Guest Blog: forkheartknife

As part of our Friday Guest Blogger Series, Kris' sister-in-law Jen will be telling us all about her awesome experience at forkheartknife! I've never been there, but after reading this I definitely want to try it! Thanks, Jen!!
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I am very excited to be a part of the famous “Girls who Grub” food blog.  As a long time food lover myself, I truly enjoy reading about new restaurants and different types of foods that I may want to try.  That is the main reason that I was so excited to try a small restaurant in Over the Rhine called forkheartknife.  This restaurant has an amazing back story-I encourage you to read it here .  Basically, one of the owners decided to start cooking for her sister when she became ill with cancer.  Her sister ended up passing away, and she then decided that she didn’t want to waste any more time of her life doing anything she didn’t love; so she decided with a friend to open this small, 4 table restaurant in Over the Rhine.  When I say small, I mean walk-through the kitchen to use the restroom small! (Which was also surprisingly small).  A good friend of mine, Jess, has been several times so she was the perfect person to ask for my first time, and we also invited our good friend Katie along.

We planned to meet at 10 which is when they are supposed to open.  Jess got there 5 minutes early, which was a good thing because the tables were already full and we were put on the list.  When you are put on the list, they take your cell phone number and encourage you to hit up some of the local shops and bars in OTR and will call you when they have a table ready for you.  Since we were in for a wait we decided to walk down the street to a bar called MOTR to have a drink.  They also serve brunch so if you are in the area and don’t feel like waiting, this is another place that you could try. 

After a round of drinks we got the call that our table was ready!  We were seated with another couple which made things kind of intimate.  Like I said, the place only has 4 tables so you take what you can get.  The menu changes each week and is displayed on a big sheet of butcher paper on the wall.  There were so many delicious and enticing items on the menu that we had trouble deciding.  We easily decided that we were not allowed to order the same things and that we would share everything that we had.  Katie decided on the blueberry almond coffee cake and the honey greek yogurt with nuts and berries.  These were both fabulous options.  I tend to shy away from coffee cake because it tends to be dry and overly sugary.  This was neither-the cake was dense and moist and the tartness of the blueberries helped to balance out the sweet almond topping.  The yogurt was one of my favorite things.  It had strawberries and a mixture of about ten different types of nuts on top of the sweet and smooth yogurt.  Katie was very pleased with her selections, as were well!

Jessica chose the cornbread and chicken chorizo.  Katie was not overly enthusiastic about getting this dish because she doesn’t like cornbread-she changed her mind.  This thick piece of cornbread was mixed with peppers, cheese and chicken chorizo which gave it just the slightest kick.  It literally melted in your mouth.  It came with a simple salad on the side with a homemade dressing.  To be honest, I was least interested in the salad so most of the salad went in the to-go box.

I had a lot of trouble deciding between the pizza strata which was something I had never had before, and the breakfast burrito.  Both sounded great but I asked Sierra (who is the waitress, hostess, cashier, and sometimes bus girl) and she said that I had to get the strata.  I was glad that I did!  It is made mostly from egg but you would never know because it took on an almost doughy consistency.  It was filled with cheese and tomatoes and if I closed my eyes I could have sworn I was eating a piece of pizza.  I really enjoyed it and the strata also came with a salad but I didn’t touch much of it! 

As a side we also got a plate of red potatoes.  I honestly don’t remember what all went into these potatoes but they were really good, and half of them went into the to-go box as well.  All in all we got 2 entrees, the yogurt, coffee cake, potatoes and two coffees and our bill was $32.  I did not think that was bad for stuffing three girls for brunch! 

Overall, I enjoyed my experience at forkheartknife.  It was a cozy, intimate atmosphere that was different from most of the places that I eat.  They served interesting and heart felt food and you can taste the love they put in everything they do.  I like their story-having been affected by cancer in my life I appreciate their willingness to take a risk and do what they love.  Now for the bad news-they’re closing up shop.  They have decided not to renew their lease because they have gotten too big for their little space!  So, if you want to try it out you better act fast.  They are open for Thursday dinner and Saturday and Sunday brunch.  They will have more seating outside when it is warm and they also do carryout.  If you do decide to go, take your own beer and take cash! 

Food: 4
Service:4
Overall:4