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Roadfood knows Cincinnati best for its unique five-way chili, which is nowhere better than at Camp Washington Chili Parlor, open round the clock. In this city that has earned the nickname Porkopolis, we like to start the day at Tucker’s, a vintage neighborhood diner where hearty, from-scratch breakfast features crisp-fried slabs of the luxurious pork-and-pin-oat loaf known as goetta. Proprietor Joe Tucker gets his goetta at Eckerlin Meats in the Findlay Market, where connoisseurs stop for an incomparable snack: goetta sandwiches straight from the source. For lunch, another of the city’s great butcher shops is in order: Avril-Bleh & Sons, which sets up a charcoal grill on the sidewalk to cook its famous metts (mettwursts): cured, deeply smoked, rugged-grind sausages twice as portly as a regular hot dog firmly packed inside natural casing. After all that pork and five-way chili, dessert is in order: at Aglamesis Bros., a charming little ice cream parlor where the go-to specialty is a sundae topped with bittersweet chocolate sauce and thick whipped cream.
Camp Washington Chili Parlor
Camp Washington makes the best 5-Way chili in Cincinnati. Open round the clock, it also offers great chili-cheese Coneys and mile-high double-decker sandwiches.
Tucker’s
Tucker's is an urban hash house that cooks the old-fashioned way: buys meat from a local butcher, peels potatoes for hash browns and cooks everything to order.
Eckerlin Meats
Eckerlin is an old-time Cincinnati butcher shop that mostly sells meats to cook at home. But you can get a goetta sandwich, and Eckerlin's goetta is the best.
Avril-Bleh & Sons
A full-service Cincinnati butcher shop with a charcoal grill on the sidewalk in front of the store, Avril-Bleh cooks some of the best wursts anywhere.
Aglamesis Bros.
A century-old sweet shop with an all-pink dining room, Cincinnati's Aglamesis Bros. makes great, unique-flavor ice creams and memorable sundae toppings.
