The day after Thanksgiving when most people are recovering from the turkey overload or out catching some choice deals Black Friday shopping, @mrsbozz and I were on our way down to Ohio. This was one of the few weekends that we had available to go watch our niece play basketball for her high school varsity team.
Just one small problem. We were in Columbus, OH and the game was Saturday night in Cincinnati, OH. It's a fairly short drive from Columbus down to Cincy (1.5 hours), but since our niece was riding with her team on the bus, we decided to head down a little early and get some dinner before the 5:00 pm game.
This wasn't our inlaws first time making this trip, so they decided to take us to a little place called the Blue Goose in Sharonville which is a suburb of Cincinnati.
Like I said, our inlaws had been here before, but we weren't quite sure what to expect due to that little event that was happening in Columbus on Saturday. If we were in Columbus, we likely would have had our pick of any restaurant given the fact that most of the population was down at the Michigan/Ohio State game. Outside of Columbus, it was a better bet that most people would be at the local bar watching the game.
The Blue Goose was pretty full, but not so full that we couldn't get a seat. There was a ton of red in the building and I felt a little out of place wearing my Michigan State hoodie. The truth is, I figured that was probably the safest thing to wear down there. During this game and this game alone MSU fans tend to be pretty neutral. We don't really want either team to win!
We found a high four top table and ordered some drinks. It's actually kind of funny, my wife and her sister ordered the exact same thing and my brother in law did the same. They got captain morgan and diet coke, while the boys got tall Yuengling (oldest brewery in the US) draft beers.
It's been a while since I have had Yuengling on tap and it was just as delicious as I remembered it. The menu at the Blue Goose is pretty small compared to some bars I have seen. In fact, I was actually surprised to find they didn't have any chicken wings on their menu. That's likely the direction I would have went.
Since they didn't, I ended up getting the burger that you see above.
While the patty definitely looked pre-formed, it still had a lot of flavor and the bun complimented the burger well.
The fries were fantastic, and my only regret is that they didn't give me more of them. Between sharing a couple with my wife and scarfing the rest down myself, they were gone far too quickly.
We were about halfway through our meal and the Michigan/Ohio State game was winding down. With Michigan shocking everyone by dominating Ohio State, it is safe to say the crowd wasn't in the best of spirits.
In fact, I have never seen a bar clear out quite so quickly before closing time. The place went from relatively packed to us and just a couple more tables being occupied in a matter of seconds.
I didn't get any interior pictures of the place due to it being so packed at first and then me totally forgetting to even try after it cleared out. My apologies.
My wife and her sister decided to split the chicken nachos and the black bean wrap. It was a smart move on their part because it allowed them to try a couple different things. It still ended up being way too much food and I was able to snag a couple of nachos after I finished my burger.
The seasoning they put on the chicken was really good. I was almost wishing I had gotten the nachos myself.
I was trying to be quick with these pictures, so they didn't turn out quite as clearly as I would have liked. While I don't mind grated cheese on my nachos, I am more of a liquid cheese kind of guy. I think that might have been the one drawback of these nachos. Other than that, they were excellent.
My brother in law got the nachos as well. He opted for the ground beef versus the shredded chicken though. He also had them leave the jalapenos on whereas the ladies asked to have them left off.
He had no trouble finishing his whole plate of nachos. Just as we were finishing up our meal the Michigan State/Penn State game was coming on the TV. Unfortunately, we weren't able to watch it as we had to get down the road to the high school where my niece was playing.
It was a really good meal and I would definitely recommend a trip to the Blue Goose if you get the chance. I want to say we would visit here again, but given how many great places there are to eat in Cincinnati that we haven't tried yet, I can't say for a fact we would come back. That's the pro/con of a big foodie town like Cincy or Columbus. Just too many options and too little time. If you lived there you could seriously eat at a different place each night for probably three years straight if not more.
Unfortunately, my nieces team lost the game. She got to play most of the fourth quarter though even though she isn't a starter and she is the youngest player on the varsity team. She did amazing forcing several turnovers against a really good team.
It was a physical game and there was a point or two where I thought we might get thrown out of the game for yelling at the officials. I think the other team would have won anyway, but when the officials aren't calling a clean game it becomes dangerous for the players.
Number 44 that you see in the photo above finally fouled out in the fourth quarter, but if they had been calling the game clean she really should have been out by the beginning of the second.
After the game we hopped in the car and drove the five hours home to Michigan so we could rest and recuperate on Sunday before a full work week. Traffic was thankfully pretty light outside of Cincinnati and we made it home just before midnight.
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