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The quest to The Senate finally comes to an end.  On my 4th attempt there, I was finally able to come inside.  Was it worth all of those trips? YES, definitely!

So the quest begins…we start by driving from downtown to the “hood”…by taking Vine Street into Over The Rhine,  but it seemed like the hood must have disappeared.   The area is transitioning into one of Cincinnati’s better renovated neighborhoods!  Across the street from The Senate is Lavomatic Cafe, which features a roof top patio.

So, what type of restaurant is The Senate? ” Gourmet Street Food” is what they call it.  What is Gourmet Street Food?  The first thing that comes to mind is Ramen noodles with chopped up hot dogs.  The second thing that comes to mind is…it’s probably hard to eat Ramen noodles while walking the street.   Anyhow, they don’t have Ramen noodles on their menu.

We walk into there at about 12:15pm on a Wednesday.  Luckily, it is not over crowded and we were able to find a table for 7 people.  The atmosphere is a cool bar/eatery.  Very nice looking, but not super uppity, which I dig.  The server comes out with a fancy bottle of water, and hands us menus.  My mouth gets watery as I run up and down this menu.  This was it!  Yes, the menu was excellent!  They had all types of random things in here.  One of the things that I really like is innovation, especially when it comes to food!  This is where you can find those new trendy Korean Hot Dogs that you see on TV.

Anyhow, I ran through the menu, and the unique hot dogs caught my eye.  I was split between Croque Madame and the Hello Kitty.   (Yes.  I know…the names, leave me alone).   After a closer look at the menu, the fried egg on the Croque Madame sold me.  After deciding to get the hotdog, I felt like I still needed something to complement it…so, the Duck Fat Fries it is!  The hell with the diet!

And another view of the croque madame

Truffle Fries...the Duck Fat Fries look the same too

Ok, so what’s the verdict on here?  The thing that looks like  sour cream is actually an egg; to me, it seems  more like a  poached egg than a fried egg, but it is delicious.  It becomes a little messy since the egg oozes all over the hotdog, but hey, that’s what makes it good!  The effect is similar to dipping toast into running egg yolk with soy sauce in it.  By the way, I did it again, I bit into the hotdog before remembering to take a picture of it.  Yes, that hot dog was pretty damn good.

Now, onto the fries.  Since my hand was covered in egg yolk at this point (I am a messy eater, and this happens to me with the toast and egg yolk too), I decided to finish up the hotdog before getting to the fries.  The fries are served with a side of some tan colored sauce.  I guess I should have asked the server what it was, but eh, I just ate it.  It was pretty good, but  I still preferred ketchup, which I don’t know if that’s a forbidden thing here or not.  The Duck Fat fries were ok.  I give it a 6 on a scale of 1-10.   I’ve never eaten duck fat fries, but I heard about it before.  I was expecting it to be something out of this world, but it was ok.

Anyhow, overall the food was great, but a little pricey for the Low Budget Crew.   But for the creativity, uniqueness, and the environment, it will make it to the list of frequent visits for me.  It definitely makes it on my  ”Good restaurants in Cincinnati” list!  It’s also a great place to take your out-of-town friends.

That area is transitining fast.  I think The Senate will definitely bring more eateries and businesses in the area. And, I’d suggest you to get a condo in the Gateway Quarter soon!

Check them out on Facebook, and here’s their website.

http://www.senatepub.com/

1212 Vine St
Cincinnati, OH, 45202
513-602-3222