whatever zola wants........ zola's was an "after the show" stop with my youngest (teen) daughter on a very nice sunday afternoon. located on the east side of main street in covington's mainstrasse, it is the sister location to the "915 pub" in fort thomas, ky, a few miles to the east. that connection is evident in its menu, and its style.
this visit preceded the smoking ban in northern kentucky, so we were still subject to the lung filling smoke upon our entry. that should no longer be an issue here. i do believe that of the twenty or so people in the restaurant/bar, we were the only non-smokers. the waiter/bartender arrived at our table quickly, and made a valiant attempt at making us feel welcome. with the amount of customers he had to serve, he was fairly busy and this left little time for small talk. we got menus, and ordered our sodas. the menu is not large, but it is adequate considering this place seems to lean more towards the bar side of the business than the restaurant side. this is all part of our ongoing "best burger in cincinnati" hunt, so it had to be burgers. when our drinks arrived, my daughter ordered the "zola burger" which comes with american cheese, and i ordered the "mushroom burger" with swiss. we ordered both of them medium-rare. for sides it was traditional fries for her, but i went with something different. as stated earlier, this is a sister pub to the 915 pub, so they have their delicious asian slaw. of course i went with that.
the wait was reasonable considering there were several other tables ahead of us. the burgers, in the middle size wise, not large but not tiny, were nice and hot. the buns, pretty plain by most standards, are a little small considering the price. both burgers were well seasoned and came as ordered: medium-rare. the zola burger comes topped with bacon, grilled onions, mushrooms and capacollo ham. the ham was grilled, which toughened it somewhat, but everything else was fine and the cheese was nicely melted. the fries, not quite steak fries, but not the classic thin fries either, were ok. there was nothing spectacular going on there. the mushroom burger rated about the same. overall nice: nice mushrooms, nicely melted cheese, etc. that leaves the asian slaw. since it is made on premises, the quality can vary somewhat. a little more sesame oil here, a little less pepper there; this time it was pretty good. my biggest complaint of the meal was that, unlike an order of fries, a scoop of wet asian slaw on the plate rapidly infuses into the bun of the burger. this happened here. by the time the burger arrived, about one-third of the bun had been soaked with the slaw juices. not so bad that i sent it back, but something to note. i had to lay down a napkin and set my burger there so as not to sop of the rest of the liquid with my remaining dry bun. it would be a wise move to send that out in it's own little bowl separately, so this would not occur.
overall, it was an ok experience. the seating choices are at the bar, at some normal height tables in the center, or the bar height tables along the wall. it's a little dark in there, even on a sunny afternoon, except for those seated directly in front of the large, main windows. it was apparent that most of the people in the bar were regulars, and the overall mood was pretty light.
i would certainly go back. the burgers were good, the slaw is usually great, and crowd was invitingly friendly.