Tickled Pink at Red Feather: Farm to Table in Cincinnati

Whipped ricotta 

At first glance, Red Feather might not be an obvious choice for vegetarians. And entire section of the menu is 'shells & bones." But the 'scratch kitchen' had more than enough to satisfy several plant eaters, as wells meat lovers.

Vegetarian cauliflower

While we drank our delicious cocktails, we had warm roasted olives with grilled lemon. And whipped ricotta on grilled bread with truffle honey. We might have gone sparingly on the cheese; after we finished all the bread, we still had a mound of soft, creamy ricotta. We were offered, and devoured, more bread.

Red Feather is in Oakley, a developing neighborhood close to downtown Cincinnatired. On a freezing night, the place was packed, but we had a relatively quiet table in the corner. There's a chef's table and an inviting bar.

Unique menu

Roasted beets with arugula

Brussels sprouts and broccoli sounded good except they were served with pig's ears. That's a hard pass. But the excellent salads included one with roasted beets, honey yogurt and baby arugula, and a simple greens salad with pine nuts and shallots.

My husband and I shared the spiced cauliflower with barley, which had an intense sauce. We also had the excellent scallops, on a parsnip puree with trumpet and maitake mushrooms. I could have had the mushrooms and puree as a main course and been thrilled.

Scallops

There were a coupe of fish dishes and enough interesting cocktails and wines by the glass that I could definitely return.

My friend was disappointed in his $73 steak, but it was cheerfully replaced with an $18 burger that he loved. (And we were paying, so were happy not to pay for that giant hunk of meat).