Barbecue in the Old Neighborhood

Medical problems are going to keep me from going on my normal vacation trip this fall, but I wanted to do something special and decided to take one day a week during the month of September to go some place a little different for lunch and then browse in an antique store.  This week, we went to a restaurant called Eli’s Barbecue .  It’s located in the East End section of Cincinnati where I grew up on what is now called Riverside Drive (in my day, it was Eastern Avenue).

The decoration is funky and fun ….

…with old LP records being played on a turntable inside.

There’s a big tent for outdoor dining, but my daughter and I prefer to eat inside and see the traffic going by the front windows on busy Eastern Avenue (oops – I mean Riverside Drive).

Barbecue is the specialty and the heady smell of the outside smoker fills the entire neighborhood.  We like the pork barbecue and baked beans – and an Orange Crush goes well with this meal.

The restaurant sets one block from the Ohio River bank.

The back view of the building shows the changes that have come to Eastern Avenue and the things that have stayed the same.

After lunch we went to a small town called Milford and I found this pretty plate at an antique shop.

It was a perfect vacation day.

Click on pictures to enlarge.

It Was a Very Good Year – 1932

My two daughters were here for lunch and brought out a huge, brightly wrapped box.

They informed me that it was exactly 80 days until my 80th birthday and that I was going to receive a gift each of the 80 days to commemorate a year in my life.  This box held the gifts for the first 20 years.

The first gift to be opened was for the year I was born, 1932 – a large bottle commemorating Washington’s 200th Birthday – 1732-1932.

Truly, there are treasures in my life – far greater than antique bottles.

These two girls have spent six months scouring antique malls and eBay to come up with gifts representing 80 years.  Next Friday, I’ll show what else they found.