Cedar

Cedar sits in an old Covington storefront and, the way it was told to us at the table, it opened as a brunch spot. In fact it still it, so go early if you like. Then it did what a lot of brunch spots do and added a dinner menu, and that dinner menu was the traditional kind, steaks and the like. It didn't take. So they moved part of the lunch menu over to dinner, and when the crowd kept asking for the breakfast items anyway, they gave up fighting it and made the brunch menu available all day.

That's why you can sit down for Saturday dinner and be handed a menu with BRUNCH across the top of it. It's not a mistake. It's the whole point of the place, and once you understand that, the rest of the visit makes sense.

The Vibe

The bones of the building are doing a lot of work here. Exposed brick on three sides, cedar beams overhead, a black pressed-tin ceiling, and garage doors that open the restaurant to the sidewalk. The bar is a long marble top on a pressed-tin front with teal stools lined up along it and a star-pattern tile inset under your feet. Backbar is stocked deep in Tito's and Camarena, which tells you something about the cocktail list before you open it. Cincinnati stadium prints hang on the one white wall. It reads like somebody renovated an old Covington building with care instead of gutting it, and on a Saturday evening it was comfortably busy without being loud.

I started with the Bee Sting, which is Tito's, lemon sour, hot honey and jalapeño. My worry with a drink like that is the honey burying the pepper. It didn't and you better like the pop because it is jalapeño on the first sip, jalapeño on the last one. That's the best version of that drink, and it set my expectations for the kitchen.

The Food

We went wide. Two appetizers, four entrees, one dessert, three people.

The poutine is a reason to come. House-cut fries under a lamb and chorizo gravy, ghost pepper queso, a sunny egg and green onion. Nobody else around here is doing a lamb and chorizo gravy, and it's fantastic. The gravy and queso pool under the egg rather than coating the whole pile, so break the yolk and stir before you judge it. Once you do, it was one thing the whole table agreed was fantastic.

The Three Amigos is ghost pepper queso, house guacamole, chimichurri and house tortilla chips. The chips are fried and lightly salted. The queso was the table favorite of the three dips and don't be scared by the name; it isn't spicy. The chimichurri was mine, and the guac held its own. Note that the chimichurri comes out closer to olive green than the red the menu promises. It didn't bother me. It's good.

My daughter got the Firebird and it is juicy to say the least. It's a fried chicken thigh, not a pounded breast, glazed in chipotle hot honey on a brioche bun with slaw underneath and pickles on top, and it stayed juicy from the first bite to the last. The bun didn't collapse under it either, which is not a given with a glazed thigh.

My Cluckers, three fried chicken tenders on a slate board with house fries, slaw, chipotle hot honey mustard and ranch, had a good craggy, seasoned crust and plenty of flavor. But set next to that thigh from the same fryer, they were drier, and that's the cut talking, not the cook. Tenderloin dries out fast no matter who's frying it. Thighs don't. If you're choosing between the two, order the thigh.

My Cubano is good. I thought "nothing special" at first bite, but it got better as I chomped through it. Perhaps it just took a second for it all to marry together, but I ate every bit of the combination of pressed pork, cheese, pickles and chipotle honey mustard on a grilled hoagie roll.

Our third at the table had the Cedar burger, house 80/20 beef with goetta ground into the patty, Monterey Jack, green olive aioli, bacon jam, arugula, tomato and a sunny egg on brioche. His review was that it was terrific but that there's so much going on it confuses your mouth, and he thinks it might be better without the egg. He also ate every bit of it, so it apparently wasn't that confusing.

The fries are a theme here. They're hand-cut, skin-on, fried dark, and they show up on every plate. They're very good. I'd like mine crispier and Chase likes his softer, so the table split, then met in the middle. He also made the catch of the night: the chips come out salted and the fries barely at all. Salt straight out of the basket would close that gap and it's the easiest fix in the building.

The slaw is chef-style, light on mayo and light on tang. Good, but if you want the sweet, wet kind, this isn't it.

We finished with beignets, eight of them on a slate, buried in powdered sugar with a chocolate dip. Airy inside, golden outside. That's the test for a beignet and they passed it.

The Bottom Line

Cedar is Worth a Short Detour, and I went back and forth on Worth the Drive. What settled it is that this place needs the right people at the table with the right expectations. It's a brunch kitchen serving brunch at dinner, and if you walk in wanting a steak and a baked potato, you'll be confused. If you walk in with an open mind, you'll eat well, and the poutine alone justifies the trip to me.

Everybody at our table wants to go back to try something new. My daughter has her eye on a waffle, and they're huge. I have a couple of other sandwiches to get through. One visit didn't clear this menu, and that's a compliment. This might yet end up Worth the Drive.