For this week’s exploration of the wacky and wild items found at most neighborhood supermarkets, I decided to go gummy. I’ve always been bewildered by the random shapes of gummy candy, which are often molded to resemble spiders, snakes, frogs and other creepy pests. In a short time span, I found around 15 different weird gummy items and also became a passable gummy expert.  

FB’s in downtown Cincinnati has what it takes to keep people coming back: a menu full of innovative, homemade dishes that they call QBG (Quality Bar Grub), a friendly staff and a unique atmosphere. Be prepared to leave your ideas of bar food at the door; this, my friends, is quality bar grub that will exceed expectation.  

Keystone Bar Bar & Grill in Covington (313 Greenup St., 859-261-6777) is known for its mac and cheese. In fact, they offer a mac and cheese menu. My mission on a recent Sunday, however, was brunch. We arrived just after 11 a.m. to find the restaurant nearly full and met up with friends.  

At smoQ the motto is, “If it’s legal, we’ll smoQ it!” They mean it, too. Nearly everything on the menu is smoked, right down to the apples and peaches on two of the desserts. My intrepid family and I visited on a Monday night, ready for some barbecue and Southern-style food. We must have just beaten the rush because the place filled up almost immediately.  

Six years ago, Mary Beth King began living a vegan lifestyle and thought she would probably never eat dessert again. But since she’s resourceful and loves to bake, she learned to craft delicious vegan baked goods and desserts. In 2009, she took a giant step and started Sweet Peace Bakery, (www.sweetpeacebakery.com), while still working at her day job for Community Shares.  

My foodie neighbor loves the lunch buffet at Shaan Indian Cuisine and my CityBeat colleague, Karen Christopfel, wrote a glowing review of dinner there last year. I decided to give their lunch buffet a chance even though I am really not that into Indian food and I think that buffets are best left for tacky weddings. At Shaan, I was both surprised and impressed.  

Pizza is America’s favorite food. It attracts almost everyone and offers so many possibilities in terms of toppings, crust and preparation. Most pizza places are content to be mundane, and many of those that strive for greatness sadly fall short. Despite the arguments over thick crust vs. thin crust or traditional toppings vs. gourmet toppings, we're always looking for a great new pizza place.  

Palomino (505 Vine St., Downtown, 513-381-1300), overlooking Fountain Square, has a new Tuscan promotion going on, and since I just had lunch there I can assure you that the menu items I tried were excellent, towering above the usual forgettable lunch salads was their Arugula and Pea Salad.  

Sung’s been mentioned in several recent “Look Who’s Eating” features in CityBeat; it’s a place where chefs go on their night off. The space is quite chic — although a little on the loud side — and the crowd on the night of our visit was hopping with at least three tables celebrating special occasions. I also noticed several lone diners who looked like they were enjoying a comfortable evening.  

Chuck Warriner knows his wines, which is a good thing, as he’s the co-owner of the Dilly Café and the manager of the Dilly Wines & Gourmet wine shop in Mariemont. Chuck and his wife, Robbie, found themselves spending long, hard hours at the restaurant and decided they wanted to mold it into a place that was comfortable, welcoming and fun to be in.  

I usually do my taste-test prior to researching or reading ingredient labels; it’s usually hard enough to swallow some of the things I have in the name of journalism. But I’ve been nursing a stomachache lately, so to procrastinate and hopefully discover something encouraging (like “Pickled eggs actually taste like Hostess Ding Dongs”), I decided to read up on these somehow-delicacies first.  

Aimed at providing a “creative and unique dining experience in a non-traditional setting,” Arts & Lettuce secludes 12 people twice a month (one meat night and one vegetarian) in a secret location with a broad thematic menu of unrevealed specific courses (dinner prices range from $40-$45.)  

El Jinete is most definitely heavy on the Tex-Mex with just a little authentic Mexican food thrown in, and the quality of the food surprised me. I suppose I don’t usually expect much from a strip-mall restaurant, but El Jinete delivered.  

In January 2010 Adam Easterling decided to start his first businessventure in the already crowded downtown lunch trade. Adam took a gamble, but he felt that if he took classics, gave them a fresh spin and used the best ingredients, his sandwich shop would succeed where others have failed. A year and a half later, and with a faithful following, his business at 633 Main St. is doing great.  

Skinny Pig? Seriously? That’s an oxymoron if I ever heard one! That was the conversation playing in my head as I drove up to Skinny Pig, the latest restaurant venture of Joshua Steven Campbell, who is well known by many area foodies for his restaurant Mayberry and store Mayberry Foodstuffs.