Swampwater Grill, East End, Cincinnati, Ohio

I’d never really been to Cincinnati before, except for driving through on my way from Birmingham to and from Denison in years gone by. Recently, however, I joined a score or two of “Fans of Roadfood” in a Roadfood food crawl in Cincinnati. After 3 1/2 days and 24 restaurants, I’ve learned an awful lot. I’m now a big fan of the food in Cincinnati.

Roadfood is a concept first articulated by Jan and Michael Stern in their book of the same name, now in its umpteenth edition, that celebrates often quirky locally owned places that you find along blue highways and side streets in downtowns and small towns across the country. A Roadfood crawl is a lot like a bar crawl in that you go from place to place and consume. It differs in that at the end, you can walk, or at least waddle, in a straight line. This crawl opened on a Wednesday night, and continued through to breakfast on Sunday morning, which I skipped to get back in time for Ella’s Children’s Chorus of Washington concert.

This was my first crawl, and I didn’t know what to expect. We convened at the Swampwater Grill, a Cajun place at 3743 Kellogg in an industrial area of Cincinnati’s East End. It’s a large open space with a mix of tables and booths, and it has a warm ambience.

I grabbed a draft Cincy Light, which I enjoyed, then settled in with 23 of my newest friends and looked at the menu. As I looked, a dizzying array of appetizers came sailing around the room, tray after tray, plate after plate, as people called out things like, “There are only four prime ribs left and we’ve ordered them all!” and “They’re out of ribs!” I couldn’t keep up with a list of the dishes, much less take pictures.

I did catch the mozzarella Cheese Sticks in wonton wrappers , which were very lightly dusted before they were, I’m guessing, air fried.

They were a big improvement over the usual heavily breaded and usually frozen cheese sticks, and the accompanying sauce was tasty. Try these.

The Gator Bites were extraordinary.

As you can see, they were cut into strips rather than the usual blocks before frying, and were easily the best alligator I’ve ever tasted — that includes the smoked gator I had in Everglades City, and the shot-that-day alligator I chanced upon at Cocomo’s. The gator bites were enhanced by a delicious remoulade and by those fried jalapeño slices you see. I’d never come across those before, but they pop up all the time in Cincinnati, and they’re a step above fried dill pickle chips. Well done, Cincinnati! I also had some hand-breaded jalapeño poppers, which were quite good. The folks at Swampwater know how to fry.

What else? Some wings (not fried) that were beautifully cooked, nice and moist, and some pork belly that was a bit on the tough side, and I forget what else. Now that’s a lot of food, but then we all charged ahead to the entrees. I mentioned the four orders of prime rib. I had a taste, and it was quite good. I ordered the crawfish etouffee, in part because others around me already had ordered the gumbo, jambalaya, and shrimp and grits.

Here’s the étouffée.

It’s advertised as having a rich tomato sauce, onions, and peppers over rice (no celery!) It seemed heavy to me. Granted I’d already eaten more than my usual Enough for a Family of Four, but I do think it was heavy on the rich tomato sauce and light on the Trinity and garlic. I was surprised after the lightness and balance of the remoulade. I’m quick to point out that it tasted good, and that the circumstances made me perhaps over-sensitive to the heaviness. The jambalaya was good enough to overcome a so-so smoked sausage. I’m fussy about sausage, and offer Swampwater the news that Conecuh sausage is available as near as New Richmond, and in a number of places around Dayton (so why not Cincinnati?). That or some andouille would kick a the good dish up several notches. As I say, though, I enjoyed it and offer that in a constructive spirit.

And the shrimp and grits —

Good shrimp, good grits, and a nice sauce — each cooked separately. That’s a bit odd but it worked. Oh, and you see that garlic bread? It was a treat, made on a very good quality bread rather than the usual insipid stuff. Well done! And the collards in the upper right were praiseworthy.

If you can imagine, after all that and more, some intrepid chowhounds ordered dessert — bread pudding. A large piece of bread pudding with a hot caramel sauce. When I saw it I thought they were crazy. Then I had a taste and recognized genius. I didn’t get a picture, alas. Eating comes first.

It was a hugely fun and somewhat frenetic dinner, but it helped me get my sea legs for the next 23 meals. I recommend Swampwater without hesitation. The service was friendly and, considering the size and voracity of the group, remarkably efficient. Much of the food was outstanding, and the final tab was ridiculously low — at least for someone from Washington. (Note that many people skipped the entrees, which run in the $20 plus or minus range). You really should give it a try under more normal circumstances, or include it in your next crawl.

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