Arington, owner, creator and chef of Fat Ben’s Bakery, has taken that childhood nostalgia and updated it for 2017 (and for grown-ups) with the creation of his pastry pockets. The pockets are rectangular crusty pastries filled with classy flavor combos like strawberry cheesecake, blackberry thyme and pineapple rosemary. And if you don’t feel like adulting quite yet, Arington also offers flavors like milk and cereal, chocolate PB fudge and Girl Scout Cookie. While you can only order the addictive pastry pockets online for now, a Fat Ben’s storefront is coming soon. Fat Ben’s Bakery, 917-628-8202, fatbensbakery.com.
