Waterfront.

Oh, Cincinnati. You've told me over and over about the magic of Jeff Ruby restaurants, but I am sad to say I had never been to one. The reasons are many - they are mostly financial. Jeff Ruby, for those of you who aren't locals, has a chain of restaurants that are centered around the Cincinnati area. They're mostly upscale locations that are pretty steak-focused. As I also consider myself to be steak-focused, it's sort of shocking that the two of us had yet to meet.

John took me to see Cymbeline at the Cincinnati Shakespeare Company last night, and as him getting me theatre tickets is such a rare thing in our lives, we decided it would be nice to go out to a fancy dinner beforehand. We were going to go to The Precinct - another Jeff Ruby establishment that I've heard great things about. Unable to get a reservation, we decided on the South Beach Grill at the Waterfront.

First of all, let's talk about the decor. Think 1980s cruise ship throwback. Lots of neon, colors that no 2007 interior designer would consider putting together, etc. Still, there's a quaint quality to all of it. The decor is a little tacky, but please don't let that be any indicator of the quality of the food.

And, it's an actual boat. It's constantly docked, but still a boat. If you're lucky like we were, you can be seated right next to the window with a beautiful view of downtown Cincinnati.

The food was incredible. John and I didn't go terribly adventurous - they have a large seafood bar, but we stuck to classics. Steak Collinsworth (there's a joke here, but it boils down to really being Steak Oscar, a beautifully cooked steak topped with crabmeat, bernaise sauce and asparagus) and lobster for me, a filet and eight ounces of king crab for him. We traded food back and forth so we'd both get a little of everything. It was an incredible amount of food. We left very full and very happy. I don't think I've ever had a more satisfying meal here in Cincinnati.

Though the waiter pushed suggestions for bottles of wine on us, we declined. We opted instead for individual glasses - he had a shiraz that he really liked, I opted for the waiter's suggestion of a zinfandel. Of course I forgot to write down the names, but I was impressed with mine. I'm branching out and starting to drink more reds (Michelle, did I remember to tell you that we loved the bottle of wine you and Kevin gave us when we were at Eden Park?), and the zinfandel was light enough to satisfy my tastes and pair well with both my steak and lobster.

It was the most expensive meal John and I have ever had together, but it was also the most delicious. I wish we hadn't been on a deadline to get to our show, because I think we rushed through it a little more than we would have liked. If the food here is any indicator of how the rest of the Ruby restaurants are, sign me up.

A side note: I've decided to participate in NaBloPoMo, or National Blog Posting Month. I did this last year, though a month late as a personal project. Basically, I'll be posting once a day every day of November. The only problem here is that I'll be out of town with no internet access from November 1-4, so I'm already going to be missing the goal. Still, I think it's the spirit that counts, and I'm happy to participate as well as I can.