Pontiac's Brisket Nachos
Each week CityBeat staffers and dining writers tell you what they ate this weekend. We're not always proud — or trendy — but we definitely spend at least some money on food.
Danny Cross: My girlfriend’s parents popped into town Saturday morning, which meant that we needed to eat out a couple times and they were going to pay for it all. (Not my fault; they wouldn’t even let us buy goetta at Findlay Market for Sunday brunch. Then they pretended to like it; nice people.) Here’s a tip for wandering around Vine Street in OTR with a party of four: Only send one person into a restaurant to ask how long the wait might be, rather than having a line of people shuffling into and out of the place and feeling dumb when they say it’s going to be an hour and a half (on a goddam Saturday afternoon). Fortunately, places like Krueger’s Tavern and Pontiac Bourbon & BBQ have joined the fray, opening slightly larger spaces (more seating, less waiting). We popped in to Pontiac after a couple denials at other places, and we were quite pleased with the result. We were smart enough to split sandwiches (pulled pork and a smoked turkey) because we also ordered the brisket nachos, baked beans and fries. The nachos were incredible: brisket, nacho cheese, sour cream, black olives, maybe some salsa and other stuff. They’re worth stopping by to grub on with a couple beers pretty much anytime. The food and service were excellent, as was the case at Zula later that evening, where we ate pots of mussels and talked about current events.
Ilene Ross: Friday night’s sunset brought with it the Jewish holiday of Passover. It’s one of my very favorite meals because there are so many traditional foods and the feeling is extremely festive. My mom, aunt and sister prepared all of our family favorites including matzoh ball soup, gefilte fish — a poached mixture of ground fish that’s kind of an acquired taste — brisket, chicken, cheesy potatoes, some really fabulous Greek appetizers since my aunt is a Greek Jew, and this crazy delicious dessert that she makes called Swedish Cream. Auntie Sophie refuses to give anyone the recipe for Swedish Cream, so we’re all really nice to her under the assumption that she’ll bequeath it to the one she likes the most. Also, since we’re not allowed to eat anything that’s been leavened or made with traditional flour, we had a flourless chocolate torte.
Jesse Fox: I spent this weekend traveling back home from covering the Burgerama IV music festival and visiting California. Because of this, I found most of my diet coming from gas stations and restaurants that were open late, which usually ended up being fast food. One of the better meals came from a stop in Albuquerque at a place called the Standard Diner. My brother wanted to stop there after seeing they offered a bacon-wrapped meatloaf from an episode of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. I opted for a standard wedge salad (sans bacon and blue cheese) and a margarita. Other than that, Redbull, Clif bars and way too many chips helped get me from Los Angeles back to Cincinnati.
Anne Mitchell: (Trigger warning: meat porn!) We had a cabin at Lake Hope, a state park in Ohio near Athens. At the lodge there they have an absolutely wonderful restaurant that specializes in barbecue, using meats from Ohio State's agriculture department. For Easter brunch buffet, they had an amazing spread of eggs, ham, scalloped potatoes and on and on. I indulged myself by filling up my plate with nothing but a heap of grilled asparagus and two big slices of their absolutely wonderful beef brisket, including an end cut that was crispy and burnt. I didn't even bother with the barbecue sauce — it would have been gilding the lily, since the meat had such perfect flavor. I'm still drooling over the memory. And for dessert I had one of their fresh baked brownies with homemade caramel ice cream.
Pama Mitchell: We had brunch at the Palace for Easter. Best bite was the made-to-order dessert crepes. Bonus: Pete Rose sighting as he was eating there, too.
