After the kids and I left Graeter’s, we had a real experience getting to our next destination, the Duke Energy Children’s Museum. I had printed directions to the museum from north of Cincinnati on I-75, and it didn’t occur to me that we’d be coming from I-71 and then going north. On the one hand, this is a good thing because there’s a great tunnel on 71, and it gave us more of an opportunity to see the city skyline, and I really love the way that they have the basketball and concert arena, the ballpark, and the football stadium all next to each other along the river. On the other hand, the exit that we needed for the museum center doesn’t exist going north. You can see the Cincinnati Museum Center complex from a long way off – just look for the Super Friends’ “Hall of Justice” west of the city – but not quite clearly how to get to it. Continue reading “Troy’s Cafe, West Chester OH”
Tag: burgers
Hamburger Wagon, Miamisburg OH
Probably the most peculiar place that we visited on our trip to Ohio was the granddaddy of the modern food trucks. Almost one hundred years ago, on March 25, 1913, the small city of Miamisburg was among those that were flooded after four days of intense rain swelled the Great Miami River beyond capacity. This entire corridor that we visited on this trip – Piqua, Troy, Dayton, Miamisburg – all went underwater. During the cleanup efforts, a local fellow named Sherman “Cocky” Porter started making burgers in a skillet to feed the homeless and hungry during the long weeks of the refugee crisis. Continue reading “Hamburger Wagon, Miamisburg OH”
Maid-Rite, Greenville OH
Longtime readers know how I overplan our trips and leave with a ridiculous book of directions and maps. I was all set to hit the print button on November 28 when Serious Eats’ incredibly fun Hamburger Today blog had a “chain reaction” post about the midwestern Maid-Rite shops, which don’t quite sell hamburgers as much as they sell loose meat sandwiches. If you recall television’s Roseanne, she sold those in her diner. If you never watched Roseanne, you may recall the fascinating chapter about loose meat sandwiches, a.k.a. “canteens,” “charlie boys,” or “taverns,” in John T. Edge’s great book Hamburgers & Fries: An American Story. I certainly did, and abruptly put the second day’s itinerary on hold until I could see whether there was a Maid-Rite within driving distance of Dayton. There was, barely, forty-one miles northwest in Greenville, a town that’s just as close to Muncie, Indiana as it is Dayton. Well, that settled that. Directions were revised. Continue reading “Maid-Rite, Greenville OH”
B & K Root Beer, Troy OH
We got very lucky about finding lunch in Ohio. We dropped Marie at the facility where she was training the team there and got to meet some of the group. They had a ball getting to see the baby they’d heard so much about – and the teenager, I suppose – and were interested in what the three of us would be doing and eating during our time in Dayton. I mentioned that, among our destinations, we’d be visiting a popular place in town called the Root Beer Stande. Continue reading “B & K Root Beer, Troy OH”
Parkette Drive In, Lexington KY
In the previous chapter, I explained that when the children and I made our first stop on the trip to Dayton to join Marie, my daughter ate very lightly. This is because we watched the segment of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives where Guy Fieri visited Lexington’s Parkette Drive In and she decided that she really wanted to indulge here. Regular readers may recall that she has, in her mercurial teenage way, gone back and forth over whether she actually enjoys fried chicken or not. The segment sold her on the idea. Continue reading “Parkette Drive In, Lexington KY”
Hoskins Drugs, Clinton TN
Marie’s job had taken her back to Ohio, setting the stage for our biggest road trip since we started the blog, since our honeymoon expedition to Montreal and back, in fact. She flew to Dayton on a Sunday for a week. On the following Wednesday morning, about three minutes after the baby finally spotted a photo of Marie on the wall and remembered who it was he’d been missing – “Mommy! Mommy!” – the car was packed, and the baby and the teen girlchild were strapped in and we were off to join her. Continue reading “Hoskins Drugs, Clinton TN”
The Pharmacy Burger Parlor, Nashville TN
I only had one particular restaurant in mind for our trip to Nashville, and decided that when we got to town, we’d let our friend Tory pick where we ate, but only after we stopped by The Pharmacy Burger Parlor and Beer Garden. I had read about The Pharmacy, a very trendy and popular burger joint and biergarten – so trendy that the predictable backlash came almost instantly – in East Nashville, and, on our last visit to town, when we stopped by Mas Tacos Por Favor to enjoy some of their Friday fish tacos, we saw the very long line of people waiting to get in. I figured we’d wait a little while, for the fad to cool, and stop by during some off-peak time to try the burgers and see what the fuss was about. Then I read a little more closely and learned they make their own sodas from an old-fashioned pump. This suddenly became very promising. Continue reading “The Pharmacy Burger Parlor, Nashville TN”
Marie, Let's Eat! 