Goose & Elder:

This is an exciting post full of new ventures and announcements, and also a very important bulletin about one of the best sandwiches around. So listen up!

One of the things we really like about Jose Salazar's M.O. is how each restaurant is a new adventure. After striking out on his own post-Palace, he opened his namesake restaurant, Salazar. Then he expanded to Mita's, a thoughtfully designed and impeccably decorated restaurant anchoring a corner of the 84.51 building. Now there is his latest (and northernmost) venture, Goose & Elder, on Race Street.

In short, if you have not been to the Findlay Market area lately, you’re missing out. Vine Street’s resurgence has been great to watch, but there is a ton of energy happening around the market. Goose & Elder fits in wonderfully with simple food designed and executed by top talent in the city.

Like a TARDIS, the restaurant is bigger on the inside than it appears, spanning the entire block of the building with the bar in the back. The energy is super chill - a welcome respite from the bustling market. Goose & Elder may be seriously good, but it doesn’t take itself too seriously. The menu is full of pop culture references that you may (or may not) get. As someone that sneaks memes and Easter eggs into every blog post that goes up, I appreciate the humor.

It’s just my luck that Jose and I both have our newest spots within a block of each other. I’m about a month into a new agency job at Louisville-based powerhouse Scoppechio. Did I not tell you that this post would be full of announcements!? I’m digging in and making my mark (yes, the HQ offices have A SLIDE!), and it’s awesome to know that I have the option for a delicious, approachable meal basically on my way home at a great price point.

So, let’s talk food. One of the standouts we really like is the mac and cheese, with pickled jalapenos and sweet potato chips. It gives one of my favorite mac and cheeses, at The Eagle in OTR, some serious competition.

Gimme

There’s also the disco fries, an ideal dish to share with friends over happy hour. Plenty of bacon, a delicious gravy and crinkle cut fries - what’s not to like?

The cocktail shrimp are massive, impeccably fresh, and seasoned to a perfect level of ocean brininess.

The little salad is a smaller version of the big salad (yes, that’s a Seinfeld reference) and is constructed with a variety of ingredients and textures, which we appreciate. Too often, side salads are just an afterthought and are, well, kinda boring.  This one bucks that trend with thoughtful accoutrements.

Onto the fried bologna sandwich. The house-made sweet potato chips make another appearance here, adding a nice crunch to a delightfully messy, gooey sandwich. Getting a fried egg is highly recommended. I'm on the fence about the ratio of slaw in this early version, which pushes it squarely into fork-and-knife territory, but I absolutely adore the amount of cheese and griddled bologna.

Goose & Elder's featured burger approaches the Platonic ideal of cheeseburgeriness - a perfect balance of beef, cheese, and fresh toppings all on a sesame seed bun.  I challenge you find any other burgers in town that achieve this level of picture perfection.

There’s a brunch menu as well, and this is where the other very important announcement resides. Yes, yes, I have a new job and Jose has a new restaurant but more important is this:

🚨 The cubano has moved from Salazar to Goose & Elder's brunch menu 🚨

I will fight you for this

Those that have been reading know about my affinity for the cubano. When Jose left The Palace (and by extension, The Cricket) he took this sandwich with him. It moved to Salazar, briefly was on the menu at Mita's, and then returned back to Salazar. Now you can get the best Cuban - and one of the best sandwiches in the city - at Goose & Elder brunch. I will chase this sandwich to the end of the Earth. Or maybe as far as the West Side, which to me is essentially equivalent.

Also on the brunch menu, a turkey BLT that gets cranked to 11 by being on a croissant with juicy roasted turkey, thick cut bacon, pickled onion and avocado. We also ordered the goetta hash, with crispy potatoes, more of the same fantastic bacon, savory gravy, and a perfectly poached egg. This is one of the standouts (behind the cubano, of course) on the brunch menu.

The other nice things about Goose & Elder are that it boasts a nice happy hour, making it ideal to swing by for a drink and a snack, and it is conveniently right on the streetcar line. So stop by and join me in raising a glass to toast new adventures, opportunities, successes ... and disco fries.

Salazar:

David and I were off the week of Christmas, and one of the things we made sure to do is go to Salazar for lunch. Why? One word.

Cubano.

Now, we all know there are sandwiches, and then there are sandwiches. The standard chicken salad you can get at the deli around the corner, some sort of generic club. And then there’s the Cuban sandwich.

This is a sandwich that I’ve loved ever since I’ve first tried it, and while the combination is being done more often and can be found at various places around town (Nicholson’s, Pete’s Cuban truck, Paula’s Café) they just aren’t the same.

I know some of you will say that you can find them all over the place in Miami, and that the ones there are the best.

I’m sure they’re great.

But guess what, we’re not in Miami, as evidenced by the fact it is negative-three-insert-expletive-degrees outside, and I’m telling you Salazar makes the best Cuban you can find around here.

Like The Gibson, this sandwich is hard to hack. Many have tried, but only Jose (in Cincinnati, anyway) has actually managed to figure it out.

Fact: Jose’s original nickname in the kitchen was Zero Cool

Photo Credit: Don Ventre

So, on to the sandwich. Similar to the one on the menu at the Cincinnatian (where Jose used to head up the kitchen), it contains mojo marinated and slow roasted pork, ham, Swiss cheese, Dijon mustard and pickles. The pickles and mustard are important and often skipped. 

Ideally, this shouldn’t happen. We once overheard a Cricket bar and lounge patron asking for the sandwich without pickles. The response was a succinct “No.” Yeah, if you believe a Cuban sandwich would be good minus the pickle, then you probably also believe there’s an Olympic sized swimming pool on the roof.

Spoiler alert: There's no swimming pool on the roof and your Cuban is not better without pickles

When I asked him what made a good Cuban sandwich so hard, Jose explained that the components in the sandwich have to all work together, and you have to start with quality ingredients. “Good bread is important…take the time to marinate and slow roast the pork. Crisp the bread and get the cheese melted without burning the sandwich.” He explained.

I could go on about the cubano for quite awhile, but we ordered other things at lunch as well. Like the turkey sandwich, with thick, juicy pieces of turkey on amazing Blue Oven "Bad Boy" bread, with melted Swiss cheese, lettuce, tomato and just a little green olive tapenade.

Dat bread tho

The special soup of the day, a nearly impossibly creamy potato with bacon, was great for a cold day.

Of course we had to get the brussel sprouts, caramelized and served with yuzu emulsion, and the little fried oyster sandwich, which I doubt Jose will ever be able to take off the menu.

The cubano is only available during lunch, but should remain on the menu for quite some time, which makes me exceedingly happy.

One last note: Salazar doesn’t take reservations normally, but they will be doing a prix fixe Valentine’s day dinner that you can reserve a spot for.

Mess With the Best, Die Like the Rest