You may wonder why a blog that focuses on Real Estate and supporting local would feature a chain restaurant, but not only is The Capital Grille a small chain with only 58 locations across the entire country, it is unlike any other chain I've ever experienced.  While most chains focus on quantity and consistency, The Capital Grille focuses on quality and experience, making it worthy of the #worththedrive seal of approval.  Hubs was introduced to The Capital Grille by a client several years ago and fell in love with the food, the service and the atmosphere.  He took me there for our next anniversary, and it quickly became our "special occasion" destination.  Over the years, we have celebrated birthdays and anniversaries with The Capital Grille and they always find a way to make it special.  They even send Hubs an email reminder to schedule our celebrations.  We enjoy exceptional service, a card and confetti adorn the table and there's alwaysa little something...

I try to feature restaurants that I believe are #worththedrive no matter where in the Greater Cincinnati area you're from but with the current social distancing and more people cooking and eating at home, I thought now was the time to go a different direction. Who among us hasn't watched Cheers (oops, my age is showing!) and wanted that special place where everyone knows your name?  Would you believe I have that at a butcher's shop?  I grew up going to Stehlin's with my parents and to this day I think it's the best around. There are some very good meat markets closer to home, including a really good one right here in Batesville, but no one's smoked meats and sauerkraut compare to Stehlin's Meat Market on Colerain Avenue in Cincinnati, Ohio.  I know I'm a bit biased because of my experience, but everyone I have sent to Stehlin's says the same thing, so I'm thinking I may be right on this one. Stehlin's Meat Market started as a meat wa...

So here's the deal - Feature Friday is late this week.  I started writing around 10:00 this morning and here it is 9:10pm and I'm just now sitting down to finish my article.  Want to know why?  It had been a while since we'd been to Sushi Samurais, so I was having to dig for pictures.  And of course, each one looked more delicious than the last.  The more I wrote and the more pictures I found, the more I wanted sushi!  So, Hubs and I finished work for the day and started our 52 mile, 50 minute (each way) treck to Sushi Samurais.  You're probably also wondering why I haven't found a sushi place closer to Batesville when I always talk about eating local.  Trust me, I've tried.  But Sushi Samurais truly is #worththedrive Hubs and I do not celebrate what we call the Hallmark Holidays, but on Valentine's Day 2014 we actually went out to a nice dinner.  We were both working in the same part of town, which happened to be almost an hour fro...

Eating local doesn't only apply to restaurants.  Today I got to meet a fellow Girl Scout at Amack's Well in the Batesville Shopping Village and they proved that having a great place to drink (coffee!) local is also a valuable part of our community. In the 1830s Teunis and Nancy Amack, two of the first settlers of Batesville, dug a well that served the early settlers of the town, as well as providing water to the railroad, putting the community on the map.  Like the name suggest, Amack's Well is still a place for friends and neighbors to gather for a drink.  And the water is still free. The coffee shop brews Deeper Roots coffee beans, which I like for two reasons.  First, Deeper Roots is not only ethically sourced, they call themselves relationally sourced.  Check out their website for more information, but the bottom line is they focus on people and communities and not just the bottom line.  Second, Deeper Roots is actually roasted very cl...

Yesterday was National Chili Day and living so close to Cincinnati, you know I'm a fan of Cincinnati chili!  This irritates Hubs to no end, who grew up in Texas and says not only does cinnamon have no place in chili, but with the consistency, flavors and serving methods it's not even chili.  Well he is welcome to his opinion, no matter how wrong it is! In my experience, people either love Cincinnati or hate it.  It's actually more of a Mediterranean meat sauce than an American chili and I think the misnomer is part of why the dish is so divisive.  But that doesn't make it any less delicious.  It doesn't keep it from being featured in pop culture.  And it doesn't make me not feature it for National Chili Day! Picture courtesy of Wikipedia Country duo Big and Rich grabbed a bowl of Skyline Chili in Comin' to your City, but for me if you're going to Skyline you're getting a three-way or a coney.  Okay, a chili cheese sandwich, because I don...