a collection of tried and true
Coquette Patisserie is a little french pastry shop that also serves wine, beer and oysters. It opened up earlier in the year on Euclid Avenue on the northern end of Uptown in University Circle. I have been there a handful of times and always have to bring the girls home some macarons. Last Friday’s selection were all very tasty.
We went on a visit to Lake View Cemetery last weekend on our eternal quest to find the infamous daffodil hill. We have looked several times in recent years but can never find it.
We went to two new hot eating spots in Cleveland this past weekend. Friday evening we went to hear the Cleveland Orchestra perform Mozart’s Requiem with the Hiti’s and Monroe’s. John was able to get his firm’s box at the last minute so we had superb seats right above the action. The concert was amazing as always. The first Friday at Severance is always early at 7:00PM followed by another band in the lobby. This Friday it was a full gospel choir. There were several bars set up throughout with the Hall beautifully lit and cocktail tables all 
over. Very nice. We then hopped over to Larchmere to Felice which is a converted house made into a nice restaurant. There was a nice big porch, the bar was on the second floor and we sat up on the 3rd floor. It was still totally full at 9:30 when we go there. Courtney and I split an order of mushroom crostini, I had a really good cheese burger and a side order of sauteed Brussels sprouts and Courtney had a pasta with butternut squash and mushrooms. While the service was a bit spotty, I felt sorry for the poor girl as she had to run up three flights of stairs the whole night. Definitely a place to go back to in the summer as they have a great patio.
On Saturday we all went to Town Hall on West 25th for brunch. We have been meaning to go here forever and had a great time with Claire, Sean, Jack, Rachel, Grace, Nicole and Sophia. The place was hopping as all places on W25th are these days. I had a draft from a brewery in California that I forget the name of that was very good, Jack and Courtney had Bells Oberon. The girls all got crepes from the crepe bar, I had grilled cheese and tomato soup and Courtney had a veggie burger that was very good – made mostly with beets. Everyone’s meals were great and we really liked the vibe – again they have a great patio that will be great in a few weeks if it ever gets warm here in C town.
Friday, April 25th, 2014
We spent a fun filled weekend last week in Cincinnati celebrating Jack’s graduation from University of Cincinnati… hurray! Sophia, Mom, Dad and myself took off from Euclid on Friday around 12:30, following Courtney and Grace who departed the previous day on a two-day college visiting trip to Wooster, University of Dayton, Miami of Ohio and University of Cincinnati. Claire and Sean also hit the road about 30 minute after us after working for a half of day. It was an awful drive through Ohio with nice weather but several standstills due to accidents and heavy traffic in Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati. We were happy to arrive at the Embassy Suites across the river in Kentucky around 5:45 just in time for Manager’s Reception cocktail hour – everyone’s favorite part of staying at an Embassy Suites – where Jack, Courtney and Grace were already chilling out. We had a great time imbibing for almost two hours celebrating with Jack and happy that everyone was together. We decided to bring a picnic with us for dinner that night as it is a bit of college graduation tradition and it worked out great as we booked an extra large suite again for one of the rooms that comes with a bar and a large table. Mom and Dad brought brisket and fixings that we warmed up in the microwave and I made and packed cole slaw for the brisket, a tortellini salad with roasted peppers and peas, a tabbouleh salad and a fruit salad. It worked out great and everything was superb. After dinner around 9:00 I talked the kids into walking across the beautiful Roebling bridge and walking a few blocks to Fountain Square in downtown Cincinnati to get Graeters for dessert. It was a beautiful warm evening, the Ohio River was calm and the Graeters was good as always… although the line was crazy long. We managed to stay up a bit longer and play black out – our usual vacation card game.
Saturday, April 26th, 2014
We woke up kind of late and had a leisurely Embassy Suites breakfast – myself perfecting the bagel and bacon and cream cheese combo. We went on a mid-morning field trip to Party Source about a mile down the road. It is a huge liquor store with aisle after aisle of party supplies, wine, beer and liquor. It was pretty amazing. We got a case of wine, Dad got a case of Black Velvet and a case of wine and Sean and Claire loaded up also. What a place. We then went back to the hotel and got ready to go to the commencement at UC. Jack was only able to get five tickets so Claire, Sean and Sophia spent the day at IKEA and Jungle Jim’s – a huge specialty grocery store that they ended up spending two hours in. We dropped Jack off at his house at 12:30 and parked on campus. We walked around a bit as it was an amazingly beautiful afternoon – high 70’s and sunny – and avoided going into the Arena where we knew we would be sitting for a long time. We ended up going in at 1:00 to get seats as it was filling up. The spring commencement was Cincinnati’s largest ever so it was packed to the rafters. The ceremony was almost three hours long… very long. The speakers weren’t very good either and they handed out several thousand diplomas. Yikes. We were happy to be there though. We hung out on the green outside after the ceremony taking pictures. Claire, Sean and Sophia met us there so we were able 
to take family pictures. We met Rachel’s family afterward outside also. We had dinner at a place called Bella Luna on the south east side of Cincinnati. I researched places about a week ahead of time and it looked good… and they took a reservation for 15 at 6:00 so it was a keeper. We had a really nice three hour long dinner eating lots of good food and celebrating the graduates. The menu was Italian and we splurged and all ate lots of good stuff. We said our goodbyes to Rachel’s family and Jack and Rachel as we were driving straight home after breakfast.
Eat On Edgecliff 