Cincinnati EATS: Lavomatic

by julie on June 16, 2008

The first Cincinnati EATS appeared to be a great success– a ton of people, all happily munching on Chef Joanne Drilling’s food at Lavomatic. Our friends Ted and Tracy joined us, where we met up with Vudutu and his lovely significant other Donna as well as Jean-François Flechet (the Taste From Belgium guy). We were a darn lively table.

A couple of issues– I don’t think Lavo is quite set up for this many people all eating at once, but it was a pretty good try. The menu was chilled cucumber dill soup, chicken, and a pavlova.

The chilled cucumber soup was creamy, with plenty of dill. It wasn’t low fat by any means– I could taste the heavy cream– but it was perfect for the steamy day we had last Tuesday. This was my favorite part of the meal, but I am very partial to chilled soups.

We’re going to pretend that picture is in focus, okay? The chicken was a great idea– lots of zucchini, roasted tomatoes, and garlic– but the final product was not so great. It was a bit dry and needed some more sauce for both flavor and moisture. This was where you really noticed that the kitchen wasn’t used to turning out 100 chicken breasts at the same time. It was obviously high quality chicken, but even really good chicken won’t hold up well to overcooking. Definitely an A for effort, and I expect that if I tried this on a regular evening, it would be fine.

And now we have one of my favorite desserts that, sadly, won’t be available much longer: pistachio pavlova with strawberries and citrus curd. The curd was perfectly sweet, yet tart, and the pistachio meringue was crispy and just a tiny bit chewy– probably from the humidity. Meringue doesn’t do very well with humidity, thus we won’t see this on Lavomatic’s menu until next spring. The salty-sweet combination is always a favorite in my book.

In all, I really can’t wait to see what Cincinnati EATS comes up with for their next get-together. For $36, this really can’t be beat.

copyright 2008, winemedineme/Julie Niesen. All rights reserved.
  • Cin Twin1

    When is the next event? Are they planning on doing these things monthly or quarterly? I definitely want to try to attend the next one.

  • Julie

    I’m not sure! I know Clint and Stepfanie (the founders) read this blog, so hopefully they’ll chime in with an answer.

    How was India?

  • Michael

    Julie,

    Nice to meet you as I passed through the restaurant that evening.

    Michael

  • Heather

    I was there as well – my chicken wasn’t dry at all – but I didn’t like the soup at all. I wrote about it in my blog…

    I can’t wait for the next event – I had a really nice time at this one.

    Hope to get to say hi to all of you there next time!

    :-)
    Heather

    http://foodhussy.blogspot.com/

  • Julie

    Michael– I picked up some of your salmon at Luken’s on Sunday. Awesome. I’ll write a full review later, but it was just great.

  • Cin Twin1

    India was definitely an experience. I don’t think I would ever choose to go there for a vacation. So many things I take for granted I wasn’t even aware of until my trip. I didn’t have an unlimited supply of water. I couldn’t eat any raw fruits or veggies. But the people there were REALLY nice. The culture is one that is very passive and unagressive. I have had my fill of India food to last me at least a few months.

    The salmon from Luken’s is incredible! I went and wrote on his blog after I got home to tell him it was great, and ask him to smoke other things as well. Here is his blog: http://justcured.com/blog/

  • vudutu

    We had a great time thanks Julie, nice to meet the boyfriend. Right on review, I have no idea how Joanne pulled it off with the limited counter space they have but it was a great effort. Personally I could have done without the pounding techno music but there were lots of fun people having fun and I got to put faces with names! A tip for single guys, sign up for the next event right now, it was at least 5 to 1 gals to guys.

  • Clint Watson

    We’re planning to do it quarterly. We want this event to be as much of a social event as it is a visit to a restaurant. If we did it monthly, it would definitely get played out and we wouldn’t be able to pack the restaurant each time. The next event should be sometime in late August/early September. We’ve already been approached by a few restaurants to host the next event and will begin planning the details shortly.

  • Anonymous

    You should stop using the word “ton” – especially when talking about “tons of people in Cincinnati” who love to eat.

  • Julie

    Uh, thanks, Anonymous.

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