Mayberry:

Mayberry opened pretty recently on Vine Street, and various bloggers have been making there way in to try Josh Campbell’s newest venture. The result of this, of course, is mouth watering pictures of BLT’s and burgers posted to the interwebs. Couple this with delicious soups that change daily put out into the twitterverse, and it was only a matter of time before David and I met for lunch at Mayberry.

The soup of the day on Monday was maple sausage potato. I was not about to pass that up. I called David and asked him to meet me for lunch.

I cannot resist soup's siren song

Mayberry offers one size of the soup of the day--a big bowl--for $5. It came with a little crunchy cheese bread that I liked. Also, the portion size of the bowl is enormous. Seriously. I had to take half my soup home. The maple sausage was tender and tasty, with cut carrots, potatoes, a little onion and a lot of well roasted garlic.

The artwork and the paint on the walls is a little funky—black and white Cincinnati scenes and spirals, which are fun to look at.

David got “the burger” ($8.00). It’s a lot of beef, tender and juicy and cooked to order. Onion marmalade and peppered bacon sit atop the patty. Lastly, a poached egg completes the burger, which is then put between a toasty bun. David said the texture of the patty reminded him a little of meatloaf—there was definitely some onion mixed in. We concurred it was indeed a tasty burger.

Chomp!

See? Not overcooked.

The place is pretty small—Josh mentioned it only had 28 seats, and can get toasty during lunch. Things turned over pretty well, food was prepared quickly and to order, my soup was piping hot in its giant mug.

Chef Campbell

We met Josh, who knew that we were coming. I guess it’s not hard to spot a food blogger, they are usually the diner with their camera an inch away from their food, their spouse pleading “Can I eat now?” while their dinner is meticulously photographed.

I asked if I could poke back in the kitchen while I talked to Josh a little. Mayberry has a half partition in the Kitchen, and there is a long narrow hallway that runs beside it. Guests are welcome to come back and take a peek at the various items cooking away.

Josh said that the goal of the restaurant was to have good food, at good prices. As I was photographing the biscuits leftover from breakfast, I was given a tantalizing hint of what is to come from Mayberry brunch, which will be served on weekends in a few weeks. The “Elvis Killer”. I won’t give it all away, but let me just say that it involves waffles. And peanuts.

biscuits

I also tried the tater tot casserole ($3), which I found to be very good with the soup. Next time I will try the mac n cheese.

I spied the sloppy Josh pork happily cooking on the stove



I watched some Cobb salads ($8) be put together

David loves the fact that poached eggs are on the menu. In the back of the kitchen, a large pot of water seemed to constantly have eggs poaching in it.

The only thing I recommend change with is the drink prices. Little bottles of Coke and Diet Coke at $1.50! That seems a little high. Everything else on the menu is priced extremely reasonably (all of the sandwiches are under $10, with interesting and quality ingredients), and the portions are very generous.

Mayberry will open for Dinner on December 4th, and in addition to that, is BYOB until they get a liquor license; so you if you want to bring your favorite beer or wine to have with dinner, that's cool with them.

The full menu can be found through Urbanspoon—but be aware it may change based on what is locally available and what’s in season. I know I’ll be back to the Mayberry soon, and we are eager to see what else Josh will come up with!

Update: the beverage situation has been resolved--and 20 ounce bottles are now $1.50. For pictures of Mayberry's Sunday brunch, see this Cincinnati Nomerati post.